Speakers
Gregory Arnold is Managing Partner of CE2 Capital Partners LLC, an investment management firm focused on investing and trading in environmental and energy commodities markets including those for greenhouse gas credits, emissions credits, and renewable energy credits. He is also the President of CE2 Carbon Capital, LLC, a company dedicated to building a portfolio of carbon assets in North America. Greg began his career as an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Kidder, Peabody & Co. At Goldman, Sachs & Co., he focused on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions advisories for energy and power companies. Over his career, Greg has had a number of senior dealmaking roles in large corporations and growth companies, including as President of Passlogix, Inc., an identity management software company he co-Founded. Greg earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a B.A. from the University of California at San Diego. He is on the Boards of the UC San Diego Dean's Council in Physical Sciences and Passlogix, Inc. and a Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.
Matthew Arnold is a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, leading the US firm's Climate Change and Sustainability Advisory Practice.
He was a Director and co-founder of Sustainable Finance Ltd, where he worked with financial institutions to manage environmental and social risk and to identify environmentally superior investment opportunities. His clients included money center banks, investment banks, private investors and public multi-lateral banks. Sustainable Finance was acquired by PwC in December 2008.
Prior to that, Mr. Arnold was Chief Operating Officer at the World Resources Institute, a sustainable development think tank, where he was responsible for 140 employees, a $20 million budget and a $45 million endowment.
Mr. Arnold has served as an advisor on environmental and sustainability strategy for several other multinational corporations including DuPont, where he helped develop the organization's sustainable growth strategy, and BP, where he helped business unit leaders to align with the company's post-Amoco merger focus on greening the brand.
In 1990, he founded the Management Institute for Environment and Business (MEB) to help business schools and corporations integrate environmental issues into business strategy. In 1996, MEB merged with the World Resources Institute. Prior to 1990 he held positions in marketing with IBM, in investment banking with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, and in business development with Santa Fe Trading, Hong Kong.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Forest Trends, a market maker for ecosystem services, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and a faculty member of the Prince of Wales Cambridge University Business Environment Program.
Mr. Arnold holds an AB degree in Psychobiology from Harvard College, an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Nick Baily is a founding member of The Belgrave Trust, a firm based on serving core membership of leaders in technology, media, public policy, finance, fashion, and industry, and dedicated to supporting solutions to global climate change. Founded on the principles of ease through simplicity, innovation via markets, and strength from diversification, The Belgrave Trust manages a diverse porfolio of offsets, providing a service that represents the most efficient and effective way for members to live carbon neutral.
Mr. Baily has over a decade of experience on the forefront of popular culture and media, and has been responsible for managing the public profile for clients ranging from Oscar and Grammy winning celebrities to Fortune 500 companies and global consumer brands. With a background including public policy, economics, and complex adaptive systems analysis, Nick is a passionate advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to environmental problem solving.
Eric Boonman has worked over the past seven years in green energy trading and environmental markets. Eric is currently the Head of Environmental Markets at Fortis Bank and has been involved in the majority of the primary and secondary cer and eru deals as well as the design and implementation of the Fortis wide Carbon Banking Services. He has also established local origination teams in Hong Kong and New York.
Prior to his current position, Eric was responsible for developing the global energy and carbon market access and clearing services at Fortis. After having successfully completed this task, Eric moved to Global Markets as the Head of Trading Emissions where Fortis had a daily market share between 10-20% and became a market maker on the most liquid ECX exchange. The team aims to reduce greenhouse emissions efficiently through portfolios of reduction projects and to use those reductions to optimise and ensure compliance for a pan-European corporate client portfolio. The activities of this desk range from valuing environmental benefits in long term discounted cash flow models for project finance to short term pure trading and long term hedging.
Eric has a Bachelors and Masters in economics and started in risk management at the Dutch utility Nuon with a focus on designing and implementing a Corporate Risk Policy for environmental and green energy products. He then became a green and environmental trader at Nuon. Nuon, which was involved in the first carbon deal in 2003, soon established itself as the market leader in green energy markets in West-Europe.
Eric is also a regular speaker on international conferences, such as, The Wall Street Green Trading Summit, April 2007, New York City, Carbon Finance & Investment Summit, May 2007, New York City, Guardian Climate Change Summit, June 2007, London, Euromoney US Carbon Finance Forum, September 2007, New York City, Carbon Finance World, September 2007, Chicago, Carbon Forum Asia, November 2007, Singapore, Climate Change & Business, November 07, Kiev, Carbon Markets Insights 2008, March 2008, Copenhagen, The Wall Street Green Trading Summit, April 2008, New York City, Moscow Carbon Market Forum, April 2008, Moscow, Russia and the Kyoto Protocol, June 2008 Moscow, EU Emission Trading in Practice, January 2009 London.
William S. Brennan serves as portfolio manager of the Kinetics Water Infrastructure Fund. He is the Founder of Brennan Investment partners LLC, an investment firm that focuses on water, infrastructure and natural resources. He previously was the founder and President of Aqua Terra Asset Management, a subsidiary of Boenning & Scattergood. Mr. Brennan joined Boenning & Scattergood in 2004 as Director of Equities and served as the President & Managing Director, overseeing Aqua Terra's Investments. Mr. Brennan is responsible for creating the firm's water investment management presence and also served as the Portfolio Manager of the Praetor Global Water Equities Fund in Luxemburg through August 2008. He was also responsible for the portfolio selection for the Claymore Global and Domestic Water UITs, the first water investment products launched in the US.
Mr. Brennan served as a portfolio advisor/analyst to Summit Water Partner, a San Diego based global water hedge fund from inception through February, 2006 as well as the co-portfolio manager of the Praetor Water Fund with the hedge fund portfolio manager until September 1, 2005. Mr. Brennan began his investment career with Pacific Growth Equities in San Francisco, where he ran the Environmental Services, Aviation Security and Special Situation groups for six years. Mr. Brennan was also a director and senior engineer with Law Environmental/Law International, an international engineering and design company based in Atlanta.
Mr. Brennan is a graduate of Lehigh University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering/Biology, where he was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program and a starter on both the Football & Baseball teams, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Colorado State University and an MBA from Villanova University, where he is an adjunct professor in the graduate M.B.A. program for the past eight years.
Mr. Brock has experience as a COO of a utility services business, with a focus on IT services and strategic intelligence. He also has experience in utility business design, business plan development, utility metering services, outsourcing and infrastructure design and development. As Director of CSW retail services, Mr. Brock directed the activities of a large public utility as it entered into the competitive retail energy markets. Mr. Brock has a BS in Management Science and Computer Systems and an MBA.
Bill Bumpers is an environmental partner in the Washington, D.C., office and heads the firm's global climate change practice group. Mr. Bumpers focuses on the Clean Air Act and climate change issues. He has an active environmental regulatory, litigation, and transactional practice, representing petroleum refineries, investment companies, electric generators, and pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers. He is regarded as a national authority on new source review issues affecting the electric generation and petroleum refinery industries. He previously served on the EPA's New Source Review Reform Subcommittee of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee.
