ARIES CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Business Development Northeast
Christopher Kidd has spent more than 24 years working in business development, finance, and operations. He has worked for companies such as Dynamic Energy, Safari Energy, SunDurance Energy, The Home Depot, and AT&T.
Mr. Kidd started his business development career at SunDurance Energy as Director, Business Development. There he managed and developed projects for numerous commercial and industrial clients as well as federal government agencies including the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. At Safari Energy, he served as the Vice President, Business Development where he secured over 100 MWs of projects during his tenure. He also served as the Vice President of Business Development at Dynamic Energy closing over 30 projects including projects with JPMorgan Chase, CubeSmart, and Brixmor Property Group.
He served in the U.S. Army on active duty from 1994 to 1998 and from 2005 to 2008 including a tour in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has been in Army Reserve since 2003 and continues to serve today where he retains the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Mr. Kidd is a graduate of the US Army Command & General Staff College and earned the coveted Ranger Tab while attending Ranger School, the Army's most arduous and demanding leadership course.
Mr. Kidd graduated from Montclair State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance. He later graduated with his MSA, Entrepreneurial Finance from Babson College.
Dan Sjostrom has 20 years of experience in corporate finance, accounting, mergers, and acquisitions with businesses ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups.
Mr. Sjostrom served as the Corporate Controller and Director, FP&A with JPW Industries Inc. before joining Aries Clean Technologies. At JPW, he directed all accounting, treasury, tax and financial reporting functions of this private equity owned global manufacturer. Prior to JPW Industries, Mr. Sjostrom served as a Controller and Finance Manager for Amazon Inc. and as the CFO for software development start-up N-Torus Technologies.
Mr. Sjostrom has earned his master's Degree in business administration from Thunderbird, The Garvin Graduate School of International Business, and his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas State University.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Board of Directors
DeWitt C. Thompson, V, is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Aries Clean Technologies. He has been President and CEO of Thompson Machinery Commerce Corporation, a Caterpillar heavy machinery and power systems distributor, since 2007.
Mr. Thompson founded PureWorks, Inc. (dba PureSafety) in 1999 and served as Chairman until the purchase of that company by Underwriters Laboratories in 2011.
In addition to his role at Aries Clean Technologies, Mr. Thompson is a Director of the Nashville Predators, Nikola Motor Company, and Wealth Access. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University.
DeWitt C. Thompson, IV, is a member of Aries Clean Technologies' Board of Directors. Following college graduation, Mr. Thompson served in the Tennessee Air National Guard as a navigator and pilot. He joined Thompson Machinery Commerce Corporation, a Caterpillar Dealership, in 1973 and took over as Chief Executive Officer in 1981. He is also the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thompson Machinery.
Mr. Thompson has served on various outside boards of directors including First American National Bank, Forke Brothers Auctioneers, Forke Credit Corporation, Cooperative Association of Tractor Dealers, Vector Disease Control International and PureWorks, Inc. He is also a part owner of the Nashville Predators, an NHL franchise.
Mr. Thompson graduated from the Vanderbilt School of Engineering with a focus on Civil Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Board of Directors
Greg Bafalis has more than 30 years of leadership in the clean technology and energy fields. His experience ranges from Fortune 500 Companies to starting his own private equity-backed renewable energy company in Houston, Texas, to running a Silicon Valley clean tech startup in the algae space.
Heather Kissinger brings to Aries more than two decades of work experience in the treasury field. Former employers have included Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Apache Corporation, and Stewart & Stevenson Services, Inc. Ms. Kissinger brings extensive experience in risk mitigation, contract negotiation, policy design, and project management to Aries.
Ms. Kissinger graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business. Following her graduation, Ms. Kissinger pursued treasury management and finance at numerous companies in Texas. She is also a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP).
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Resources
Jess M. Oathout joins the Aries Clean Technologies team with 20 years of Human Resources and Management experience from various manufacturing, retail, industrial, and corporate environments.
