What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

I joined Shizen Energy in September 2022 shortly after moving to Tokyo from Sydney. My background is banking (project and export finance) and investments in the green space.
My previous role was with Australia’s green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), where I focused on new investments relating to the climate transition across different sectors, including real estate, infrastructure and agriculture. I am very passionate about contributing towards decarbonization of the economies and using my skills and expertise to make an impact. I was fortunate to witness the start of Australia’s transformation towards net zero, with very strong growth in the clean energy and clean technology space. The CEFC also had strong values and working for a purpose gave me a strong sense of belonging.
When I moved to Tokyo, I looked for a company that would be a good fit, taking into account its purpose and values. I was impressed by Shizen Energy’s plans to grow in the near future, but also the emphasis on how to do business in accordance with its values. The REsector in Japan is challenging but also a very exciting place to be.

What are your current job responsibilities?

I am Co-Group Leader for the Finance Group, within Investment and Strategy. My main responsibility is to ensure that our projects in Japan and overseas obtain adequate funding. This requires maintaining good relationships with banks and other funding partners. The finance team is a team of 6 experienced professionals. I am also co-Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand. Shizen Energy is looking at opportunities to develop new projects in Australia and New Zealand.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

My goal is to continue to support Shizen Energy’s growth. I am also fortunate that I continue to learn every day as the REsector is changing fast.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

There are two reasons why I decided to work at SEG. First, I always wanted to work at a company that is providing a real contribution or value to society and does not only prioritize profit. I was charmed by SEG’s purpose, “Take action for the blue planet”, and its vision, “Co-create a 100% renewable-powered planet”. As someone who was born and grew up in a developing country, I found that REis one of the key solutions to reduce the gap between developing and developed countries. Every country has its own RE resources (wind, sunlight, water, gas, etc), and if those are developed, each country could become sustainable in its energy production so their financial resources could be used to fund other important areas which are important for the development of the country, like education and healthcare.

Secondly, I don’t want to work in a typical strict corporate atmosphere. I always wanted to work at a company that supports its employees to unleash their true potential while respecting each character and not forcing everyone to be the same. I believe I can be myself and fall in love with my work in that kind of environment. I feel that SEG has what I was looking for when I was in the interview stage. Fortunately, I knew my feeling was right as soon as I entered SEG.

What are your current job responsibilities?

I am working with the consolidation team within the accounting and tax department (AT). The team was started at the end of 2021. Currently, we are building the structure of the team while creating a consolidated financial report at the same time, which is not easy. However, my work will enable SEG to see the financial result of Shizen Energy as a group. I’m proud to say that my team and I were the first ones who mapped all related companies within SEG. I love this work since not only I’m doing what I love, this job also enables me to get to know and work together with many crews from different departments, companies and countries. I was lucky I could participate as a committee member in ALL Meeting 2022 too.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

I want to make SEG the most trusted partner among the stakeholders. Our stakeholders comprise many parties, including the Shizen's crews (employees), business partners, investors, lenders, suppliers, the government, and every household that uses electricity. The first objective is to be able to deliver the financial report accurately and in a timely manner. Secondly, to provide that financial information for the management so they could use it to make the most correct business decisions for the company. To do that, the AT team will play a big role and I need to help build my team.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)?

I was inspired and excited by the future envisioned by the founders in which we live in harmony with RE. I love to travel, and during my long vacations as a student, I used to travel all over Japan with the Seishun-18 ticket. While I was amazed by the fascinating food and culture I encountered in each region, I was also reminded of the current state of depopulation. In the future envisioned by the founders, RE power plants would not be built in major cities, but as an asset rooted in each region that would attract funds and people. I joined the company because I believed that through SEG, RE would not only solve the problem of global warming, but would also create funds and jobs in each region and protect the food and culture of the community.

What are your current job responsibilities?

