Key Staff

Chris J. Brookhouse
Vice President, International Development
+44 (0) 7881 823645 office

Chris Brookhouse is Vice President of International Development for Summit Power. Based in London, Chris leads the company's efforts to develop large, clean-energy projects from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. His more than 20 years of experience include senior management positions at Texaco, BG Group, Invensys, CEO of Harvest Energy Limited, and most recently Managing Director at Blue Ocean Associates. Over his career, Chris has successfully developed and financed in excess of $2 billion in power and technology-based projects in Europe and Asia. In addition, he has managed a vast number of up- and down-stream business units within the energy sector, such as energy production including biofuel production, fuel delivery and storage, and the opening of new retail markets. He has earned advanced degrees in economics and operational research from the University of Birmingham, U.K.

Jeffrey D. Brown
Vice President, Project Finance
(206) 232-4305 office
(425) 503-0714 mobile

Jeff Brown joined Summit mid-2009 after twenty-six years of project finance and capital market experience (domestic and international) in the energy sector, most recently as Merrill Lynch Managing Director/Senior Northwest Investment Banker. He offers Summit clients and development associates a history of varied and successful energy financial services experience, including with municipal and private electric utilities, natural gas producers/pipeline operators and coal, hydro, nuclear and geothermal developers. His clients have included Intermountain Power Projects, Florida Municipal Power Agency (St. Lucie nuclear), Modesto Irrigation District, SMUD/Nashville/Tallahassee municipals, Texas Eastern/SONAT gas pipelines, Shell/Anadarko/EOG gas producers, AIDEA (coal), Alaska Energy Authority (hydro), State of Alaska, City of Spokane, Energy Northwest, City of Portland, Alaska Electric Light & Power and Bonneville Power Administration. Internationally (with Goldman Sachs) he advised the Qatar National Petroleum Corporation among other Mid-East and Asian Clients. Mr. Brown holds an A.B. degree from Harvard College in Economics and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.


Richard W. Burkhardt, CPA
Chief Financial Officer, Vice President
(206) 780-3551 office

Richard Burkhardt, CPA, is Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Summit.  Prior to joining Summit, Mr. Burkhardt held the position Director, domestic income tax for Starbucks Coffee Company, a vertically integrated roaster and retailer of specialty coffee through its stores around the world.  He was a senior leader in the tax department and responsible for the domestic income tax function including tax planning, tax accounting for the worldwide operations and federal, state and local income tax compliance.  Mr. Burkhardt joined Starbucks Coffee Company in 1994 and worked in a variety of roles in the tax department.  He was instrumental in facilitating tax structuring and consulting for the Company’s domestic merger and acquisition activity.  Mr. Burkhardt received his BA in Business Administration from University of Washington in 1990 and his Master of Taxation from University of Denver in 1991.  He is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Washington and a member of the Washington State Society of CPA’s.


Kelly F. Goodman
Vice President, General Counsel
(503) 575-5240 office

Kelly Goodman, J.D., is Vice President, General Counsel. Ms. Goodman manages legal matters for Summit and handles various commercial relationships across Summit’s project disciplines. She has experience handling agreements related to project off-take, financing and asset transfer, among others. Ms. Goodman also handles issues related to carbon management and related benefits for Summit's projects. Ms. Goodman's work frequently involves collaboration with industry environmental groups, and recently co-authored a chapter in a Clean Air Task Force industry report entitled Coal Without Carbon. Prior to joining Summit, she practiced law at a major international law firm. Her legal experience includes advisement to public companies and corporate boards regarding securities and corporate litigation and investigatory matters in addition to work within the firm's energy practice group.  Ms. Goodman holds a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law (with high honors) and a B.A. from Santa Clara University (phi beta kappa).


Thomas Johns
Vice President, Project Development
(509) 926-3485 office

Thomas Johns has over 25 years of experience in the utility industry, including management roles in project development, origination and trading. Prior to joining Summit, Mr. Johns held the position Vice President Development with Sithe Global where he was responsible for development of coal, natural gas and renewable projects in western U.S. Mr. Johns worked for 15 years with Avista Corporation including his role as Vice President Trading for Avista Energy. Mr. Johns spent seven years managing power supply issues for Avista Corporation, including power plant operations long-term fuel and power contracts, FERC reporting and resource planning. Mr. Johns holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Montana State University and a Masters of Science in Taxation from Gonzaga University and is a CPA.

Sasha Mackler
Vice President, Summit Carbon Capture
(202) 630-5585 office

Sasha Mackler is Vice President of Summit Carbon Capture. Mr. Mackler helps manage commercial and policy aspects of the Summit Carbon Capture business unit, focusing on the development of carbon-capture power projects and emerging technologies. He also pursues business opportunities for climate-friendly commercial uses of captured carbon, such as enhanced oil production. Prior to joining Summit, Sasha worked at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington DC as a founding Director of its Energy Project, an energy policy effort chaired by former Senators Byron Dorgan and Trent Lott, former National Security Advisor General (ret) James L. Jones, and former EPA Administrator William Reilly. Mr. Mackler led numerous projects in close collaboration with leaders from the U.S. business, political, environmental and financial communities focusing on the issues of energy production, incentives, environmental impacts and innovation. His Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in geo-mechanical engineering is from the University of Rochester. He earned his Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.) and Masters of Science (M.S.) in earth resources engineering from Columbia University.

