Ara Partners (Ara), a private equity firm specialising in industrial decarbonisation investments, has hired Sarah Kent and Rob Tripp as Operating Partners, David Lynch as a Principal and Chris Trachier as a Senior Associate.
“The additions of Sarah and Rob help us further deepen our operating expertise and actively manage our existing portfolio, and broaden our capability to evaluate attractive opportunities,” says Troy Thacker, a Managing Partner at Ara. “Each will play key roles as we continue to execute on our strategy of investing in businesses that decarbonize the industrial sector.”
“We are also excited to welcome David and Chris to Ara’s investment team,” adds Tuan Tran, a Partner at Ara. “They bring significant sourcing, deal execution and portfolio management experience to the firm as we continue to scale our investment activity.”
Prior to joining Ara, Kent was 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 organisation with a private equity owner and 4,000 people across 19 countries. Kent spent the early part of her career working in the electronic payments and software industry with American Express, RSA Security and Keycorp. She holds an Honours Electrical Engineering Degree from UCD, Ireland.
Prior to joining Ara, Tripp co-founded Benefuel, where he spent 15 years leading the development and scale-up of a novel heterogeneous refining catalyst that converted low-quality waste feedstocks into high-quality, low-carbon biodiesel. Prior to Benefuel, Tripp spent four years scaling up a wood waste-to-value company where he led the development of four new manufacturing facilities. Prior to this, Tripp co-founded a software development company that was focused on business process improvement and was also part of iSTAR Internet, the first Internet company to go public in Canada. Rob holds a Bachelor of Arts, Economics from Carleton University.
Prior to joining Ara, Lynch was a Director at Alinda Capital Partners, an independent infrastructure investment manager. At Alinda, Lynch Lynch was responsible for all aspects of the investment process and served on the boards of PECO Pallet and Maurepas Pipeline. Before joining Alinda, Lynch was a Vice President at Ares Management where he was involved in the origination and acquisition of power and energy-related assets in the renewable, conventional and midstream space. He started his professional career at Barclays Investment Bank in the Global Power & Utilities Group. David holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University.
Prior to joining Ara, Trachier was an Associate at Pelican Energy Partners, where he was responsible for investment evaluation, due diligence, execution and monitoring. Prior to joining Pelican, he was an Analyst in the Investment Banking group at Moelis & Company. Trachier holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.