I work in the Asset Management Dept., operating and managing solar power plants after they have been constructed. In the operation of power plants, there are stakeholders, including banks that provide financing, investors, O&M companies that manage the plant, and companies that handle accounting and tax procedures and much more. While building a cooperative relationship with stakeholders, I try to control risks and maximize profits from a medium- to long-term perspective. Because multiple solar power plants need to be managed simultaneously and I need to make decisions on behalf of investors, it is necessary to have the ability to handle multiple tasks and have extensive knowledge for decision making. Each day, I really appreciate the advice that I can receive from senior crew members to carry out my tasks.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

I would like to increase the number of solar power plants around the world that can continue to generate electricity safely and stably for as long as possible. In recent years, disasters caused by post-developed solar power plants have been occurring frequently, and it has become not uncommon for what was built for a better future to have a negative impact on the surrounding environment and neighboring residents. Each power plant has different characteristics depending on the country and regional environment and conditions, as well as on the person who designed it. I would like to increase the number of forever-Earth-friendly solar power plants by providing appropriate maintenance, repair, and value enhancement for each power plant.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

I started my career as an iron ore trader at a general trading company for about 10 years, developing and marketing new sources and customers overseas. When I was transferred to Singapore, I was in charge of setting up a subsidiary in Asia. I wanted to be involved in the entire supply chain, so I later became Director of a start-up company that was involved in sourcing materials from cacao farmers and ultimately selling chocolate to consumers. I joined Shizen Energy because of the company's global expansion, the opportunity to work for the benefit of society through RE, and the extremely high degree of freedom and individual autonomy that the company offers. And the corporate culture is very much in line with my motto, "Work Hard, Play Hard.”

What are your current job responsibilities?

I am currently developing projects to enter into corporate PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) to deliver electricity and certificates directly to companies in Japan and overseas over long periods of time, with a focus on Japanese companies with offices in Southeast Asia and other overseas locations. We provide decarbonization solutions to companies in the form of supplying roof-mounted solar systems and off-site power supplies.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

I would like to contribute to Shizen Energy's purpose of "take action for the blue planet" by developing businesses in various countries, including Japan, so that we can become a leading company in RE. I would like to be involved in expanding our business into new countries outside of Southeast Asia.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

I met Shizen Energy through a career fair organized by JICA in Tokyo. In this event, there were various companies which seemed to provide a good start to my career in Japan. Among these companies, Shizen Energy stood out as it was not as popular, however, had ambitious activities despite the company’s youth. Also, unlike others, the members of Shizen Energy were very engaged in explaining the company’s mission and vision, while also assessing the value I can provide to their modest team. Through these short conversations, Shizen Energy opened to me the opportunity to create an impact to different regions around the world through RE regardless of my immature career.
RE and climate change mitigation has always been of interest to me. I grew up exposed to the outdoors and saw the impact of climate change on the environment in local communities in the Philippines. Putting together growing up in a family that worked in the Philippines’s energy industry, working in a power plant EPC company myself, studying about climate change and meteorology, and me wanting my activities to have a big impact unlike what it would be in a large rigid company, venturing into REwith Shizen Energy seemed logical.

What are your current job responsibilities?

I am currently a wind resource and siting manager, as well as a general project manager for all the company’s wind energy projects. I manage a team that deals with site assessment, layout identification, and wind simulations. Given these are the center of every wind energy project, I coordinate in between and collaborate with different work streams such as M&A, ESG, cash flow modeling, financing, legal, procurement, among others.
In a general sense, I see my responsibility as everything required to develop, build, and operate a power plant that will generate as much electricity as possible through wind energy to offset global carbon emissions.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

Policies are integral to completely decarbonizing global energy supply. Current policies, however, have not been effective enough to push and implement this yet, mostly I feel due to lack of comprehensive understanding of the social, environmental, political, and economic systems that are entangled around the RE industry. Through my work in Shizen Energy, I aspire to understand these systems well, and hopefully be one of the key policy makers sometime in the later years of my career.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

I have been in the energy conservation and RE industry for 15 years. In my previous position, I provided energy conservation support services and, together with my colleagues, started a company that provided energy information analysis. I then joined the parent company, which was engaged in product development and sales of solar power generation related equipment, and spent about 7 years as a product technology manager, leading the development of hardware for solar remote monitoring and control devices and cloud systems. I was inspired to join Shizen Energy when I met Matsumura-san, who heads the Digital Business. I felt that he had a wealth of experience, achievements, and knowledge in the IT industry and was an excellent leader who could envision what the RE industry should be like, and I wanted to work with such a leader.