Mr. Bumpers also is a leading authority on climate change issues, including carbon trading mechanisms in the United States and internationally pursuant to the Kyoto Protocol. He has been involved with climate change issues since his work on energy policy and climate change as a graduate student in 1977. He served as counsel to the team that performed the feasibility study for the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund. He also represented the International Finance Corporation on its carbon purchase program on behalf of the Netherlands. More recently he has been involved in structuring Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Malaysia, China, and Equatorial Guinea, including the negotiation and drafting of contracts for the purchase and sale of CO2 emission reductions. Mr. Bumpers also represents a wide range of companies on developing policy and regulatory issues in the United States and regarding the creation and sale of GHG emission offsets.
Jack D. Cogen, President and CEO. Prior to founding Natsource in 1994,
Mr. Cogen created and managed the Commodities Group at Euro Brokers
Capital Markets, Inc., where he was employed from 1991 to 1994. At Euro
Brokers Mr. Cogen built the first OTC natural gas swap desk. Between
1981 and 1990, Mr. Cogen was employed by The Chase Manhattan Bank
(National Association) as Global Risk Manager of the Commodity Risk
Management Group. Mr. Cogen held several other risk management
positions at Chase, including senior analyst for the Asset/Liability
Management Committee and risk manager for the U.S. dollar interest rate
cap book. Mr. Cogen is a Board member and currently serves as Chairman
of the International Emission Trading Association and a founding officer
of the Energy Brokers Association. Mr. Cogen is a regular moderator and
speaker at global conferences on the global carbon market and has
authored and co-authored a number of studies and reports on the market.
In 2004, Mr. Cogen was inducted into the Energy Risk Magazine Hall of
Fame. Mr. Cogen holds a Masters of Science in Mathematics and a Masters
of Business Administration from New York University, and a B.A. from
Rutgers College.
Neil Cohn has over 19 years experience pioneering environmental and natural resource markets and recently left Natsource where he was a Managing Director.
In 1998, after several years trading metals and living in Latin America, India and China, Neil returned to the US affected by the environmental damage that he witnessed in developing countries, and with a desire to use his trading expertise to make a positive difference. Kyoto had just been inked and Neil seized the opportunity to put carbon finance theory into action to leverage economic incentives and deliver real environmental benefits. Neil was fortunate to have orchestrated some of the first carbon trades and continues to push ahead.
Over the past decade, Neil has facilitated some of the largest CDM and JI projects in China, India, Brazil, the Ukraine, and other developing country regions eligible under the Kyoto Protocol. Neil is currently developing a new venture focused on creating high quality carbon supply that achieves the goal of reducing emissions and facilitating cleaner growth.
Peter L. Corsell is Chief Executive Officer for GridPoint and is responsible for the strategic vision and leadership of the company. GridPoint is the pioneer of an innovative software platform to address today's energy challenges while aligning the interests of electric utilities, consumers and the environment. MIT's Technology Review magazine has recognized Mr. Corsell as one of the world's top innovators under age 35 for developing a practical solution to advance the development of a Smart Grid.
In 2003, Mr. Corsell founded GridPoint to create a technology that would fuel the mass adoption of renewable energy sources and increase energy efficiency. Today, GridPoint is working with electric utilities nationwide to create a clean and efficient 21st century grid. GridPoint applies information technology to the grid, enabling utilities with a single interface for managing a variety of distributed resources including electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and advanced storage technologies as well as residential and commercial devices such as thermostats and water heaters. With GridPoint's platform, utilities efficiently balance supply and demand in an economical, scalable and environmentally beneficial manner. To date, GridPoint has raised over $220 million in equity capital, including a large investment by the Goldman Sachs Group. The World Economic Forum selected the company as a Technology Pioneer in 2008.
Mr. Corsell's commitment to the environment and society is also evident in his background and work outside of GridPoint. He is Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Sustainable Energy and a member of Newsweek's Global Environment and Leadership Advisory Committee. He serves on Xcel Energy's Smart Grid Advisory Board and the Corporate Board of the Environmental Media Association. Mr. Corsell also serves on the Board of Directors of Standard Renewable Energy, a leading provider of integrated renewable energy solutions, and Entech Solar, a developer of concentrating solar energy systems. Previously, he served with the U.S. State Department in Cuba and as a political analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Corsell holds a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Mark Townsend Cox is the CEO of New Energy Fund, a fund dedicated to renewable energy and one of the very first such pure play funds established in 2004. He first came into contact with renewable energy in 1979 as a 22 year old school teacher in Nigeria when he led a science project with parabolic reflective dishes that boiled water. This experience remained with him and endured three years in the British Army as a Lieutenant in the Parachute Regiment where he played a role in the Falklands conflict. He then worked in European equity markets in both London and New York, at BZW, Interfinance, Swissbank, Enskilda and Bankhaus Metzler. Mr. Cox finished his Columbia MBA in 1992 where he focused on several energy projects.
In 1998 he achieved a milestone in his career as a portfolio manager at Pinnacle International Management LLC in New York where he introduced companies such as Vestas Wind Systems, Gamesa and Solon to the Pinnacle portfolio. While there he was part of an investment team that held the number 1 position for 5 year returns in both Nelson's "Worlds Best Money Managers" and in Money Manager Review's rankings up to the third quarter of 2002.
Recognizing the macro energy situation he formed New Energy Fund In 2003 to capture the expected growth in value associated with the continuing growth of renewable energy globally. The fund had its first full year of managing funds in 2005 and today is in the fifth year of its track record. The fund has taken lead investment positions in new concept technologies, such as base load solar power, and developed a record of selecting well managed investments with disruptive, scalable and economic technologies. Today the fund employs 5 and has offices in mid-town Manhattan. Mark is a fluent French speaker.
Karen Degouve is head of carbon finance at Natixis Environment & Infrastructures, which she joined in early 2005. She heads the management team of both the European Carbon Fund (ECF) and the recently launched European Kyoto Fund (EKF). Over the past 3 years, she has led the negotiations of several large carbon transactions, essentially forward purchases of carbon credits generated by CDM and JI projects from local developers in several countries, including syndication to European buyers. She has contributed to originating over 60 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent from a variety of emission reduction projects throughout the world, including a 41Mt diversified portfolio on behalf of ECF.
She is also a Board member of the International Emissions Traders Association (IETA).
Prior to joining Natixis, Karen was in charge of project and structured finance covering France, Middle East and Africa within the financial unit of multinational energy technology provider ABB. Her experience includes providing financial advisory services and arranging project and corporate financing for greenfield projects in power generation, transmission and distribution, oil & gas, and automation technologies sectors. Previously, Karen had gained capital market experience specialised on emerging markets with UBS in Moscow and Nomura in London.
