Advisor Bios

Brent Alderfer, Brent Alderfer is President and founder of Community Energy Inc. Previously, Brent was Executive Vice President with Iberdrola Renewables, the leading renewable generation owner in the world since 2009. In 1999, he founded Community Energy, Inc., and successfully led the expansion of wind generation in the Northeast U.S. through groundbreaking marketing of wind generation to utility customers. The Community Energy early marketing success, in partnership with government leadership, paved the way in Pennsylvania for a new wind energy industry with strong job growth and project investment. Community Energy expanded its development of new wind farms from the east into the mid-west, and in 2006 was acquired by Iberdrola to lead its expansion into the United States. Prior to forming Community Energy Inc., Brent served as a Colorado Public Utility Commissioner and became a leading national spokesperson for new and renewable energy technologies. As a Commissioner, he led the Energy Resources and the Environment Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, promoting policy to open electric markets to new, renewable and distributed generation. He coauthored the report, Making Connections, published by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1999 on utility interconnection of renewable and distributed generation. An electrical engineer and a lawyer, Brent practiced law for fifteen years, representing development-stage companies through start up and public offering. He holds an electrical engineering degree from Northeastern University, 1974, and a law degree from Georgetown University, 1977.

Thomas Bishop, Thomas Bishop joined the Public Finance Department of D.A. Davidson & Co., in 1991 and has over thirty years' experience in Colorado local government debt management. He has been engaged by cities, counties, school districts and Special Districts to structure, market, and refund debt to finance capital improvements. During his career, he has created financing techniques that are still accepted throughout the region as standards in public finance. Today his focus is on the creation, structuring and marketing of property tax based bonds for new communities in the metro Denver growth areas. Because of his extensive experience with Colorado Special District financing, Thomas is often called upon to negotiate the restructure of debt agreements between bondholders and issuers. In the last ten years, he has served as investment banker on over 200 Colorado Special District financings totalling $2 billion. Thomas holds a MSc in Health Finance from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Goshen College. He has served on the Goshen College Board of Overseers and was appointed by the Colorado Governor as a member of the Colorado Municipal Bond Supervision Advisory Board representing the bond dealer community. In addition, he has been a board member and President of the Colorado Municipal Bond Dealers Association and is Past President of the Denver Southeast Rotary Club Fund Management.

Sid Burkey, Sid Burkey has founded, co-owned and led three businesses. He has served as founder, President and Chairman of the Board of Danbred North America, an international genetics company until its sale in 2004. He currently serves as part-owner and President of Burkey Farms, Inc., a family owned agribusiness, and is engaged as part-owner and Vice-President of Digitec, Inc., a full spectrum design and manufacturing business that provides wireless and web-based monitoring and controlling technologies. Digitec offers business to business solutions primarily for agricultural companies and water management applications. Sid also enjoys roles on a manufacturing company Board of Directors, and the MEDA Board of Directors.

Ron D. Cordes, Ron Cordes has been involved in the investment industry for 25+ years, having founded and sold over this period three companies involved in the real estate investment / management, mutual fund and investment advisory businesses. Most recently, he sold AssetMark Investment Services to Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW) in 2006, and currently serves as Co-Chairman of Genworth Financial Wealth Management, which is responsible for over $ 14 billion of assets under management for individual and institutional clients.

Ron is a licensed FINRA principal and California Real Estate broker, is co-author of "The Art of Investing & Portfolio Management", published in 2004 by McGraw Hill, and was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. He holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. Ron is also President of the Cordes Foundation, which he established in 2006, and a Regent for the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA, as well as Chairman of the Advisory Board for the University's Global Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. In addition, he serves as a Board member for the East Bay Community Foundation, TransFair USA, ThinkImpact, and the Katalysis Bootstrap Fund, a Central America microfinance fund.

W. Bowman Cutter, W. Bowman Cutter joined The Roosevelt Institute in October 2009 as Senior Fellow and Director, Economic Policy Initiative after retiring from Warburg Pincus, a major global private equity firm headquartered in New York City, between 1996 and 2009 where he served both as the firm's economist and as a leader in its international business, with particular reference to Asia. He served with distinction during two Democratic presidencies at the National Economic Council, from 1993-1996 and from 1976 to 1981, at the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Cutter also served as leader of the OMB transition team after the election of President Obama. Bowman is currently the Chairman of the Board of CARE, the global development organization (where he has been a member of the Board for 13 years); and is a founder and current Chairman of MicroVest, a leading global microfinance fund with assets under management now in excess of $100 million. In addition, he is a member of the Governing Council of the IFMR Trust, in India, focusing upon market based solutions to the problems of severe poverty in India. Bowman is a member of the executive committee and immediate past co-chairman of the Committee for Economic Development, the leading business "think-tank" in the United States; a board member of Resources for the Future, one of the most important energy and environmental research institutes in the world; and a board member of the Russell Sage Foundation. In addition, he is a member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations.

Joanne Defehr, Joanne Defehr is President of Triple D Developments where she manages 1.5 million square feet of commercial space. In addition to real estate, Triple D Developments also has investments in small businesses in Manitoba in Agricultural Processing. As an active shareholder in Defehr Furniture Ltd. Joanne acts as internal legal counsel and is involved in other corporate governance duties for this furniture manufacturing company. Joanne completed her law degree at the University Of San Francisco School Of Law and is a member of the California Bar Association. Her legal experience includes interning at Network Associates, a large high tech company and has experience working at a law firm specializing in Business Litigation. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Joanne earned her B. A. in Business Administration through Webster University at the Leiden Campus in the Netherlands. In conjunction with her degree, Joanne had the opportunity to work at Ballast Nedam International B.V., a large company that constructs government infrastructure or BOT (Build, Own/Operate, Transfer) projects all over the world.

