Leadership Team

Managing Principal

Wes Colwell

Wes is a Managing Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company.  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.   

Wes has been involved in several complex transactions including reorganizations and recapitalizations involving energy related assets.  He has deep experience in mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, and transaction structures. While in industry, Wes managed groups in the functions of risk management, finance, and accounting. ​

Wes’ client base has included companies in the areas of 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.

Managing Principal

Rebecca Bollenbach

Rebecca is a Managing Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company. She has over two decades of experience in deregulated power and gas and 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 across 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.

Managing Principal

Corwin Moczygemba

Corwin is a Managing Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company. He has over twenty years of experience in building and leading teams of personnel delivering technology to enable trading of physical and financial energy commodities.

Corwin’s energy trading expertise gas, power, crude and refined products and he has experience in both wholesale and retail markets. He works around a wide variety of ETRM solutions. 

Corwin has been at the forefront of the Mexican Power and Gas market deregulation and made Essentia a recognized leader in the enablement of energy deregulation in Mexico.

Corwin has experience working with private equity clients, assisting with purchase/sale of energy related assets. He frequently assists in 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.

Managing Principal

Tom Aleman

Tom is a Managing Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company. He is focused on providing commodity/energy trading and risk management (CTRM) 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. He leads services for some of Essentia’s largest customers.

Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Science from Harvard University

Managing Principal

Lance Laubach

Lance is a Managing Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company, 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 became 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 technology platforms.

Lance expands Essentia’s offerings in its E/CTRM practice areas and brings his years of experience to customers in need of common-sense solutions. Lance is respected by his customers and known to be creative and practical.

Lance is a native Oklahoman with an MBA from Oklahoma State University.

Managing Principal

Brian Shydlo

Brian Shydlo is a Managing Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company. He has the rare experience of working in the three primary areas of CTRM. As a user when he started his career as a commodity options trader, as a vendor when he was instrumental in the development of one of the leading CTRM applications, and now, as a consultant and trusted advisor to many clients including large banks and energy companies.

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 builds. 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. 

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 Principal

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.

Principal

Blake Phillips

Blake brings 18 years of commodities trading and risk management industry experience coupled with a track record of delivering exceptional client results. Prior to joining Essentia, Blake has led commodities trading, risk management (CTRM) system selections, as well as 20+ Allegro system implementations & system upgrades, in roles including program manager, and deal-to-cash functional Subject Matter Expert (SME) across the front, mid, and back office. 

Blake’s Allegro CTRM client experiences span the energy commodities value chain. This includes upstream transformations for multiple super majors, gas marketing and trading deployments for 2 of the top 10 midstream companies, and another ten downstream deployments including one of the largest, most sophisticated merchant generation companies in North America. 

An Allegro-certified professional, Blake is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds a BA degree in Management Information Systems. 

Principal

Doug Towsley

Doug is a Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company, with over seventeen years of experience in energy, utilities, grid operations, and commodities trading markets. Doug has a demonstrated history of delivering value for clients through technology and process optimization, leveraging his deep CTRM deployment & related industry experience.  

During his 15 years at one of the largest professional services companies in the world, Doug led 11 different large-scale CTRM implementation and digital transformation projects. Those client projects cover the entire value chain, from wellhead, through the midstream, and downstream to the burner tip and smart meter.  

Doug’s experience expands and enhances Essentia’s deep expertise and capabilities in delivering smart solutions, especially in grid operations, as well as commodity trading and risk management (CTRM). 

Doug holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baylor University.  

Principal

Nate Branscombe

Nate is a Principal at Essentia, an EPAM Company, 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

Chuck Wilson

Chuck is a Managing Director at Essentia Advisory, an EPAM Company. 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

Nichole King

Nichole is a Managing Director focused on Essentia’s commodity trading and risk management consulting services for energy trading and marketing companies in North America. With over 20 years of experience, she brings extensive knowledge of ETRM/CTRM products and the associated implementations. 

Nichole’s background also includes providing skilled and practical guidance in resource allocation, human resource development, and team building. Nichole has managed teams of consultants in executing implementation strategies to deliver solutions across numerous diverse energy customers. She has managed the complete system development lifecycle process, including requirements definition, custom development, QA and testing efforts, user acceptance testing, infrastructure design, product training,  and issue resolution. 

Nichole holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore and a B.A. in Political Science from Hampton University.

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

Steve Burrow

Steve is a Managing Director at Essentia, an EPAM Company, and brings over 25 years of experience in energy trading and risk management processes and technical architectures.  Steve brings an understanding of both operational and commercial needs and couples that with a deep knowledge of technology.   Steve is directly involved in most of Essentia’s software implementations and is also responsible for all of Essentia’s cloud hosting and support business.

Prior to joining Essentia, Steve worked for some of the largest CTRM software vendors.  During that time, he held leadership roles over both development and services.  Steve has served over 250 clients and has broad experience with leading CTRM applications including Endur, Allegro, SolArc Right Angle, among others.   

Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Texas Tech University.

