Money for Megawatts
Energy Financing Trends
Location: North Ridge Room
Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Panel Description
This panel will address trends related to the financing of new technologies related to energy. In order for quick progress to be made in the development and deployment of alternative energies, the alternative energy space needs to move away from a subsidy driven market to one that is driven by economics. This can only be achieved through development of new technologies. But who will bear the risk of funding these new technologies? This panel will look at funding mechanisms and the role of venture capital, private equity, project finance, and consulting in bringing new technologies to the forefront.
Moderator
Ashwin Abhyankar, Advisor, Alpheas Strategic Advisors
Ashwin Abhyankar is on the advisory team for Alpheas Strategic Advisors, a silicon valley & India based private equity advisory group. Ashwin has over 20 years of technical and operational experience in the finance area. He has authored 2 provisional patents including one for “Method of Transferring Mortgages and Loans” and has co-authored an article on Harvard Business Review (HBR). His prior experience is with KPMG consulting, Countrywide Securities and Tata Unisys. Ashwin has spoken at various industry events and academic institutions like USC and UCLA.
Panelist
Luke Hayes, Principal, Craton Equity Partners
Mr. Hayes joined Craton in 2008 and is a Principal. His command of finance and strategy in addition to his strong technical background further Craton’s ability to assess investment opportunities, assist portfolio companies with growth initiatives and support general Fund activities and administration.
Mr. Hayes is responsible for making and overseeing new investments in addition to managing deal flow and due diligence activities. Mr. Hayes is a Director of Propel Fuels and manages Craton’s investment in Principle Energy.
Prior to joining Craton, Mr. Hayes spent five years working at Dow Chemical in sales and marketing where he managed joint development projects with strategic customers such as USG, Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, BP and Ecolab. In this capacity, Mr. Hayes led cross functional teams including sales, marketing, R&D, supply chain and finance resources to support new product launches and significantly increase sales for Dow. Mr. Hayes was also responsible for managing several distributors and determining the channel strategy for Dow’s animal biosecurity platform. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hayes worked as a Licensing Analyst in the Office of Technology Transfer at Brigham Young University where he was responsible for developing and negotiating licensing agreements for proprietary technologies. He also spent two years living in Brazil and has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Mr. Hayes holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management where he was a Student Investment Fund Fellow, Gloria Appel Fellow, Dean’s Scholar and member of the Honor’s Society. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University.
Panelist
Tom Buttgenbach, CEO, 8minutenergy Renewables
Tom is co-founder and president of 8minutenergy Renewables. He brings over 15 years of experience in large-scale project development and entitlement, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, and capital structuring and origination to 8minutenergy. Tom is largely responsible for the land entitlement process for 1,155 megawatts (MW) of 8minutenergy’s utility-scale solar projects, and for becoming the first solar PV project in California’s Imperial County to complete the Conditional Use Permit (CUP). Additionally, he has been leading the company’s multi-hundred megawatt bilateral negotiations for power purchase agreements with major utilities in California, and the structured finance team.
Prior to co-founding 8minutenergy, Tom was a principal with THB & Company, a boutique investment bank and advisory firm specializing in clean- and high-tech. He spent time on Wall Street in AllianceBernstein’s high-tech and global semiconductor group. Tom also founded and led the investment banking group of RCLCO, a leading real estate development advisory firm, and co-founded and served as CEO of dock3, a successful venture-backed startup company in the software and logistics market. In his career, he has closed over $500 million in business deals.
Tom spent over five years with McKinsey & Company in Europe and the U.S., advising the firm’s clients in the energy, finance and manufacturing sectors. Tom earned a Ph.D. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He received his undergraduate degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Cologne, Germany.
Panelist
Ajit Dixit, VP of Finance, RJT Compuquest
Ajit Dixit was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Avatar Solar. Avatar Solar engineers, constructs and owns solar power plants and farms in California, Hawaii and Asia. At Avatar Solar, Ajit developed financial models for feasibility assessment, negotiated contracts and financing of solar power projects. He established processes for easy evaluation of profitability of power purchase agreements.
In the past, Ajit has had finance leadership roles at multiple Fortune 500 multinational companies. He was Director of Finance for Amgen and Medtronic, and Vice President of Finance for Baxter International and Allergan. He has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, India; and a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Miami University.
Ajit is currently Vice President of Finance for RJT Compuquest, a company based in Torrance, CA.
