Resources

 

Gasification resources

Through its Alliance, CTI has assembled a world-class team of seasoned professionals having deep financial, commercial and technical experience. 

The Alliance concept is simple -- it consists of a group of top professionals who have known and worked with each other for years, who find that it is their best interest to be able to tap into each other's networks and knowledge base to get the best information possible on an issue of critical importance.  Represented within the Alliance are trusted financial, tax, legal, development and technology experts whose depth and breadth gives CTI uncommon reach when solving problems for its clients.  Currently, CTI's Alliance members include:

David R. Siever is Chairman of Capital Technology, Inc. ("CTI") which he founded in 1989 to provide investment banking and financial advisory services to the clean and renewable energy industries. CTI's principals have served as financial advisor on over $5.0 billion in projects including: gasification, landfill gas, hydroelectric, coal, waste coal, natural gas, wood, wind and ocean wave energy. Prior to forming CTI, Mr. Siever was Managing Director of Combustion Engineering Inc.'s 15-person Worldwide Project Finance Group where he and his group were responsible for closing $3.5 billion in financings worldwide. Before that he served as Assistant Treasurer in charge of project financing for Dow Chemical, USA where he closed $2.0 billion in project financings. Before joining Dow, Mr. Siever served as Vice President, Project Finance Group at Citibank in New York. Mr. Siever holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.  Currently, he is serving on The University of Texas College of Engineering Foundation Advisory Council.  He and his family live in Rowayton, Connecticut.

Bernard P. Roesch is a Managing Partner of MISSION Consulting Group, which he co-founded in 1984 to provide financial modeling and systems development services to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Roesch is an expert at building computer models to assess the economic feasibility, risk and financing alternatives of domestic and international project finance transactions. In the course of his career, he has modeled project economics for investment banks, financial advisory firms, developers, equipment suppliers, turnkey contractors, lenders and equity investors.  Mr. Roesch’s experience covers a variety of power technologies, including hydroelectric, coal, gas, geothermal and resource recovery, both domestic and international, and including both singe assets and portfolios of project assets.  Prior to forming MISSION Consulting, Mr. Roesch served as the sole financial analyst of Condec Corporation, a $300-million high-technology, defense and heavy machinery conglomerate, and as a planning analyst for the Dixie division of American Can Company.  Mr. Roesch holds an MS and an engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique (Paris, France) and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He speaks native French and is fluent in German.  He and his family live in Westport, CT.

Ronald W. (Ron) Cantwell is President of VC Holdings, Inc.  Mr. Cantwell has a deep background in corporate and project investment and mergers and acquisitions, financial/tax/regulatory restructurings, and operations management.  Since July of  2007, he has managed a substantial and complex tax project on behalf of Olympus Power and Metalmark Capital, owners of the 286 megawatt Brooklyn Naval Yard Cogeneration Project.  Such efforts recently resulted in an amendment of the New York Public Services Law which largely mitigates the Project’s tax liability.  From 2005 to mid-2007, Mr. Cantwell was a Senior Advisor to Greenwich Energy Investments, an energy investment group sponsored by a large Greenwich-based hedge fund.   Notable among GEI’s investments was the Masspower Project, a 262 megawatt gas and oil-fired combined cycle facility which sold in early 2007 for approximately four times its acquisition cost.  From 1995 to 2004, he served as President and sole voting shareholder of Trilon Dominion Partners, L.L.C., a $100 million venture investment partnership between financial services subsidiaries of Dominion Resources and Brookfield Asset Management (formerly Brascan).  Throughout the entire period from 1989 to the present, Ron has served as President and sole voting shareholder of the Catalyst Group, Inc. (Catalyst), America’s leading independent power producer before its acquisition in 1988 by Brookfield Asset Management.  At Catalyst, he divested of nearly $2 billion in assets, while retaining and managing the 192 megawatt Sidney A. Murray (Vidalia) Hydroelectric Project.  In the process he developed innovative tax and accounting structures integral to the sale of these complex assets.  Prior to joining Catalyst in 1989, Mr. Cantwell spent 19 years in public accounting.  As lead tax partner, he headed Ernst & Young’s Dallas-based Mergers and Acquisitions practice, and also chaired that office’s Practice Development Committee.  Mr. Cantwell is a CPA and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  He and his wife reside in Greenwich, CT.

