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The experience and credibility of the Nevada Geothermal team members including its Board of Directors and advisors is an integral part of the Company's plan to develop the Blue Mountain geothermal project, to develop additional properties and attract capital.
Directors and Officers:
Brian D. Fairbank, B.A.Sc., P. Eng.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Director
Mr. Fairbank is a geological engineer and Canada's foremost geothermal expert, with 30 years of geothermal engineering, exploration and resource assessment, business management and project finance experience. He founded Fairbank Engineering Ltd. in 1986, specializing in international project development. He was project manager through the discovery of Canada's Meager Creek Geothermal Area (1978-1982), then operated by BC Hydro and Power Authority. He assisted in the development of a National Power Plan for Kenya, East Africa and subsequently consulted on a production drilling program which developed 60MW of steam reserves to augment 45 MW of existing generating capacity at the Olkaria Power Station, Kenya. Mr. Fairbank is a long-standing member of the Geothermal Energy Association, a Past President of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association, and is currently on the Geothermal Resources Council Board of Directors.
Andrew T. Studley, P. Eng, CPA, MBA
Chief Financial Officer and Secretary
Mr. Studley has over 24 years of experience in all areas of corporate planning, accounting, finance and administration for chemical, energy and environmental management to worldwide chemical companies, refiners and power companies. Mr. Studley started his career in finance with Imperial Oil Ltd., and later was promoted to National Manager Marketing and Business Development. He was Vice President of Corporate Planning with AT Plastics and most recently, Corporate Controller with Marsulex Inc. - an environmental management and outsourced service provider to worldwide chemical companies, refiners and power companies.
Mr. Studley holds a Chemical Engineering Degree, an MBA from Harvard University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Domenic Falcone, CPA
Director
Mr. Falcone was a founder of Geothermal Resource International Inc. (GRI, 1971 to 1987) - a power developer in California which played a significant role in building a viable U.S. geothermal industry. Mr. Falcone in the position of Senior Vice President - Finance with GRI has an extensive background in geothermal project finance, acquisitions and business development, and a broad knowledge of the independent power and energy industries.
As president and principal of Domenic J. Falcone Associates Inc. from 1991 to 1997, he provided project financing and financial services to the independent power, co-generation, solid waste and wastewater industries; he participated in arranging financing for resource and power development projects in excess of $200 million.
He was Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of PG & E Energy Services during the start-up period and President of Creston Financial Group (1991-1997). Mr. Falcone is currently an independent financial consultant. Mr. Falcone received the Joseph W. Aidlin Award in 1991 from the Geothermal Resources Council, recognizing his outstanding contribution to the development of geothermal resources. Mr. Falcone is a long-standing member of the Geothermal Resources Council.
Markus K. Christen
Director
Mr. Christen is a Senior Financial Executive with extensive experience in investment and commercial banking, both in the US and internationally. He is a recognized leader in the financial industry having been responsible and involved in raising over US $50 billion for projects in developed and emerging markets, including many geothermal plants.
Mr. Christen, born in Switzerland, received a law degree from the University of Zurich in 1981. He joined Credit Suisse in Zurich in 1983. As a member of senior management, Head of Project Finance and Head of Structured Finance for Credit Suisse, New York between 1989 and 1996, he developed the Project Finance Group into a recognized leader and trendsetter in North America and successfully led a global expansion with teams based in London and Hong Kong. Mr. Christen was Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston, New York from 1997-2000 where he was responsible for the acquisition and execution of major project finance transactions on a global basis. In 2000, Mr. Christen established an independent financial advisory practice specializing in mergers, acquisitions and project finance.
Mr. Christen has extensive geothermal power industry contacts and project finance or project acquisition experience in Nevada (Brady, Desert Peak), California (Coso, Geysers, Salton Sea, East Mesa, Ormesa), Hawaii, Indonesia, and the Philippines (Mahanagdong, Malitbog Visayas, Upper Mahiao).
Gavin Cooper, Chartered Accountant
Director
Mr. Cooper is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor of Accounting (Hons) from the University of South Africa and has more than 20 years of experience in senior executive management roles. He served as Chief Financial Officer from 2003 to 2008 with VRB Power Systems Inc. (a flow battery energy storage development company), President and CEO of Catamaran Ferries International Inc. through the wind-up phase of the BC Government's fast ferries program, Director of Finance and Administration at Yarrows Ltd., Vice President and Director of Pacific Engineered Materials Inc., and Senior Audit Manager at Ernst & Whinney in Vancouver, BC; London, UK; and Capetown, South Africa.
R. Gordon Bloomquist, Ph.D.,
Director
Mr. Bloomquist, a recognized geothermal expert, is currently a consultant to the World Bank on its' energy projects. As a past Director of Geothermal and District Energy Programs with the Washington State Energy Office, Dr. Bloomquist was responsible for all state geothermal policy decisions, technical assistance to geothermal resource developers, investigation of regional and local resources, and district heating feasibility studies and programs.
He has consulted with a wide variety of private corporations and institutions on legislative issues for geothermal development, power generation, environmental regulation and regional geothermal resource assessment. Dr. Bloomquist has been a Visiting Professor at the International School of Geothermics in Pisa, Italy since 1990 and a member of the Geothermal Resource Council since 1972 (past Chairman and President).
James Yates
Director
Mr. Yates is an independent businessman with 20 years of experience in corporate development and financing of start up resource companies. Mr. Yates financed and developed to production the Crowfoot Lewis open-pit gold mine in Nevada and is currently a director of ESO Uranium Corp., a mineral exploration company focused on uranium exploration, and Canyon Copper, an exploration and resource company with an advanced mineral resource property in Nevada.
