John Bates
Chief Executive Officer
John Bates has more than 30 years of domestic and international energy experience in development, project acquisition, EPC contracting, purchase power agreement origination and contracting, project finance, fund raising, and team development.
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His roles in NRG were commercially focused in supporting or leading project development and operations across multiple generation technologies. Prior to NRG John was VP of Development at TXU in a leadership role in restructuring the company’s corporate functions and its $10B development program, leading to the largest LBO at that time in the US. John spent the initial 10 years of his career at Chevron Corporation in various roles in shipping, trading, and logistics.
John holds a B.S. from United States Merchant Marine Academy and an M.B.A. from the Cullen School of Business at University of Houston.
Ed Kent
Chief Operating Officer
Business executive and mechanical engineer with over twenty-nine years of experience in the Marine and Power/Energy industry. Consistent record of achieving substantial improvements in operations metrics and overall P&L results on diverse energy projects.
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Ed joined East West Power in 2010 as Senior VP of Operations, then held a position as Executive President, and eventually he was appointed as President & CEO, a position he held since 2017, where he was responsible for all business unit operations.
Prior to East West Power, he was Senior VP of Operations at Marubeni Sustainable Energy Inc., there he was entrusted with being the company’s key representative on every operating project.
He has also worked for DG Energy Solutions, Pantellos Group, Chevron, MAN and Verde Energy. Ed holds a B.S. Degree in Marine Engineering from The United States Merchant Marine Academy. He also holds a U.S. Coast Guard Licensed as Chief Engineer and was honorably discharged from the US Naval Reserves.
Michell Graham
Chief Commercial Officer
Ms. Graham has over 20 years of experience leading, designing, growing, implementing and transforming operations including over 12 years in the energy sector.
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Ms. Graham received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from Liberty University.
Hector De La Garza
Chief Strategy Officer
Héctor has over 8 years of experience in the Energy and Power industry in the E&P, midstream and power generation segments with functional focus in finance, M&A and strategy.
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Prior to Prana, he was Senior Associate for Artha Capital where he participated in the deployment of the first energy and infrastructure fund raised by Artha. Previously, he participated in Strategy and Operations at Schlumberger and Equity research at Credit Suisse.
Héctor holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with concentration in finance from ITAM in Mexico City where he graduated top 5% of his class.
Gerritt L. Ewing, Jr
Senior Vice President, Treasurer
Gerritt Ewing has had over 40 years of domestic and international energy experience in utility scale power and renewable energy projects. He has served in senior management positions demonstrating expertise in Corporate and Project finance, Treasury functions, Insurance programs and start-up companies.
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Mr. Ewing holds a B.A. Degree in Economics from Lafayette College in Easton, PA and a Masters Degree in Financial Management from the Pace Graduate School in New York, New York.