One Planet Group Taps Sam Veazey as CFO to Scale Climate Tech Portfolio

One Planet Group, the London-based private equity firm focused exclusively on climate solutions, has appointed Sam Veazey as Chief Financial Officer — a move signaling the firm's intent to professionalize its operations as it scales a €2.5 billion portfolio spanning renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate technology investments.

Veazey joins from Hg, the European software-focused PE firm, where he spent seven years in senior finance roles including Group Finance Director. The appointment comes as One Planet looks to accelerate deployment from its second fund while preparing infrastructure for what industry sources suggest could be a third fundraise targeting €3-4 billion.

The hire reflects a broader maturation happening across climate-focused private equity, where firms that launched on mission-driven narratives now face the operational realities of managing complex portfolios across multiple geographies and asset classes. One Planet's portfolio includes everything from utility-scale solar projects in Southern Europe to industrial decarbonization software providers — investments that require different skill sets, timelines, and capital structures.

"We've moved from proving the thesis to scaling the platform," said Zoë Knight, co-founder and Managing Partner at One Planet Group, in the announcement. "Sam's experience building finance functions at high-growth firms will be critical as we expand our team and portfolio across Europe and into new climate sectors."

Veazey's background sits at an interesting intersection for climate investing. At Hg, he worked across portfolio operations for software companies — businesses defined by recurring revenue, predictable margins, and scalable business models. Climate infrastructure investments often look different: longer payback periods, commodity price exposure, regulatory dependency, and physical assets that depreciate.

But that contrast may be the point. One Planet's portfolio increasingly tilts toward climate tech and software-enabled solutions rather than pure-play infrastructure. Recent investments include companies building carbon accounting platforms, energy management software, and digital tools for renewable energy optimization. These businesses look more like traditional growth equity plays than the project finance structures that dominated early climate investing.

Prior to Hg, Veazey spent nearly a decade at EY in audit and advisory roles, where he worked on transactions and financial reporting for private equity-backed companies. That foundation in deal structuring and accounting rigor will matter as One Planet navigates increasingly competitive auction processes for climate assets.

The firm didn't disclose Veazey's comp package or equity stake, though CFO appointments at mid-market PE firms typically include meaningful carry participation in future funds — an alignment mechanism that matters when building out non-investment functions.

One Planet launched in 2016 with a thesis that was controversial at the time: climate-focused investments could generate market-rate returns while driving measurable environmental impact. Eight years later, that's table stakes. Every major PE firm now has a sustainability strategy, an ESG reporting framework, and at least one partner with "climate" in their title.

What separates the serious players from the greenwashers increasingly comes down to operational infrastructure. Can you measure Scope 3 emissions across a 30-company portfolio? Do you have the finance team to handle currency hedging on renewable PPAs across six countries? Can you report SFDR-compliant impact metrics to European LPs on a quarterly basis?

These aren't questions that get answered in investor pitch decks. They require unglamorous back-office work: data systems, compliance protocols, audit processes, treasury management. The CFO role at a climate-focused PE firm has evolved from scorekeeper to strategic enabler.

One Planet sits in the mid-tier of dedicated climate investors — large enough to lead growth equity rounds and consortium infrastructure deals, small enough to remain focused and thesis-driven. The firm's portfolio includes investments like Powerdot (EV charging), Clarke Energy (distributed generation), and various renewable energy platforms across Iberia and Central Europe.

Unlike generalist PE firms with a climate sleeve, One Planet's entire portfolio maps to decarbonization pathways: renewable energy generation, energy efficiency, electrification, circular economy, and sustainable food systems. That focus creates both operational efficiencies — you can build shared expertise across portfolio companies — and challenges. You're concentrated in sectors exposed to policy risk, commodity prices, and technological disruption.

The Veazey appointment is one data point in a broader trend: climate-focused investment platforms are hiring from traditional finance and PE, not just from impact investing or development finance circles. That's a signal the sector has reached a tipping point.

Five years ago, climate PE firms struggled to attract top-tier talent from firms like Hg, KKR, or Carlyle. The perception was that you took a pay cut and a career risk to work in "impact." That's flipped. Climate is now where the growth is — the sector attracting institutional capital, generating exits, and producing the IRRs that make careers.

Hg itself has made climate tech investments, but it's not reorienting its entire platform around decarbonization. For Veazey, the move suggests a bet that climate-focused platforms will outperform generalist firms over the next decade, not despite their focus but because of it.

There's also a talent war brewing. Firms like TPG Rise, Brookfield's renewable arm, and infrastructure giants like Macquarie are all competing for the same pool of finance and investment professionals who can bridge traditional PE rigor with climate domain expertise. CFO hires at this level often signal fundraising momentum — you don't build out a C-suite unless you're planning to scale.

One Planet hasn't announced a Fund III timeline, but the firm's second fund closed at €1.2 billion in 2021 and has deployed roughly 70% of that capital according to industry data providers. The math points to a new fundraise within 12-18 months.

European institutional investors — particularly pension funds and insurance companies — now face regulatory pressure to deploy capital into Article 9 funds under SFDR. That's created a tailwind for firms like One Planet, but it's also raised the bar. LPs want proof that climate funds can deliver returns, manage risk, and report impact with the same rigor they expect from traditional buyout funds.

Hiring a CFO with Hg and EY credentials signals that One Planet is building the infrastructure to meet those expectations. Veazey's role will likely extend beyond traditional finance functions to include LP reporting, impact measurement frameworks, and ESG data systems.

