Former Rolls-Royce director joins Nottingham start-up as chief exec

Paul Harris

Paul Harris, former director of economic development at Rolls-Royce, has joined energy storage startup Cheesecake Energy (CEL) as chief executive.

Harris has over 30 years of experience in the aerospace, defence and nuclear industries from his career with Rolls-Royce.

He will take over as chief executive at Cheesecake Energy from Michael Simpson, who co-founded the business in 2016. Simpson becomes chief commercial and product officer, leading the firm’s commercial team.

Simpson said: “Paul has a wealth of technical and organisational experience from his career at Rolls-Royce; just as importantly he shares our vision and enthusiasm to make Cheesecake Energy a valuable, impactful, and durable solution in the critical and dynamic field of energy storage. I am looking forward to working with Paul as we focus on our product roadmap, develop commercial partnerships and build the team at Cheesecake.”

Harris said: “I am delighted to join the CEL team as the new chief executive at this exciting stage of the company’s growth and look forward to contributing to CEL’s important mission. Michael and the CEL team have done a fantastic job in founding and funding the company and building its reputation. I am looking forward to joining the team and helping shape the future of this innovative company.”

Adam Parr, executive chairman said: “CEL is an ambitious company which needs to succeed in a range of commercial, engineering and industrial disciplines. Paul brings crucial experience from across that range as well as a personality which will fit perfectly with our team, strategy and mission. It is also fantastic that Paul is a local resident who will help build a new industrial champion in the East Midlands.”

The Nottingham-based company last year announced a £1m seed investment round led by Imperial College Innovation Fund.

CEL’s storage technology takes electricity from the grid and stores a part of it as heat and another part as pressurised air. The system uses repurposed truck engines as the power-conversion machine for putting electricity into storage and withdrawing it when needed. The system aims to deliver storage capabilities at half the cost of battery equivalents, while lasting much longer and having a much lower environmental footprint.

Harris will take up the chief executive role at the end of February and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Nottingham.

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