Karen is an MBA graduate of HEC Management School (Paris). A French citizen, Karen speaks fluent English and colloquial Russian and Spanish.
Dr. Ron Dembo is the Founder and CEO of Zerofootprint, an organization dedicated to a mass reduction in global environmental impact. Zerofootprint provides software and services to individuals, governments, universities, and corporations that measures and manages carbon footprint and engages employees and citizens worldwide in combating climate change. Zerofootprint came in first place and won Gold in the Climate Change category at the Canadian Environment Awards in 2008.
Prior to founding Zerofootprint, Dr. Dembo was the Founder, CEO, and President of Algorithmics Incorporated, growing it from a start-up to the largest enterprise risk-management software company in the world, with offices in fifteen countries and over 70% of the world's top 100 banks as clients. Algorithmics was consistently voted as one of the top 50 best-managed companies in Canada.
Dr. Dembo has also had a distinguished ten-year academic career at Yale University, where he was cross-appointed between the Department of Computer Science and the School of Management. Dr. Dembo has published over sixty technical papers on finance and mathematical optimization, and holds a number of patents in computational finance.
Dr. Dembo is the author of three books: Seeing Tomorrow: Rewriting the Rules of Risk, co-authored with Andrew Freedman, published in April 1998; Upside Downside: Simple Rules of Risk Management for the Smart Investor, co-authored with Daniel Stoffman, published in March 2006; and Everything You Wanted to Know About Offsetting But Were Afraid to Ask, co-authored with Clive Davidson, and released in May 2007.
In May 2007, Dr. Dembo was made a lifetime Fields Institute Fellow. This fellowship is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Fields Institute, its programs, and to the Canadian mathematical community. In July 2007, Dr. Dembo was inducted as a charter member of the Risk Who's Who. Dr. Dembo's alma mater, the University of Waterloo, honoured Dr. Dembo with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He is also a member of the University of Waterloo's Deans Advisory Council in the Faculty of Environment, and a member of the Board of Advisors to the President at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Dr. Dembo is also the Chair of the Information Technology committee of the Board at Mount Sinai Hospital, and is a member of the Board of Governors of University of Toronto's NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) program.
Neal has been one of the founding partners of Jane Capital Partners LLC, an energy and technology merchant bank whose clients have included the technology arms of multinational energy companies. He is the CEO Carbonflow, his fourth startup, and the third he has helped launch cross-border. He previously cofounded SC Power Systems, Inc. and its successor Zenergy Power plc (AIM:ZEN) in superconductor technology, helped launch WaiterPad POS Systems, Inc. in wireless hospitality POS solutions, and led the spin-out of Fideris, Inc. in fuel cell test & measurement. He has served as a director of several technology companies, edits the Cleantech Blog, named one of the 50 Best Business Blogs by London Times, and chairs Cleantech.org. He previously served as Director, Business Development and head of M&A for Globalgate, the parent company of Yellowpages.com, and as an associate at the private equity fund of Doyle & Boissiere. Before entering private equity, he began his career in energy investment banking at Bankers Trust, and has a B.A. from Texas A&M University.
Over 20 years of experience and a proven track
record in the financial services industry with senior management
positions in the areas of derivative trading, algorithmic trading, risk
management, securities lending and investment advisory. A proven
business developer who expertly leverages good business acumen, product
knowledge and analytical skills to develop new businesses. She founded
Terra Global Capital in 2006 to facilitate the market for land-based
carbon offsets and to provide capital, consulting and carbon measurement
to the emerging carbon market. Her prior firms have included JP Morgan,
Merrill Lynch, Barclays Global Investors and Charles Schwab.
Andrew O. Ertel is President and Chief Executive of Evolution Markets Inc. Under Mr. Ertel's leadership, Evolution Markets has become the green markets leader, leveraging its unrivaled experience and knowledge on behalf of participants in the global carbon, U.S. emissions, renewable energy, weather derivative, and over the counter energy markets. The company provides institutional brokerage and merchant banking services to participants in global environmental markets and the clean energy sector. Mr. Ertel has been an industry pioneer assisting in market design and facilitating the first trades in several emerging environmental commodities, such as Kyoto allowances (AAUs), European carbon allowances, Kyoto carbon credits, US emissions allowances, renewable energy (RECs), and weather derivatives.
Roger Feldman is Co-Chair of the Clean and Renewable Energy Group of the international law firm of Andrews Kurth, based in its Washington, DC office. He has practiced for over 35 years in the project and corporate finance of energy, environmental projects, and related infrastructure. He is active in carbon-related matters, advising project developers, specialized investment funds, and companies that are developing GHG strategies and carbon offset products.
Mr. Feldman currently chairs the ABA's Energy and Carbon Trading and Finance Committee. He is a Director of the American Counsel on Renewable Energy (Co-Chair of its Markets Committee). Other public service activities include prior government service as: Deputy Administrator for Finance and Environment, U.S. Federal Energy Administration; White House staff member; and member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Financial Advisory Board. He is also the Washington columnist for The Power Report and Coal Power.
Roger Feldman is listed in Best Lawyers in America, 2006 - present; Who's Who in America, 1990 - present; Who's Who in American Law, 1990 - present; and Who's Who in the World, 1996 - present. He is a graduate of Brown University, Yale Law School, and Harvard Business School.
Flett Exchange was originated by Michael Flett in 2006. Michael has over 21 years of direct commodities experience and oversaw a successful proprietary trading and brokerage operation on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). He was responsible for trading over $200 billion of energy futures contracts and has extensive knowledge of various commodity markets.
Flett Exchange is an internet-based electronic marketplace. Our exchange facilitates the buying and selling of physical commodities for immediate delivery. Flett Exchange users gain access to live markets where they can negotiate price and quantity of specified commodities. Market transparency and historical pricing data benefit users looking to place "working orders" to capitalize on favorable price action. Flett Exchange is governed by rules and regulations that establish fair and orderly markets. All users are required to establish an escrow account to insure the delivery and payment of underlying commodity transactions. Our markets are supported by Flett Exchange professionals that can assist and educate market participants.
Flett Exchange is experiencing increasing success in the environmental markets. It is the leading exchange for New Jersey Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC) and has recently launched the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) market, both for immediate physical delivery. Flett Exchange has over 400 users and 11% share of the (SREC) market. As more clean energy policies emerge, Flett Exchange continues to build green markets and educate the masses in how to reduce the nation's carbon footprint.