Climate portfolios are operationally messy in ways that software portfolios aren't. You're dealing with physical assets spread across multiple jurisdictions, each with different permitting regimes, grid connection queues, and subsidy structures. You're exposed to commodity prices, weather patterns, and technology curves. And you're making 10-15 year bets in sectors where the policy environment can shift with an election.

One Planet's portfolio companies operate across at least eight European countries, from Portugal to Poland. That means managing FX risk, navigating tax treaties, and consolidating financials across different accounting standards. The firm's investments also span the capital structure — from growth equity in climate tech startups to infrastructure debt in utility-scale solar projects.

Veazey's immediate mandate will likely include standardizing financial reporting across the portfolio, building scalable systems for impact measurement, and establishing treasury functions to manage currency and interest rate exposure as the firm holds assets longer than typical PE timeframes.

There's also the question of exits. Climate infrastructure assets increasingly trade to strategic buyers or larger infrastructure funds rather than through traditional PE secondaries or IPOs. That requires different exit planning, valuation methodologies, and LP communication strategies than software businesses that can go public or sell to tech giants.

One underappreciated aspect of Veazey's background: he's worked at firms that take data infrastructure seriously. Hg built proprietary systems for tracking SaaS metrics, benchmarking portfolio performance, and forecasting returns. Climate PE firms need similar tools but for different KPIs — megawatt-hours generated, tons of CO2 avoided, renewable PPAs signed, grid connection timelines.

Building those systems from scratch is expensive and time-consuming. More likely, One Planet will adopt third-party platforms for impact measurement (players like Watershed, Persefoni, or Carbon Chain) while building proprietary dashboards for financial and operational metrics specific to their thesis.

The Veazey hire is a symptom of a larger shift: climate investing is moving from proof-of-concept to scaling phase. The question isn't whether climate funds can raise capital — they can. It's whether they can deploy it efficiently, generate returns, and build repeatable investment strategies that work across cycles.

That requires the same operational discipline that traditional PE firms spent decades developing: robust diligence processes, active portfolio management, performance tracking, and talent infrastructure. Climate PE firms that can build those systems while maintaining investment focus will likely dominate the next decade.

One Planet's bet is that combining mission-driven investing with institutional-grade operations isn't a trade-off — it's a requirement. Veazey's appointment suggests the firm is willing to invest in the unglamorous back-office work that makes high-performing platforms possible.

The harder question: can climate-focused platforms actually outperform generalist PE firms with climate sleeves? One Planet's thesis is yes, because sector focus allows for deeper expertise, better deal sourcing, and more effective value creation. But that thesis only works if you can match the operational rigor of firms like Hg — which is presumably why they hired someone who built finance functions there.

Veazey's first 12 months will be telling. If One Planet announces a third fund in 2025 or early 2026, that's validation that LPs see the firm as a scalable platform, not a thematic bet. If the firm starts reporting standardized impact metrics across its portfolio — something most climate PE firms still struggle with — that's evidence the operational infrastructure is maturing.

The other signal to track: where the firm deploys capital from its current fund. If investments skew toward software-enabled climate solutions rather than pure infrastructure, that suggests One Planet is positioning for faster deployment cycles and earlier exits — a strategy that would align with Veazey's software PE background.

There's also competitive pressure. As more generalist PE firms build climate capabilities — KKR's Global Impact Fund, Brookfield's renewable expansion, even growth equity firms like General Atlantic investing heavily in climate tech — dedicated platforms like One Planet need to prove they can move faster, source better deals, and create more value than larger, better-capitalized competitors.

Hiring a CFO with traditional PE credentials is a step toward that proof. But it's just a step. The real test comes when One Planet tries to exit investments, return capital to LPs, and demonstrate that climate focus didn't come at the expense of returns.

What the announcement doesn't address: How much of One Planet's second fund has been realized? What's the current DPI on Fund I? Are portfolio companies hitting the growth and decarbonization targets the firm projected at entry?

Those are the questions LPs will ask before committing to a third fund. They're also the questions a new CFO will need to answer — with data, not narratives. Veazey's job isn't to tell a better story about One Planet's impact. It's to build the systems that make the impact measurable, the returns defensible, and the platform scalable.

If he succeeds, this hire will look like the inflection point when One Planet transitioned from a mission-driven fund manager to an institutional-grade climate investment platform. If the infrastructure buildout stalls, or if the firm struggles to deploy capital at the pace LPs expect, the hire becomes a footnote.

Climate private equity is no longer a niche. It's a competitive, capital-intensive, operationally complex sector where the winners will be the firms that combine conviction with competence. One Planet just made a bet on competence. Now comes the hard part.

One Planet Group is a London-based private equity firm investing exclusively in climate solutions across Europe. Founded in 2016 by Zoë Knight and others, the firm manages approximately €2.5 billion across two funds focused on renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate technology. The firm targets growth equity and buyout opportunities in sectors that contribute to decarbonization and resource efficiency. Portfolio companies operate across power generation, energy efficiency, circular economy, and sustainable food systems.

For more information, visit oneplanetgroup.eco.

The firm has not disclosed portfolio performance metrics publicly, though industry data suggests Fund I has achieved partial realizations with exits in the renewable energy sector. Fund II closed in 2021 and is actively deploying across Southern and Central Europe.

Limited partners include European pension funds, insurance companies, family offices, and development finance institutions.