Jeffrey Mayer
Executive Chairman
Jeffrey is the Founder of Solomon Energy and the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. He brings to Solomon Energy over twenty years of experience in the energy and commodities industry.
Previous to Solomon Energy, Jeffrey served as CEO & President of MXenergy, one of the nation’s largest retail marketers of natural gas and electricity to residential and commercial consumers. MXenergy served over 600,000 residential and commercial consumers in 15 states and two provinces of Canada behind some 44 different publicly owned utility systems. MXenergy introduced the first ever carbon offset product in the retail energy business. In July 2011, MXenergy was sold to Constellation, now part of Exelon.
Prior to MXenergy Jeffrey served as Managing Director of Sempra Energy Trading, a subsidiary of Sempra, one of the largest US utilities formed as a result of the merger of Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas and Electric. Sempra Energy Trading was previously known as AIG Trading, a subsidiary of American International Group which in the late 1990s was the largest financial institution in the world with a AAA credit rating. At AIG and Sempra Jeffrey helped pioneer numerous products used by the world’s leading energy producers, utilities, and industrial consumers to protect themselves from energy price volatility. Jeffrey managed the marketing group, selling energy derivatives to governmental, industrial and commercial producers and consumers of crude oil, refined products, and natural gas. He was also integral in launching a retail energy company that later became Direct Energy, a subsidiary of Centrica, the UK-based company that was formerly known as British Gas.
Earlier in his career, Jeffrey served as Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and led their futures trading department. He also was Chief Counsel to J. Aron & Company commodities trading division and an attorney at the Wall Street law firm of Barrett Shapiro Simon & Armstrong, which later merged with Lord Day & Lord and Chadbourne Park.
Throughout his career, Jeffrey has contributed his time and expertise to numerous not-for-profit organizations. He currently serves on the board of the International Institute of Connecticut, an organization that helps resettle political refugees, is the Founding Chairman of Friends of Westport Parks & Recreation and former Chairman of the Board of Finance in Westport, CT.
Jeffrey is a 1973 graduate of Yale University with an LL.B. from New York University
Chris Whitman
Chief Executive Officer
Chris has extensive advisory experience in the development and financing of renewable energy projects and has been responsible for arranging and structuring the financing of approximately $1.4 billion of solar and wind projects.
In 2007, Chris founded US Solar Finance LLC, which pioneered the Master Sale-Leaseback facility for distributed renewable energy projects in the United States. This structure provided the basic framework for financing solar projects through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). This innovation provided the solar industry with an efficient and repeatable way to finance projects with a value between $300,000 and $10 million and to date it is estimated that over a $5 billion of solar projects in the United States have been financed utilizing this structure.
Prior to joining Solomon Energy and forming US Solar Finance, Chris was the Managing Director at Allco Renewable Energy, a venture capital firm that invests in private renewable energy companies. Allco Renewable Energy was an early investor in SunEdison LLC, one of the largest solar integrators in the US and groSolar, a national solar provider which was acquired in 2016 by EDF Renewable Energy. During his tenure at Allco, Chris was on the Board of Directors of groSolar.
Chris was also a Managing Director of Allco Finance where he was responsible for structuring, marketing and executing large ticket U.S. domestic and cross-border financing transactions. Chris began his career as a corporate attorney at the Wall Street law firm of Lord Day & Lord which later merged with Barrett Shapiro Simon & Armstrong and Morgan Lewis.
Chris holds a B.A. in Economics, cum laude from Lawrence University (1985) and a J.D., cum laude from University of Wisconsin, Madison (1988).
Jeffrey Conrad
President
Jeffrey has been active in the deployment of solar, energy efficiency and energy storage projects since 2008 and has been instrumental in the review, advisement, and development of over 100 MW of projects with corporate, industrial, municipal, institutional and Fortune 500 energy clients.
Prior to joining Solomon Energy, Jeffrey co-founded a California based startup energy firm with a portfolio of commercial and residential solar PV installations, energy efficiency retrofits and ground up LEED construction projects. During his tenure, the firm piloted some of the energy industry’s early renewable energy programs including the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Community Savings Initiative and PACE financing.
Jeffrey also has a background in the creation and development of startup energy companies. As an independent consultant and as mentor at IDEA Venture Accelerator, Jeffrey assisted entrepreneurs to plan, fund, and launch successful companies in the areas of solar, electric vehicle charging, alternative renewable electricity supply and renewable energy equipment disruption. Early in his career Jeffrey worked with C-Level management and the board of directors at some of the nation’s most prominent companies, including WD-40, Sempra Energy and Qualcomm and began his career at Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 company, contributing to the expansion the UCC corporate real estate business unit.
Jeffrey holds a B.A. in Entrepreneurship & Business Management from Northeastern University, which Forbes and Entrepreneurship Magazine rank as one of the top programs in the nation.
Jim Wavle
Energy Advisor
Jim is an Energy Advisor for Solomon Energy and has a diverse executive management experience in the renewable energy industry with a deep expertise in the design, development and financing of solar, wind and biomass.
Jim serves as President of Verterra Renewable Energy, LLC and is also a co-founder of US Solar Finance and serves on its board of directors. Jim previously served as CEO of Outland Renewable Energy, LLC and President and CEO of Allco Renewable Energy Group Limited, LLC. He has been involved in various capacities with the development of solar, wind and biomass projects and companies.
Jim joined Allco Finance Group in 1999 after spending four years at the law firm of Dewey Ballantine and three years at Capstar Partners. At Allco Finance, Jim was initially responsible for structuring, marketing and executing large ticket U.S. domestic and cross-border financing transactions involving assets worth more than $10 billion. Jim spearheaded Allco’s expansion into renewable energy, an effort which resulted in the formation of Allco Renewable Group Limited, LLC.
Jim holds a B.A. (magna cum laude) from St. Lawrence University and a J.D. (cum laude) from Georgetown University.
Edward Sproull
Energy Advisor
As an Energy Advisor for Solomon Energy, Edward brings his expertise in the solar industry to drive value for clients. Edward currently serves as President and CEO of Sun Rays, LLC, a solar consulting firm. Prior to forming Sun Rays he was VP Sales of the Clean Technology Group of De Lage Landen Financial Services. He joined De Lage Landen in 2009 after spending 5 years at HSH Nordbank AG as head of Leasing activities and Solar Energy in the United States. While at HSH Nordbank he led the group responsible for construction of the first sale and leaseback program for solar developers to finance their solar assets. Prior to joining HSH Nordbank he spent eight years as the manager of KBC Bank’s US leasing operations. He began his career in the tax department of Citibank before moving to the Asset Based Finance – International Division.
Edward holds a MBA from Fordham University and a BA from Colgate University. He served on the Board of Directors of the Solar Energy Industry Association for three years and on the Large Ticket Business Council of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Industry Association for two years.
Irene Moser
Manager, Administration & HR
Irene oversees all administrative functions of Solomon Energy including maintaining organizational structure, management and recruitment of staff. Irene comes to Solomon Energy with many years of experience in both the energy sector as well as executive management.
Prior to Solomon, Irene was an Executive Assistant at McKinsey & Company and also managed the offices and administrative staff of MXenergy, one of the nation’s leading providers of natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses before its sale to Constellation in 2011. Prior to MXenergy, Irene worked at Thompson Learning, where she orchestrated a multitude of activities for both the CEO and SVP, Strategic Planning & Business Development.
Irene graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.G.S. degree in Business.