Kevin Wang

Vice President, Energy

Kevin is a Vice President at Ara, where he is focused on the investment and asset management process for the Energy strategy.

Prior to joining Ara in 2024, Kevin founded an investment vehicle and served as a Vice President at Riverstone, a private equity firm focused on energy, power, and decarbonization. He began his career in the global energy and power investment banking group at Rothschild & Co.

Kevin graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He enjoys snow sports, golf, kitesurfing, and going on walks and runs with his fiancée and their dog.

Justin Ward

Strategic Operations Advisor

Justin Ward is a Strategic Operations Advisor in the Portfolio Services Group, where he focuses on improving operations in Ara’s industrial portfolio.

Prior to joining Ara, Justin worked at ExxonMobil in process engineering and manufacturing optimization. Most recently, he worked as a management consultant at Kearney, where he advised clients on strategic operations across energy, consumer goods, and technology industries.

Justin graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

Brayton Wright

Office Manager

Brayton oversees the day-to-day operations of the Boston office, and assists the partners when needed.

Prior to joining Ara, Brayton taught grades 2-5 in Cambridge, MA. He’s lived in various states across the US, working as a teacher, photographer, writer, helping run the family food truck, volunteering, and going to school full time.

A recent addition to Ara, he was drawn to the firm due to their goals of decarbonization and aims to learn more about the industry through his fellow staff.

He recently graduated from Harvard with a degree in Political Science with dual minors in History and Psychology. He enjoys reading, photography, making art, writing and studying. He’s also an active volunteer with LGBT groups.

Alan Yip

Controller

Alan is involved with various aspects of Ara’s finance operations, including accounting, audit, and tax reporting.

Prior to Ara, Alan was a Senior Tax Manager at PwC for 10 years in the Asset and Wealth Management group where he served clients on various tax matters including transaction analysis, U.S. withholding, and overall U.S. tax reporting in the private equity industry, specifically buyout funds, fund of funds, and venture capital funds. Prior to PwC, Alan started his career at KPMG for 2 years, also in the Asset and Wealth Management group.

Alan holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Binghamton University. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Texas and New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Texas Society of Public Accountants (TSCPA).

Daisy Zhu

Strategic Operations Advisor

Daisy Zhu joins Ara as part of the Portfolio Services team (APS) in the role of Strategic Operations Advisor. Her role involves close collaboration with the Ara team and portfolio companies in evaluating operating model assumptions, assessing operations performance, and driving operations improvement initiatives.

Daisy joins the APS team after spending over four years with EY, most recently as a Senior Consultant, Supply Chain and Operations. Prior to EY she spent time with Suncor energy completing project completion data analytics on project delivery performance. Daisy holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary.