MANAGEMENT TEAM
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY:
Valencia Energy & Power, Inc. has assembled and continues to gather a highly skilled team of professionals with complementary skill sets in all aspects of VEPI’s activities, to anchor its plant development, power generation, and power supply operations. VEPI’s present and committed team members collectively represent 100’s of years of relevant experience and afford Valencia the right knowledge base and leadership for success.
TOP CORPORATE TEAM MEMBERS:
Dr. Anthony Valencia, Ph.D. Chief Executive Officer (CEO):
Dr. Valencia, a talented visionary that brings over 25 years of multifaceted experience to the helm of VEPI. His management skills and philosophy is the result of years of shepherding ventures in the areas of technology products, and facilities and property development. His strengths lie in business generation, motivating and visionary leadership, and strategic planning. Dr. Valencia is an avid student of lifelong learning, and his diverse acquired knowledge, experience, and a keen interest in the areas of management, customer service, logistics, finance, and law, affords VEPI a broad view leadership. Dr. Valencia’s technological background is in civil engineering, electronic robotics engineering, and quantum physics. His strength is in cutting edge technology product and process development, and his extensive experience includes work in the fields of power generation, medical, and transportation technologies. Dr. Valencia was a leading part of the team that developed the Nano Accelerated Hydro Dynamics (NAHD) power technology. His product development activities include work with strategic partner vendors for the US military. His business and technology background, experience, and skills ensure VEPI a leadership that supports success throughout the product development, manufacturing, and sales chain.
Mr. Howard Brown, Chief Operation Officer (COO) / Executive Vice Presidents of Operations, (EVPO):
Mr. Brown is an innovative, solutions-driven executive with more than 25 years of experience managing sales, operations, and personnel at district, regional, and corporate levels. Mr. Brown's experience includes work in the top management positions in the energy products and services sector, and he has lead several successful companies in the industry in identifying and seizing opportunities for accelerated growth. Mr. Brown brings big-picture vision with a proven ability to identify opportunities, develop focus, and provide tactical business decisions and solutions to VEPI. As Sr. Vice President, and as COO in his former positions, Mr. Brown’s responsibilities included interfacing and negotiating energy-related contracts with Fortune 500 companies, including retailers, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Barnes, and Noble, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. He possesses a demonstrated ability to expand the business base, improve operating margins, elevate business performance levels, and ensure operational change readiness to achieve strategic objectives and protect shareholder equity. Mr. Brown received his B.S. in International Affairs from the University of Florida.
Larry J. Newsome, C.P.A. Chief Financial Officer (CFO):
Mr. Newsome is a seasoned financial executive, with proven talent as a results-oriented innovator and strategic thinker. He is an executive management professional with extensive experience and proven leadership in all aspects of financial management and tax planning. His background includes work in the areas of tax planning for new business lines, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and restructuring, and financial management, including operational planning, budgeting, cost and expense control and reduction, contract negotiations, financial analysis, and project management, for large publicly traded corporations. Mr. Newsome’s past positions include serving as Senior Vice President and CFO of Progress Credit Corporation and its subsidiaries encompassing the lending, leasing, and real estate units of Florida Progress Corporation (with a $558 million asset portfolio). He was a member of the executive management team for Florida Progress and Florida Power Corporation that analyzed and proposed new business projects and lines of business. Bought, sold, and organized over 200 firms. He oversaw all aspects of the Tax Administration Department for Florida Progress Corporation and all subsidiary companies and had direct responsibility for all tax issues, concerns, and filings. He also served as chief negotiator for Florida Power in the formation of a joint venture, including one with Accenture (formerly Andersen) to develop customer service systems still sold worldwide. His many accomplishments include developing a highly-skilled financial analysis and strategic planning team tasked with an extremely complicated Asset restructurings and divestitures for Florida Progress. As a vital member of the group, Mr. Newsome developed the concept and strategy to spin off non-strategic assets into a subsequently publicly traded entity – Echelon. His team’s efforts contributed in creating about $350 million of new shareholder value, and the avoidance of $100 million in taxes. His work for Echelon included helping Echelon go public, and executing investor relations programs with significant contact with the company’s major investors. He also raised over $400 million of construction and permanent financing for Commercial and multi-family projects for Echelon and restructured loans, substantially improving loan terms and cost. As CFO, Mr. Newsome brings to VEPI in-depth financial knowledge and management skills that provide required financial guidance for success.
