Ricardo Garcia

Accountant

Ricardo Garcia is an Accountant and is involved with various aspects of Ara’s finance operations team, including accounting, audit, and investor reporting.

Prior to joining Ara in 2024, Ricardo served as a Staff Accountant at Lionstone Investments, a real estate investment management firm that conceptualizes, analyzes, and executes national investment strategies. At Lionstone Investments, his primary focus was fund accounting. Prior to Lionstone Investments, Ricardo began his career as a Tax Accountant where he spent time performing many administrative duties including preparing and filing tax forms for individuals and small businesses.

Ricardo received a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Houston. Outside of work, he enjoys exercising, sports, music, and spending time with his family.

Kiran Garewal

Staff Assistant, Government Affairs

Kiran Garewal is Staff Assistant of Government Affairs at Ara Partners. He assists Ara’s government affairs team with government relations and policy development on behalf of portfolio companies.

Before joining Ara, Kiran interned at Boundary Stone Partners, a climate-focused government affairs firm, where he supported domestic solar manufacturers in advocating for favorable implementation of federal legislation. He also spent two legislative sessions interning in the Georgia State Capitol, first for Holland & Knight, LLP, and most recently for House Democratic Whip Sam Park.

Kiran holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In his free time, he enjoys long walks and exploring the cuisine of Washington, DC.

AJ Getter

Senior Associate

AJ Getter is a Senior Associate at Ara and is involved in all aspects of the firm’s investment process including origination, execution, and portfolio management.

Prior to joining Ara, AJ was an AVP in GIC’s Direct Investment Group, primarily focused on equity investments in large-cap climate transition, financial services, and consumer companies. Prior to GIC, AJ was an Analyst at Bregal Partners.

AJ graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce concentrating in Quantitative Finance.

Jane Giuffrida

Content and Events Manager

Jane Giuffrida is the Content and Events Manager on the Marketing and Communications team at Ara Partners. With nine years of experience in marketing, she specializes in thought leadership, events, and brand storytelling, driving strategic communication and top-line growth.

Prior to joining Ara, Jane was the Director of Marketing at a Marketing and Communications agency, where she led client growth strategies for VC-backed startups. In addition to her role developing marketing strategies for clients, Jane oversaw the execution of more than 30 annual agency events, including a flagship three-day conference.

Jane graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, running, and spending time outside with her fiancé and Golden Retriever.

Reese Goldsmith

Head of Government Affairs

Reese Goldsmith is Head of Government Affairs at Ara Partners and is based in Washington, D.C. Reese oversees the firm’s government affairs strategy, policy monitoring, and outreach to key elected officials across portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Ara, Reese was a Senior Policy Advisor at Holland & Knight, LLP, a leading U.S. law and lobbying firm. At Holland & Knight, she helped secure over $1 billion in federal grants and loans through programs funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Before joining Holland & Knight, Reese was an Associate and Policy Advisor in the Energy, Environment, and Resources Strategies Group at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the number one U.S. lobbying firm by revenue. While at Brownstein, she also led advocacy for small business COVID-19 relief efforts to ensure the hardest-hit businesses could benefit from the $953 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans. Prior to private practice, Reese worked across several federal agencies on energy and environmental law and policy. Reese completed clerkships at the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy and the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division Law and Policy Section. Reese also contracted with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office.

Reese attended Virginia Tech and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She received her Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC. In her spare time, Reese enjoys escaping to Virginia Hunt Country with her Labrador Retriever Lily, viewing exhibits at the Phillips Collection, and mentoring students through the D.C. Bar’s Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Section Law Fellows Program.

Manuel Ferreira Gomes

Principal

Manuel Ferreira Gomes is a Principal at Ara and is involved with all aspects of the firm’s investment process.

Prior to joining Ara, Manuel was a Director at AMERRA Capital Management, a New York-based private equity firm focused on sustainable food & agriculture. Before AMERRA, he was at ECS Capital, focusing on Private Equity Special Situations in Europe. Prior to joining ECS, he was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Manuel majored in Management & Business Administration at Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal. He received a Master of Business Administration from the Columbia Business School.

Huilai Gu

Associate, Infrastructure

Huilai Gu joins Ara as an Associate on the Infrastructure investment team.

Previously, she worked on utility-scale power generation M&A at Onward Energy, an IPP operating 6GW of solar, wind, and gas assets. Huilai started her career in the Energy Practice of Charles River Associates, an economic and management consulting firm, where she focused on utility resource planning and transmission projects.

Huilai graduated magna cum laude from Lehigh University, with dual B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Finance.