Karl E. Mattes
Vice President
(262) 439-8007 office

Karl Mattes is Vice President and Director of Projects for Summit.  Mr. Mattes has more than 25 years of experience in the power industry and has held positions in a variety of disciplines.  Most recently, Mr. Mattes was the Combustion Turbine Business Segment Manager for a major integrated service provider.  In this position, Mr. Mattes was responsible for all aspects of combustion turbine repairs and service, including facility planning and implementation, repair development, business development, project management, and industry presentation of technical repairs related to operation and maintenance.  Prior to this position, Mr. Mattes was employed as the Project Director for numerous turnkey combined cycle projects including Chouteau, St. Francis 2 and St. Francis 1 (all Summit projects), with a total capacity of over 1000MW using the Siemens technology.  Mr. Mattes also was Project Director for other turnkey combined cycle and cogeneration projects in California, New York, Virginia and other locations in the United States.  In these positions, Mr. Mattes was in charge of design, procurement, equipment manufacturing, construction, and commissioning.  During execution of these projects, Mr. Mattes' responsibilities included project management, cost and schedule control, technical and commercial contract negotiations, selection and schedule control, technical and commercial contract negotiations, selection and coordination of vendors, engineering firms, and erection contractors, supervision of engineering and site staff, preparation of bid specifications, coordination of construction management, startup coordination and customer interfaces.
 

Shawn Nichols
Vice President
(206) 390-5077 office

Shawn Nichols is Vice President, focused on business development and origination. Shawn brings more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry including asset acquisitions and divestitures, business development, contract negotiations, fuel transportation, gas supply, power origination and regulatory proceedings impacting existing power generation plants and the development of new transmission facilities. Throughout his career in the power sector, Mr. Nichols has been involved in numerous structured transactions totaling more than 5,000 MW across various regions including ERCOT, SERC and WECC. Deals range from 3 months to 30 years and include fixed priced power sales, full requirements, heat rate call options, gas-fired tolling agreements and coal – fired power purchase agreements.  Currently, Mr. Nichols is engaged in power development activities for various opportunities throughout the United States with a primary focus in the Midwest.  Mr. Nichols received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Oklahoma State University and a Master of Business Administration from Baylor University.


Dana C. Zentz
Vice President, Marketing
(509) 448-7589 office

Dana Zentz is Vice President, Marketing of Summit and has over 25 years of active involvement in the energy industry with management roles in supply, marketing and project development.  He founded and managed Inland Energy Consulting, Inc.  Inland Energy assisted utilities, Independent Power Producers and energy merchant firms with strategic and commercial matters related to power and natural gas supplies and energy project management.  Prior to Inland Energy Consulting, Mr. Zentz was Director of Business Development for National Fuel Marketing Company, a Rockies based natural gas production and marketing firm.  He also served as Strategic Director of western markets for Williams Energy Marketing and Trading.  Mr. Zentz worked for over 15 years in electric, gas and telecommunications utility operations at Avista Corporation in Spokane, Washington, advancing to Vice President of Wholesale Energy Marketing.  During his tenure, Avista Energy grew to become one of the top 15 U.S. energy merchant firms.  Mr. Zentz has many years experience in wholesale natural gas and power markets in the U.S. and Western Canada.  His experience includes pricing, structuring, and negotiation of numerous long and short term natural gas and power supply agreements; development of strategic plans for energy firms; management of generation project development; construction/administration of utility energy resource procurement processes; analysis and evaluation of energy projects employing both traditional and renewable generation technology; evaluation of energy projects employing both traditional and renewable generation technology; evaluation and mitigation of financial risk associated with energy supplies; and development of natural gas, wind & IGCC projects.  Recently he has been active in development of wind generation projects having assisted with contracts for off-take, asset sales and financing of wind projects in the Western U.S.  He is a registered professional engineer in Washington and holds engineering degrees (with honors) from the University of Idaho (BSCE) and Washington State University (MSEng).
 

