Nick Akins
Executive Vice President- Generation
American Electric Power
Nick Akins is executive vice president – Generation for American Electric Power. AEP is one of the largest electric utility and generators of electricity in the U.S. He is responsible for all generation activities of AEP’s 38,000 MW fleet, including fossil and hydro generation; nuclear generation; engineering, project and field services; fuel, emissions and logistics, and business services.
Previously, he was president and chief operating officer for Southwestern Electric Power Company, serving approximately 439,000 customers in Louisiana, Arkansas and northeast Texas. Named to this position in 2004, he had authority for distribution operations and a wide range of customer and regulatory relationships.
Prior to this, Akins was vice president - energy marketing services, responsible for directing the activities of Market Development, including the transmission marketing and services functions, Energy Delivery External Affairs including community affairs, economic development, advocacy for regulatory and legislative positions within Energy Delivery. Additional responsibilities included the development and implementation of strategies for energy delivery related to AEP's entry into regional transmission organizations.
Akins was also vice president - industry restructuring for AEP responsible for enterprise-wide program management for restructuring initiatives in preparation for customer choice in AEP's various jurisdictions.
Previous to CSW's merger with AEP, he served in various director and manager roles including CSWS director - restructuring readiness, CSWS director - mergers and acquisitions, CSWS director - solid fuels, WTU director - fuels, and other positions within system dispatch operations, planning, and fuels.
He received a bachelor’s degree in 1982 in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston and a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1986 from Louisiana Tech. He has completed executive management programs at Louisiana State University, the University of Idaho and the Reactor Technology Course for Utility Executives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Akins is a registered professional engineer in Texas and is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, Texas Society of Professional Engineers, Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu Engineering Honor Societies. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Coal Utilization Research Council (CURC) and the Board of the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Shreveport Committee of One Hundred, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra and the United Way of Northwest Louisiana, and the Louisiana Tech Engineering Foundation. He also serves on several subsidiary boards of AEP.
Adam Aston
Energy & Environment Editor
BusinessWeek
Adam Aston is energy & environment editor of BusinessWeek, where he covers alternative and conventional energy, efficiency, transportation, building and design, green business and finance, as well as climate issues. He joined the magazine in March, 2000. Before BusinessWeek, Aston worked in Hong Kong where he covered business, economic, and political developments across Asia for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Far East Economic Review, McKinesy & Co. and others. Aston is a graduate of Princeton University.
Christopher Behrens
Managing Director
CCMP Capital Advisors, LLC
Christopher Behrens is a Managing Director in the New York office of CCMP Capital and a member of the firm's Investment Committee. He focuses on making investments in the industrial, distribution and energy sectors. Prior to joining CCMP in 1994, he was a Vice President in the Merchant Banking Group of The Chase Manhattan Corporation. Mr. Behrens holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. from Columbia University. Mr. Behrens serves on the board of directors of Chromalox, Madisonville Gas Processing and Noble Environmental Power.
Lee K. Boothby
President and Chief Executive Officer
Newfield Exploration Company
Lee K. Boothby was named Chief Executive Officer at the Company's Annual Meeting in May 2009. He also was elected by Newfield's stockholders as a member of the Company's Board of Directors. The Board previously named Boothby to the role of President in February 2009. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President - Acquisitions and Business Development. From 2002 - 2007, he was Vice President - Mid-Continent. Boothby was responsible for leading Newfield's development of the growing Woodford Shale Play in southeastern Oklahoma, along with other resource plays that have led to this division's significant growth. From 1999-2001, Boothby was Managing Director - Newfield Exploration Australia Ltd. and managed the Company's operations in the Timor Sea (divested in 2003) from Perth, Australia. Prior to joining Newfield in 1999, Boothby worked for Cockrell Oil Corporation, British Gas and Tenneco Oil Company. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He serves as a member of the OERB (Oklahoma Energy Resources Board). Boothby holds a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University and an M.B.A. from Rice University.
Richard Brand
Managing Director
Yorkville Advisors, LLC
Mr. Brand is a Managing Director at Yorkville Advisors, LLC. Yorkville invests in a number of energy companies.
