Jeffrey Beyer

Managing Director

Jeffrey Beyer is the founder and managing director of Zest Associates, a UAE-based sustainability consultancy focused on business and government strategy, cleantech innovation and green finance. He also runs a UK-based company, Zest Cleantech, that connects breakthrough innovators to clients and partners in the Middle East. He led a major United Nations programme for the Saudi Ministry of Energy focused on clean energy from 2023 to 2025, and has launched innovation programmes for utilities such as the UK's National Grid and for multilaterals including the World Bank and the International Climate Fund. He has helped establish national centres of excellence for renewables and energy efficiency, among them the UK Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, the National Renewable Energy Catapult and the South African Private Sector Energy Efficiency Programme. He has authored landmark studies on financing a green transition in the Middle East and on accelerating the clean hydrogen industry in the UAE, and was instrumental in founding the UK's first cleantech venture capital fund as a public-private partnership, now capitalised with 100 million pounds. He holds undergraduate degrees in economics and psychology and a master's in environmental change and management from Oxford University.