Peter C. Fusaro is Chairman of Global Change Associates in New York and is the best selling author of What Went Wrong at Enron. His three most recent books have been Cut Carbon, Grow Profits, Energy & Emissions: Collision or Convergence and Energy & Environmental Hedge Funds: The New Investment Paradigm. Peter is an energy industry thought leader noted for his keen insights in emerging energy and environmental financial markets. He has been on the forefront of energy and environmental change for over 30 years focusing on. oil, gas, power, coal, emissions, carbon trading and renewable energy markets. Peter is currently advising in the clean energy technology arena. Peter was recently selected for Who's Who in America. He coined the term "Green Trading" and holds the Wall Street Green Trading Summit with Reuters in New York each spring. He is also a well known expert on Asia Pacific energy and environmental markets. He co-founded the Energy Hedge Fund Center LLC (www.energyhedgefunds.com) in 2004. Peter graduated with an MA in international relations from Tufts University and a BA from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Patrick Giordano has practiced energy law since 1980. In April 1996, he founded the law firm Giordano & Neilan, Ltd., the first law firm in Chicago devoted exclusively to energy and telecommunications issues, where he provides legal counsel to consumers on regulatory, transactional, litigation and legislative matters. He also is President and CEO of the energy consulting and brokering firm GEV Corp., which he co-founded in 2001.
Prior to forming Giordano & Neilan, Ltd., Mr. Giordano was a partner at the national law firm of Foley & Lardner from 1989 to 1996 where he headed the energy practice in the firm's Chicago office. In that capacity, he extensively represented the City of Chicago in regulatory litigation with ComEd and Peoples Gas before the Illinois Commerce Commission and in the courts.
Before joining Foley & Lardner, Mr. Giordano was supervisor of the Public Utilities Division for Richard M. Daley, who was then State's Attorney of Cook County, from 1980 to 1988. Mayor Daley has called Patrick "one of the most knowledgeable experts on public utility matters in the nation."
Mr. Giordano:
-Established Giordano & Neilan, Ltd., Chicago's first law firm devoted to energy and telecommunications.
-Was the lead consumer negotiator of an historic settlement with Commonwealth Edison and other parties in March 2003 designed to assure that reliable savings can be achieved through competitive electricity.
-Achieved numerous other settlements with Commonwealth Edison and other utilities through effective litigation on behalf of various clients, including a challenge to Commonwealth Edison's coal contracts on behalf of the City of Chicago that resulted in $2 billion in savings and $102.5 million in refunds to consumers.
-Negotiated long-term energy supply contracts in several states, saving over $100 million for private and public sector clients.
-Has counseled Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago, on energy issues since 1981. Mayor Daley has called Patrick "one of the most knowledgeable experts on utility matters in the country."
-Worked on the Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Act of 1997 - the law that created competition among suppliers.
-Initiated the Chicago energy practice of the law firm Foley & Lardner.
-Supervised the Public Utilities Division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
Anne Hambleton, Senior Manager, Business Development for Native Energy, has over fifteen years experience working on international and domestic environmental issues, with an emphasis on renewable energy and climate policy. At NativeEnergy she works with corporations to reduce their climate impacts. Previously, as a Vice President at Ecos Technologies, she led the market development of a corporate energy and greenhouse gas management software solution. As Program Director and co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas, she advised U.S. corporations on renewable energy and carbon offset investment projects in Latin America; worked with developing country governments to create market-oriented environmental policies and programs; and was an NGO delegate to the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent Climate Treaty negotiations. Ms. Hambleton has also worked on international climate and biodiversity policy at the National Oceanic Administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Program. She is a published author on the subjects of sustainable development, climate change and market-based environmental solutions.
Ms. Hambleton has a BA from Middlebury College, and an MA from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). A resident of Middlebury, Vermont, Ms. Hambleton sits on the boards of the Middlebury Area Land Trust, the National Point to Point Association and the Steeplechase Owners and Trainers Association, and is an avid amateur steeplechase jockey.
Kristian Hanelt has spent his career financing energy projects. He comes to
Tioga Energy from ArcLight Capital Partners, where he participated in all
aspects of the $4.6 billion energy infrastructure fund's investment cycle.
Prior to ArcLight, Hanelt was the financial manager for Gunnison Energy
Corporation, where he controlled finance-related activities for the startup
natural gas producer, including budgeting, market analysis and management of
gas trading. Hanelt has also worked for Goldman Sachs in their Industrial
and Natural Resources group, and PA Consulting in their Wholesale Energy
Markets practice. Hanelt received a Masters in Business Administration from
Stanford University. While at Stanford, he worked in various projects for a
variety of cleantech venture capital investments. He also holds a Bachelor
of Science degree in Business Administration from Boston University.
Held various positions during his 11 year tenure at NextEra Energy Resources, formerly FPL Energy. Currently, Nate's responsibilities include emissions trading, renewable sales and marketing, wholesale load procurement and supply, and quantitative analysis. Previously, Nate managed NextEra Energy Resources' Northeast Asset Portfolio and was responsible for Structured Transactions. Prior to joining NextEra Energy Resources, Nate worked for Intercontinental Energy Group, an independent energy and industrial facility developer, and General Electric Company in their Industrial Power Systems Division. Nate received a Bachelor of Science degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his M.B.A. from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Craig HartCounsel to Energy Infrastructure, Climate Change and Technology Practice ALSTON BIRD » View Bio Craig Hart is counsel to Alston & Bird's Energy Infrastructure, Climate Change and Technology Practice. He has over 10 years' experience in energy and infrastructure project finance, carbon finance, and capital markets, representing project developers, technology companies, lenders, and investors. Mr. Hart has extensive experience with a broad range of renewable and conventional energy technologies, including under the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and voluntary carbon markets. He has substantial experience in energy infrastructure projects in China and the Middle East. Mr. Hart holds a B.A. and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts institute of Technology.
Mr. Hart is currently affiliated with ICAP Energy brokerage and trading. Prior to joining ICAP in late 2006, he retired from Southern Company after 28 years where he was Manager of Emissions Trading. In that capacity he managed over $4 billion in emission allowance holdings. Mr. Hart is a founding member of the industry trade association known as the EMA (Environmental Markets Assoc.) and was its Chairman for two terms and on its Board for 6 years. Mr. Hart was part of a 1999 US EPA delegation to Beijing China to instruct the Chinese academia and government on how to implement a cap and trade program. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Mr. Hart was in DC and about to provide testimony before the US Senate Environment Committee. He was also the Chairman of the coalition known as the Clean Air Markets Group that successfully sued Gov Pataki and NY and took on AG Eliot Spitzer's office and had an ill-conceived NY state law declared unconstitutional as it tried to limit congressionally authorized US SO2 trading. Mr. Hart speaks frequently to many diverse groups on the use of cap and trade programs and has been quoted in the WSJ, Dow Jones Newswire, Fortune, Chemical Engineering Magazine, Environmental Finance, Air Daily and many other publications. On April 30, 2008, he received the Distinguished Service in Environmental Markets Award from the EMA.
Mr. Thaddeus J. Huetteman is President of Power & Energy Analytic Resources, (PEAR) Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting and information services company which provides risk management tools integrating the power, fuel, and emission allowance portfolio. PEAR also publishes a variety of reports covering the environmentally-affected power market including the PEAR Long Term Integrated Markets Outlook. PEAR was twice selected the "Best Advisory- U.S. Emissions- All Markets" in a survey of the readers of Environmental Finance magazine in 2006-2007.
