Tuck Energy Currents

Eric speaks with Peter Cella, former CEO and Chairman of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, a global petrochemical company jointly owned by Chevron Corporation and Phillips 66. Mr. Cella entered the energy industry in 1981 as an analyst in Amoco’s controllership. He has since served in various roles of increasing responsibility at Amoco, BP, BASF, and Chevron Phillips Chemical. Mr. Cella graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in finance and completed his M.B.A. at Northwestern University. 

Eric speaks with Margaret Murphy, Director of Business Development at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest regulated utilities in the United States and the largest in California. Ms. Murphy has been with PG&E since graduating from the Tuck School in 2008 and has held various positions across the corporation as part of their leadership development program, including strategy, operations, finance, and investor relations. In her current role, Ms. Murphy is primarily responsible for developing PG&E’s non-tariffed group, which identifies non-traditional opportunities to leverage PG&E’s assets and expertise to create additional value for clients. 

Eric speaks with Scott Brown D'78, the founder and managing partner of New Energy Capital (NEC), a Hanover, NH-based private equity firm focused on renewable energy investments. Prior to founding New Energy Capital in 2004, Scott was an Executive Vice President at First Solar, the largest solar manufacturer in the US, a founder of the nonprofit Conflict Management Group, and a consultant at Bain & Company. Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Scott holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA in Mathematics and Russian Studies from Dartmouth College. Links & Additional Information:  2020 NECP Impact Report: https://newenergycapital.com/2021/04/30/2020-necp-impact-report/ 

Eric speaks with Mike Allison, senior managing director at Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in New York, where he focuses on investing in renewables and power generation. Prior to joining Stonepeak, Mike worked in agriculture commodity derivative risk for Bankers Trust in Australia, which was later acquired by Macquarie. The ethanol boom in the early 2000s prompted Mike’s initial interest in private equity, and he ran the renewable energy investing group at Macquarie Capital from 2008-2016. Mike has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney. 

Eric speaks with Thad Hill, President and CEO of Calpine Corporation, an integrated competitive power company and the largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources in the United States. Mr. Hill has been a leader in the energy industry since 2005, working at both Texas Genco LP and NRG Energy before joining Calpine in 2010. Prior to that, Mr. Hill worked at Boston Consulting Group, where he spent much of his time focused on the North American energy industry.  Links & Additional Information: California Air Resources Board, Achieving Carbon Neutrality in California, 2020. Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) and Energy Futures Initiative, Net-Zero New England: Ensuring Electric Reliability in a Low-Carbon Future, 2020. McKinsey & Co., A 2040 Vision for the U.S. Power Industry: Evaluating Two Decarbonization Scenarios, 2020.Princeton University Report, Net-Zero America – Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts, 2020. James H. Williams et al., Carbon-Neutral Pathways for the United States, 2021.  

Eric speaks with Edmund Gaither, who leads petroleum development and M&A efforts at BHP, a world-leading resources company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Mr. Gaither graduated from Tuck in 2000, after completing a dual degree program at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Prior to joining BHP, Mr. Gaither spent 18 years at Shell, where he served in a variety of roles and across various regions, both in Shell’s CFO and M&A tracks.  

Eric Lukas speaks with Robert Sewell, his classmate at the Tuck School of Business and founder and CEO of VesprSolar, a startup focused on transforming how solar panels are installed through their innovative V-Clamp fastener. Mr. Sewell founded VesprSolar in 2016, and previously worked as a strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte. 

Eric speaks with Caroline Mann, a principal at Swift Current Energy in Boston. Prior to Swift Current, Caroline was a financial analyst at NextEra Energy, focused primarily on greenfield wind projects. Earlier in her career, she worked in the renewable energy office of the US Department of Energy, focusing on environmental reviews and compliance. Originally from Florida, Caroline is a 2015 graduate of Tuck and holds a B.A. in Politics and a Certificate in Environmental Studies from Washington and Lee University.

Eric speaks with Curtis Probst, the CEO of NYCEEC, a public-private-philanthropic partnership focused on financing clean energy projects. Prior to joining NYCEEC, Mr. Probst was a Managing Director and the Head of Sustainable Finance for RMI. He also worked in investment banking for over 24 years, most recently serving as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Probst has been an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University since 2016, where he teaches a graduate level course on clean energy finance. 

Eric speaks with Jon Fouts, Managing Director for the global power and utilities group at Morgan Stanley. Prior to joining the power and utilities group in 2008, Jon worked across several divisions of Morgan Stanley, including as an investment banking analyst and in the private equity and financial institutions group. Jon is a 1992 Tuck graduate and holds an A.B. in Economics and Political Science from Bowdoin College.