“Top 10 Issues in Energy Transition Finance” Robert is a Managing Director and one of our Founding Partners. Prior to starting GreenFront, Robert was Head of BB&T’s Energy Investment Banking group, with oversight for 100+ corporate clients that spanned the entire Energy industry value chain. Under his leadership, BB&T participated in over 300 capital markets and advisory transactions within the Energy space. Before BB&T, Robert was a member of J.P. Morgan’s Energy Investment Banking group in New York City. He also serves as a member of the Richmond City Council’s Green City Commission. Robert earned his MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and he holds a B.A. degree from Sewanee: The University of the South. If you have any questions, please contact us at https://www.greenfrontenergy.com/team.

John Donovan was born and raised in Houston, Texas and attended college in Austin at the University of Texas (“UT”). After graduating from UT in 2000 with degrees in Finance and Accounting, Mr. Donovan joined the Houston Energy Investment Banking division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette which was acquired shortly thereafter by Credit Suisse.

During his tenure at Credit Suisse, Mr. Donovan participated in nearly $9 billion in transactions across 14 distinct deals in a variety of arenas including, (i) public equity, debt and hybrid security underwritings and (ii) financial advisory assignments such as mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”), divestitures, joint ventures and structured financings. Mr. Donovan’s primary responsibilities during this time included extensive company, industry, and transaction analyses that often involved (i) the development of highly customized, complex financial models allowing users the flexibility to analyze the effects of various capital structures, commodity prices, success rates and ownership, among others and (ii) the consolidation of acquisition metrics and trading multiples for public and private companies and their senior management teams to assist in strategic M&A discussions. After a few years at Credit Suisse, Mr. Donovan joined Quantum Energy Partners (“Quantum”) where he would shift his focus away from large-cap, public companies and more towards private, start-up E&P companies.

At the time Mr. Donovan joined Quantum, the firm had just raised their second fund and was operating with just over $325 million in assets under management. Mr. Donovan was the fourth investment manager to join the team and focused primarily on making $25-$50 million investments in start-up energy exploration and production (“E&P”) companies. Mr. Donovan participated in all aspects of Quantum's investment activities including origination, due diligence, transaction structuring and execution, portfolio company monitoring and transaction realizations. Mr. Donovan was also instrumental in providing capital markets expertise in a variety of fields to various portfolio companies, including (i) negotiating and structuring debt, mezzanine and equity capital, (ii) planning and executing commodity hedging programs and (iii) providing M&A and divestiture advice. Quantum had tremendous success deploying and/or harvesting investments across five distinct funds, including two IPO’s, during Mr. Donovan’s five year tenure allowing him the opportunity to start his own advisory firm, Donovan Capital, LLC. At the time of his departure, Mr. Donovan helped grow Quantum’s assets under management from $325 million to over $3 billion and was serving as a Director on three portfolio company boards.

Donovan Ventures, LLC (“Donovan Ventures”) was established in 2007 as an energy merchant bank and was designed to complement Mr. Donovan’s diverse, capital markets expertise with the operational skills of an energy entrepreneur. Since inception, Donovan Ventures has closed over $2.4 billion in equity, debt and M&A transactions.

In 2010, Mr. Donovan began aggregating a portfolio of private oilfield service and E&P companies managed by seasoned energy entrepreneurs and subsequently formed a dedicated energy fund, Energy Founders Fund, LP (“EFF”) in 2016 to formalize his strategy. An opportunistic investor, Mr. Donovan targets investment opportunities on the lower middle market in the energy space that have the potential to disrupt legacy service companies or can be enhanced through his industry relationships and advisory expertise. Since forming the division, Donovan Ventures has invested in 14 distinct companies that have cumulatively represented over $700 million in enterprise value.
In 2021, Donovan Ventures Investment banking division established a structured credit team focused exclusively on investment grade, securitized products. The Company has closed $560 million in 2022 and has a backlog approaching $1 billion

Preston Powell was previously Managing Director and a member of the Management Committee at Ridgemar’s private equity sponsor, Carnelian, where he was responsible for leading upstream investments, transaction due diligence and the execution and monitoring of active portfolio company investments. Prior to joining Carnelian at its founding, Preston was an energy private equity investor with Denham Capital Management and KKR & Co. He began his career as an investment banker in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group of Greenhill & Co. Preston received his B.B.A. in Finance with honors from the Business Honors Program from The University of Texas at Austin.

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