Immediately prior to joining Yorkville, Mr. Brand was at Prospect Capital Management. His responsibilities included negotiating Prospect’s investments in Natural Gas Systems (now Evolution Pet.). The company deployed the capital to develop a field it sold for twenty times its purchase price.
Mr. Brand founded the registered direct business for the capital markets arm of the AAA-rated Paris bank, Caisse des Depots. He arranged financing for FX Energy, which attracted the interest of a company in Warren Buffett’s holdings.
After CDC sold its capital markets business, Mr. Brand financed Toreador Resources. Toreador’s operational success drove its stock price to over $20 from $8.
Mr. Brand managed the private placement business at Robertson Stephens and in 2001 was appointed to the firm’s Commitment Committee. His transactions include one for The Medicines Company.
Mr. Brand structured and negotiated private equity deals at Deutsche Bank. These included one for the company that developed the software standard for the service providers and the handset manufacturers in the cellular industry.
Mr. Brand was one of the first six members of the Private Funds Group at Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette. He was instrumental in the Apollo fund.
Mr. Brand originated Merrill Lynch’s first $1 billion deal. Later at Merrill he moved into financial sponsor coverage. Mr. Brand became a Strategic Entrepreneur for Behrman Capital, which developed into the best performing holding in Pacific Telesis’s pension.
Mr. Brand worked in finance at PaineWebber. He senior managed $2.4 billion in refinery financings for Chevron and structured portfolios totaling $515 million face amount to generate a $130 million gain for Exxon.
Mr. Brand graduated from The University of Chicago with an MBA specializing in Finance. While enrolled, he was employed at Continental Can in Strategic Planning and oversaw an acquisition made before he joined that was under-performing. Subsequently he worked at The Board of Trade for Geldermann & Co.
Mr. Brand graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa with a BA, double major in Economics and English. He was Vice President of the Council of Academic Colleges, having started a successful lecture note service business and revitalizing a consignment book store.
Terence L. Darby
Managing Partner
Energy Investors Funds
Mr. Darby joined EIF in 2001. He manages the New York City office and is responsible for the investment development and investment strategy teams. Together with the other two Managing Partners, John E. Buehler and Herbert Magid, Mr. Darby is responsible for the overall investment, asset management, strategic planning, and operations of the Management Company and the funds it manages. He serves on the boards of all the funds under the Management Company’s management and their respective management companies. He also sits on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, and the Investment Committee. Prior to joining EIF, Mr. Darby was responsible for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson’s Power & Utility sector activity in North America. As such, he covered all North American-based clients in the sector and headed a team of 20 professionals. The team spearheaded the origination of the firm’s full range of investment and commercial banking services, focusing primarily on project financing, structured utility financing, and related advisory and private equity investing. Mr. Darby has closed over 200 domestic and international transactions in the utility and power sectors. He has over 24 years of experience in the financial industry, including 18 years with the Dresdner Bank Group in various fields including private equity, leveraged lending, and high-yield debt. Mr. Darby holds a Masters of International Business Studies from the University of South Carolina and a B.S. in Mathematics from the State University of New York.
Patrick C. Eilers
Managing Director
Madison Dearborn Partners
B.S., University of Notre Dame; M.B.A., Northwestern University J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Prior to joining MDP, Mr. Eilers was with Jordan Industries, Inc. and IAI Venture Capital, Inc. and played professional football with the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, and Minnesota Vikings. Mr. Eilers concentrates on investments in the energy and power sector and currently serves on the Board of Directors of First Wind Partners, LLC, Magellan GP, LLC, Magellan Midstream Holdings GP, LLC, and US Power Generating Company. Mr. Eilers is also a member of the University of Notre Dame College of Engineering Advisory Council; and serves on the Board of Trustees of Hales Franciscan High School and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.
William Featherston
Managing Director - Oil & Gas Equity Research
UBS
William A Featherston is a managing director in the energy group of UBS Investment Research. An analyst since 1993, Mr. Featherston covers Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, and Integrated Oil companies. For the past two years, he ranked third in the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production category of Institutional Investor’s All-America Research Team.