Sean Foote, Sean Foote has been a venture capitalist investing in early stage companies for the past eight years. He is active on the board of directors of Altierre Corporation, Eoplex Technologies, Everyone.net, ezboard, Green Border Technologies, and Integrated Materials Inc. Before venture investing, Sean was a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group, working in a wide range of industries such as telecom, computers, healthcare, banking, and automotive on topics ranging from strategic alliances to Internet strategies. Sean also worked as a systems engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories, developing artificial intelligence systems for testing the most complicated telecommunications circuits. He is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of California's Haas School of Business and has also taught classes on entrepreneurship and venture capital funding at the University of Michigan's Business School, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Sean received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri Rolla, and his MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business.

Lawrence Kelly, With more than 30 years of legal experience, Larry Kelly serves a large and diverse clientele, with a focus on business law and sports law. His in-depth understanding of topics such as debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance helps entrepreneurs, venture capital funds, financial institutions and businesses in technology, real estate and insurance accomplish their business objectives. Larry's professional experience includes serving as a director of several companies and he is a former director and vice-president of Kelly Funeral Homes Limited. Larry is prominently involved in the representation of professional athletes and sports governing bodies. He is a certified agent with the National Hockey League Players' Association, an arbitrator with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and served as an arbitrator for the International Chamber of Football Arbitration for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Larry has been a leader in the local community for many years, having served as Director of a number of charities and non-profit organizations, including the Ottawa General Hospital and St. Francis Xavier University. Larry is active in fundraising, heading a number of campaigns such as the St. Patrick's Home Capital Campaign, the Ottawa Hospital Foundation, the Ottawa Eye Institute Fundraising Committee and the St. Francis Xavier University Capital Campaign. Larry holds memberships in a number of professional associations, including the Canadian Venture Capital Association, the Canadian Tax Foundation, the Canadian IT Law Association and the Canadian Bar Association.

Jeremy Mindich, Jeremy Mindich is a founder and managing partner of Scopia Capital, a hedge fund management company with $1 billion in assets under management. Scopia manages traditional market-neutral, long/short value funds as well as long only funds with a fundamental research focus. Before founding Scopia, Jeremy worked as an analyst at the investment management group Porter Orlin, Inc. where he specialized in evaluating healthcare and technology companies. Jeremy spent 7 years as a journalist, writing freelance stories on economic and social issues ranging from U.S. race relations to the Polish television industry for the Boston Globe, Buzz, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Details, Orlando Sentinel, SF Weekly, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Village Voice. He is a phi beta kappa graduate of Wesleyan University and received a master's in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Donovan Nickel, Donovan Nickel led various large scale innovation and development programs with Hewlett-Packard, growing several of its global information, communication and technology (ICT) businesses. Donovan was Vice President and General Manager of a new division, created through an M&A. Donovan helped facilitate, charged with creating large-scale electronic content storage solutions. Prior to this, he acted as Vice President and General Manager of HP's Business Critical Hardware Systems Division, responsible for running large corporate enterprise data centers. With major operational teams in multiple global locations, Donovan grew this business to lead the global market in unix-based corporate computing. Currently serving on the Executive and Finance Committees of the Board of Directors for Bethel College, he holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, alongside a Master's degree in Business Administration.

Bruce Nicol, Bruce Nicol was born and raised in Ottawa. His initial exposure to life in the developing world came in mid '70s, when his high-school stage band toured Guyana and Surinam. His academic studies included Waldorf teacher training in England and Germany, a Doctorate in music, and studies toward an MBA. After a successful career in arts and education in Toronto, Bruce returned to Ottawa in 2000 to work with his father and brother in the family's land development and housing business. He joins the Sarona board with a keen interest in micro-credit as an agent for social change.

Kirk Robertson, Kirk Robertson is the President of Terra Vista Capital, a boutique financial services and business strategy firm whose clients have ranged from start-ups to multi-nationals operating in the US, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Previously Kirk was the Executive Vice President and the acting President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a government-owned corporation that has provided financing and political risk insurance to companies in more than 90 frontier markets and helped launch and fund many prominent developing market private equity funds. He also served for more than a decade in the US Senate as a manager and as a policy advisor on trade, foreign relations, and national and homeland security matters. In addition he worked in the Washington, DC office of an international law firm's corporate consulting group. Kirk received a BA from Grinnell College, an MBA from the George Washington University, holds Series 7 and 66 qualifications and has served on corporate and non-profit boards. In his spare time he coaches youth soccer and basketball and is a community volunteer.

Diana Smallridge, Diana Smallridge is the President of International Financial Consulting Ltd., a position she has held since June 2000. Diana is a well-known expert in the area of Ex-Im Banks, Export Credit Agencies and Development Banks and has 20 years of experience in the field. She has extensive practical expertise in program evaluation, product development and strategic and business planning for government-owned financial institutions. She has a wide international network and has worked with clients in Australia, Canada, US, Japan, New Zealand, Bangladesh, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Romania, Czech Republic, Malta, Barbados, and Mexico, among others. In addition, for the 8th year in a row, Diana is the Conference Chairman for the Annual Global Convention on Export Credit and Political Risk, held annually in London, and is a regular conference speaker. She was the keynote speaker in October 2006 to the EU ECAs in Helsinki, Finland on the topic of the Future of Export Credit, as well as in Jeddah Saudi Arabia in January 2007 to the Islamic ECAs on the topic of the Role of Export Credit Agencies in Emerging markets.