Deliveroo has hired its new Australian CEO. Here's 5 things you need to know about Ed McManus, the scientist turned food delivery boss.

Deliveroo has been at pains to prove its green credentials of late, including the launch of a reuseable stainless steel bowl.

And now the food delivery app has made sure its next Australian CEO lives up to its environmentally-friendly public relations activity, hiring former renewable energy sector executive Ed McManus to replace Levi Aron, who stepped down from the role in July.

Here are five things you need to know about the man who will be tasked with leading Deliveroo's ambitious growth plans and chase down market leader Uber Eats.

He's the former CEO of "Australasia's largest 100% renewable energy generator"

Before getting the nod to lead Deliveroo Australia, McManus was CEO of Meridian Energy, a Wellington, New Zealand-based electricity company, which describes itself as "Australasia's largest 100% renewable energy generator" on its website.

He was concurrently CEO of related company Powershop, an online marketplace which environmentally-focused super fund Australian Ethical says is "disrupting the energy supply market" for the better.

He has a PhD in biochemistry

McManus's interest in the natural world is not just as a former energy executive. On his Twitter profile he describes himself as a "past life scientist" and tweets often about science, with a focus on renewable energy.

A Deliveroo spokesperson told Business Insider Australia McManus has a doctorate in biochemistry, which he obtained from the University of Dundee in Scotland, according to his Linkedin profile. He spent two years working as a research scientist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.

He was an executive at Big Pharma company GSK

Before you start to apply saintly status to the new Deliveroo boss, he also spent four years in a senior role for London-headquartered GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. This included heading up "product and pricing strategies" for the company in Australia.

He headed sales and marketing for realestate.com.au

In 2011, McManus took a wildly different path, joining News Corp's REA Group, publisher of realestate.com.au, as head of sales operations — making him almost certainly the most loftily-educated digital media salesperson in Australia.

At REA he would have worked for Greg Ellis, the former REA CEO who was appointed senior adviser at Deliveroo after Aron's departure.

Ellis will continue to advise his former employee at Deliveroo when he takes the reins at MYOB in September. A Deliveroo spokesperson told Business Insider Australia the company sees "no conflict" in Ellis working for both the food delivery app and MYOB at the same time.

He is a budding apiarist

When he isn't disrupting the energy market, conducting medical research or selling advertising space for Rupert Murdoch, McManus is an amateur bee-keeper.

However, a Deliveroo spokesperson told Business Insider Australia his interest in apiary still has a way to go.

"They are alive but no honey yet," the spokesperson said.