Prior to the UBS AG acquisition of PaineWebber Inc, Mr. Featherston was the large-cap Oil and Gas Exploration and Production industry analyst at PaineWebber. Before that, Mr. Featherston held various Oil and Gas Exploration research positions at Schroder & Co, Gerard Klauer Mattison and Mabon Securities. Earlier in his career, Mr Featherston worked at Dreman Value Management as an assistant portfolio manager.
Mr. Featherson holds a BA degree from Yale University.
Richard Gross
Managing Director
Barclays Capital
Rick is a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Barclays Capital. He has been an equity analyst for 34 years covering all facets of the energy value chain. Currently he manages a 6 person team covering natural gas infrastructure stocks and the Master Limited Partnership sector. Throughout his career he has received acclaim through consistent ranking on the Institutional Investor “All America Research” team, high ratings in the Greenwich Associates annual institutional customer survey and recognition from the Wall Street Journals annual stock picking poll. Rick graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. and M.S. in finance. He is married with two children.
Charles Hinckley
CEO & Managing Director
CCHinckley Company LLC
Chuck Hinckley, Managing Director and CEO of CCHinckley Company is a serial entrepreneur and focuses on the renewable and power sectors. Mr. Hinckley has developed or financed over 25 power plants across the US and the world ranging in technologies from combined cycle gas turbine and most recently wind power employing a variety of innovative financial structures. He is a founder and past Chairman and CEO of Noble Environmental Power, developed the Calpeak Power projects, Gti Dakar project, among others. He previously worked for GE Power Systems’ operations and maintenance business, GE Capital, and renewable company KENETECH. Mr. Hinckley is a veteran of the US Navy and graduated from Miami University where he majored in physics.
Will Honeybourne
Managing Director
First Reserve Corporation
Will Honeybourne, Managing Director, joined First Reserve in 1999. He is responsible for deal origination and investment structuring and monitoring, with an emphasis on services and manufacturing, upstream oil and gas and international markets. Prior to joining First Reserve, Mr. Honeybourne served as Senior Vice President of Western Atlas International. Prior to that time, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Alberta-based Computalog. His earlier career was primarily with Baker Hughes, including positions as Vice President and General Manager at INTEQ and President of EXLOG. Mr. Honeybourne currently serves as a Director on the boards of Abbot Group (UK), Acteon Group (UK), Exterran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: EXH), and Red Technology Alliance LLC (US). In addition to serving in the past on the boards of various First Reserve portfolio companies in the U.S., Europe and Canada, Mr. Honeybourne served as a Director of Hong Kong listed CNOOC Ltd. Mr. Honeybourne holds a B.Sc. in Oil Technology from Imperial College, London University and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He also serves on the Board of the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association.
Jason Kelly
Writer
Bloomberg News
Jason Kelly is a New York-based writer at Bloomberg News primarily focused on the global private-equity industry. He joined Bloomberg in 2002 as a member of the U.S. Technology team, where he covered companies including Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments. A frequent contributor to Bloomberg Markets magazine and Bloomberg television, he's written about topics from artificial intelligence on Wall Street to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Prior to Bloomberg, Jason was the editor of digitalsouth magazine, an Atlanta-based publication focused on venture capital and start-up technology companies. Jason holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Georgetown University.
Tom Langford
Managing Director
Morgan Stanley
Thomas Langford is a Managing Director and Head of the Global Energy Group. Tom has responsibility for the major integrated and selected independent E&P and R&M companies in the US and Latin America and maintains senior responsibility for Morgan Stanley’s energy efforts in Asia. In addition, Tom is Head of the Houston Office and Southwest Region for Investment Banking.
After beginning his career in New York, Tom spent four years based in Asia where he led several strategic and financing assignments in countries across the region, including working with PTT and TPI in Thailand, Medco in Indonesia, Sinopec in China, ONGC Gail and Reliance in India, Petronas in Malaysia, Petrovietnam in Vietnam and Fletcher Energy in New Zealand. In China, Tom was the leading member of the Morgan Stanley team that advised China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (“Sinopec”) on its $3.46 billion global initial public offering, the largest Chinese H share IPO in history.
