Giffen bridges operations and private equity finance, in line or advisory positions, with 35 years of experience structuring deals and applying strategic and operational improvements to private equity investments and turnarounds, roughly half of which were spent in line management, leading the transformation of operations in mature buyouts or as founder and CEO of a startup. This includes 15+ years in circular materials sectors.

Together with Aidan, Giffen founded Synova in 2011 and served as its Chief Executive Officer through 2018, at which time he moved upstairs to join his largest investor to form the venture fund now known as Next Cycle (that investor is no longer associated with the fund)). Synova anchored the fund.

Prior to Synova, Giffen served as an Operating Executive at Golden Gate Capital, where he first came across the Synova technology. Before Golden Gate, Giffen was a Senior Managing Director at Evercore Partners Inc., where he worked in Evercore’s private equity group focusing on energy and other investments.

Earlier in his career, Giffen spent six years with Bain & Company, where he advised management teams and private equity and VC firms in due diligence, turnarounds, performance improvement, and exits, and where he originated two successful deals for Bain Capital. In 1993, he left Bain to lead the operational transformation of a private equity client’s portfolio company, where he led operations and served as a core member of an executive team that delivered five years of 25 percent IRR before organizing a second management buyout that delivered a 3x return.

Giffen is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Southern Methodist University, and a non-practicing member of the California Bar and former Certified Public Account.

Aidan is a co-founder, partner, and CDO at Next Cycle, a growth equity fund management company focused on investments in circular technology and infrastructure assets. Aidan is a seasoned climate technology finance professional with 25 years of experience in investment banking, private equity, operations, project development, and project finance, and, together with Giffen, co-founded Synova, a waste-to-chemicals company. Aidan is actively involved in the climate finance ecosystem working with early and growth stage companies, and has co-founded several companies, including Syngenera, a natural-based solutions company.

Prior to his current role, he was a co-founder and managing director of Sinova Capital, a climate technology merchant bank, as well as managing director of a Shanghai-based private equity firm, Cathay Fortune Corporation (CFC).

He has also been a consultant and advisor to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Asian Development Bank (ADB), USAID, and other public sector clients. Aidan was also the senior managing director for two technology-focused boutique investment banks in North America, where he managed the corporate finance practices. Through his experience working for both the private and public sectors, Aidan has developed an extensive network in the climate finance community across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Aidan graduated from the University of Liverpool, in Architecture, and as a member of the RIBA, practiced for several year before completing his Executive MBA studies at the University of Washington, with a specialty in Environmental Management.