Team

Dr. Panos Ninios is a Founding Partner of True Green Capital Management LLC and is responsible for overseeing transactions and portfolio management. Dr. Ninios is a member of the Investment Committee and contributes significant global renewable energy investment, regulatory and operational expertise to the True Green Capital team.

Dr. Ninios was most recently CEO and President of HelioSphera SA, the largest manufacturer of thin film PV modules in southern Europe. Prior to assuming operating responsibility for HelioSphera, Dr. Ninios was a Managing Director at Plainfield Asset Management LLC for four years, where he was responsible for a global $1.5 billion energy portfolio consisting of private equity, high yield and bank debt. While at Plainfield, Dr. Ninios led the construction of a $250 million renewable energy private equity portfolio and played a lead role in a number of US, European and Latin American control and minority investments in renewable energy sectors focusing on power solar generation from bio-chemicals and biomass. In that context Dr. Ninios raised over $500 million of bank debt for Plainfield portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Plainfield, Dr. Ninios was for four years an Executive Director with the Goldman Sachs commodity business (JAron) in London focusing on European Power and Gas markets as well as distressed debt power markets. Dr. Ninios also spent eight years with Mckinsey & Co, most recently as an Associate Partner, serving major European and US energy companies on M&A and commodity risk management. From 1994 to 1995, Dr. Ninios was a derivatives analyst at Intercapital Brokers in London. From 1991 to 1994, while working on his doctoral thesis, Dr. Ninios consulted to the UK power sector, principally with Southern Electric PLC.

Dr. Ninios holds a Ph.D. in Electric Power Industry Deregulation Economics from the London Business School, a MSc in operations research from the London School of Economics, a MSc in computer science from the University of Dundee, UK and a B.S. in pure mathematics from the University of Patras, Greece. Prior board directorships: Brick Power LLC, HelioSphera SA, Myriant LLC, Bioenergy Holdings LLC and Pure Biofuels Corp.

Jeffrey Brown is a Founder and Partner of True Green Capital Management LLC and is responsible for research, oversight of credit and transaction leadership. Mr. Brown is a member of the Investment Committee and is focused on originating, structuring and managing direct debt and equity financings.

Prior, Mr. Brown was a Senior Vice President and Senior Research Analyst with Plainfield Asset Management LLC, a special situations investment manager based in Greenwich, CT with over US$5 billion in assets under management including a $250 million private renewable energy portfolio. Mr. Brown has led a number of direct equity and debt financings in the US and Europe across the solar value chain – including a lead equity investment in a private US-based producer of UMG solar silicon; a control equity investment in a thin film module production company and solar farm developer based in the Mediterranean; and multi-round control and minority equity and debt financings of US-based PV panel producers and power generating PV assets.

Mr. Brown was earlier an analyst at W.R. Huff Asset Management, a $14 billion high yield and private equity manager in Morristown, NJ. From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Brown was an analyst at The Nassau Group, a merchant bank focused on environmental and industrial technologies and services based in Westport, CT.

Mr. Brown received an M.B.A. from M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and a B.A., with distinction, from Yale University. Selected current and prior board directorships: WR-TGC Solar Generation I, LLC, Solsil Inc, HelioSphera SA, Bioenergy Holdings LLC and Picture People Inc.

Bruce "Bo" Wiegand is a Founder and Principal of True Green Capital Management LLC and is primarily responsible for investment sourcing, evaluation, due diligence and project development. Mr. Wiegand is a member of the Investment Committee and is responsible for developing the firm’s strong relationships with advisers, EPC contractors and asset owners.

Prior to True Green Capital, Mr. Wiegand was a principal at Voyage Investment Management, an alternative investment firm and family office that managed over US$200 million in assets. While at Voyage, Mr. Wiegand was responsible for investment evaluation, trading and ongoing portfolio management, with a focus on energy. Prior to Voyage, Mr. Wiegand was an analyst in BlackRock’s Proprietary Alpha Group, which managed over US$5 billion in energy-focused alternative investments.

Mr. Wiegand was a top 50 nationally ranked US junior tennis player and was a member of Harvard’s Varsity Tennis Team. Mr. Wiegand received a B.A. from Harvard University.

Dan Fleischer is a Director of True Green Capital Management LLC and is responsible for business development with a focus on project and transaction finance sourcing and structuring.

Mr. Fleischer was earlier a Senior Director for International Business Development and Project Finance at SunEdison, where he helped lead the origination and arrangement of structured debt and equity capital to acquire, develop, build and sell more than a 1GW pipeline of solar PV projects.

Mr. Fleischer was previously a Director at UBS Investment Bank, where he led and supported the execution of more than US$70 billion of M&A advisory and capital raising transactions in the global power infrastructure and renewable energy sectors. Prior, Mr. Fleischer was a member of the Energy Infrastructure Group at Goldman Sachs where he supported the financing of a number of U.S. utilities and other power generation assets.