Since returning to NY in 2000, Tom has been involved in a number of notable strategic and financing transactions including Phillips acquisition of Tosco, the merger of Conoco with Phillips, the acquisition of CanHunter by Burlington Resources, Marathon’s acquisition of KMOC in Russia and the acquisition of Unocal by Chevron.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Tom worked at Exxon and McKinsey & Co.
Rob McCeney
TS Energy and Infrastructure Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Rob is a partner in the Transaction Services practice based in Houston. He specializes in providing acquisition services in the energy and infrastructure industries on behalf of both corporate and financial sponsor clients. The primary industries Rob serves include regulated electric and gas utilities, merchant power companies, midstream processing, mining, energy - related equipment and services companies, energy commodity trading, electric & gas retail marketers, transportation and infrastructure-related industrial and consumer products industries.
In connection with providing buy and sell-side financial due diligence services, Rob assists clients with assessing the quality of reported earnings, identifying debt-like items, analyzing working capital, identifying potential purchase accounting adjustments as well as supporting working capital and purchase price adjustment mechanisms.
Rob has significant experience in cross-border transactions in a number of countries and has significant experience with US and IFRS. Since joining Transaction Services in 1996, Rob has worked in PwC’s New York, Santiago, Chile and Seoul, South Korea offices.
Rob received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York, Texas and Virginia.
John McConomy
TS Power & Utilities Leader
PricewaterhouseCoopers
John is the lead partner for the Firm's US Power and Utilities Transaction Services practice, as well as a member of the Firm’s US Power and Utilities Leadership Council. He provides transaction services to PwC’s infrastructure, power and utility clients, including: merger, acquisition and divestiture financial due diligence; workout strategies; strategic planning and evaluation; financial and operations analysis; analysis of power-related contracts; assistance in contract buy-outs or buy-downs; regulatory matters; valuation of assets, contracts and business segments, and investigation and assistance in the deal process of transactions.
John has led financial due diligence teams for PwC in many of the industry's largest mergers and acquisitions and a wide variety of advisory transactions. John also serves as a subject matter expert in the power generation industry.
With over 30 years of business and financial experience in the infrastructure, power and utilities industries, John provides an unparalleled range of services to provide sound solutions and ideas that increase value to our clients prior to, during and after the transaction.
John is a nationally recognized industry speaker and author. Since 2001, he has been a co-author of Power Deals, PwC's global annual review of power and utility transactions and trends.
Mr. McConomy is a CPA and holds a BS in Accounting from the Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of Financial Executives International, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Pennsylvania, New York and the Greater Washington Societies of Certified Public Accountants.
Nick McKee
Managing Director & Group Head, North America Power
Citi
Nick co- heads for a team bankers focusing on corporate and investment banking for regulated and unregulated electric power and other utility companies throughout the US. Citigroup’s portfolio of clients in the power and utility space includes the largest investor owned utilities and merchant energy companies in the United States. In his twenty years in this specialized industry group Nick has helped raise over $40 billion in capital both the public and private markets globally in areas such as structured and project finance, integrated risk management, capital structuring, loan syndication as well as debt and equity capital markets. Nick has extensive experience in business capitalization, on going corporate financing and restructurings.
Nick joined Citibank in 1985. Prior to joining the Power & Utilities Group, Nick acted as a relationship manager in Citibank’s National Corporate Banking Division’s New York region. Mr. McKee received a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Missouri in 1984.
Bradford T. Nordholm
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Starwood Energy Group
Mr. Nordholm leads Starwood Energy as CEO and Managing Director responsible for strategic direction, tactical execution and organizational development. During his career, Mr. Nordholm has developed or acquired, and then managed equity investments in power generation, gas storage and other energy projects with equity investments in excess of $1 billion and enterprise value in excess of $3 billion. Prior to joining Starwood Energy, Mr. Nordholm was Co-Founder and CEO of Tyr Energy, Inc, an award-winning energy asset management firm that managed in excess of $3.5 billion of generation assets, and Chairman of Tyr Capital, LLC, an investment fund that acquired power generation assets. Previously, Mr. Nordholm was SVP & General Manager, Capacity Services Division, Aquila, Inc where he was responsible for the development, acquisition, management and daily optimization of 3,800 MW of generation, 18 Bcf of gas storage and 12 Bcf/day of gas transportation assets. Mr. Nordholm received his B.A., Economics from Carleton College in 1978 and completed the Harvard Business School PMD program in 1989. He currently serves as a director of the Kansas City Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ: “KCLI”), is active in Young President’s Organization and is a frequent speaker at industry meetings.
