new hire

Houston-based energy transition leader talks new role, shares future predictions

For some companies, all that’s needed to make a seismic shift toward innovation is to hire the right person to steer the organization in a transcendent direction.

Arcadis, a sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions company, is channeling this concept by hiring Masjood Jafri as its new National Energy Transition Strategic Advisor and Business Development Lead. In the role, Jafri will help lead and develop the company’s energy transition business growth and strategy for its interests in the United States alongside Matthew Yonkin, National Energy Transition Solution Leader, based in New York.

“I have a fairly diverse background, with about a decade in the energy industry with an oil and gas, power and petrochemicals background,” says Jafri, who moved to Houston from the U.K. back in 2012. “But prior to that, I had about a decade in the infrastructure world, looking into the transportation market, and the manufacturing sector, as well as working as a lender's advisor in the capital market. So, in this very transformative period, you need to connect all the dots.”

With just over six months in his new role, Jafri leverages his 20 years of experience in leading the successful delivery of capital programs and projects as the strategic advisor to Arcadis’ own capital projects.

“Arcadis is on a journey to be the sustainability partner or sustainable transformation partner for our clients,” Jafri says. “And the path to sustainability goes through energy transition. Arcadis has been investing quite heavily in that space for us to be a leading consulting services provider for energy companies.

Jafri’s hire comes as Arcadis moves its business operations in Houston to a new centralized office in the Galleria area. According to Jafri, this will bring the company’s expertise under one roof. With Houston being the energy capital of the world, Jafri says Arcadis is positioned to lead and deliver results for the energy demand in the United States and globally.

“Houston is the Silicon Valley of energy,” Jafri says. “The challenge is to continue to drive with that force. … We have the talent in the city, we have the right mindset—very entrepreneurial, and obviously a lot of capital commitment to make these changes.

“And it is not just coming from the private sector, it is also coming from the public sector. So, I think the stars are aligning in the context of what is needed for us to have a planet-positive future and Houston being suitably positioned to deliver to that,” he adds.

And while keeping up with the demand for energy and moving towards clean energy are equally important challenges, Jafri is more focused on addressing the latter.

“Clean energy is certainly a bigger challenge because it requires a very broad area of energy sources to come together and to make it cleaner,” Jafri says. “Technologically, some of those things are not ready yet, at least to be scalable in a commercial and profitable way. So that's the challenge. I think it is a clean energy challenge, but obviously, the demand side makes it a bit more complicated.”

Texans, and more specifically Houstonians, have seen firsthand the complications of demand and the pitfalls of energy security and resilience. Addressing these issues, along with many other sustainability challenges, will also be part of Jafri’s core mission at Arcadis.

“As we saw in severe climate conditions, the grid is vulnerable and so are the people connected to the grid,” Jafri says. “The better we can make the grid more resilient and more adaptive to these changes, the more satisfactory conditions will be on the ground for people who are affected.”

Jafri asserts that the industry is already considering numerous options, including all colors of hydrogen, solar, wind and geothermal, in addition to fossil-based energy (natural gas). These measures are already in progress, but consumers are concerned with climate change and, of course, the impact on their electricity bills. Still, states like California, Washington and Texas are making progress.

“I would say by the year 2030 you would start to see a pretty significant movement in the right direction,” Jafri says. “If you look from a federal policy perspective, we want to produce 100 percent of the electricity clean by 2035. That is an expected goal, but it’s all happening.”

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A View From HETI

Fervo Energy claimed a top 10 spot on Time magazine and Statista’s new list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2025. Photo via Getty Images.

The accolades keep rolling in for Houston-based Fervo Energy, a producer of geothermal power.

Fervo lands at No. 6 on Time magazine and Statista’s new list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2025. The ranking recognizes sustainability-focused companies based on factors such as impact, financial strength, and innovation.

Time notes that Fervo broke ground in 2023 in Utah on what the company claims will be the world’s largest geothermal plant. The plant is scheduled to start supplying carbon-free electricity to the grid next year and to reach its 400-megawatt capacity in three years.

“Technologies like this only make a difference if we deploy them at large-scale in a way that can reduce carbon emissions and increase the reliability of the grid,” Fervo CEO Tim Latimer told Time in 2023.

The startup was named North American Company of the Year by research and consulting firm Cleantech Group for 2025. Fervo topped the Global Cleantech 100, Cleantech Group’s annual list of the world’s most innovative and promising cleantech companies.

Last year, Fervo also made Time’s list of the 200 Best Inventions of 2024. Fervo was recognized in the green energy category for its FervoFlex geothermal power system.

Founded in 2017, Fervo is now a unicorn, meaning its valuation as a private company exceeds $1 billion. The startup’s valuation is estimated at $1.4 billion. According to PitchBook data, the company raised $634 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

In all, eight Houston-area companies appear among the top 250 greentech companies ranked by Time and Statista. Other than Fervo, they are:

  • No. 43 Lancium Technologies, an energy storage and distribution company
  • No. 50 Solugen, a producer of sustainable chemicals.
  • No. 56 Quaise Energy, which specializes in terawatt-scale geothermal power.
  • No. 129 Plus Power, a developer, owner and operator of battery storage projects.
  • No. 218 Dream Harvest, which promotes sustainable vertical farming.
  • No. 225 Cemvita, which uses synthetic biology to convert carbon emissions into bio-based chemicals.
  • No. 226 Syzygy Plasmonics, which decarbonizes chemical production.
Vermont-based BETA Technologies claimed the No. 1 spot. The company manufactures electric aircraft.

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