Former BlackRock, CapitaLand Exec Simon Treacy Named Chair of Energy Startup PolarBlue

Real estate fund management veteran Simon Treacy is turning his expertise towards low-cost, sustainable power generation and distribution, with the former BlackRock and CapitaLand fixture now serving as executive chairman of energy startup PolarBlue.

Treacy personally invested “millions” during the early development of PolarBlue over the past seven years, the company said Tuesday in a release. Under his stewardship, PolarBlue promises the world’s first fixed-price, zero-emission energy platform, offering monthly costs lower than fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear — and the company plans to do it with no upfront infrastructure payments and no volatility due to market fluctuations or weather.

PolarBlue says it can accomplish its ambitious goals through ownership of the entire energy technology stack — including invented breakthroughs in materials, conversion and distribution — enabling the platform to scale direct-to-user across homes, industries and communities worldwide.

“When energy becomes abundant and predictable, everything changes,” Treacy said. “Industry grows without destruction. Families thrive without sacrifice.”

Liberation Movement

Singapore-based CapitaLand Investment announced last September that Treacy would exit his role as CEO of the private real estate fund business, with the Temasek-controlled firm rolling out a unified real assets platform to manage non-listed vehicles.

Treacy had joined CapitaLand Investment in October 2021 after previously serving as global real estate chief investment officer and head of US equities at asset management titan BlackRock.

After building a career inside the global property and infrastructure sectors, Treacy says he’s now working outside the system for the people that fossil-fuel-backed institutions left behind — with a mission to ensure that the technology’s potential won’t be “diluted, delayed or sold back” to the very institutions it was meant to liberate people from.

“PolarBlue isn’t just a company, it’s a movement,” he said.

Joining Treacy at PolarBlue are a range of energy and finance veterans, including chief executive Damian Sanford. Formerly chief operations officer at the Australian Energy Market Operator, Sanford spent a decade at the manager of the country’s electricity and gas systems and markets and has also worked with AusNet Services and Tilt Renewables.

Serving as PolarBlue’s chief investment officer is Melbourne-based Stuart Greaves, who previously spent five years as a managing director with BlackRock in London and Singapore and also was managing director and chief operating officer with Australian fund manager Wingate from 2019 through 2021.

Also hailing from BlackRock is PolarBlue chief financial officer Neil Jones. Based in London, Jones has established and operated platforms that have managed $35 billion in assets in the built environment and infrastructure sectors through stints with BlackRock, Lendlease, Macquarie Bank and the former MGPA.

Electric Avenues

With Treacy having signed on at CapitaLand Investment at the same time as former Brookfield executive Patrick Boocock — who served as head of the private equity alternative assets division — the duo became two of the few non-Singaporeans holding senior leadership positions with the state-backed company.

Boocock left CapitaLand Investment in December 2023 and made a similar pivot into the energy space to serve as group chief financial officer at Australian electricity distributor Ausgrid in Sydney.

Ausgrid’s electricity network spans 22,275 square kilometres (8,600 square miles) along Australia’s east coast, including Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter Valley.

Note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Stuart Greaves. Mingtiandi regrets the error.