James C. (Jim) McCrea heads James McCrea & Associates LLC, an energy consulting firm.  Jim has a deep background in energy across a full range of technologies, as well as leveraged leasing, project finance and bankruptcy workouts.  Prior to starting his own company, Jim worked for eight years as Vice President, Risk Management for Philip Morris Capital Corporation, where he and his staff of 14 successfully guided the company through 13 airline, energy and other bankruptcies and managed a $9B portfolio through the post-9/11 turmoil.  Prior to that he worked for GE Energy Financial Services, where he managed a staff of 13 and was lead underwriter for 7 of his 11 years, managed the energy portfolio, conducted significant asset sales and was a three-time winner of the Pinnacle Award, GE Company’s highest performance award.  For the five years before that he worked first as a successful independent consultant and then as a developer for Combustion Engineering Resource Recovery Systems, where he participated in procurements to design, construct, own, finance and operate waste to energy facilities.  Prior to that he managed the Energy Group for Jason M. Cortell and Associates, an environmental consulting firm.  Jim has an MBA in Finance from Cornell, an MS in Resource Management & Policy from SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, and a BA from Hamilton College.  Jim and his family live in Wilton, CT.

Jeffrey C. (Jeff) Bodington is President of Bodington & Company, a San Francisco-based Broker/Dealer that works with CTI on a project-by-project basis.  Bodington & Company provides investment banking services to electricity generators.  These services have included M&A, financing, restructuring and valuation advice concerning over 300 power projects.  Clients have included independent developers and owners, regulated utilities, equity investors, lenders, lessors and landowners.  Jeff and his staff have closed asset sales and purchases as well as financings and financial restructurings for biomass, coal, hydroelectric, natural gas and wind projects, in most cases using multiple-bidder competitive auctions.  He has been a frequent speaker or invited chair of major power generation conferences and has authored more than 50 papers and articles on project finance and power-related matters.  Before forming Bodington & Company in 1990, Jeff spent eight years working for Bechtel Group, Inc. where he was responsible for structuring and financing power and transportation projects.  Prior to Bechtel, he spent four years at Resource Planning Associates, Inc. where he evaluated competitive and financial aspects of energy-related business ventures for Fortune 500 clients.  Jeff has an MS in Applied Economics from Cornell University and a BS with Honors in Economics and Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley.  Jeff is a registered Securities Representative and Principal.  He and his family live in San Francisco, California.

Richard Charnov formed his own law practice in 1993 to provide corporate clients with international and domestic project finance legal services.   He specializes in structuring and negotiating energy transactions and has substantial experience representing developers on transactions in the People's Republic of China and Poland as well as negotiating power sales agreements, thermal energy sales agreements, asset acquisition agreements and related documentation.  Mr. Charnov has also worked on projects in the Czech Republic, India and Tunisia.  His U.S. practice includes representing clients in connection with hydro-electric facilities, petroleum coke-fired and gas-fired cogeneration facilities.  From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Charnov was associated with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York City, where he represented developers and lenders in project financings of coal- and gas-fired projects and hydroelectric and municipal resource recovery projects.  From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Charnov was with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae L.L.P. where he worked with investor-owned utilities.  From 1981 to 1987, he was with Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon where he represented lessees, underwriters, lenders and lessors in structuring leveraged leases of electric generating and manufacturing facilities, aircraft, railcars and marine equipment.  Mr. Charnov received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1976 and his J.D. from Georgetown Law School in 1979. Mr. Charnov works from offices in New York and Vermont.

David B. (Dave) Grogan is Managing Principal of D.B. Grogan Associates, LLC. (DBGA). CTI teams with DBGA on a project by project basis. DBGA was established in 1991 and specializes in large scale energy project Development and Engineering.  Dave’s personal background includes over 40 years of experience in the technical and commercial aspects of power generating facilities, he and his Associates at DBGA have performed a wide variety of specialized assignments for major power production, energy or development firms.  Prior to founding the company, Mr. Grogan spent 25 years at Combustion Engineering, Inc. (CE) where he was responsible for the successful development of a number of waste coal fired, circulating fluidized bed power projects in eastern Pennsylvania.  In addition, he served as Project Manager of two 500 MW coal-fired boilers in Korea and held various design engineering supervisory and senior engineering positions in both the Fossil and Nuclear Engineering Departments of CE.  Dave also served as Proposal Manager and Project Manager on several hydropower projects for the US-French joint venture firm of CE/Neyrpic.  He was selected for senior engineer in-residence assignments at Duke Power Company in 1973-1974 and at Kraftwerk Union in 1972.  Dave received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Western New England College and has completed graduate-level courses in specialized engineering and management disciplines at UC Berkley and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Management Association. 