Most recently he comes from Advanced Composites, the premier automotive supplier of TPOs (Thermoplastic Olefins) and Polypropylene compounding. He led his team to receive The Tennessean's "Top Employers Award" from 2019-2021. Throughout his career he has been a strong proponent of safety, health and environment, and has been a part in several environmental impact teams within HR. Mr. Oathout's areas of expertise are in performance management, training, compliance, strategic leadership, employee relations, and team building.
He is a certified HR professional by the HRCI with his PHR and Society of Human Resource Management with his SHRM-CP. Mr. Oathout also holds a bachelor's degree in pre-law and a master's degree in business administration from Tennessee Technological University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Jim Ezzell serves as a member of the advisory board. His experience includes being the Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Secretary, and Director for Thompson Machinery Commerce Corporation for the past 29 years. Before Thompson, Mr. Ezzell spent six years in corporate banking with a major regional bank, and three years in the treasury department for a Fortune 500 company. During his 29 year tenure at Thompson Machinery, in addition to Aries Clean Technologies, he has formerly held similar positions in other Thompson affiliated companies ranging from an international heavy equipment auction company which also included a captive finance company; to a newspaper publishing company; to a highly successful e-learning company.
When the company was started, Mr. Ezzell's primary role with Aries Clean Technologies was to develop financing sources not only for Aries but also for customer installations if requested. In addition to supervising the typical treasury functions, other responsibilities include tax review that may apply to installations, contract review, and risk management.
Mr. Ezzell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of the South-Sewanee and two master's degrees from Georgia State University - a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and a Masters of Professional Accountancy. He currently maintains a C.P.A. - Inactive certification.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Business Development
Joel Thornton brings 10 years of experience in both clean energy and hydrocarbon industry to his role as Manager of Business Development with Aries Clean Technologies. He has been with the company for 5years having previously worked in the engineering department as part of the design team. Mr. Thornton is responsible for new project development primarily in the eastern region of the United States. He has also been actively involved in environmental permitting of the facilities in multiple states.
Most recently he worked for KBR's oil and gas design consultancy Granherne, where he was involved in new discoveries and pre-FEED engineering studies for both offshore and onshore gas projects generally on the northwest shelf of Western Australia as well as projects in the United Kingdom, Norway,Indonesia, Nigeria and the Middle East.
Mr. Thornton graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Engineering(Chemical and Process) with a major in hydrocarbon processing.
John Thompson is a member of Aries Clean Technologies' Board of directors and Vice President of Thompson Machinery Commerce Corporation, a Caterpillar dealership. He is a board member of the Nashville Predators NHL hockey club, and he owns Ashland Properties, a real estate property investment company.
Prior to working for Thompson Machinery, he served as an asset manager for Covenant Capital Group, LLC. He currently serves on the boards of United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee and the Blake McMeans Promise Tour.
A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Mr. Thompson and his wife, Margaret, reside in Nashville with their four children.
Job Titles:
- Director, Business Development West
Joseph Regnery joins Aries Clean Technologies with more than 30 years of development, finance, legal, and marketing experience in the chemical, fuel, and power sectors. He has worked for major equipment manufacturers, independent power producers including Calpine, and start-up energy technology companies, fielding projects and products around the globe.
He has lead gasification efforts ranging from combined cycle co-heat and power, to Fischer Tropsch fuels, to methanation synthetic natural gas. Over the past few years, his focus has been on sustainable chemicals, fuels, and power, developing or consulting on billions of dollars of renewable energy projects.
Mr. Regnery holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and received his Juris Doctor from Case Western School of Law.
Mark Bauer brings more than 30 years' experience as a professional in the renewable energy, oil and gas, unconventional oil recovery, mining and power industries to his role as Director of Projects at Aries Clean Technologies.
