About FiveTHydrogen
Starting in 2021, FiveT set out to finance the foundation of the hydrogen economy. We believe that clean Hydrogen - an energy carrier, created with close to zero carbon-emissions - will transform and decarbonize the world's economy, creating a vast value-creation opportunity. We'll be making our planet liveable for generations to come.
Follow us on LinkedInManagement Team
Highly experienced team with the right mix of strong hydrogen industry exposure and strong financial and strategy back-ground.
- 25 years of industrial experience
- General Management of large asset base companies, venture fund & tech companies
- Large project BOO & JV development globally
- Founder & secretary of the Hydrogen Council
Pierre Étienne Franc (Managing Partner, CEO, BoD)
- Pierre-Etienne Franc, a graduate from HEC Paris, is one of the most recognized Hydrogen experts globally. He has spent the last decade developing Hydrogen activities at Air Liquide and is now starting the first pure play hydrogen infrastructure fund.
- Mr. Franc joined the Air Liquide Group in 1995 as strategic analyst for the Group general management. He then held several positions in large Projects Business Development, Operations General Management, Strategy and Diversification activities. Since 2010, he has been supervising the portfolio of advanced businesses and technologies companies of the Group, mostly servicing energy transition markets, which included Hydrogen Energy activities. In this position, he also created the Air Liquide Venture Capital arm (ALIAD). From June 2017 to March 2021, he was Vice President of Air Liquide’s Hydrogen Energy World Business Line, in charge of developing the full potential of Hydrogen activities for the Group worldwide.
- Leading Hydrogen development sector-wide, Mr. Franc chaired Hydrogen Europe and the EU’s Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) public-private partnership from 2010 to 2016. In 2017, he co-founded the Hydrogen Council, a global CEO-led coalition, and served as the initiative’s co-secretary until the end of March 2021. Under his leadership, the Council grew from an initial 13 to 100+ member companies across the entire value chain - the largest global industry initiative of its kind. He has also authored several books, including “Hydrogen, the energy transition in the making” (Manifesto / Gallimard, 2015).
- As of 1 April 2021, Pierre-Etienne Franc is taking the lead in the formation and management of Five T Hydrogen, a dedicated pure play hydrogen infrastructure fund.
- Strong track record in developing Public Private Partnerships over 14+ years
- 10+ years in the hydrogen sector
- 5 years as Managing Director of Hydrogen Europe
Dr. Nicolas Brahy (CLO, General Counsel, BoD)
Before joining FiveT Hydrogen, Nicolas was Managing Director of Hydrogen Europe. The 250+ member association representing the hydrogen industry in Europe. Nicolas has 11 years at the core of the development of the hydrogen sector with an excellent knowledge of all regulations impacting hydrogen and a wide range of funding schemes and how to make projects fit these. He has 14 years of experience in building and implementing a series of Public Private Partnerships with a total budget of 4,2 billion in the hydrogen sector (FCH JU, FCH2JU and CHE JU) on both public and private sides. Nicolas holds a PhD in law and lectured at the University of Louvain in “Public finances” and “legal and economic aspects of intellectual property”.
- ~10 years corporate strategy experience, with focus on efficient governance/processes
- Execution oriented project and transformation manager
David Crnjac (Partner, COO, BoD)
- As Chief-Operating-Officer David is focusing on the development of the FiveT Hydrogen investment platform and therefore on many of the non-investing topics of the General Partner. This includes strategy, process management, brand building, partner management, human resources and information technology.
- David was born and raised in Cologne, Germany where he also studied Business Administration.
- He is an execution-oriented general manager, with a focus on managing transformation and corporate development projects. Today, being an experienced strategy executive, David has a background of roughly 10 years in corporate strategy, including positions at T-Systems International, BWI and Avaloq Evolution.
