COO & HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Robert Kaplan has served as our Chief Operating Officer and Head of Business Development since June 2025. Mr. Kaplan has also served as Chief Financial Officer of Spring Valley II since its inception in January 2021. Mr. Kaplan served as the Vice President of Business Development of Spring Valley I from its inception in November 2020 until the closing of the Nuscale merger in May 2022.
Mr. Kaplan has over 20 years of investment banking experience in the Decarbonization industry. Mr. Kaplan has been involved in over 60 transactions totaling approximately $6 billion in transaction value, with notable deals including First Solar, Plug Power, FuelCell Energy, Renewable Energy Group and SunPower Corporation.
Mr. Kaplan was most recently Managing Director of Clean Technologies / Renewables at Stifel Financial Corp. (“Stifel”). In this role, Mr. Kaplan was responsible for the firm’s capital markets and advisory services in various decarbonization subsectors, including clean energy, biofuels, energy storage, energy efficiency, mobility and environmental technologies.
He joined Stifel in 2010 in connection with Stifel’s acquisition of Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (“TWP”) in 2010. Mr. Kaplan joined TWP in 2007 as a Vice President in the Technology investment banking group with a focus on decarbonization technologies.
Prior to joining TWP, Mr. Kaplan started his investment banking career at First Albany where he was a founding member of one of the first Decarbonization-focused banking franchises on Wall Street. During his tenure at First Albany, he completed many of the industry’s first public offerings in various sustainability subsectors, such as solar, alternative fuels, mobility, fuel cells and the smart grid.
Mr. Kaplan received a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from the NYU Stern School of Business.