Mr. Bauer is experienced in assembling, motivating and leading multicultural teams for "Fast Track" construction and operations. His experience includes support for Project Finance, IFC, US EXIM and Private Equity as well as management of reliable, efficient, safe and cost-effective operations and maintenance of revenue producing assets. He was a founding partner in obtaining $168 million in private equity funding for the startup of Green Earth Fuels.
Mr. Bauer has direct experience implementing over $2.5 billion in new projects in international and domestic locations and clearly understands and knows how to apply the lessons learned working in culturally diverse and environmentally extreme locations. As Director of International Engineering and Operations for the El Paso Corporation's Global Power group, Mr. Bauer was responsible for operation of over 3,500 MW of power generation in seven different countries.
His specialties include project development and construction on international and domestic projects. In addition to Green Earth Fuels and Global Power, he has been on the team with EP Energy, Nations Energy, Southern Peru Copper Corporation, Red Leaf Resources and Chugach Electric.
Mr. Bauer holds bachelor's degrees from the University of Alaska in Mechanical Engineering, and from Oregon State University in Biology. He is also MSHA 5000-23 certified.
Mark Van Geffen brings 25 years' experience as a professional in the renewable energy, oil and gas, chemical processing, and refining industries to his role as Director of Engineering.
Mr. Van Geffen has led multiple project teams through his career through complex refinery expansions, greenfield catalyst manufacturing structure installations, process debottleneck and improvement retrofits, and Gas to Liquids pilot plant installations. All projects required "Fast Track" execution, without sacrificing cost and quality control. His experience includes support for Authorization for Expenditure (AFE) funding, HAZOP reviews, multidiscipline engineering, design and drafting, Professional Engineer certifications, mechanical and piping engineering and design, procurement, on-site construction support and project documentation closeout.
He has engineering and project management experience in domestic and international projects ranging from less than $1 million up to $100 million. As Vice President of Facilities at Excel Midstream Solutions, Mr. Van Geffen directed projects for eight oil and gas operators over three and a half years. Mr. Van Geffen continued to support oil and gas projects for multiple operators over the next five years, including supporting two operators as owner Project Manager.
His specialties include mentorship, discipline management, problem solving, multi-discipline coordination, prioritization, and project planning. Mr. Van Geffen holds a bachelor's degree from the University of New Orleans in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Professional Engineer in the States of Louisiana and Texas.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Board of Directors
Mark Witt joined the Aries Clean Energy team as CFO with 35 years of energy project and structured finance experience with major international companies as well as entrepreneurial start-ups.
He has successfully closed numerous financings for both public and private companies including four initial public offerings. He brings complimentary experience in power development and renewables as well as oil and gas exploration and production, transportation/storage and trading including KPMG, BP, Suez, Enron and Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Witt began his career as a CPA after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Director, Business Development New England
Mr. Lyons has 30 years of experience in the renewable energy-from-waste, recycling, and environmental services industries. He has successfully managed several facility development and re-development projects involving waste-fired power plants and landfill expansions on the east coast. He has extensive business development, sales, government affairs, community relations and environmental permitting experience.
Immediately before joining Aries, he led the Central New England Division of Casella Organics, where he had P&L responsibility, managed over 350,000 tons per year of organic waste, ran the Division's operations, and directed a staff of eight professionals. During his tenure, Mr. Lyons and his team grew Division revenues by 40% and consistently exceeded the company's annual growth targets.
Mr. Lyons has also worked for Waste Management/Wheelabrator Technologies, Browning- Ferris Industries (now Republic Services), and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
He holds a B.A. in Environmental Science from Colby College, a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University, and an MBA from Franklin Pierce University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President Operations
Matthew Newman brings more than 15 years of operations, maintenance, and leadership experience to his role as Senior Vice President Operations at Aries.