David Haughie

Operating Partner

David Haughie joined Ara Partners in 2024 as an origination-focused Operating Partner. He brings 20 years of experience across physical and financial commodity trading, and in private credit and equity investment in traditional energy and decarbonization projects and businesses.

Prior to joining Ara, David was the Head of Principal Investments for Mercuria Energy Group across all regions outside North America, and Co-Head of Energy Transition. David sat on and advised the Boards of various Mercuria entities and portfolio companies including The Mobility House, N+P Group, Pretoria Energy, Roadgas and Exergyn. Before Mercuria, David was Head of Origination and Structuring for BNP Paribas Commodities business in EMEA, and Head of Energy Derivatives Sales and Origination for the Credit Suisse – Glencore Commodities joint venture.

David graduated with a Masters in Engineering Science from Balliol College, Oxford. Outside work David enjoys fly fishing, shooting, track driving with cars and motorbikes, and wakeboarding and snowboarding.

Eloise Herbert

Executive Administrator

Prior to joining Ara, Eloise worked as Workplace Operations Coordinator at Indeed, enhancing employee experience and creating diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Prior to this, she worked as an Account Executive at Accenture and at Revolut Business. She started her career gaining experience within Business Support and Event Management roles.

Eloise holds a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Italian Studies from University College Dublin (UCD).

Lauren Heuermann

Compliance Manager

Lauren Heuermann manages Ara’s compliance functions, including regulatory filings, AML/CFT, KYC, and training.

Prior to joining Ara, Lauren was a financial crime compliance manager at Hines, a privately owned global real estate investment, development, and management firm. At Hines, she was primarily focused on policy development, due diligence requests, KYC/CFT, AML on investors and business partners, and investigations. Lauren also has experience with due diligence platform implementation, gifts and entertainment review, and training development.

Lauren started her career at AIG, now known as Corebridge Financial, within the retirement services division. Lauren received a Bachelor of Arts in International Business with minors in Spanish and Psychology from Maryville College.

Alyssa Hooper

Managing Director, Infrastructure

Alyssa Hooper joined Ara in 2022 as a Principal focused on the Firm’s infrastructure strategy.  Alyssa has over ten years of infrastructure investment and project management experience.

Prior to joining Ara, Alyssa was a Principal at Global Infrastructure Partners focused across numerous verticals, including transportation, digital infrastructure, and energy.  Previously, Alyssa served as a Vice President in Goldman Sachs, where she built and led the Midstream Leveraged Finance business.  She started her career in investment banking at Credit Suisse, where she served as Associate in the Leveraged Finance Origination & Restructuring group and as an Analyst in the Global Energy and Project Finance group.

Alyssa holds a bachelor of science in Finance and Accounting from New York University Stern School of Business.

Syed Inam

Senior Associate, Energy

Syed Inam joined Ara in 2025 as a Senior Associate and is focused on the investment and asset management process for the Energy strategy.

Prior to joining Ara, Syed was an Associate at ArcLight Capital Partners where he supported the development of AlphaGen, an 11 GW gas fired generation platform consolidated from six distinct portfolio companies. He was active in evaluating investment opportunities in the power, midstream and renewable sectors. Syed began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at BMO Capital Markets, where he was focused on M&A and project finance for operating, brownfield and greenfield infrastructure projects in North America.

Syed holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business, York University.

Jesse Jardine

Program Manager, Portfolio Services

Jesse Jardine is a Professional Engineer with focused experience in project management and systems completion. Jesse previously worked for four years in clean energy and ten years in oil & gas.

Jesse has overseen aspects of the design, planning, execution, commissioning, and operations of five world-class mega projects with ExxonMobil. He has demonstrated an ability to perform in high-pressure environments and markets with site-based, offshore, and brownfield expatriate assignments across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Jesse comes from Fluence Energy, where he supported the IPO process (NASDAQ: FLNC) and led projects in the company’s flagship portfolio in Latin America, including the world’s most extensive solar integration with battery energy storage project in the Andes Mountains of Chile.

Jesse holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Dalhousie University in Canada and a Project Management Professional certification through Rice University.

Kaitlin Kennedy

Senior Accountant

Kaitlin Kennedy is a Senior Accountant at Ara and is involved in various aspects of Ara’s finance operations team, including accounting, audit, and investor reporting for the funds.

Prior to joining Ara, Kaitlin served as an auditor at KPMG, a global professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Kaitlin primarily worked on audits of domestic and international public and private entities in the oil and gas industry.

Kaitlin graduated with a Master of Accountancy and a Bachelor of Business Administration with a focus in Accounting from Baylor University.

