UpEnergy has appointed Brent Chism as Chief Executive Officer as the company enters its next phase of growth.
Brent brings more than two decades of experience building, scaling and leading mission-driven organizations across Africa, the United States and other global markets. He served as CEO of Grameen Foundation, leading teams across its US, Africa, and India operations. He also served as President & CEO of TaroWorks, a SaaS company digitizing last-mile operations across emerging markets. He also built out operations for fintech company Kopo Kopo in Tanzania and led business development in other African markets. Brent has spent more than four years living and working in East Africa, sits on the boards of two Kenyan social enterprises, and has held senior roles at technology companies in the United States.
Brent joins UpEnergy as the company builds on a series of major milestones, including the World Bank’s first outcome bond linked to Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, the deployment of more than 40,000 digitally monitored electric cooking devices, full conversion of its voluntary portfolio to the highest quality CCP-labeled credits, the issuance of CORSIA Eligible Emissions Units with CCP labels, and the launch of new Article 6 decarbonization projects across Africa. UpEnergy’s growing project base, which includes some of the continent’s most advanced household energy projects, has been developed in tandem with strong sovereign partnerships, innovative climate finance and rigorous digital monitoring.
UpEnergy Chairman, Matt Evans, said:
“The UpEnergy team is excited to bring on board another leader with deep integrity and decades of experience guiding teams to deliver great outcomes for customers and partners worldwide. His thoughtfulness, customer orientation and experience leading teams to execute well and continuously improve in a wide variety of contexts give us confidence Brent is a strong fit for where UpEnergy is heading.”
Brent succeeds Mitch Sauers, who has led UpEnergy as CEO since early 2020. Under Mitch’s leadership, UpEnergy grew to reach millions of households across Africa while delivering high-quality projects aligned with host country objectives. Mitch will continue to work with UpEnergy’s valued partners and investors as UpEnergy’s Chief Commercial Officer, focused on developing new partnerships and consistently improving the quality and scale of UpEnergy’s decarbonization work producing CCP-labelled credits, CORSIA credits, and Article 6.2 projects for bilateral partnerships.
Matt Evans added:
“Mitch has played a critical role in every element of UpEnergy’s growth and execution over the past six years. The board and team are enormously grateful for his leadership and we’re very pleased that he will remain a key member of our team. Having Brent and Mitch working alongside one another gives us strong continuity while adding the leadership capacity we need for the opportunities ahead.”
Commenting on his CEO appointment, Brent Chism said:
“UpEnergy synthesizes several themes from my work over the past 15+ years: technology, strong local operations, commercial models and businesses designed to improve people’s lives. I’m excited to be joining a team with such deep experience across Africa and such a strong foundation to build from. My first priority is to spend time on the ground with our teams, customers, government partners and other stakeholders, and find ways to build on UpEnergy’s growing success.”
Beginning in 2027, Brent will be based in Accra, Ghana, one of UpEnergy’s largest country operations.
