Ben Stone

Ben Stone is a Los Angeles–based clean-energy and sustainability investment professional whose career spans private equity, project finance, and startup operating roles. He earned a B.A. in Business/Managerial Economics from UC Santa Barbara (2001–2005) and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management (2009–2011). Early in his career he worked in structured debt and leveraged finance across the energy, mining, and infrastructure sectors at HSBC, and spent time at the Pasadena-based startup studio Idealab.

He joined US Renewables Group (USRG), the Santa Monica/New York renewable-energy private equity firm founded in 2003 by Jim McDermott and Lee Bailey, as an Associate. USRG managed more than $750 million across three funds, investing $30–$70 million per deal in power generation (geothermal, biomass, solar, wind, hydro, waste-to-energy), biofuels, and renewable infrastructure. This is the firm tied to his [hidden] address.

Stone then became a Principal at Rusheen Capital Management, McDermott's successor firm, a Santa Monica private equity shop investing in growth-stage carbon capture/utilization, low-carbon energy, and water-sustainability companies. In that role he says he "invested in, managed and operated various companies in sustainability," including handling capital raises exceeding $250 million. Rusheen's portfolio includes 1PointFive, Avnos, Carbon Engineering, Moleaer, Remora, Carbonvert, Carbon Ridge, Blue Current, Zero Industrial, and Trace AQ.

More recently he moved into operating roles inside the ecosystem he helped finance: VP of Finance at 1PointFive (the Occidental-affiliated direct air capture developer) and currently VP, Corporate Development at Avnos, Inc., a Los Angeles carbon-removal company building "Hybrid Direct Air Capture" technology that is water-positive as well as carbon-negative. He is also listed among the leadership of Blue Arrow SAF, a McDermott-backed sustainable aviation fuel venture with operations in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

• Invests in climate and sustainability broadly: renewable power generation, carbon capture/utilization and direct air capture, resource/energy efficiency, clean technology, and companies "leveraging waste streams."
• Comfortable across the capital stack — structured debt facilities and leveraged buyouts as well as equity — reflecting an energy/mining/infrastructure project-finance background.
• Stage: from early-stage development through growth-stage companies and acquisitions of operating assets (USRG model), and growth-stage climate tech (Rusheen model).
• In his own words, over the past decade he has "invested in, managed and operated various companies in sustainability as a private equity investment professional" — signaling a preference for hands-on, operator-adjacent involvement rather than passive checks.
• Says-yes signals: capital-intensive, infrastructure-scale climate/energy businesses with a credible path to deployment and financing — the theme running through USRG, Rusheen, 1PointFive, and Avnos.