The top 50: Johann Boukhors, managing director, Engie New Ventures
Johann Boukhors leads Engie New Ventures (ENV), the corporate venturing subsidiary of France-headquartered energy utility Engie, as managing director.
Formed in 2014, ENV manages a €180m ($200m) fund that targets developers of clean energy technologies that the corporate can leverage to boost internal innovation. The unit has 10 team members based in France, the US, Singapore, Israel and Chile, and its stated mission is to “digitise, decarbonise and decentralise the world of energy”.
ENV has deployed over €180m of capital across some 29 investments globally, focusing on geographies covering Europe, North America, Israel and Asia. The unit’s recent investments have included participation in Ineratec (Germany), H2SITE (Spain) and Ndustrial (US) – which offer innovative solutions in areas as varied as synthetic fuels and natural gas decarbonisation technologies.
In late 2021, meanwhile, ENV portfolio company Opus One, a software engineering company introducing a real-time operating system for smart grids, was acquired by General Electric for an undisclosed fee. ENV had taken part in the former business’s series A and B rounds.
Prior to assuming his current position in 2018, Boukhors had held various roles at Engie since joining the business in 1998, including senior manager of business development oversight in France, director of new business development and marketing, sales and energy supply in Mexico, and director of the Belgian branch covering Belgium and Luxembourg.
He holds a generalist master’s degree in engineering from Arts et Métiers ParisTech and an executive MBA from the pan-European ESCP Business School.
