Energy Executive Search
HIGHLAND FLEETS
INVESTORS | Aiga Capital Partners · Fairtide Partners · Galvanize Climate Solutions · Fontinalis Partners · Vision Ridge Partners
A school district cannot buy an electric bus fleet. It can rent one.
Highland Fleets electrifies school bus fleets as a service. Districts get the vehicles, charging infrastructure, energy management, and maintenance without the capital outlay or the technical risk of running an electric fleet themselves.
the engagement
Highland Fleets came to 33eleven Partners directly in 2024, through a former client, for two operations leadership hires.
2
Searches completed
2
CANDIDATES PLACED
62
avg. days to close
523
executives evaluated
PLACEMENTS
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Highland sells a service, not a vehicle, which means commercial operations owns contracting, deployment economics, and the district relationship over a multi-year term.
Closed in 57 days from 275 executives evaluated, with only 4 submitted.
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Running electric bus fleets in practice: depots, charging, energy contracts, maintenance, and uptime on a schedule that cannot slip because children are waiting.
Closed in 66 days. 171 executives evaluated, 6 submitted.
PARTNERSHIP INSIGHTS
Electrification-as-a-service is an operations company wearing a technology company's clothes.
Highland is often described as a cleantech business, and the capital it raises comes from climate investors. But the thing that determines whether it works is whether buses arrive on time in February.
Both searches screened for operators rather than technologists. People who have run depots, negotiated energy contracts, and managed fleets where downtime has consequences. Between them, 446 executives evaluated and only 10 submitted, because the population who understand both the energy transition and the operational reality is small.
33eleven Partners places VP through C-suite leaders at Private Equity and Venture-backed SaaS, AI, and technology companies.