What are your current job responsibilities?

As a playing manager, I am responsible for creating specifications related to Shizen Connect*, Shizen Energy's proprietary energy management system (EMS), managing the progress of its development, and conducting on-site testing of its implementation in actual projects.
(*An integrated service that uses digital mechanisms to improve the efficiency of RE which provides services for consumers and power generators, and can also convert resources as a virtual power plant (VPP) and provide electric flexibility)

What are your aspirations at SEG?

I would like to complete the digital platform of Shizen Connect and seize the majority of the market share of the digital sector in RE. By doing so, the presence of Shizen Energy in the energy market will become more influential, and in parallel, Shizen Connect will spread in the market. By doing so, the goal is to lower the overall cost of RE.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

Around October 2013, an acquaintance told me about a RE start-up company that was having difficulty constructing power plants and was looking for a civil engineer who knew construction sites well. So I met with Hasegawa-san and decided to give it a shot (I was actually very intrigued). I left my old job and joined the Shizen Engineering Construction Dept. the following year in April 2014. With my 36 years of experience as a civil engineering general contractor, I was also able to contribute in developing the organizational structure of Shizen Engineering.

What are your current job responsibilities?

I worked at Shizen Engineering (Site Manager) for 5 years, SE (Engineering) for 4 years. Now I am working in the Construction Team of Shizen Operations's Corporate Planning Dept., where I am responsible for making various rules and regulations in connection with the addition of civil engineering work to our construction license, and on-site inspections for disaster prevention.
My main task used to be new constructions, but at Shizen Operations my role is technical-sales, which involves acquiring construction work as an extension of its operation and maintenance (O&M) services.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

I hope to be able to pass on my knowledge of development, construction, and maintenance which I have gained from my 36 years of previous work and my 9 years at SEG. It’s sometimes difficult to pass on experience, but I would like to visit all sites that Shizen Operations is currently managing in order to pass on as much of my experience as possible on-site.

What motivated you to join Shizen Energy Group (SEG)? What is your career background?

I was looking to get involved in renewable energy projects and became interested in the company after seeing the website. This is the second company I have worked for. In my previous job, I was involved in the maintenance and management of railway electrical equipment and system development. The nuclear power plant accident made me think that there could be safer and cleaner ways of generating power, and I became very interested in the field. During the interview, I felt a warm atmosphere that made me think I would like to work here. To be honest, I was worried about joining the company because my salary would be a little lower, but the atmosphere of the company was the deciding factor, and I decided to join the company because I wanted to be a part of it.

What are your current job responsibilities?

As a plant manager at a solar power plant, I coordinate various tasks and work to solve problems to ensure the stable operation of the power plant. I have many opportunities to communicate with people outside the company, such as business owners and local residents, so I am stimulated every day. In my previous job, I worked in a relatively large company, so the division of labor was clear and the content of the work was relatively fixed. At Shizen Operations, I am able to not only improve my electrical skills, but also get involved in areas such as customer service and community relations, and I feel that I have been able to expand my potential.

What are your aspirations at SEG?

I am confident that our O&M work to ensure a stable supply of renewable energy will help us achieve our purpose of "taking action for the blue planet," so I would like to contribute in any way I can. I want to work to make Shizen Operations a company that people can trust and rely on. For my personal goal, I want to work in a way that earns the trust of those around me, by doing things like improving my skills in areas such as customer negotiations and acquiring qualifications, and also by proactively getting involved in areas of work that I haven't been involved in before.