Barry Dixon, the former head of decarbonisation finance and ex-chief researcher at Davy, is set to depart from the company and join building materials mogul CRH, a firm he has previously analysed in depth.
Dixon first entered Davy as an analyst in 2000, rising to take charge of the research department from 2008 to 2020. In pursuit of capitalising on opportunities arising from the Republic’s push for carbon neutrality by 2050, he built up a decarbonisation finance team within the corporate finance sector of the company in 2021.
It’s thought that Dixon will be assuming a role of expansion at CRH, and this move comes just eighteen months after John Lydon, former head of capital markets at Davy, resigned from his position to climb on board with CRH. Lydon now leads as director of group development and oversees CRH’s multi-billion euro deal funds.
No statements were released by representatives from Davy or CRH regarding these changes, and attempts to extract comments from Dixon were equally fruitless. Given CRH’s ambitions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions within this century, Dixon’s expertise in green finance will no doubt prove beneficial. CRH is the largest road-constructing company in North America and has a responsibility to regulate its direct emissions (Scope 1), indirect emissions derived from purchased energy (Scope 2), and additional indirect emissions resulting from its supply chain and product usage (Scope 3).
Internal communication within Davy’s capital markets sector has reiterated the company’s continuous emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. Furthermore, Davy remains committed to its UK operations, a newly formed bonds team, and establishing private company deals.
Based on a report from Davy released in the previous year, it is projected that, by the end of this decade, Irish households, businesses, and the government will have to spend over €150 billion in order to achieve intermediate climate action targets. It is also estimated that a total of €129 billion will need to be channelized towards energy transition strategies by 2030, driven by the need to electrify heating and transportation systems and make homes and businesses more energy efficient. The private sector is expected to contribute to approximately 85% of these expenditure.