Mr. Seth Haight, Chief Financial Controller Officer (CFCO):
Mr. Haight brings over 15 years as an accomplished financial executive with PricewaterhouseCoopers and demonstrated experience in optimizing revenue streams and shareholder equity, as well as resolving key business issues and implementing profitability solutions to VEPI. His expertise includes domestic and international work in the Technology, Business Services, and Industrial manufacturing and public accounting sectors. With several Fortune 500 Companies. He possesses extensive experience in overseeing all aspects of financial budgeting and reporting and the preparation and development of strategic plans. He is a results-driven leader who has successfully implemented policies and business practices that create shareholder value. Mr. Haight earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Iowa. He is a Certified Public Accountant and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Gregory Williams, Senior Vice President for Facilities and Operational Logistics (SVPOL):
Mr. Williams is a veteran in the field of facilities management, preservation, and operational logistics. He draws from extensive senior management experience in law enforcement as warden of correction facilities, and his work in physical projects management, at the end of his law enforcement career. During his work as a senior law enforcement executive, Mr. Williams had responsibility for programs and operation in a succession of some of the most extensive correctional facilities in the United States. He handled the complicated and stressful multifaceted operational aspects of such facilities, including maintenance of the physical facility, security of life and property within the facilities, inmate order, management of daily operations of personnel, purchasing, administration, and the logistics of moving the most dangerous felons in and out of the facilities and around the country. Mr. Williams’ skill set includes strategic planning, H & R management, budgeting, forecasting, and data collection and accurate quantitative and statistical analyses, the keen ability to make right decisive decisions under pressure, and project management. His proven skillset enables him to direct and coordinate physical protection and maintenance of VEPI’s facilities and the logistics of moving VEPI input resources and output services in support of the company’s growth. Before Mr. Williams's work in law enforcement, he worked in the energy industry with Florida Power (a division of Duke Energy). His experience and knowledge of the energy industry enables him to transfer and apply his facility, logistics, and project management experience to support the VEPI’s facilities and logistics operational efficiency. Mr. Williams holds a bachelor's degree from Bethune- Cookman University and business certificates from Northwestern Business School in Chicago. He is a highly respected professional and involved citizen and a member of the Rotary Group Study Exchange Program. Mr. Williams represented the United States in Australia as a Goodwill Ambassador and served on several boards in his community.
I. Kene Obi, Senior Vice President for Contracts (SVPC):
Mr. Obi brings more than 25 years of legal and financial experience in transportation logistics, energy, project finance, and real estate industries to VEPI. His expertise spans legal work in multiple jurisdictions in Africa, Europe, and the United States, in public practice in the Office of the Solicitor General, in private practice in highly reputable law firms, and as in-house corporate counsel or as legal adviser to energy, banking, and international trade corporations. His past employers and clients include Global Turbine Power, Inc. Westgate Shipping Limited, Microchip technologies limited, Continental Merchant Bank, American Customs Coachworks, Utility Investments Union, Limited, to name a few. His areas of expertise are contract negotiation, structuring, documentation, and administration. He holds a Master of Laws degree from The London School of Economics (LSE), specializing in International Business and Finance transactions. Mr. Obi is also a founding member of the board of trustees of the Malku Institute of Technology, Ghana.
Tamara Felton-Howard, Vice President/ Legal Counsel (VPLC):
Tamara Felton-Howard, Esq. is a licensed Florida attorney. Ms. Felton brings a wealth of experience in the legal and financial field to bear on her position as VEPI’s legal counsel. Her experience includes work in a managerial area in the banking industry, in public practice as Assistant State Attorney, in private practice as a law partner in the law firm of Rouson & Dudley, P.A. and her law firm, and as the General Counsel for Urban Development Solutions, Inc. (“UDS”). Her areas of expertise are corporate, real estate development, and general contract law. She is a cum laude graduate of Florida A&M University’s School of Business and Industry, a graduate of Stetson University College of Law, and she holds an LLM degree in Real Property Development from the University of Miami. Ms. Felton Howard is a Past President of the Fred G. Minnis Bar Association. She also received the SCLC Women’s Drum Major for Justice Award and the First Ladies in African-American History Award from the Carter G. Woodson Museum in recognition for being the first African-American to graduate from Stetson University with both a J.D. and M.B.A. degree.
Michelle Gibson, Senior Vice President for Plant Operations (SVPPO):
Ms. Gibson, impressive background spans experience in multiple industries - from food, oil & gas, consumer electronics, to sustainable building materials; in several countries. She brings to VEPI deep skill sets in the areas of executive management, facilities development, and product and process quality control, and environmental credential that is highly compatible with VEPI’s business activities and goals. Ms. Gibson possesses over 25 years of engineering, plant startup, supply chain, and business management experience. She has a successful track record of achieving stellar results for several fortune 500 companies, such as Bell Laboratories, Motorola, Dell, Mars, and IceStone. She has executed several global supply chain and manufacturing transformations, and Greenfield startup operations (most notably the Dell Nashville plant, a 1 Million square feet state of the art facility, and the Dell Malaysia plant in Penang, Malaysia. Under her leadership, one of her former employers – Icestone, was nationally recognized for sustainable excellence by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Her strategic approach provides business development and execution across business value streams innovatively to achieve operational efficiencies, business growth, and profitability. She is an intensely focused and highly competitive leader and team player, and an expert in dynamic transformation. She successfully drives all aspects of operations, from product design and engineering through production & logistics, to sales, marketing, and delivery, and turns around marginal operations, enhances successful enterprises, and builds a foundation of excellence in startups. Ms. Gibson is experience with a knack for devising and implementing smart solutions to complex global operations challenges. She is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean Master, and High-Performance Team development specialist. She received her B.S. Of Electrical Engineering from Pratt Institute, M.S. of Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.B.A. in International Business from the University of Miami.
