Energy Vault appointed Nitin Dahiya, a former BlackRock senior portfolio manager, as chief financial officer, replacing Michael Beer, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Dahiya is set to start on July 27, 2026. He joins from BlackRock’s direct private opportunities group, where he led structured financing transactions across energy, infrastructure, private credit and specialty finance. Before BlackRock, he held senior investment and capital markets roles at Paulson & Co., KLS Diversified Asset Management, Nomura and Lehman Brothers/Barclays.
The hire comes as Energy Vault says its contract backlog has risen sharply after closing new contracts. The company said last month that the backlog increase had a material positive impact on its 2026 financial outlook, and that update is expected to be discussed further on its Aug. 11 earnings call.
Energy Vault also pointed to a series of recent expansion moves: multi-gigawatt-hour independent power producer project growth in Australia, the acquisition of an 850-megawatt IPP portfolio in Japan, and U.S. project wins tied to AI compute infrastructure, including modular data centers with Crusoe and powered land for utilities and hyperscalers.
The company said it is also supported by a previously announced $300 million preferred equity fund as it expands across utility-scale energy storage, asset ownership, AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, and software-enabled energy management systems.
BlackRock, Dahiya’s former employer, manages $15.3 trillion in assets. Following these announcements, the company's shares moved 1.32%, and are now trading at a price of $3.08. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
