I’m Kevin Brennan. Of San Francisco today, and a few countries along the way…

 

I’m a surfer and athlete, living between a love of city culture and people, and the inspiration of wilderness and no people. My work has been in environmental finance, raising money for clean energy, natural resources and sustainability-driven investments.

 

Right now, I’m indulging in a juicy career pause through end 2024, to layer in the art of executive coaching to my capital raising experience, with a 2025 launch.

 

For fun, I’m writing occasional Life Notes, to stay in touch and carry on the spirit of pandemic and travel writing that started with Letters from San Francisco.

 

 

I was born in Canada but mostly grew up in England to Irish parents, living also in Scotland, France and Australia during student years. My first decade of career was in London, a majestic city that always felt ‘home’. Until one morning in Spring 2010, I made an instinctive ‘life rule’ while surfing in Bali: always live by the ocean. It just came to me, and I immediately accepted this as a simple essence of me. Days later I was interviewing for an intriguing career opportunity to move to San Francisco with Terra Global Capital.

 

In the bone, I’m Irish and from a family culture that is very Irish. My parents left Ireland in the adventure of emigrating to Canada, during the years after their young marriage started. Mum and Dad grew up in Donegal, nestled in the rugged coastal beauty of North West Ireland and where my four grandparents – sadly Mum also now – lie at rest today in a beautiful hillside cemetery gazing out on the Donegal Bay. So, I think of Donegal as my ‘ethnic’ home.

 

My work over 25 years has been mostly in environmental finance, raising capital for energy, natural resources and sustainability-driven investments. This all evolved from deliberately blending a first degree in Economics and Business (University of Edinburgh, 1998) with the Chartered Financial Analyst professional training (CFA, 2001) and then a Masters in Environmental Management focusing on natural resource and climate change economics (University of New South Wales UNSW, Sydney, 2003).

 

I seem to love interdisciplinary knowledge and continuous learning as a lens on curiosity in the world. My LinkedIn is here, and I scribbled out more on my backstory here.

 

 

Favorite essays include…