Sarah Kent

Chair of Portfolio Services

Sarah joined the Ara team in 2021 as an Operating Partner bringing her experience of establishing, growing and leading global organizations.

Up until 2020, Sarah was the CEO of Kentech an energy services business. During her tenure at Kentech, the company evolved from being a family owned business operating in a few countries to an organization with a Private Equity owner and 4,000 people across 19 countries. She is proud of the culture and the strength of the platform that was created over her 16 years at the company. Kentech’s reputation was that it was a place where employees were valued as humans that could thrive and grow together. This resulted in an excellent safety performance and creating a solid foundation to enable the company to continue to grow after her departure to become a $1bn revenue organization.

She holds an Honours Electrical Engineering Degree from UCD, Ireland and spent the early part of her career working in the electronic payments and software industry with American Express, RSA Security and Keycorp. Sarah lives in Dubai, UAE with her husband, Colum and their three kids. She is an avid inquirer with great interest in relationships and making a difference to the people and environment that she is part of.

Ashley Knight

Vice President

Ashley Knight is a Vice President at Ara and is involved with all aspects of the firm’s investment process.

Prior to joining Ara, Ashley served as a Principal on Mercer’s Alternative Investing team in London and New York City, where she most recently led North America Private Debt. While at Mercer, Ashley also completed a secondment at the World Economic Forum, where she researched global asset owners’ climate-related investment strategies. Prior to joining Mercer, Ashley was an Assistant Vice President at Credit Suisse in Singapore.

Ashley holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College, where she graduated cum laude. She received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with honors. Ashley holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation.

Catherine MacDonald

Head of Marketing and Communications

Catherine MacDonald joined Ara Partners in 2024 as Head of Marketing and Communications. She brings 10 years of experience designing full funnel marketing strategies, building brands, and crafting thought leadership content.

Prior to joining Ara, Catherine created the marketing function for a sustainable investing software born out of Fidelity Labs, Fidelity Investment’s internal tech incubator. Preceding Fidelity, Catherine built her marketing and communications acumen in both agency and series A tech startup settings. While at TribalVision, Catherine helped lead the agency’s reorg efforts and built out the strategy division.

Catherine graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. Outside of work, she enjoys trail running, yoga, and spending time with her husband, son, and two dogs.

Conor Maguire

Analyst

Conor Maguire is an Analyst at Ara, where he is focused on supporting the investment team on portfolio company management and transaction execution.

Prior to joining Ara, Conor was an Investment Banking Analyst at Goodbody, where he advised private and semi-state companies on M&A transactions, debt financings, and equity capital raises.

Conor holds a MSc in Finance and a BSc in Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin.

Irina Markina

Managing Director, Chief Decarbonization Officer

Irina Markina is Managing Director, Chief Decarbonization Officer at Ara Partners. Irina oversees the firm’s sustainability strategy, ESG programs, and integration across portfolio companies and assets.

Prior to joining Ara, Irina was a Corporate Sustainability Manager at Baker Hughes, a $33 billion energy technology company, where she was instrumental in building out Baker Hughes’ sustainability team and operationalizing its net zero strategy and ESG operating model. Irina designed and oversaw ESG diligence process in M&A transactions, and managed investment-grade data governance framework and sustainability disclosures across the global business. Prior to Baker Hughes, Irina served as the Senior Energy Advisor at the European Union Delegation to the United States, where she provided technical guidance and directed the European Commission’s cooperation on energy, climate, and GHG emissions reduction strategies with U.S. government agencies. Prior to joining the EU Delegation in Washington D.C., Irina served at the European Parliament based in Brussels, Belgium, where she advised lawmakers on the Future of Science and Technology Panel, and managed legislation on decarbonization.

Irina is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center where she speaks and has published on transatlantic decarbonization issues. Irina completed executive education at Wharton in corporate finance and Harvard on sustainable business strategy. She holds a Master of Science degree in Public Policy from Lund University, Sweden. In her spare time Irina enjoys road cycling, skiing, and mentoring students in sustainability and international affairs.

Doug Marsan

Projects Advisor

Doug Marsán is a Projects Advisor in the Portfolio Services group, where he focuses on effective capital project delivery across Ara’s industrial portfolio.

Prior to joining Ara, Doug worked at ExxonMobil in project management and operations, where he contributed to the development of multi-billion dollar refining and chemicals projects from early design through commissioning. Most recently, he transitioned to scaling climate technologies in early-stage venture capital at Clean Energy Ventures and at a point-source carbon capture startup.

Doug holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Master of Engineering from the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.