Chris Orr
Director, Major Projects – Legal Affairs
Suncor Energy Services Inc.
Chris Orr is the Director of Legal Affairs for the Major Projects group of Suncor Energy Inc. Chris has experience in drafting and negotiating all types of construction related agreements and his role involves him in all aspects of the development and operation of various energy projects in Canada, including oil sands, cogeneration and wind-power projects.
Prior to joining Suncor, Chris worked in private practice in the Oil & Gas group of a large nation firm. His main focus was oil and gas law, including matters relating to the acquisition and disposition of oil and gas properties; assisting in co-ordinating and conducting of due diligence reviews for oil and gas transactions, mergers and acquisitions involving oil and gas companies; and drafting and negotiating asset agreements, share purchase and sale agreements, and other industry documents.
Martin Pasqualini
Managing Director
CP Energy Group, LLC
Martin Pasqualini is a managing director of CP Energy Group, LLC (“CPE”) has over 18 years of experience executing a wide variety of project and structured financings, including extensive experience representing sponsors, equity investors, lenders and construction contractors in connection with the development, financing, operation, acquisition and disposition of domestic and international power projects. Since 2004, CPE has advised on approximately 30 renewable energy project financings representing 6,000 MW of installed electric capacity and $3.5 billion of capital investment. CPE has also advised developers (Orion Energy, Eurus Energy America and Foresight Energy) in connection with wind energy development platform dispositions and joint ventures, as well as single project dispositions. Mr. Pasqualini has negotiated debt and equity financing documents and the entire range of project documentation (power purchase agreements, operations and maintenance agreements, wind easement agreements, construction contracts and manufacturer's warranty agreements) associated with the development and financing of wind-powered electricity generating projects. He has worked on energy projects throughout the continental United States and has also worked on energy projects in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Scotland and the Dominican Republic. In addition, Mr. Pasqualini has been a member of the board of directors of PowerOptions since his initial election in 2000. PowerOptions is the largest power buying group in Massachusetts, with more than 400 members and annual purchases totaling $250 million in electricity and $10 million in natural gas. Prior to joining CPE, Mr. Pasqualini was a Managing Director in the Tax Products Group at BTM Capital Corporation and was formerly a partner in the Project and Structured Finance Group of Bingham Dana LLP (now Bingham McCutchen LLP), an international law firm based in Boston. Mr. Pasqualini earned his Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Boston College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School and has been a member of the Board of Overseers of Boston College Law School since 2005.
Miles Pittman
Partner
Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP
As a Partner with Fraser Milner Casgrain’s Energy and Commercial practice teams, Miles helps clients navigate through the energy sector and is a driving force behind the firm’s leadership position in this dynamic area of law.
Miles works in close partnership with vendors and purchasers of petroleum and natural gas rights and facilities here in Canada and wherever else energy is produced around the world. He is a trusted advisor to FMC’s energy producer and processing clients on mergers and acquisitions, operational issues, including joint venture, CO&O, transportation and gas processing agreements, and tax-effective structuring. He also advises clients in other sectors, notably high-tech and wind power, about M&A and restructuring. Miles is a director of several private corporations in the energy sector and he is an executive member of the Natural Resources Subsection of the Canadian Bar Association.
Miles’ expertise is built on 15 years of delivering innovative legal solutions to complex business problems affecting the energy sector and its players whether that expertise exists in the successful development of joint ventures in SAGD oil sands projects, tax-effective restructuring or in providing strategic counsel to participants in the LNG value chain on gas purchase and sale. In particular, he has advised proponents of oil sands projects on acquisition, divestiture and security matters.
Miles is ranked as one of the leading lawyers in Canada in the Oil & Gas (transactional) category by Chambers Global 2008.