Mr. Huetteman is a recognized expert on utility fuel choice and environmental regulation. He serves as Chairman of the Environmental Markets Association. Mr. Huetteman received a Masters degree in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1980. He graduated with honors from Kalamazoo College in 1978 with a B. A. degree in Economic and Political Science.
Chris Hunter is Vice President in the Carbon Finance team at CCC, responsible for originating investment opportunities and developing distribution channels in North America. Before joining CCC, Chris was a Senior Associate at GreenOrder in New York, where he was lead advisor to clients on energy and carbon issues.
Prior to GreenOrder, Chris spent 9 years at Johnson & Johnson in the U.S. and Europe. At J&J he was responsible for creating, communicating and implementing energy management and carbon reduction strategies worldwide. Chris holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University and a joint Executive MBA from Columbia and London Business Schools. He also sits on the Advisory Boards of The Climate Group and the GHG Management Institute, as well as the Sanford C Bernstein Leadership & Ethics Board at Columbia University.
Ms Tanja Ilic, Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Commodities, has the past four years worked for the world largest power exchange, Nord Pool. In October 2008 NASDAQ OMX acquired the Clearing and Consulting business of Nord Pool, also including the international power contracts and the carbon contracts EUA (European Union Allowances ) and CERs (Certified emission rights). These business units are now a part of NASDAQ OMX Commodities, while the contracts are traded on the Nord Pool exchange. Nord Pool was the first exchange that launched EUA and CER contracts and is among Europe's leading carbon exchanges.
Ms. Ilic is responsible for the sales and marketing activities, covering the growth of the Nordic and International power products, as well as carbon products. Prior joining Nord Pool, Ms Ilic worked at Atos Origin as Director, Sales & Marketing. Prior to that she worked within SchlumbergerSema as well as Ericsson, Ms Ilic has more then 15 years of experience in working internationally with sales and marketing, including managment of international teams. She holds and MBA from Stockholm School of Economics with its partner Wharton Business School. (2002)
Jan Isaksen is a Business Manager within the Environmental Markets group of Thomson Reuters. The Environmental Markets group delivers financial information, news and innovative online collaboration tools tailored to environmental markets professionals, in particular those active in the emerging global carbon markets. At present Jan's main focus within the Environmental Markets group is the development of indices that offer value to players in the carbon market. Previously, Jan worked in Singapore as a member of the Consultative Accounts team for Reuters Limited. Jan holds a Master of Science in International Business from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Warwick Business School.
As World Energy's Vice President, Environmental Markets, Ken spearheads the company's North American environmental commodities business. Ken brings vast experience, domestic and global, in assisting companies with strategy to mitigate their risk in the commodities markets. Prior to joining World Energy, Ken held senior sales and operational roles working with large government entities as well as Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies in the United States and in Western Europe. Ken holds an MBA from the University of Central Lancashire (England) and a BS in Business from Charleston Southern University.
Kedin Kilgore is a lead strategy and markets risk advisor to global firms in the Environmental Markets. Kedin provides advisory support to corporate as well public sector clients active in the carbon and renewable energy markets. Most recently, he was the North American Head of Environmental Markets at JP Morgan Chase & Company. Kedin has worked in emissions and renewable energy credit markets since 2001. Prior to joining JP Morgan, Kedin was an emissions and REC markets trader for RNK Capital LLC, and served as a Senior Broker and Director of Global Markets for Natsource LLC where covered a variety of emerging environmental markets including the Clean Development Mechanism, European ETS, RPS driven REC markets, CCX, and North American pre-compliance greenhouse gas markets. Kedin speaks Japanese, German and Spanish and holds an MPA from Columbia University.
David Kirkpatrick is Managing Director and co-founder of SJF Ventures, a cleantech and positive impact venture capital fund with $45 million under management and offices in Durham, NC and New York, NY. SJF focuses on rapidly expanding cleantech, technology enhanced services, clean energy and consumer products firms, has 20 portfolio companies, and was founded in 1999. SJF assists and invests in enterprises across the U.S. with unique innovations that positively impact the world and have strong competitive advantages.
David was named the national 2005 CDVC Practitioner of the Year by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance. Previous to SJF, he founded and managed two other successful enterprises - KirkWorks, an environmental investment research firm, and SunShares, a solar energy and recycling company. David was named Recycler of the Year in 1996, the National Recycling Coalition's award for leadership in the recycling industry.
David earned a BA in Physics and History from Duke University in 1982 and an MBA from UNC Business School in 1991. He serves on the Boards of groSolar, B.B. Hobbs, EdMap, the NC Sustainable Energy Association, and the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. He is an avid gardener, fisherman and Dad.
George Kelly, Director of Business Development and Founder. Mr. Kelly is a cum laude JD and MSL graduate of the Vermont Law School As founder of EBX, he has drafted, negotiated and implemented mitigation banking instruments with regulatory agencies in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Maryland as well as drafted and negotiated land deals with over seventy-five landowners for resource mitigation projects. Mr. Kelly was recently elected as Secretary of the National Mitigation Banking Association. Additionally, Mr. Kelly was appointed to serve on the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program, Nutrient Trading Task force. Mr. Kelly has also served as Chair of the Section of Environmental Law for the Maryland State Bar Association and was asked to represent the Maryland business and legal communities in the drafting of the precedent-setting Brownfields environmental legislation. Mr. Kelly also chairs the Piney Run Rural Legacy Program in Maryland involving the acquisition of over $14 million of environmental and agricultural easements. Prior to joining EBX, Mr. Kelly served as partner and member of the Environmental Law Group at the firm, Ober, Kaler, Grimes and Shriver.
Rubén Kraiem is a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, where he co-chairs, with Stuart Eizenstat, the firm's Carbon Markets, Climate Change and Clean Technology practice. His practice includes the representation of clean technology investors and investee companies, as well as transactional work on behalf of investors and institutions in the carbon markets. He is involved also in legislative work on behalf of clients engaged in the climate change policy debate. Most recently, he was involved in designing the initiatives by KKR and TPG that gained the support of major environmental organizations for the proposed acquisition of TXU. Mr. Kraiem is an advisor to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, and in this capacity he attended the Bali Conference on Climate Change (COP-13) in December, 2007. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Fordham Law School, where he teaches a course on Climate Change Law & Policy.
Mr. Kraiem was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 1994. In addition to his service as an NRDC Trustee, he is also a Council Member of Resources for the Future and has advised the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Gordon Moore Foundation on conservation and environmental initiatives.
Mr. Kraiem is a graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Law School. He has been a teaching fellow at Harvard College and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. More recently, he was a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University Law School (2002-2003).