Managing Director

Chris Byrne

With his 25+ years of experience in commodities trading & capital markets, Chris has a track record of success in leading large-scale transformational programs for the world’s best known market movers and market makers. In his time at five (5) of the top ten (10) global investment banking, capital markets firms, and one of the largest volume energy commodity traders in the world, Chris has led a variety of trading and risk management, credit risk management, and numerous other commodity initiatives. This experience includes utilizing both 3rd-party and in-house bespoke platforms, with global teams for projects with global reach. Chris’s leadership skills are assets which complement Essentia’s ability to deliver maximum return on our client’s investments in trading technologies.

Managing Director

Jeremy Newman

Jeremy Newman is a Managing Director at Essentia Advisory, an EPAM Company. Given his tremendous expertise is CTRM software architecture and development, Jeremy serves as principal technical architect for the most complex & high scale deployments. 

Prior to Essentia, Jeremy was one of the original core engineers whom architected, designed, and developed the Allegro CTRM platform. Truly a special and rare talent, it’s notable that Jeremy designed and developed the class-event extensibility framework of Allegro which was one of several factors key to the runaway success of that CTRM system. 

Jeremy’s deep knowledge and tremendous technical expertise are yet another differentiator in Essentia’s ability to deliver smart commodity trading and risk management (CTRM) solutions for our clients. 

Managing Director

Alan Gunn

With over 30 years of experience spanning the energy value chain, Alan brings a remarkable level of deal-to-cash expertise across crude oil, refined products, natural gas, and power. Prior to joining Essentia, in executive leadership roles at the foremost companies in commodity trading software, Alan and the teams he built have a string of achievements which have helped shape the CTRM software industry into the form it is today. 

Like much of the leadership at Essentia, Alan’s career began with roles on the customer side. In Alans’ case, he was part of the market operations team for Texas Eastern Transmission that drove rules under ORDER 636 for natural business.  He gained experience in nominations, scheduling and marketing operations. Later, Alan took a leadership role at Altra Energy, one of the foundational gas marketing technology solutions, a forefather to today’s leading CTRM platforms. After growing the Altra business to nearly $100M revenue annually, Alan took leadership roles and drove similar revenue & market share growth at firms including:

• Kiodex, the first true software-as-a-service CTRM, growing that business to over $22MM in revenues annually.  
• Solarc, where his contributions to product management, software development, and sales established RightAngle as the premier platform it is today.  He also helped in the sale of SolArc to Heldman and Friedman which merged with Ion’s Open Link Financial. 
• FIS SunGard, revitalizing sales of the platform offerings and achieving 200% of revenue targets.
• Adapt2, accelerating the go-to-market strategy across sales & marketing resources, introducing a proactive account management approach, resulting in an expanded client base of numerous  municipal power companies and numerous top tier power generation companies. 

Most recently, Alan’s sales force enablement practice has provided training, enablement, and mentoring in sales process and go-to-market strategy utilizing the 2Win! Global methodology, enabling his client’s staff to excel in product demonstrations & presentations, over-achieving on revenue targets. 

At Essentia, Alan will lead the sales force, automation, and artificial intelligence practice, bringing customer relationship management platforms to the energy industries commercial front office. 

Alan has a Bachelor of Accounting from Texas A&M University – Gig’em!

Managing Director

Kevin Cox

Kevin is a Managing Director at Essentia with more than 30 years’ experience in energy, with over 20 years’ in the Energy Commodity and Risk Management (ETRM) industry, focused on the implementation of Allegro, Endur and RightAngle. Kevin is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and energy services industry. Strong organizational, program and project management skills as well as extensive experience in Business Process, IT Strategy, Management and Leadership, Change Management, and Customer Relationships. Kevin holds a BA degree in Management Information Systems from the University of North Texas. He is an Allegro-certified professional.

Managing Director

Eric Eaches

Eric is a Managing Director in the Houston office of Essentia with over 25 years of technology experience in the Energy Industry. He is a business minded leader with an extensive information technology background and proven record of delivering results. He has successfully led large scale ERP, development, integration, cybersecurity, transformation and transition projects. He is well known for:​

• Providing executive level leadership and vision by collaborating with all levels of operational and functional teams on technology solutions through strategic thinking and decisive decision making.​
• Building lean teams to develop, implement, integrate, manage and optimize high-performance technology.​
• Providing hands-on support to complex projects and issues in order to meet deadlines and stay on budget.​
• Transforming IT into a positive business driver and enabler of process and technology.​
• Having deep expertise in ERP, software development, system integration, database administration, servers, storage, networking and cybersecurity.​

Managing Director

Sammy Njogu

With an impressive 17 years of functional and technical E/CTRM implementation experience, Sammy has worked across Front, Mid, and Back Office, handling physical, financial, and derivative products in Power, Natural Gas, Crude, LNG, Emissions, and more. His hands-on expertise with leading systems like Allegro, Eka, and SunGard Zainet makes him an invaluable asset to our team.

Sammy holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from both Grant MacEwan University and the University of Calgary, as well as an MBA in Finance from the University of Bradford. As a GARP Energy Risk Professional, Sammy’s extensive experience and industry knowledge truly set him apart.