An Experienced Team of Energy
Professionals

Juan Suarez is CEO at Vesper Energy. Prior to joining the development business, he was responsible for transforming Lendlease’s Distributed Generation Construction Management business into a full engineering, procurement, and construction business. Before joining Lendlease, Juan held various EPC management positions at Gestamp and NRG. Juan was also Vice President at Unirac, a Hilti Group Company. He was a key leader in growing the company from $12M to $100M in revenue in five years. Juan earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from New Mexico State University. He also founded and operated a development and construction company, raising capital, permitting, financing, and constructing residential subdivisions for nine years.

Craig Carson currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Managers for Vesper Energy. Before taking on his current role, Craig was the CEO of Vesper Energy and founded the company as Lendlease Energy Development in 2015. Prior to joining Lendlease, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Infigen Energy US, overseeing all aspects of the company’s 1GW wind farm fleet and 600 MW solar development business in the United States. Craig also served as the Executive General Manager for Infigen Energy’s global operations and asset management functions. Previously, he was the business unit leader of BP’s US Cogeneration division and Vice President of projects, operations, and asset management at BP Alternative Energy. He has also held senior management roles with ConocoPhillips and SkyGen Energy. Craig earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Chad Richwine serves as Vesper Energy’s General Counsel and oversees the company’s legal and compliance department. He has a diverse skill set and background from decades of experience working with and for global leaders in private equity, banking, and law. Chad joined Vesper Energy from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he represented private equity firms, privately and publicly held companies, and ultra-high-net-worth investors in real estate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, financings (subscription, project, construction, and asset financings), and other corporate matters. Before beginning his legal career, Chad spent nearly a decade working at JPMorgan Chase Bank’s Private Bank, helping ultra-high-net-worth clients with investment, credit, and estate planning needs. While working for JPMorgan, Chad attended Texas A&M University Law School (formerly Texas Wesleyan University School of Law), graduating in the top of his class (Magna Cum Laude).

Krish Koomar has over two decades of experience in finance and treasury within the renewable and conventional power sectors, as well as in banking. He has significant financing expertise, having closed transactions totaling over $15 billion through corporate, project, vendor financings involving debt and equity, and M&A deals in the U.S. and internationally.

Krish headed up finance & treasury departments at four major power companies (esVolta, NRG Energy, Edison Mission Energy & InterGen) spanning 20+ years. He also held an energy banker role at WestLB originating and structuring energy transactions. Early in his career, Krish also had financial structuring roles at Shell Trading & The Williams Companies. Krish graduated with a distinguished MBA student award for Academic Excellence from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. He also holds master’s and undergraduate degrees in commerce from the University of Madras, India.

Monica Opderbeck is the Chief Commercial Officer at Vesper Energy, where she oversees Corporate Development & M&A, Origination & Energy Markets, and Commercial Analytics teams. Her main responsibilities include driving enterprise growth through capital raising, engaging customers for power origination, and analyzing market fundamentals to optimize assets and develop revenue models. With over 16 years of experience in the energy and renewables sectors, she has a background in principal investing, financing, capital raising, and business development. She has led some of the largest transactions across the U.S. renewable energy market. Before joining Vesper, Monica was Head of Commercial Origination and Senior Director of Corporate Development at Pattern Energy, and she spent 12 years at Wells Fargo as an investor and originator of renewable energy tax equity investments. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ed Shelton has nearly twenty years of experience in the energy industry. He is currently a Senior Vice President of Power Development at Vesper Energy, where he leads a team that develops solar and battery storage projects across the Northeast, Midwest, and Texas. Prior to Vesper Energy, Ed held senior leadership roles at Low Carbon, RWE, and Recurrent Energy, working in solar, battery storage, and wind development throughout all major US renewable energy markets. Before entering renewable energy development, Ed worked in the energy sector as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and as an engineer at Chevron. He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Michelle Jennings manages Vesper Energy’s enterprise strategy and planning functions. She oversees the development of multi-year strategic plans, leads strategic initiatives, and provides performance insights to drive the company’s success.

Michelle joined Vesper in early 2024, bringing extensive experience in strategic planning, capital raising, board and investor relations, investment and liquidity management, underwriting, valuation, business improvement, analytics, and reporting. She has 15 years of experience in Power and Renewables, covering Project, Corporate, and Strategic Finance, including wind, solar, storage, and combined-cycle generation. She previously worked at Pattern Energy for 8 years, with earlier roles at SunEdison and Siemens Energy. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Thermal Fluids.

Parker Hills brings over 20 years of experience in delivering utility-scale power, renewable energy, and storage solutions. Throughout his career, he has focused on greenfield site selection, transmission system due diligence, and commercializing energy assets across major U.S. power markets to support utility, data center, and hyperscale growth. At Vesper Energy, Parker successfully expanded the Western development platform to manage an 8 GW portfolio, after previously founding and growing the company’s standalone energy storage pipeline to 4.3 GW in just 18 months. Before his recent leadership roles, he managed extensive multidisciplinary energy consulting projects at Burns & McDonnell and holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State University.

Kelly Marino is Vice President of Human Resources at Vesper Energy, where she partners with the executive leadership team to align people strategy with business priorities, strengthen organizational capabilities, and build a culture that supports growth and long-term success.

With over 20 years of global leadership experience, Kelly has held HR leadership roles at Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Jabil, and QAD, spanning Fortune 500, high-growth, and private equity-backed organizations. She holds a PhD in Consulting Psychology, is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and is a United States Marine Corps veteran.

Throughout her career, Kelly has led large-scale organizational transformations, organizational design initiatives, and leadership development programs. She brings a strong focus on business performance, developing effective leaders, and building high-performing organizations positioned for sustainable growth.