Ms. Kramer is an investment specialist with more than 22 years of experience in risk management, equity research, asset allocation and portfolio management. In 2005, Ms. Kramer founded GreenTech Research LLC, an equity long short global fund specializing in alternative energy, clean technologies, agriculture and environmental products and services.
Ms. Kramer appears weekly on PBS's Nightly Business Report and CNN where she commentates on the equities and debt markets as well as the global economy. She is the author of "Ahead of the Curve" (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and has testified before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and is often asked to lecture to trustees, boards and corporate investment professionals on investment allocation and risk management. Ms. Kramer's is often asked to provide market commentary to The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and CNBC. Ms. Kramer was a founding member serving on the Wall Street Journal Women in Business Board.
Ms. Kramer received her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a BA with honors from Wellesley College in 1986.
From 1986 to 1989, Ms Kramer was an analyst at Morgan Stanley covering general industrials, natural resources and energy companies. After completing her Wharton MBA program in 1991, Ms. Kramer worked at Lehman Brothers in the structured finance division specializing in mortgage-backed securitization. She also worked on equities and debt financings and M&A transactions in investment banking.
From 1994 to 2003, she was senior managing director of a family office with over $5.6 billion fund of private equity and publicly-traded securities. During her tenure, Ms. Kramer held the title of co-vice chairman of the $500 million Ibero-American Partners Fund (1997 to 2003), an investment vehicle which was also jointly owned by Hicks Muse Tate & Furst.
From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Kramer was a consultant to financial institutions. This included her role as senior strategist at Montgomery Asset Management (assets under management of $2.4 billion) and Montgomery Partners (the hedge fund division).
During this time she also worked at Freddie Mac providing consulting services regarding their retained portfolio ($600 billion) and risk management.
She served as a Trustee of the Hewitt School (1998 to 2005) and held directorships in the following NYSE and NASDAQ traded companies: RSL Communications Ltd, Deltathree, El Sitio, Inc., and Claxson Interactive Group.
Kjell Olav Kristiansen is Director of Advisory Services at Point Carbon
North America. He has three decades of energy and environmental market
experience having initially served 19 years for the Norwegian government
in senior positions both with oil and natural gas exploration and
production as well as with electricity market restructuring and
environmental policies. In private sector he has been partner and
executive vice president of a power trading company, co-owner and
chairman of a carbon consulting company as well as running his own
energy consulting company focusing on European energy and environmental
policy and markets. Kjell has served eight years as Vice Chairman on the
Board of Directors of the Norwegian Transmission System Operator.
He started working with Point Carbon in 2005 and transferred to the
Washington DC office in 2007. He has previously lived and worked in the
US as energy counselor at the Norwegian embassy in Washington DC. Kjell
speaks frequently at energy and carbon trading conferences and he has
testified to the United States Senate and the European Union on design
of cap-and-trade programs.
Radha Kuppalli leads New Forests' U.S. business and is focused on developing the ecological products investment program and supporting forestry investment globally. Before taking on the role of Director, Radha was based in Sydney as Manager of Business Development. Radha was previously an Analyst at Natsource LLC for two years. At Natsource she advised clients on a range of issues related to greenhouse gas emissions markets and renewable energy credit markets and developed extensive experience in environmental markets-related investments. Radha has Bachelor of Arts Degrees in International Studies and Economic Theory from American University in Washington, D.C., and Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Environmental Management from Yale University's School of Management and School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Radha is based in New Forests Washington, DC office.
Mr. Lack has been a successful entrepreneur within the emissions and alternative energy industry for almost a decade. In 2004, he helped found Element Markets LLC, a leading carbon management and alternative energy company, and currently serves as a Managing Director. Since founding Element Markets, Mr. Lack has assisted in the development of several alternative energy projects and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Projects, including Biomass, Wind and Landfill Gas Projects. Mr. Lack's has extensive knowledge of structuring transactions spanning seventeen emissions trading regions and covering seven emissions commodies. In addition, Randall has experience in extensive experience in transacting for Renewable Energy Credit and Carbon Allowances in North America
Mr. Lack is an acclaimed speaker and media resource for Renewable Energy Credits, Greenhouse Gas Trading, pending emissions legislation, and Regional Emission Markets. He has developed regional emissions, renewable energy, and Greenhouse Gas portfolios for a wide-range of clients, from municipalities to Fortune 500 Corporations. Mr. Lack received his B.S., magna cum laude, from the University of Houston.
Gerrity is one of the founders of Equator LLC. A successful entrepreneur and experienced investor, Gerrity oversees the company's Asset Management group, managing all aspects of deal origination, due diligence, execution, and management, and also leads company-wide strategic planning and development. In addition to his role at Equator, Gerrity is the Founder and Chairman of Madison Trading, LLC, an equity and options market making firm with offices in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Mr. Lansing is also a Founder of Chatham Energy Partners, LLC (acquired by The Intercontinental Exchange, NYSE ticker "ICE") and Le Tigre, LLC (acquired by Kenneth Cole Productions, NYSE ticker "KCP"). Gerrity received his B.A. from Duke University.
With 26 years of experience, Josh Margolis is co-CEO of CantorCO2e, a leading global provider of transaction and related services, serving clients engaged in green energy and environmental markets across the world. Josh oversees the management of North American environmental and renewable energy markets. Since 1985 he has provided emission trading consulting, market development, and trading services for states, regulators, and industries in California, the West, Texas, the Northeast, and in numerous countries throughout the world. He was appointed by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to serve on the California Climate Change Advisory Committee charged with the responsibility of advising the CEC with greenhouse gas mitigation strategies and was appointed by the SCAQMD Board to serve on the SCAQMD 3-year RECLAIM audit Advisory Committee. Joshs assisted the San Joaquin Valley air districts to unify their air pollution control rules and helped industry groups in San Joaquin County, Modesto County, San Diego County, Sacramento County, Massachusetts, Oregon, Canada, and the North Sea to develop emission banking and trading rules and/or understand how a trading program could be used to meet environmental goals. Josh has appeared on ABC, CNN, the Jim Lehrer News Hour, Bloomberg Radio and TV, NHK Radio, Marketplace Radio, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, and the Washington Post. He graduated from Duke University with a BA in Public Policy Sciences.
Kenneth J. Markowitz advises financial and business communities on the risks and opportunities of climate change-related regulatory and policy developments for emissions trading systems, carbon offset projects, renewable energy, clean technologies, energy efficiency and technology transfers. Mr. Markowitz assists clients on policy developments before Congress and executive branch agencies and helps clients navigate the United Nations processes. He leads international initiatives among regulators, businesses and international organizations to strengthen compliance, improve investor confidence and ensure environmental integrity in emissions trading systems.
Mr. Markowitz manages and contributes climate change analysis to Akin Gump's www.climateintel.com blog. He is co-chair and founder of the American Bar Association's Clean Tech and Climate Change Committee and is integral in the management of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE).