TechnicalDirector of Resource Exploration
Kim Niggemann, B.Sc., Geologist
Ms. Niggemann is the Director of Resource Exploration responsible for resource development on all existing properties and new acquisitions. She oversees all aspects of the geology, geochemistry and geophysics, drilling and reservoir engineering operations, leases, land, environmental and regulatory compliance, program efficiency, budget control and contracts.
Ms. Niggemann obtained a B.Sc. degree in geology from the University of New Brunswick in 1980 and worked with the Department of Natural Resources of New Brunswick, Shell Canada, and Home Oil in eastern Canada before joining Chevron Resources in Vancouver, B.C. Chevron field projects included potash deposits in Cape Breton, mining exploration in the Yukon and British Columbia, and major field involvement in drilling at the Muddy Lake gold discovery. Muddy Lake was later developed as the Golden Bear Mine.
Ms. Niggemann took a sabbatical from mineral exploration in 1990. In 2001, she obtained a Management Systems Certificate with honors from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and gained business management, project accounting, bookkeeping and consulting experience working on contracts for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) and small businesses.
Since joining the NGP team in 2003, Ms. Niggemann has successfully fulfilled three US DOE contracts for slim well drilling and geophysics under the GRED program which resulted in the success of the 49.5MW nameplate Blue Mountain Faulkner I Geothermal Power Plant in Humboldt County, Nevada.
Senior Geologist
Glenn Melosh
Mr. Melosh has over 30 years of experience in all phases of geothermal exploration, development, and operation as well as geophysical, geological, geochemical and risk methods. Mr. Melosh started his career in the late 1970's with Unocal as a geophysicist supporting exploration and development efforts at the Geysers, Salton Sea, and Nevada. As an exploration geologist in the 1980's for Unocal he performed reconnaissance exploration and assessment work in Nevada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Indonesia.
From the 1990's until 2004, Mr. Melosh was part of the Unocal team at Namora I Langit and Silangkitang leading to discovery of 400 MW of geothermal energy in Sumatra. Then as Chief Development Geologist for Unocal Indonesia, he was involved with the development and operation of Awibengkok taking it from 110 to 370 MW while completing and operating Wayang Windu at 110 MW in West Java.
More recently, he was an advising geologist to Chevron and consulted for Ormat, Mighty River Power, and Geotermia Del Pacifico, working on resource conceptual models, new methods for well targeting and drilling support, geologist training, exploration assessments, and well stimulation.
Currently Mr. Melosh is responsible for conceptual model development at Nevada Geothermal Power's Blue Mountain, Pumpernickel, and Crump Geyser sites in Nevada and Oregon.
V.P. Operations and Development
Max Walenciak, P.Eng
Max Walenciak is based in Nevada Geothermal Power's Reno office.
Mr. Walenciak is a registered professional engineer with over 30 years of diverse project management experience including both gas-fired and geothermal power plants. His experience includes project planning, design development, permitting support, negotiation of key project development and operation agreements, and operations of power plants and associated facilities. He has an in-depth understanding of the design, procurement, and construction process from the owner/developer's perspective.
Mr. Walenciak is responsible for engineering, equipment procurement and contractor selection for the Company's planned 'Faulkner 1' geothermal power plant, well field and transmission line at Blue Mountain, Nevada. Mr. Walenciak will direct critical path scheduling and manage the overall construction effort.
Operations Manager
Mark Kolar
Mr. Kolar, based in NPG's Winnemucca office, is the Operations Manager of NGP's Blue Mountain I geothermal project. Mark has 19 years of geothermal operating experience at the Coso Geothermal Project in California. Mr. Kolar worked all aspects at the Coso Projects starting as a Wellfield Operator, progressing to Control Room Operator, then Shift Supervisor, then Maintenance Supervisor and finally to Operations Manager. In the later position he supervised 42 operations personnel and the operations of 9 power plants producing in excess of 200 MW. His responsibilities included ensuring the projects operated in compliance with the BLM and US Navy agreements, managing daily operations, setting up safety procedures, developing project operations budgets, ensuring the procurement of equipment and services and the general administration of personnel.
Prior to joining the Coso operations, Mark was with the US Navy for 6 years and trained as a Nuclear Machinist Mate with a specialty in chemistry and radiological controls. In this role, his duties as a Lead EKT included supervising of all aspects of the steam generator, reactor plant, make-up and feed water chemistry control.
Corporate Communications/Investor Relations
Shelley Kirk
Ms. Kirk is responsible for day-to-day communication with investors, stakeholders, analysts, and media and has assisted in the financing of Nevada Geothermal. Ms. Kirk has over 25 years experience in finance and communications in the investment industry. She started her career as a broker in Vancouver and left the industry to start her own film and television production company in the early 1990's. She was the founding director of a Biotech and Tech Fund in the early 2000's and has been a general partner for various Marketing Limited Partnerships.
Manager, Corporate and Investor Relations
David Punch
With over 15 years experience in business development, sales, advertising and investor relations, Mr. Punch is responsible for corporate development and investor relations at NGP. Mr. Punch's diverse career includes working in investor relations, investment advisement and in 2001, he co-founded and served as Vice President of Business Development at an internet advertising network and technology provider until the company was acquired by an industry leading company. Mr. Punch holds a BA from the University of British Columbia with a background in Economics.
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