Anna Raff
Assistant Managing Editor - Energy
Dow Jones Newswires
Anna Raff has a decade of experience working as a journalist specializing in energy issues. In Moscow, first with the English-language daily newspaper The Moscow Times and then with Dow Jones, she began her career covering the post-privatization rise of the crude oil and natural gas industry in Russia and the former Soviet Union, as well as the advent of greater state control as exemplified by the Yukos affair and the arrest and imprisonment of Russia’s richest man. She moved to the U.S. in 2005 to help lead coverage of topics including exploration and production, refining, renewable energy and fuels, regulation of derivatives markets and the advent of carbon emission legislation. She is currently assistant managing editor for energy in the Americas. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a concentration in mathematical methods in the social sciences and lives in New Jersey with her husband and daughter.
Peter Rigby
Senior Director
Standard & Poor's
Peter N. Rigby is a senior director in Standard & Poor’s Corporate & Government Ratings Quality Office. Mr. Rigby directs efforts to develop, build and use advanced computer techniques and models to analyze financial and market data, including text based data to support credit ratings surveillance and quality initiatives. With over 30 years of experience in the energy industry he is also a speaker and author on power and energy issues and project finance. Mr. Rigby has worked on power and energy project financings around the world and was the principal author of Standard & Poor’s project finance criteria.
Prior to joining Standard & Poor’s, Mr. Rigby worked for the management and economic consulting firm of Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett where he worked on such energy policy and strategy assignments as restructuring state-owned industries in Europe and the former Soviet Union. Previously, he worked as a petroleum engineer for Tenneco Oil Exploration and Production Company. Mr. Rigby also worked for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Mr. Rigby holds a BS in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering and a BA in Arts and Sciences from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Geoffrey Rochwarger
CEO
IDT Energy
Geoffrey Rochwarger leads IDT Energy as its Chairman and CEO; Geoff is also a founder of the business. IDT Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDT Corp., (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), a multinational holding company focused on the telecommunications and energy industries.
IDT Energy is the largest independent ESCO in NY State which focuses on the residential and small commercial markets. It serves approximately 410,000 meters, comprised of both natural gas and electricity customers. The company schedules for annual energy needs of approximately 10 Bcf natural gas and 1 million Mwhrs, with an annual revenue run-rate of approximately $300 million. Geoff launched IDT Energy in November 2004 while serving as President of IDT Capital, the business incubator for IDT Corp. The company has been profitable since its inception.
Prior to establishing IDT Capital, Geoff was the Executive Vice President of IDT Telecom, serving as both an officer of the company as well as a director. Geoff helped launch the telecommunications business at IDT and during his tenure helped build the subsidiary into what would eventually become a $2 billion+ enterprise. Included in Geoff’s responsibilities was the global expansion of the business, which led to the opening of regional offices throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia. The Telecom entity continues to operate and maintains dominant positions in its prepaid calling card and wholesale carrier arbitrage businesses.
Prior to joining IDT in 1995, Geoff served as the Senior Operations Manager at an international freight forwarding company. In this capacity he was responsible for oversight of the day-to-day operations
Geoffrey earned his BA in Economics and Psychology at Yeshiva University in NY, in June 1992
Lynn Schade
East Coast Executive
IntraLinks, Inc.
Speaker bio to come...
Bruce Schulman
Vice Chairman, Wharton Private Equity Partners
and
Head of Energy Investments, Allied Capital
Bruce has worked at Allied Capital since 2004, and heads energy investing, an area in which he has been investing for over 15 years. At Allied, he is focused on all aspects of transactions, including sourcing, structuring, and negotiating, as well as active portfolio management. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Industrial Air Tool, Penn Detroit Diesel Allison, Service Champ, and Hot Stuff Foods. Prior to Allied, Bruce worked at Saw Mill Capital, a middle market private equity firm focused on manufacturing and service companies supporting the energy industry, where among others he was closely involved with two transactions, Turner Bros. LLC and Air2 LLC. Prior to Saw Mill, he was with J.P. Morgan Capital, the private equity investment arm of the investment bank. Bruce began his career in strategy consulting and working with Bechtel Enterprises, the finance and investment arm of the global energy engineering and construction firm. At Bechtel, Bruce was involved with and invested in energy and transportation deals, including power plants, tollroads, refineries, and natural gas projects. Bruce received his M.B.A. from The Wharton School with a concentration in Finance, a M.A. in international affairs/international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and an A.B. from Harvard College in East Asian Studies. Bruce also is Vice Chairman of Wharton Private Equity Partners.
