Patronus Global leadership
Patronus brings together experience across infrastructure, investment, technology, government, and emerging markets to develop projects designed to serve communities for generations.
Taylor Hughes
founder & chief executive officer
Taylor Hughes founded Patronus Global from a deeply personal conviction: the safety of our children tomorrow is the responsibility of those with the power to act today. Clean air, safe water, food security, education and reliable infrastructure should not be privileges determined by where a child is born.
The name Patronus, from the Latin for protector or guardian, reflects her responsibility at the heart of the company. After a career spanning climate, technology and multi-billion-dollar investment platforms, Taylor brought those worlds together to build a global institution capable of putting private capital behind the ambitions of nations and their people.
​
As CEO, she is building Patronus to help global leaders turn progress into lasting prosperity through infrastructure that strengthens communities, expands opportunity and gives people greater freedom over their own futures. For Taylor, this work is ultimately about what one generation owes the next: to leave our children a safer world, and the tools to build an even better one.
Dr. Daniel Richter
chief policy officer
Dr. Daniel Richter leads Patronus Global's policy arm with a focus on advocacy and ethical stewardship. With 10+ years bridging science and policy, he has led teams that passed five climate bills through Congress — signed by both Presidents Biden and Trump — and previously served as Director of the Pricing Carbon Initiative and Vice President of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. At Patronus, he works alongside ministries, energy councils, and multilateral bodies to shape the frameworks that allow durable, sovereign climate infrastructure to be deployed and defended for decades. He is also Founder and Principal of Richter Capitol Hill Strategies.
Michael Edlavitch
chief Business officer
Michael Edlavitch is Chief Business Officer of Patronus Global. He joined Patronus because he believes in its mission to change the world for the better for all people — and in Taylor Hughes's capacity to deliver it. Michael brings nearly two decades of chief executive experience in education technology companies. Michael is known for being a speaker at Google, climate advisor, crypto savant, investor, and author who spent his career building things that serve people at scale and treating people well while doing it. At Patronus, he applies that operating discipline to the firm's business development, partnerships, and growth.
David Gallo
chief Legal officer
David Gallo is following his Ikagai to join the team at Patronus as Chief Legal Officer. He is an award-winning commercial lawyer and executive leader with more than 20 years at GE and extensive experience across international law, corporate finance, M&A, business development, and cross-border transactions. His career includes helping structure a $5 billion joint venture, $2 billion in acquisitions, more than $700 million in strategic partnerships, and over $600 million in new revenue. He has held senior leadership roles across the United States, Middle East, Europe, and Asia, including serving as Founding Director of the DIFC Academy of Law. At Patronus Global, David brings decades of institutional experience to the company’s legal strategy, governance, global partnerships, and complex cross-border development.
Monique van Zuylen
Vice President of marketing
Monique is a marketing leader with more than a decade of experience turning complex products, customer needs, and market opportunities into strategies that drive growth. Throughout that work, she has worked closely with businesses and agencies within energy and government, giving her a firsthand view into the institutions, technologies, and competing priorities that shape essential systems.
That experience ultimately surfaced a clear misalignment with the priorities of traditional energy, and a conviction that her work belonged in service of the renewable transition. Rather than simply helping organizations grow, Monique wanted to apply her experience to work with a more tangible, lasting impact: expanding access to the infrastructure and resources that allow communities and economies to thrive. At Patronus, she shapes the brand, narrative, and growth programs that connect the firm's project and policy work to the institutional investors, governments, and partners advancing sustainable infrastructure on equal footing with the nations it serves.
Marco Macias
head of strategic partnerships
Marco leads strategic partnerships at Patronus Global, connecting the firm to energy councils, governments, and institutional partners across global markets. With 20+ years aligning public and private sector interests across Latin America, the Caribbean, the U.S., and Europe, he has worked with foreign governments, Fortune 500 companies, and multilateral development institutions across energy, climate, sustainability, and public-private partnerships. As the owner of a hydrogen plant in Ecuador, Marco brings hands-on operator experience to every deal he structures. Fluent in English, Spanish, and German, he extends Patronus Global's reach across the borders where renewable infrastructure is needed most.
Samuel Spiegel
Director of Agriculture
Sam Spiegel leads Patronus Global’s agricultural strategy with a focus on restoring land, strengthening food systems, and ensuring that agricultural development creates lasting value for the communities it serves. He studied landscape architecture and sustainable agriculture at Cornell University, where his work explored the intersection of horticulture, organic farming, and responsible land management.
Today, Sam brings that foundation to Patronus’s agricultural restoration initiatives around the world, advising on land use, regenerative agriculture, technology diligence, and the integration of sustainable farming into large-scale infrastructure development. His work reflects a core Patronus principle: healthy land is the foundation of resilient communities, and protecting its ability to provide for future generations is both an environmental and economic responsibility.