David J. H. Nicoll is Senior Vice President of Engineering for Synthesis Energy Sytems, Inc.  Mr. Nicoll has been involved in the development of power, refining, petrochemical and fertilizer projects around the world.  As a Senior Vice President and Officer of the Fluor Corporation, Mr. Nicoll headed the Project Finance Group from 1989 to 1993. From 1984 to 1989, he was Managing Director, International Project Finance and Venture Development for Combustion Engineering and prior to that, Vice President for Venture Projects of Lummus Crest, Inc. From 1982 to 1983 he served as Managing Director of Procon in Great Britain, and before that as President of Widmer and Ernst, a hazardous waste disposal firm owned by Alusuisse. From 1970 to 1974 Mr. Nicoll was Managing Director of Empresa Brasileira de Tetramero, a São Paulo-based private petrochemical venture. Mr. Nicoll has a degree in chemical engineering with honors from Loughborough University of Technology in Loughborough, England and a degree in Intermediate Laws from London University. He is fluent in French, Portuguese and Spanish. Dave and his wife live in Miilington, New Jersey.

Edward P. (Ed) Martin is an Executive Consultant with R. W. Beck, Inc. in their Orlando, FL office, operating out of Indianapolis.  Prior to joining R.W. Beck, Ed served as President and CEO of Wabash Valley Power Association, Inc. (WVPA) until his retirement in August, 2005.  During his 29 years leading WVPA he transformed it from an organization without revenues or market to a company with $400 million in revenues and a market of twenty-seven distribution rural electric cooperatives having a maximum demand of approximately 1,400 megawatts.  During the late 1990’s he was one of the founders of ACES Power Marketing, serving first as ACES’s first CEO and subsequently as its Chairman of the Board.  In January, 2005 Ed engineered WVPA’s purchase of a controlling ownership interest in SG Solutions, a partnership formed to acquire and operate the 262MW Wabash River Gasification Plant located in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Prior to joining WVPA, Ed worked as a Professional Engineer at Southern Engineering Company of Georgia in Atlanta.  He has served as an expert witness before numerous state regulatory commissions and before what today is FERC.  He has also made numerous presentations to rural electric cooperative audiences through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.  Ed serves on the CEIC Advisory Board of Carnegie Mellon University.  He received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and his MBA from Indiana University.  Ed and his wife Charlotte live in Avon, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.

On specialized gasification technical issues, CTI is able to draw on the resources of Dr. Herbert M. (Herb) Kosstrin of R. W. Beck, Inc.

Additional project finance resources

To supplement its own resources, in 1998 CTI formed a non-exclusive strategic alliance with senior professionals at other firms.  These professionals, the majority of whom CTI has worked with for several years, regularly cross-refer business leads, share market intelligence, and work together on individual assignments.  Geographic coverage includes the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

This diverse group includes investment bankers, engineers, lawyers, privatization experts, energy risk managers, energy outsourcing specialists and financial modelers, each with at least 25 years experience.  These additional resources currently include:

Mark H. O’Donoghue is a partner with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, an international law firm headquartered in New York City. He is a member of the Firm’s international/Corporate Department, specializing in energy law and project finance. Mr. O’Donoghue has been involved in the privatization, financing and negotiation of power projects in Mexico and Oman. For the last five years, he has been head of the Firm’s branch office in Mexico City where he has worked on international corporate matters, privatizations and project financings. His experience includes the Merida III project, the first independent power project undertaken by the Commission Federal de Electricidad, the government-owned electric utility monopoly in Mexico. He is admitted to practice in New York State and the District of Columbia, and is a member of the American Bar Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Federal Energy Bar Association. Mr. O’Donoghue holds a B.A. cum laude in History from Harvard College and a J.D., cum laude from Harvard Law School. He is fluent in Spanish. He and his family live in New York City.

James B. Greene is President of James Greene and Associates, which he founded in 1986 to provide project and corporate financing advisory services to the energy, electric utility and independent power industries. Prior to forming James B. Greene and Associates, he served for three years as Vice President and Treasurer of TOSCO Corporation where he was responsible for restructuring three $700 million bank debt agreements and for financing a $90 million cogeneration project. For the 12 years before that Mr. Greene was Assistant Treasurer and Manager of Corporate Finance for Southern California Edison Company where he was responsible for over $4 billion in project finance, leasing, tax-exempt financing and foreign borrowings. Mr. Greene holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. in Finance and Management from the University of Southern California, where he has taught courses in strategic planning and completed the required course work under the business doctoral program. Mr. Greene is also a C.P.A. He and his family live in Palos Verdes, California.

Mark A. Riser is a Principal with Hamilton Robinson, LLC, a private venture equity fund based in Stamford, CT. Mark has a background in operations, finance, and corporate development. He joined Hamilton Robinson in 1999 from Trigen Energy Corporation where he was Manager of Acquisitions and successfully led the company's second largest acquisition, analyzed numerous acquisition opportunities, and played a key role in managing the company's financial relationships. He received a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 1986 and began his career as a Division Officer aboard a nuclear powered submarine in the U.S. Navy. Upon leaving the Navy, he completed his MBA at the Darden School, University of Virginia in 1994 and worked two years for International Paper in the Treasury and Capital Budgets groups. Mark and his family live in Ridgefield, CT.