Ann E. Banks
Chief Commercial Officer
(713) 205-0755

Ann Banks is Chief Commercial Officer, leading all commercial arrangements relating to the development, construction and financing of the $2.1 B Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP).  TCEP is a state of the art coal gasification project that will supply power to the local network while capturing over 90% of the carbon for sequestration in Enhanced Oil Recovery operations in West Texas’ Permian Basin.  Ms. Banks brings 25 years of broad experience in business development, marketing, treasury operations and accounting within startup and turnaround businesses.  Ms. Banks serves as the CFO for APO Offshore, a start-up in the digital oilfield segment.  Previously, Ms. Banks was Senior VP Business Development & Finance at Sindicatum Carbon Capital a private equity start-up pursuing greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy project. During her nine years with Calpine Ms. Banks served in many roles with her greatest success being the successful development of two gas fired combines cycle power plants totaling $845 MM in capital expenditure. While at Koch Industries, Ms. Banks led an asset acquisition team. Ms. Banks began her career at Amoco and during her 13 years she served in strategic planning, treasury, management, accounting and development roles as she moved from the oil & gas industry to power generation. Her international business development experience includes Argentina, Brazil, China, Romania and Venezuela. Ms. Banks holds a MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Bachelor of Arts Degree in Accounting and is a CPA. She also serves on several non-profit boards in the Houston area.

Barry Cunningham
Managing Director, Project Development
 
Barry Cunningham is Managing Director, Project Development of Summit. Mr. Cunningham has over 30 years of experience in the power industry and has held positions in a variety of disciplines.  Prior to joining Summit, Mr. Cunningham was Senior Vice President of Generation for Pacificorp where he was responsible for over 8000 MW of generating assets, and all associated support functions.  His responsibility also included re-licensing of hydroelectric projects, new generation resource development, and construction of new resources, including the Lakeside Project, a 543 MW combined cycle plant (Summit Project).  Mr. Cunningham spent 17 years with Pacificorp and 12 years with Utah Power and Light Co. where he filled roles for all aspects of the power generation including power plant operations, maintenance, training, technical support, procurement, and health and safety.  Mr. Cunningham progressively moved into higher level roles of Plant Manager at several large thermal plants, Assistant Vice President, Vice President and Senior Vice President and executive board of director member for PacifiCorp before retiring in 2006.  Mr. Cunningham has a Bachelor of Arts with Honors degree from the University of Wyoming, and an Associates Degree of Science from Casper College.
 

Chris Kirksey
Director of Projects, Texas
(512) 306-1367 office
(512) 415-2467 mobile

Prior to joining Summit, Chris Kirksey held the position of Sr. Vice President of Power Production for Austin Energy, the City of Austin's municipally owned electric utility, where he was responsible for executive oversight of Austin Energy's electric power generation facilities which include nuclear, coal, and natural gas fueled plants.  Mr. Kirksey joined Austin Energy in 1985 and worked in a variety of roles in generation, including engineering and plant management.  He was instrumental in the planning and development of the Sand Hill Energy Center, including all phases of contract negotiation and administration for technical services, equipment procurement, and construction.  Mr. Kirksey served as a director on the board of the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company and on the owners committees for the South Texas Project and the Fayette Power Project.  Mr. Kirksey received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1984 and is a member of the Texas Tech Academy of Mechanical Engineers.  He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas.
 

Laura Miller
Director of Projects, Texas
(214) 763-0600 mobile

Laura Miller joined Summit in 2008 to work on the Texas Clean Energy Project, an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project. She served as Mayor of Dallas from 2002 to 2007. During her tenure, she led the statewide opposition against eighteen old-technology coal plants proposed for Texas, an effort that was memorialized in a documentary film produced and narrated by Robert Redford, entitled “Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars”. She also received a 2008 Climate Protection Award from the EPA for that initiative. Ms. Miller has been an advocate for coal gasification, carbon sequestration, renewables, nuclear, conservation, and energy efficiency. As Mayor, she led a real estate development boom in downtown Dallas, leveraging $190 million in city financial incentives to spark $1.3 billion in private investment. She has extensive experience with public finance, including championing the two largest bond packages in the history of Dallas and restructuring Dallas' underfunded pension system with pension obligation bonds and private-sector investment oversight. Prior to becoming Mayor, Ms. Miller was a member of the Dallas City Council. Before she began her political career, Ms. Miller was an award-winning journalist.
 

Rand Thurgood
Director, Advanced Technology

Rand Thurgood, Ph.D. is a Director, Advanced Technology of Summit.  Dr. Thurgood was Vice President of Resource Development and Construction for PacifiCorp where he was responsible for origination, development and construction of new generation resources in PacifiCorp, including the Currant Creek 525 MW combined-cycle project and the recently completed Summit Power Lakeside combined-cycle plant.  Dr. Thurgood spent 26 years with PacifiCorp and was responsible for their research and development program during the 1980’s and their generation engineering program before assuming overall responsibility for their resource development work in 2000.  Throughout his time at PacifiCorp, he also was involved with and led the company’s efforts in assessing the potential for new technology development and funding.  He served as a member of the Western Regional Air Quality Board (1999-2000) and a Vice Chairman and member of the Executive Committee of the Utah Energy Conservation and Development Council (1991-1993).  Dr. Thurgood was a Project Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory responsible for a coal liquefaction program (1978-1979) and a Project Engineer for Ireco Chemicals, a slurry explosive producer (1972-1974).  Dr. Thurgood received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University in 1979 and has published a number of articles on coal conversion research.  He holds several patents in work on slurry explosive manufacturing.