Eric Slifka
President and Chief Executive Officer
Global Partners LP
Eric Slifka was named President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Global Partners LP in July 2004. In 2005, he oversaw the partnership’s successful initial public offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, Mr. Slifka has significantly expanded Global Partners’ asset base through strategic acquisitions of refined petroleum terminals in New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and a major organic growth project at the Port of Providence. Under Mr. Slifka’s leadership, Global Partners has increased its terminal storage capacity by approximately 60% to 9.3 million barrels as of December 31, 2007, and the partnership has established itself as one of the largest wholesale distributors of refined petroleum products in the Northeast. Today Global Partners is a FORTUNE 500 company with annual sales in 2007 of $6.7 billion.
Mr. Slifka’s career with Global Partners and its predecessors has spanned more than 20 years. From 1987 to 1998, he held senior positions in the accounting, supply, distribution and marketing departments. From December 1998 to July 2004, he served as Chief Operating Officer and a Director of Global Companies LLC, the predecessor to Global Partners.
He is a member of the Board of Directors and Principal of Alliance Energy; a member of the Board of Directors of the Mass Oil Heat Council; a member of the Board of Directors of the National Oilheat Research Alliance; a member of the Board of Directors of the Energy Policy Research Foundation; a member of the Board of Directors of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; a member of the Board of Directors of Massachusetts Youth Committed to Winning; and a member of the Board of Trustees of Buckingham Browne & Nichols.
Mr. Slifka holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College.
Brian Spector
Managing Director Financial Products Origination
BP North America
Brian Spector, Managing Director, BP North America, Inc. A member of BP’s financial products team, Mr. Spector heads up BP North America’s coverage of Banks, Private Equity funds and Hedge funds. His group delivers pre-close hedging to these financial sponsors when they make asset acquisitions. Mr. Spector was previously Managing Director of ACN Energy, Inc. a leading retail electric and gas marketing company. Prior to ACN, Mr. Spector was a Director at Enron North America, Inc. where he worked in the gas and power businesses and founded their coal marketing and trading business. Mr. Spector started his career at Pace Consultants, Inc. where his practice focused on refining and petrochemicals. Mr. Spector holds a B.A. in English and Economics and an MBA from Rice University.
Mark Williams
Partner
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Mark C. Williams has counseled clients on energy regulatory and utility holding company matters, planned transactions subject to regulatory oversight, and led energy regulatory and restructuring initiatives for 15 years. In the last four years, Mark has advised and represented energy investors on transactions involving over 33,000 MW of electric generating capacity, and over 29,000 miles of certificated gas facilities. Mark is recognized by Chambers USA as “a tremendous resource for any team,… well versed in regulatory minutiae and top of the class in the regulatory space.” Mark is also recognized by Best Lawyers in America and has been lead energy regulatory counsel to several Project Finance “deals of the year.” In government, Mark was the sole attorney in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Division of Corporate Applications, advising the Commission on merger, divestiture, financing, independent power, and transmission matters. He was responsible for over 100 Commission orders in transactional-regulatory matters.
Mark has been his Clients’ lead FERC counsel in:
- Deal of the Year Energy Regulatory Matter — Represented Energy Investors Funds in the $850M = acquisition of an 80 percent economic interest in the Calypso group of 16 public utilities (ProjectFinance magazine's Deal of the Year 2007)
Deal of the Year Energy Regulatory Matter — Represented General Electric in the $561M acquisition of tax equity interests in the Noble Environmental Power New York wind power facilities (ProjectFinance magazine's Deal of the Year 2007)
Deal of the Year Energy Regulatory Matter — Represented Astoria Energy LLC in all Federal energy regulatory proceedings relating to the development of a 1,000 MW generator within New York City (ProjectFinance magazine's Deal of the Year 2004)
Top-10 Gas Pipeline Acquisition — Acquisition of former Williams Gas Pipeline Central for AIG Highstar Capital, refinancing, sale to General Electric Capital, and subsequent refinancings
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