Arriving at Aries from his time with Mississippi Power on the Kemper County Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) project, Mr. Newman was an integral part of a world class team which successfully started and operated the Kemper facility. Mr. Newman's time with Aries includes commercialization of the Downdraft Technology, project execution for startup and COD of the Aries Green biochar production facility, and most recently, commissioning of the Aries Fluidized Bed Technology in Linden, NJ. His career includes leadership responsibilities within chemical plant operations in both production and maintenance furthered by leadership responsibilities in gasification and power generation operations and maintenance. Mr. Newman is an experienced leader with a diverse skill set that includes leadership in continuous improvement, process change, project and outage management, safety and training, Six Sigma, and root cause analysis among others.
Mr. Newman is a graduate of the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor of Science in Business and Marketing and a Master's Degree in Business Administration.
Job Titles:
- Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Senior Vice President Business and Marketing at Saulsbury Industries
Michael Childers, currently Senior Vice President Business and Marketing at Saulsbury Industries, has made significant career achievements in the development of entrepreneurial growth companies, including Synergy Renewables, a BP Capital backed venture focusing on waste-to- energy projects in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Job Titles:
- Board of Directors
- General Partner With Spring Lane Capital
Nikhil Garg is a General Partner with Spring Lane Capital where he focuses on resource innovation investments into distributed-scale technologies.
Previously, Nikhil was a Partner with Black Coral Capital where he made and oversaw project finance, growth equity, and venture capital investments across the cleantech landscape. Additionally, Nikhil served on the boards of portfolio companies in the solar and energy efficiency sectors.
Before joining Black Coral, Nikhil was a member of Climate Change Capital's carbon finance investment team. There, he co-led U.S. strategy development for a $1B private equity fund, evaluated low carbon investments, and managed portfolio projects. Nikhil has spoken at industry events on emerging financing models for sectors including solar, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions and has served on advisory committees for the Department of Energy SunShot program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Prior to Climate Change Capital, Nikhil consulted for Core Carbon Group a leading carbon markets fund focused on opportunities in Russia and the CIS. In addition, Nikhil has worked in corporate venture capital and business development for Comcast and America Online where he invested in and developed early-stage technology-based businesses. Nikhil began his career with Bain & Co. where he advised industrial and technology clients on issues including M&A, process re-engineering, and product strategy.
Nikhil holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was recognized with the McKinsey Award and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. He is based in Boston where he resides with his wife and two boys.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President Engineering
Renus Kelfkens is an engineering professional with a demonstrated working history in the coal, natural gas and renewables conversion to liquids industry. He brings to Aries extensive career experience both in multi-national petrochemical and new technology start-up companies in the fields of process technology scale-up and commercialization, project development and execution and operations, focused on gasification.
Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Sundrop Fuels where he led the front-end engineering design and project execution planning efforts for the demonstration plant project and Sundrop Fuels' planned first commercial biogasoline facility. He also held the same position at GreatPoint Energy, commercializing their technology.
Over the first 25 years of his career, Mr. Kelfkens held a number of engineering and management positions within the Sasol Group of Companies in South Africa and the US. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of South Africa.
Job Titles:
- Director, Environmental & Permitting
Ron Hudson is an environmental compliance and permitting professional with a working history in manufacturing, petrochemical production, and gas processing. His focus has been in operational compliance and large-scale capital construction permitting.
Mr. Hudson in his more than 20 years of experience has held number of roles as an environmental professional. Most recently he was an environmental specialist with Williams Companies and an environmental project manager at APTIM's Environmental Services group. He has held roles as an environmental chemist, a North American division environmental manager in manufacturing, and permitting manager in the energy & petrochemical industry.
His specialties include project siting, air permitting, regulatory affairs, and risk assessments. Mr. Hudson is a graduate of Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Health.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Starting with a core generator business in healthcare markets, which demand both sophisticated control capabilities and 24-hour service response, Mr. Lainhart has leveraged Thompson's system design and service experience into industrial processes, communications, water treatment, data management, universities and utility applications.
He holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and has taught mechanics and thermodynamics for Vanderbilt as an adjunct professor.