- 18 years of experience in investment, M&A, venture capital, asset management and project finance
- 10 years proven track record in hydrogen & industrial gas industries
- 8 years proven track record as Investment Banker for Lazard, UBS and Barclays
- As of early June
Sebastien Paillat (Partner, Investment Director)
Sébastien brings 18 years of experience in M&A, investment, venture capital, asset management and project finance, with ~ 50 transactions led and closed.
Over the last 7 years, he was in charge of investments and asset management in the hydrogen field, for Air Liquide hydrogen energy world business line and ALIAD venture capital arm. He had board seat representations in three companies, as well as an operational deputy general management role in one hydrogen asset company, in charge of financing, fundraising and M&A.
Previously he spent 4 years as M&A senior manager for Air Liquide Group, executing and closing c. 30 small- to mid-cap transactions worldwide, within the industrial gas world, with a focus on innovative fields (biogas, hydrogen, technologies, advanced electronic materials).
Previously he spent 8 years in Investment Banking for Lazard, UBS and Barclays, advising for mid- to large-cap transactions - M&A, leveraged finance and ECM. He was mainly involved in the following sectors: Global Industries, Utilities & Infrastructure, Telecoms, and Financial Sponsors. He started his career with a focus on project finance and acquisition finance in telecom infrastructures.
He holds an MSc in Telecom Engineering from ENST Paris (Engineering Graduate School) and an MBA from Essec (with exchange period in the MBA of University of Chicago, Booth Graduate School of Business).
- HK-based business development & senior investor relations executive
- Comprehensive global network within the institutional investor community
- Proven track record in developing and maintaining productive relationships
Marc-Alexander Baier (Executive Director, Global Head of Business Development)
Marc-Alexander Baier is a Hong Kong-based business development and senior investor relations executive with a comprehensive global network within the institutional investor community and proven track record in developing and maintaining productive internal and external relationships. Prior to joining FiveT Hydrogen, Marc worked for eight years at Euromoney Institutional Investor (“EII”) where he was Head of Investor Relations and Director of Sales in Europe and APAC. His responsibilities at EII included liaising with senior investment officials, mostly CIOs of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, Insurance companies and connecting them with their peers as well as matching these with investment managers on- and offline. He holds an MBA from the European University in London specialising in Global Banking and Finance. Marc is a passionate sailor, hiker and tennis player and is actively involved in various charities from supporting underprivileged children to plastic free oceans.
- Lead compliance & regulations expert
- 20+ years experience in capital markets & investment management
- 14+ years at FiveT Capital AG
- 6+ years of relevant project finance & investment experience
- Proven track record in hydrogen infrastructure development and M&A
- 2 years in investor relations & hydrogen ambassador
- As of 1st of August
Pierre-Germain Marlier (Investment VP – Industrial)
- Pierre-Germain Marlier brings 8 years of experience at Air Liquide in business development and investor relations.
- He started in marketing LNG reliquefaction systems, after which he moved to Houston to work as analyst on a ~$100M M&A deal. PGM also developed biogas applications for bus fleets in the UK.
- PGM then moved to California and led negotiations on a $12M equity stake in FirstElement Fuel and closed a supply agreement (~$500M) for renewable hydrogen. He developed a $150M hydrogen plant for which he led negotiations with utilities, real estate, and obtained $10M+ in local incentives. PGM was co-inventor on a pending patent about the use of renewables in hydrogen liquefaction.
- Since 2019, PGM has joined the investor relations team where he pitched Air Liquide’s hydrogen equity story to financial markets.
- PGM holds a MSc in Industrial Engineering from Albi’s School of Mines and a business management degree from ESSEC.
FiveT Clean-Hydrogen Private-Infrastructure Fund
The FiveT Hydrogen fund is a pure-player and will exclusively finance projects in the production, storage and distribution of clean hydrogen. Our strategic simplicity makes us the clear choice for every investor who is looking for (1) strong infrastructure returns, (2) precisely adding clean Hydrogen investments to the portfolio, (3) true sustainability making a lasting impact on environment, society & businesses.
Experience Hydrogen