Prior to joining Akin Gump, Mr. Markowitz was the president and founder of Earthpace LLC, a global advisory firm that provides environmental policy, communications and management strategies and was a senior attorney at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Markowitz earned his B.B.A. in finance from Emory University in 1985 and his J.D. in 1989 from American University's Washington College of Law. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Mr. Markowitz serves on the adjunct faculty of the Washington College of Law.
Mr. Miller served in the USAF from 1982-86 as a Military Intelligence (MI) specialist, while simultaneously finishing his degree in Computer Science. Mr. Miller was highly recognized for several innovations utilized in code-breaking work while stationed at RAF Chicksands, England UK. After an honorable discharge, he settled in Western New York and was hired as a Fortran programmer for a local Department of Defense (DOD) company. From 1989-92, he worked for an environmental firm that specialized in air quality testing and services, and developed a computerized system to evaluate Real Estate properties from an environmental perspective. He created the first 'Phase I - Environmental Report' Standard (still in use throughout the state of New York) as well as authoring several syndicated columns (including the New York State Association of Realtors) focused on environmental issues. Mr. Miller acquired several financial licenses and began to work more extensively with businesses; he then developed a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis model for investment performance strategies for small businesses. During this time, Mr. Miller became aware of the huge business potential of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment (CAA) - especially pertaining to Mobile Source Emissions. He founded Clean Air Technologies International, Inc. (1999) to develop a mobile-based, portable emissions measurement standard. Once a reliable mobile testing device was perfected, he turned his sights to an ROI system that had the capability of harnessing the 'Emission Credit' concepts referred to in statutes such as CAA, ISTEA and TEA21. Presently, Mr. Miller is focusing on the development of Emission Offset (EO) and Emission Reduction Credit (ERC) strategies, as well as a 'Mobile to Stationary' conversion protocol. Mr. Miller has actively served as Vice President of Clean Air Technologies International, Inc. and is also a co-author on two mobile-source related patents-pending.
John A. Moore has been a director and Chief Executive Officer of our Company since March 2006. He also serves as a director of Voltaix a leading producer of specialty gases used in the production of solar cells and semiconductors. He was previously a Director of Comverge and served on its IPO committee. He serves on the Advisory Council of EnerTech Capital a $350 million energy technology fund. Mr. Moore was formerly President and co-founder of Edson Moore Healthcare Ventures, a fund which acquire $150 million of biotechnology assets from Elan Pharmaceuticals in 2002. John was a cofounder and CEO of Optimer Inc., a specialty materials company that was sold in 2007 to Sterling Capital, a leveraged buyout fund with over $4 Billion under management.
John has invested in many different industries over the past 25 years but he has never been as excited as he is today about Acorn's opportunities to help create smarter infrastructure. John's favorite food is sushi. He loves to hear from investors. Please contact him at jmoore@acornenergy.com.
Michael E. Moore is Vice President of Business Development and External Affairs for Blue Source. He is focusing on the development of commercial CCS opportunities as well as advocacy work related to CCS legislation at Federal and state levels. He has 28 years of energy commodity and derivatives (oil, gas, power, carbon) experience in brokering, market development, business development and strategy. Moore is a founding board member of the Texas Carbon Capture and Storage Association, the Executive Director of The North American Carbon Capture Storage Association and was a founding board member for The Coalition for Commodity CO2, and recently an active member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Florida Natural Gas Association and retained advisor to the Gulf Coast Carbon Center. He is a regular speaker and contributor in national and international CCS and energy related events.
Michael Muyot has spent fifteen years as a specialist in Strategic
Quantum Visioning, now embodied in the SmartView platform, a
vario-metric, multi-dimensional modeling platform. SmartView is being
used to create investment grade financial indices and products such as
ETFs, UITs, and mutual funds for major financial institutions. SmartView
builds custom portfolios and indices based on Financial, Environmental
and Social (Triple Bottom line) performance metrics. Mr. Muyot designs
algorithms using both quantitative and qualitative KPIs to create a
universal language for translating datasets into Analytical
Intelligence. Mr. Muyot was recently interviewed by The Economist for
documenting the correlation between sustainability practices and
financial outcomes. He also served as a presenter at the 2008 Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI) Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability
and Transparency.
Arthur J. O'Donnell is the Executive Director for the Center for Resource Solutions.
Prior to joining CRS in January 2008, Arthur was an independent business, energy and environmental writer for more than 25 years, winning many national and regional awards for his energy reporting. He was senior reporter for E&E Publishing's Greenwire.com and editor of the Land Letter. He also frequently wrote for Public Utilities Fortnightly, the California Energy Circuit newsletter and he was Editorial Director for EnergyCentral.com.
As the founding editor and associate publisher of the award-winning California Energy Markets newsletter from 1989 through 2002, O'Donnell documented the creation of modern wholesale/retail power markets and the subsequent collapse of the state's regulatory restructuring effort.
He is the author of several books, including: 'Soul of the Grid: A Cultural Biography of the California Independent System Operator' and 'The Guilty Environmentalist.'
A sought-after speaker and conference organizer, O'Donnell maintains a steady schedule of talks and media appearances to promote CRS' programs and activities.
Arthur holds a Masters Degree in Communications from the University of Washington, where he was a Graduate Fellow in Business and Economics Reporting in 1981-82. He also graduated from Rutgers College in 1975 with a BA in Human Communications.
Mr. O'Hearne was Managing Director, Head of Americas, Environmental and Commodities Markets for Swiss Re responsible for leading weather, energy, emissions and agricultural product trading, business and product development and risk management in these increasingly interdependent markets in the Americas from 2006 to 2008. Mr. O'Hearne is a Past President of the Weather Risk Management Association, the global industry association whose market volume grew from $4 Billion to $45 Billion during his 2 year leadership. Mr. O'Hearne was previously President and CEO of Aquila Re Ltd. and Aquila Merchant Services-International based in Bermuda and prior to Aquila was Vice President Corporate Finance at Koch Industries in charge of Structured Finance as well as Director of Tax Planning. Mr. O'Hearne received his LLM, MBA, JD and Chemistry degrees from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and has 25 years of experience in the energy, agriculture, weather and risk management fields.
Nicholas Parker co-founded the Cleantech Group, introducing the cleantech concept to the investment and business community in 2002. Previously Nicholas accumulated over 15 years experience starting and investing venture funds worldwide through limited partnerships, family offices, corporate funds and endowments. During this time, he pioneered the first "sustainability" driven private equity funds and participated in one of the first solar IPOs. In the 1990s, he also founded, built and sold an environmental finance firm. He has served as an advisor to multilateral agencies and major corporations.
