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Partner

Wes Colwell

Wes is founder and managing partner of Essentia Advisors.  Wes has 30+ years of business experience. He started his career at Arthur Andersen LLP where he spent 18 years and became a partner.  Prior to Essentia, Wes was the CFO/CAO of one of the largest energy trading businesses in North America. He has extensive experience in the energy industry including exploration and production, midstream, and merchant gas and power trading.   

Through his involvement in several reorganizations and recapitalizations involving energy related assets, Wes has deep experience in mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting and complex transaction structures. He has also managed groups in the functions of risk management, finance and accounting. ​

Wes’ client base has included companies in the areas of marine construction, exploration and production, energy trading, utilities, gas transmission, and private equity.  Wes has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting with a minor in Information Systems from Oklahoma State University.

Partner

Rebecca Bollenbach

Rebecca is founder and partner of Essentia Advisors. She brings two decades of experience in deregulated power and gas. She works closely with a range of clients on systems and process optimization in physical and financial power across ERCOT, SPP, SERC, PJM, CAISO, NYISO, ISO-NE, Ontario, and Alberta. Rebecca has led the design, build, and implementation of trading, forecasting, and ETRM systems for multiple wholesale and retail power clients, including nodal trading system suites for FTR trading desks in North America.

Rebecca is a known expert in wholesale and retail power and she frequently assists clients in the acquisition or divestiture of power related assets. Prior to Essentia, Rebecca served as Vice President of Market Advisory for Adapt2. She also held several leadership roles at Reliant Energy, including Director of Forecasting.

Rebecca leverages her extensive knowledge of ISO operations to develop strategies, process, and systems for Essentia’s clients in Mexico’s emerging energy markets. She has been elected to the leadership board for ACE, an association of companies that operate in the Mexican energy markets and serves as an advisor to Western Power Trading Forum.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University.

Partner

Corwin Moczygemba

Corwin is founder and partner of Essentia Advisors. He has over twenty years of experience in building and leading teams of personnel delivering solutions to enable trading of physical and financial energy commodities, asset transitions/divestitures and asset management. He is the practice lead for Essentia’s Commodities Market solutions.

Corwin’s energy trading expertise includes trading and risk management of financial and physical commodities across gas, power, crude and refined products and he covers a wide variety of ETRM solutions. His Essentia team has been at the forefront of the Mexican Power and Gas market deregulation and are recognized leaders in the enablement of commercial energy deregulation in Mexico.

Corwin is known as a transition management expert by his private equity clients with whom he worked to assist in the purchase/sale of energy related assets. He frequently assists in the complex transition of applications, technical infrastructures, software agreements and vendor relationships.  

Corwin has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with minors in mathematics and computer science from Texas A&M University Kingsville.

Partner

Tom Aleman

Tom is a Partner at Essentia Advisors. He is focused on providing commodity/energy trading and risk management (C/ETRM) process and technology services to commodity producers, traders and end-users. He has over twenty-five years of experience in trading, risk management and system development.   

Tom has built and led trading, structuring, and quantitative teams for energy merchants as well as banking enterprises. He developed and founded a CTRM system for derivatives. He has also worked recently as the product manager for one of the leading CTRM vendors where he built custom risk systems for commodity merchants.

Tom specializes in valuation, position management, development and all things risk.

Partner

Lance Laubach

Lance is a Partner at Essentia Advisors with over twenty-five years of experience concentrated on providing commercially focused IT solutions to the commodities trading and energy industries.  He started his career at an INC 500 consulting firm that would become one of the world’s leading E/CTRM software companies.  Prior to joining Essentia, Lance led a global consultancy firm leveraging his expertise in technology and energy commodities.  He has deep business knowledge within the wholesale and retail markets allowing him to closely partner with business leaders to outline right sized strategies to support complex corporate platforms.

Lance will expand upon Essentia’s offerings in its E/CTRM practice areas and lend his 25 years of experience to customers in need of common sense solutions.   Essentia is in the business of providing experience as a base for its advisory services.   Lance is respected by his customers and known to be creative and practical.

Lance is a native Oklahoman with a MBA from Oklahoma State University.   We are very pleased to have Lance a part of the Essentia team.

Partner

Brian Shydlo

Brian Shydlo is a partner of Essentia Advisors. He has the rare experience of working in the three primary areas of CRTM. As a user when he started his career as a commodity options trader, as a vendor when he worked as an SVP reporting directly to the CEO at the largest CTRM vendor and, most recently, as a consultant and trusted advisor to clients.

Over his career, Brian has worked with dozens of trading firms in North America and Europe as clients. He has also been involved in several “from scratch” CTRM system build-outs. He is a recognized thought leader with multiple published articles on topics including CTRM system upgrades, Profit & Loss Attribution and VaR (value at risk).   

Brian has deep experience in implementing and using multiple CTRM’s. His industry expertise includes energy, agriculture and metals. He has led small and very large implementations. He has current experience with each of the leading CTRM vendors.

Brian has a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from the NYU Stern School of Business where he also taught for several years as an adjunct professor teaching graduate level Statistics.

