Chairman and CEO

Mr. Fezzani has more than 20 years of experience in energy and finance. He currently serves as the Chairman and CEO of Regenerate Power, a developer, owner and operator of utility-scale renewable energy projects.

Prior to co-founding Regenerate Power, Mr. Fezzani was CEO of BP Solar and Chairman of Tata-BP Solar. He previously served as President of BP's Global Wind and Solar business. With more than 3,000 employees, the business operated solar manufacturing plants in the U.S., Spain, India, China and Australia, and developed, constructed, and operated solar and wind farms in the U.S., Europe, India and China.

During his tenure, the wind business unit completed U.S. utility-scale project financing, construction and operation of 1 GW of operating assets and maintained a pipeline in excess of 20 GW. The solar business unit completed utility-scale and distributed generation solar project financing, construction and operation of 300 MW of assets, including a 32 MW solar farm in Long Island financed and co-owned by MetLife.

Before leading the wind and solar units, Mr. Fezzani was CEO of BP’s Global Chemicals business (annual sales of $10 billion). He previously was the Executive Assistant to the BP Group Chief Executive, Lord Browne, at the time when BP launched its Alternative and Renewable Energy business. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Strategy & Planning for BP’s global refining, manufacturing and marketing business. Mr. Fezzani joined BP in 1989, and early in his career held a variety of commercial and operational posts in finance, exploration and production, refining and marketing, and supply and trading.

Mr. Fezzani holds an ME in Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology from Imperial College, London. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Energy Institute and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
 

Executive Vice President – Capital Markets

Mr. Sampson has more than 30 years of structured finance and tax credit experience. His firms have raised in excess of $5 billion of municipal notes and bonds, corporate debt, equity and tax credit funding for a wide range of clients. Mr. Sampson currently serves as Managing Partner of Regenerate Power, a developer, owner and operator of utility-scale renewable energy projects. He also serves as Managing Partner of Energy Finance Company, an owner, operator and financier of smaller-scale, distributed solar photovoltaic systems.

Prior to co-founding Regenerate Power, Mr. Sampson was Managing Director, Head of Corporate Finance and a member of the Board of Directors of Newman and Associates, an investment bank focused on the equity and debt financing of affordable housing.

He previously was President of First Interstate Securities where he provided tax-exempt and taxable investment banking products and services to First Interstate’s municipal and corporate customers. Prior to joining First Interstate, Mr. Sampson was the Director of Financial Analysis at the University of Southern California.

Mr. Sampson earned his BA from the University of Southern California. He holds FINRA Series 7, 23, and 63 licenses.

Advisor 

Mr. Mirza has two decades of global structured and project finance experience, first as a financier/advisor and then as a project developer. He was previously at Solar Trust of America (STA) where he was the Vice President of Project Finance and responsible for securing $2.9 billion in aggregate commitments for the 500 MW solar-thermal Blythe Project from the Department of Energy (DOE), Development Bank of Japan, project finance lenders, and tax equity and private equity sponsors. In addition, he led STA’s response to utility RFPs and helped with EPC and O&M contract negotiations.

Prior to joining STA, Mr. Mirza founded AIM Capital Ventures LLC (AIM), a boutique investment banking firm providing financial advisory services to renewable energy companies. His solar clients included utility-scale project developers such as Cleantech America/Meridian Energy, NextLight/First Solar, and RES America. During that time, Mr. Mirza worked on 700 MW of solar projects, 520 MW of which are scheduled to come online in 2012/13. His practice also included geothermal and next-generation biofuels clients.

Previously, Mr. Mirza worked for several years at GE Capital as a Vice President responsible for underwriting asset based (ABL), cash flow and debtor-in-possession (DIP) transactions and managing a $1.5 billion portfolio. He began his structured finance career in Bank of America’s Global Project Finance group, based initially in San Francisco (covering IPPs in North America) and later in Hong Kong (covering Asia) and New York (covering Latin America).

Mr. Mirza received dual Bachelors in Physics and Economics from University of California at Berkeley.