Nicholas earned a BA Hons. in Technology Studies (Carleton University, Ottawa) and an MBA (City University, London), and has authored or edited more than ten publications related to cleantech, finance and international business, starting with Investing in Emerging Economies in 1993. He serves as Chairman of E+Co, a public purpose investment company for clean energy enterprises in developing countries, and is on several boards, including: Government of Singapore Cleantech Advisory Board, Canadian Centre of Excellence for Commercialization of Research and the X PRIZE Energy & Environment Council. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Nicholas has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America and currently resides with his two children in Toronto.
Willy, born May 1965, has been Chairman of the Group since inception. His focus has been on the shareholders, shareholder value, investor relations, and structure of the Company, strategic partnerships, licensing relationships and corporate opportunities.
Having graduated with a B.A. from the University of Durham, he started his career in World Bank/United Nations backed projects in Africa and China. He became an entrepreneur in 1988, involved in the sports marketing sector where he founded, built and ultimately sold his first company, specializing in merchandising and commercializing the value of patented products.
He has been investing in the environmental science sector for the past fifteen years in technology development, commodity trading and consumer product companies and has been involved in the financing of numerous companies at various stages from start up and private equity to public offerings. He is also an advisory trustee of a number of international trusts and a director of a number of companies. Willy is based in Switzerland.
Diana has more than fifteen years of work experience in Clean Technology, in the areas of energy, water, advanced materials and transportation. Diana brings to Expansion Capital Partners her recognized domain expertise and her global network of entrepreneurs, venture capital investors and large corporations active in Clean Technology. Her background encompasses work with Fortune 500 companies, venture-backed technology companies, financial institutions and private investors in Clean Technology.
As part of her responsibilities at Expansion Capital, Diana serves on the Board of Directors of ConsumerPowerline, Orion Energy Systems, SensorTran and Tiger Optics.
Prior to Expansion Capital, Diana was the co-founder and Managing Director of EA Capital, a financial services firm that advised clients on new business and investment opportunities in resource efficiency and productivity. One of the first firms specialized in this area, EA Capital established itself as a leading investment advisory firm focused on Clean Technology.
At EA Capital, Diana developed venture funds and served as a business strategist and financial advisor on private equity transactions to diverse clients such as Bechtel, Texas Pacific Group, Duke Energy, the International Finance Corporation, Mr. Ted Turner, and Mr. Stephan Schmidheiny, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and numerous emerging technology companies.
Diana is a frequent speaker at Clean Technology related conferences and investment forums (e.g. Cleantech Venture Network, Triple Bottom Line, NREL Growth Forum, and the Hewlett and Rockefeller Foundations) and has written on venture capital investing in Clean Technology, for such publications as Morgan Stanley's Investor Outlook and Sustainable Business Investor. Diana is Co-Editor of the ground breaking report, "Cleantech Venture Investing: Patterns & Performance," which was published in March of 2005.
Diana holds BA, summa cum laude, from Duke University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She speaks French fluently
Alex Rau is a founding partner of Climate Wedge Ltd, an independent firm
providing carbon finance and emissions trading related advisory and asset
management services, and pursuing principal investments and project
development in the carbon markets. Alex has over eight years of experience
in carbon finance, emissions trading, and environmental commodities. He was
previously part of the Climate Change Services team in
PricewaterhouseCoopers's Energy Corporate Finance practice in London,
developing and structuring portfolios of carbon assets during the early
stages of the Clean Development Mechanism market as well as designing Kyoto
response strategies for multinational corporations. Alex has worked with
numerous clients such as Cheyne Capital, McKinsey & Company, Rio Tinto, News
Corporation, Electricite de France, the California Public Employees
Retirement System (CalPERS), and CSIRO on carbon-related issues. He also
coauthored the original version of the Voluntary Carbon Standard, the most
widely accepted trading standard for non-Kyoto carbon assets, and has
published in journals ranging from Science to the Harvard Business Review.
Alex has a Ph.D. in physics from Oxford University and a B.A. from Cornell
University.
Mr. Rhodes is Chief Operating Officer of GE / AES GHG Services, LLC, a venture between General Electric and The AES Corporation, and is a member of its Investment Committee. He leads project origination and investment, business development, mergers & acquisitions, carbon asset management, sales and marketing. Mr. Rhodes brings more than 24 years of experience in investment management, business strategy, operations, investment banking and management consulting. Formerly, Mr. Rhodes was President of Eco Capital, LLC an advisory and investment firm focused on clean energy and carbon finance. Before founding Eco Capital, Mr. Rhodes was Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and Head of US Power and Energy Fixed Income Capital Markets and Derivatives. Within the power and energy sectors, he served organizations in twelve years with the firm ranging from global Fortune 100 firms to emerging growth companies and completed over 150 investments, mergers, financings and advisory assignments. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he spent ten years in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and in management consulting at Booz Allen & Hamilton. He holds an MBA with distinction from Columbia Business School and a BS in electrical engineering from Brown University.
Rob Romero has 20 years of operations, marketing and investment experience in the technology business. Mr. Romero's professional experience includes engineering & management roles at Baldur, TCSI, Bay Networks, Netsys, and Cisco. Mr. Romero also founded and served as VP of Marketing at eVoice, a leading voicemail provider, sold to AOL in 2001. In 2001, Mr. Romero founded Connective Capital Ventures, and made early-stage investments in companies such as Vonage, IronPort and LiveOps. In 2003, Mr. Romero founded Connective Capital Management, a long/short equity Hedge Fund Manger, focused in the technology and alternative energy sectors. Mr. Romero holds a BS in EE, a BA in Economics, and an MS in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University.
Zach has spent over a decade serving in diverse roles across the power industry, working for regulated utilities, merchant power generators, and banks. Zach's involvement in emission reductions began ten years ago while working for Entergy, one of the US's largest utilities.
As Director of US Carbon for GM&T USA he is now focused on US voluntary and regional Carbon markets as well as CDM/JI project development within the Kyoto Protocol and pending US emissions legislation.
Prior to joining GM&T USA Zach served as VP of Term and Cash ERCOT (Texas) trading for Bear Energy and was instrumental in building a power business of 6,800MWs spanning the California ISO (CALISO), New England ISO (ISO-NE), and New York ISO (NYISO). His views of the US power markets bring a unique perspective to the emissions discussion.
Prior to joining Bear Energy Zach served as Director of Merchant Energy at Calpine Corporation, and was responsible for the P&L management, staffing, systems, optimization of ancillary services, energy, and fuel hedging of the company's 6,500MW ERCOT portfolio of natural-gas fired merchant and cogeneration assets.
Zach received his Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University.
Mr. Siegel is the Managing Partner of the Hartford office of Brown Rudnick and is Co-Chair of the Firm's Energy Practice Group. He represents clients in matters involving the acquisition, divestiture and financing of electric generation facilities; electric industry restructuring; bankruptcy and reorganization; corporate and real estate debt restructuring; commercial, corporate and project finance and business transactions. He also assists clients in formulating strategies and programs in the alternative energy and climate change space that are both innovative and commercially viable. Mr. Siegel also has significant experience representing clients in asset valuation litigation.
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