Haslam family office from Tennessee commits up to $725 million to Ara Partners’ new energy decarbonization strategy

Ara Partners, a Boston and Houston-based private equity and infrastructure firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy, has launched a new investment strategy called Ara Energy in partnership with HF Capital, the family office of the Haslam family of Tennessee. HF Capital has committed up to $725 million to Ara’s strategies, with the capital earmarked to acquire, optimize, and decarbonize conventional energy businesses and assets across North America. Ara Energy will focus on the conventional energy value chain, including power generation, merchant biofuels, and supply and distribution businesses, applying Ara’s existing decarbonization methods to hard-to-abate energy sources such as ethanol plants and natural gas power plants. The strategy will be led by Shameek Konar, who most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Pilot Company — the largest supplier of transportation fuels in North America — and brings over 25 years of experience in energy and commodity markets. Founded in 2017, Ara Partners manages approximately $6.3 billion in assets across its private equity and infrastructure strategies, and in 2023 delivered emissions reductions of 10.8 million metric tonnes of CO₂ equivalent across its portfolio of 27 companies.

About HF Capital: The single-family office of the Haslam family

HF Capital, LLC is the Knoxville, Tennessee-based single-family office that invests capital on behalf of the Haslam family, deploying it across direct investments in operating companies as well as commitments to fund managers across liquid and illiquid asset classes and geographies. The family’s wealth originates from Pilot Corporation, founded by family patriarch James A. Haslam II in 1958 as a single gas station, and subsequently built into the Pilot Company — North America’s largest travel center and transportation fuel business with nearly 800 locations across the United States and more than $50 billion in revenue. Jimmy Haslam succeeded his father and later handed the CEO role to Shameek Konar in 2020; Berkshire Hathaway acquired a majority stake in Pilot Company, with the transaction completing in 2023. Beyond its commitment to Ara Partners, HF Capital holds positions in several traditional and renewable energy companies, including Silicon Ranch, a leading US solar developer, and Arizona DF Renewables, which operates renewable natural gas production facilities at dairy farms in the American Southwest.

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Article Source: Ara Partners, 15.03.2026