Company Profile
HydroVenturi spun out from Imperial College (ranked the top technology University in Europe and among the top ten Universities in the world, 2006 Rankings) in 1999 and has its headquarters in London.
The first low head hydro system was installed in 2002 in the UK. This system has worked really well, producing electricity to within 3% of predictions. Here are the people who are making it happen:
Harvey West, Executive Chairman
Harvey West brings many years' experience of working in energy markets at both a national and international level, having grown a number of businesses into major renewable sector players whilst securing signinficant value for shareholders along the way. More specifically, he has an extremely strong commercial and technical knowledge of the global hydro market that will be ideally suited for the positioning and delivery of HydroVenturi's technology.
Dr Geoff Rochester, Co-Founder
Geoff Rochester is a physicist with a specialist field in astrophysics and was the Chief Scientist at HydroVenturi until 2007. Geoff devised the original HydroVenturi technology - known as the Rochester Venturi (or RV) and produced the first analytical and physical models of the system. He lead the technical developments and innovations including the energy generator, the aeration/remediation systems, and other aspects of the technology, and worked on the system design and optimisation processes with the objective of reducing cost of the overall system while maintaining efficiency.
Geoff devised the RVIII approach in 2002, resulting in a direct air-injection to the RV which is the basis of the next generation product. It is expected that this system will greatly decrease the minimum water speed needed for the RV approach to be viable, and thereby greatly extend the 'contours of viability' already enjoyed by the Hydroventuri product offering.
Andrew Hegarty, Director
Andrew began his career as a corporate financier in 1994 with HSBC Investment Bank, involved in numerous public market transactions including IPOs, capital raisings, and M&A. He left in 1999 to join Hanson Capital, a privately-owned investment and advisory firm, based in London and Los Angeles, which specialised in early-stage situations and principal investing. In 2001, he joined Touchstone Securities, an independent advisory boutique, based in London, which provided high-level corporate finance advice to large corporates, private families and institutions.
Since 2003, he has been a principal with P&P Partners, a private family office with £150m under management, engaged in private equity and direct investment. Andrew studied Management Administration at Aston University.
Jenny de Navarro Jones, Business Development Manager
Jenny de Navarro Jones has a number of degrees in Strategic Studies and a background in finance and, more recently, business development. Jenny has a long record of successful negotiation, and a long-time interest in and expertise over renewable energy and its implementation. She has an excellent track-record in the communication of innovation and drives the business development of HydroVenturi in the Americas, Scandinavia, and the EU as well as having a particular interest in our Scottish developments.