Managing Director

Chuck Wilson

Chuck is a Managing Director at Essentia Advisors. His focus is on providing technology and business process services related to the energy industries in North America.  Chuck brings over 20 years of diverse Information Technology experience centered around developing and implementing software solutions to support areas such as retail forecasting, upstream marketing, midstream logistics, wholesale supply and trading and asset management.

Chuck has proven track record of building high-performing teams and leading them to deliver reliable solutions that meet the requirements of his clients. He has supported a variety of clients that include asset owners, energy managers, retailers, merchant traders and private investors.  Chuck served as a programmer in the United States Marine Corps, where he achieved the rank of Sergeant.  He also holds an Associate degree in Computer Science.

Managing Director

Mark Hendrix

Mark is a Managing Director at Essentia Advisors. Mark has over 35 years of experience in leading technology groups as well as having in depth knowledge around information technology planning and management.  Functional areas of expertise include energy supply and trading, energy retail marketing, power generation, upstream accounting as well as mid-stream processes and systems.

Prior to Essentia, Mark was a partner at Sirius Solutions responsible for its Technology Group.  While at Sirius Mark also served as interim CIO for the following companies: Parker Drilling, Targa Resources; Merichem; Western Refining and Texas Southern University

Before Sirius Solutions, Mark served as a member of Reliant Resources Executive Management Team as Sr. VP CIO.  During this time, primary responsibilities included developing and implementing Reliant’s Information Technology Strategy and ensuring that all development projects met business needs for functionality and costs.  The successful development and implementation of the strategy afforded Reliant the ability to rapidly grow its core businesses, while at the same time expand its presence in Texas’ newly deregulated retail energy market. 

Prior to joining Reliant Resources, Inc., Mark worked for Coral Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell as their EVP of E-Business and CIO.  Mark developed an effective technology strategy which enabled Coral to efficiently and quickly acquire and integrate several businesses over a three-year span.  Mark also was responsible for implementing numerous technology strategies ranging from development of an on-line trading portal to establishment of technology joint ventures to support Coral’s Gas Marketing Group. Mark’s career began at Andersen Consulting (predecessor to Accenture) where he worked for thirteen years.  Primary responsibilities were origination of new projects and management of such projects, principally in the energy industry.

Managing Director

Mark Davis

Mark brings 30+ years of experience in natural gas gathering, processing, pipeline operations, scheduling and trading. Having walked in the customer’s shoes, Mark’s expertise is a tremendous complement to Essentia’s ability to deliver unmatched services for our clients. At Essentia, Mark will immediately be advising and overseeing the deployment of trading & risk management solutions. 

Prior to joining Essentia, Mark was a product owner for one of the worlds’ leading trading & risk management software platforms and was responsible for building the physical natural gas trading and logistics capabilities of that platform. Mark has consulted for a who’s-who of leading companies in the business of physical energy trading, sharing with customers his expertise and experience. Mark has worked in commercial operations around natural gas gathering, processing, and pipeline assets and is a perfect fit within Essentia’s strategy of employing top notch people whose history includes commercial experience. 

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and an Executive MBA with a focus in International Business.​

Managing Director

Jason Delgado

Jason has over twenty years of experience marketing, selling, & delivering technology & business solutions to companies across the Americas. Prior to joining Essentia, Jason led sales & business development, as well as implementations for multiple software companies. He has deep knowledge of business processes and technology systems across the energy value chain, including oil, refined products natural gas and electric power. 

From Calgary to Nova Scotia, New York City to Sao Paulo, Jason’s years in marketing, selling, and consulting around leading technology platforms and commodity risk management have equipped with him a keen ability to team and communicate with customers across industries and geographies as a trusted advisor. This trust ensures successful outcomes for clients and their stakeholders. 

Essentia consists of the energy industry’s leading commodity management experts. Jason leads business development for these offerings which help customers manage risk, optimize performance, and navigate through constantly evolving commodities markets. 

Jason is a native Texan, Houstonian, proud Texas Longhorn, husband, father of four, and passionate offshore fisherman.

Managing Director

Nate Branscombe

Nate is a Managing Director with over twenty years of experience in the energy and commodities trading and marketing industries. He has held senior commercial positions as well as roles in operations, finance and project management. Nate will focus on delivering value for clients through technology and process optimization by leveraging his deep industry experience. His experience in multiple functions across commodities marketing and trading bring Nate a unique understanding of the complexity of issues facing our clients today.
 
Prior to joining Essentia, Nate served as the Global Head of Operations and later Global Head of Product Control at Castleton Commodities (CCI). He led several successful business improvement initiatives as well as technology-driven transformation efforts within commercial, operations, accounting and finance functions.

Nate holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College, where he majored in Economics and an MBA from the Yale School of Management with a dual concentration in Finance and Strategy.

Managing Director

Steve Burrow

Steve is a Managing Director in the Houston office of Essentia Advisors, focused on providing commodity/energy trading and risk management (C/ETRM) process and technical architecture consulting services to energy trading and marketing companies throughout North America. He has approximately twenty years of experience across the energy value chain.  His roles as a development manager and a services manager in C/ETRM organizations allow him to provide his clients with focused implementation strategies that provide operational solutions.