Gypsy A. Córdova Martínez, Vice President for Plant Development (VPPD):
Mr. Córdova Martínez has decades of results-focused management and progressive leadership experience in the power sector. His expertise covers many aspects of power generation and transmission, and includes work as Field Engineer Project Manager for Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority with responsibility for the management and inspection of multi-million-dollar special construction projects, including Palo Seco Steam Plant Balanced and San Juan Steam Plant Balanced Draft Conversions; San Juan Steam Plant Gas Repowering, New Mayaguez Turbines, Monacillos Transmission and Distribution Center; and multiple new Technical Office Sites and commercial office spaces, to ensure conformity with technical specifications and budget. Subsequently, Mr. Córdova worked as SPCC Field Engineer Inspector, with responsibility for coordinating the team that provides good engineering practices in hydroelectric plants, and electric substations, including ensuring environmental compliance. His leadership style transforms staff with potential into outstanding leaders in engineering, project management, and finance.
Mr. Juan Tapia, Vice President for Power Plant Engineering (DPPE):
Mr. Juan Tapia, DPPE, brings over 12 years of electrical design engineering, utility field engineering, and project management experience to VEPI. Mr. Tapia’s career has spanned from the design of power plant systems and transmission analysis to project management and procurement. Mr. Tapia recognition for his work in transmission line parameters and modeling, transformer and generator modeling, voltage control system, network, and power flow analysis, and stability, and protection for power systems. Mr. Tapia has a vast working knowledge of industrial and power plant electrical design, use of energy codes for CAD electrical design, and coordinating with multiple vendors to complete projects within desired time frames. Mr. Tapia earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University with an emphasis on power and energy systems.
HONDURAN EXECUTIVE TEAM:
JOSE AMILCAR MATA GONZALES, Honduran Legal Counsel (HLC):
Mr. Mata Gonzales brings a very pertinent legal and technology background to VEPI. Mr. Gonzales is both a licensed Honduran lawyer and an engineer. Before settling into the practice of law, he studied Electricity and Computer engineering. He worked in various capacities, including senior management capacities, in telecommunication and technology with the Honduran Telecommunication Company. Mr. Gonzalez possesses both technical knowledge and the experiential know-how of navigating the operational environment for utilities in Honduras; knowledge that will enable him to effectively assist VEPI, and to navigate the legal aspects of operations in Honduras successfully. Mr. Gonzalez holds a law and an engineering degree from Universidad Technologica de Honduras.
OSCAR MAURICIO TRIGUEROS, Plant Project Manager/ Engineering Operations Manager (PPMEOM):
Mr. Miranda’s impressive background bestrides the worlds of industry and academia; Mr. Miranda is an industrial electrical engineer, project manager, and physics professor. He affords VEPI the technical and project implementation know-how VEPI needs to realize its the project development goals in Honduras. His project management experience spans work in the Planning and Implementation of Biomass and Biogas electromechanical projects, 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular networks projects, and design of Biomass and Biogas Electrical installations for industrial, commercial and residential installations on behalf of employers and clients. Mr. Miranda holds an Industrial Electric Engineering degree, and Master’s degrees in Project management, and General Physics. She is also currently a professor in Physical Mathematics in the Department of Physics at the CUETEC -UNITEC, San Pedro Sula Cortes, Honduras. Mr. Miranda’s lists of professional memberships include the American Physical Society and the College of Electrical and Chemical Engineers of Honduras (CIMEQH).
H. CARLOS HUMBERTO LOPEZ, Manager Accounting (MA):
Mr. Humberto Lopez brings to VEPI over 20 years of corporate accounting and asset management experience in the banking and finance industries, and with the Honduran representative of Ernst and Young. During this period, Mr. Lopez’s at various times held positions as a corporate accountant, internal auditor, Asset manager, and accounting associate. His knowledge of accounting principles and practice across industries in Honduras affords VEPI the versatile knowledge base it will need to manage its local Honduras assets, as well as support VEPI’s goals to serve power off-take customer across industries. Mr. Lopez graduated in business management and accounting at the Universidad National Autonoma de Honduras.
JOSE LUIS NUÑEZ BENNETT, Manager Facilities and Operational Security (MFOS):
Mr. NUÑEZ BENNETT is a security expert with extensive experience in the security space. His impressive security experience in the military, national intelligence, and corporate security, and his versatile skill set includes personnel and property protection, and investigation, and management of security personnel at all organizational levels, and consulting on the crisis, and civil disturbance management, conflict resolution. His consulting credentials include work as a consultant to the Honduran National Department for airport security. His corporate experience spans airport, bank security, and Industrial Security, to name a few. By Mr. Nunez Bennet’s illustrious public and private careers, he brings a deep knowledge base and experience and very beneficial government, private and political contacts to VEPI.
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Thank you
The Management Team
This document was last updated on March 2020