Dan was awarded the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship in 2009, through which he worked with E.On Climate & Renewables’ Munich team investing in and developing renewable energy assets in Central Europe. As a Bosch Fellow, Dan also served as a member of the German delegation to the UNFCCC climate conference in Copenhagen.

Mr. Fleischer received an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, an M.Sc. with Distinction from the London School of Economics and undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Ecology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thomas Byrne is a Director and Counsel of True Green Capital Management LLC and is responsible for providing legal counsel and support at all stages of project development and financing.

Mr. Byrne previously practiced law in the project finance groups of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP and Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, where his practice focused primarily on the development and financing of renewable energy generation assets.

Mr. Byrne has represented renewable energy developers and financiers on a number of groundbreaking projects in the U.S. industry. Most recently, he represented NRG Energy on the purchase of a portfolio of distributed solar assets from Solar Power Partners, and SunPower on development, financing and sale of its 25 MW Solar Star project. Mr. Byrne also represented SunPower and NRG Energy on the financing of the 250 MW California Valley Solar Ranch project, Terra-Gen Power on the development and financing of its 1.3 GW Alta Wind Energy Center in California and Caithness Energy on the development and financing of its 990 MW Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon.

Prior to law school, Mr. Byrne worked for Waterkeeper Alliance where he helped create more than fifty environmental organizations worldwide. Mr. Byrne received his JD from UCLA School of Law, and his BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Daniel Porcello is CFO of True Green Capital Management and is responsible for accounting, tax and for providing operations support accross entities at the firm and portolio levels.

Mr. Porcello was prior the Controller of ESL Investments Inc, where he was from 2004 through 2013 responsible for operations, accounting and tax for a multi billion dollar group of hedge funds.

Mr Porcello earlier served in roles at Globeop Financial Services, as Head of Operations; Deephaven Capital Management, as Controller; and with The State Investment Council, Bank of Bermuda, as Portfolio Accountant. Mr. Porcello began his career as an Associate with Arthur Andersen.

Mr. Porcello received his Master of Professional Accounting degree from University of Texas at Austin, and his BS/BA in Accounting from Western New England College.

Jigar Shah brings a wealth of industry operating experience, energy project finance and energy policy expertise to the True Green Capital team. Jigar is at present the CEO of Carbon War Room, a US-based charitable organization founded by Sir Richard Branson (Founder and Chairman of Virgin Group) and a group of global thought leaders seeking market driven solutions to climate change. In his capacity at Carbon War Room, Mr. Shah works closely with some of the world’s leading influencers and guides policy makers around the globe on key issues surrounding renewable energy, global warming and sustainability.

Prior, Mr. Shah was the founder and CEO of SunEdison (North America’s largest solar energy service provider). Mr. Shah launched SunEdison in 2003 and under his guidance, SunEdison pioneered the solar power services agreement (SPSA) model, which has turned solar services into a multi-billion dollar industry. SunEdison now has more solar energy systems and megawatts under management than any other company, with over $1.1 billion of financed projects.

Prior to founding Sun Edison, Mr. Shah was the manager for the US Marketing Group at BP Solar where he focused on identifying ways for BP Solar to structure its channels and delivery mechanisms to increase its market share of the growing US solar electricity business. Mr. Shah also served as head of US Commercial Sales at BP Solar, and earlier as an analyst within the Business Development Group.

Mr. Shah earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Mr. Daher guides energy market analytics for the firm and focuses on risk management, valuation and hedging of environmental credits, as well as the pooling, securitization and sale of assets and cash flows.

Mr. Daher earlier served as Head of Risk Management and Head of Structured Products at Plainfield Asset Management LLC, a multi-strategy investment partnership with over $5 billion in peak AUM where Mr. Daher was a Partner. In his role as Head of the Risk Management for Plainfield, Mr. Daher assembled and led a team responsible for providing a macro-overlay hedge to the firms’ portfolios using various equity, credit and commodity derivatives. In his role as Plainfield’s Head of the Structured Products, Mr. Daher assembled and led a team that modeled, monitored and invested in CDO’s, RMBS and CMBS.

Prior, Mr. Daher, was a Founder, Partner and Portfolio Manager for Charter Management LLC, a special situations investment fund focused on distressed and merger arbitrage opportunities.

Mr. Daher earlier held a variety of positions on Wall Street including Vice President and desk analyst with Morgan Stanley’s equity derivatives group, Senior Analyst at Gabriel Capital, a multi-billion dollar investment partnership, and various trading and research positions with Dillon Read, Smith Barney and L.F. Rothschild.

Prior to his capital markets career, Mr. Daher, worked in Business Development for the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp, an Austin, TX- based research consortium and was a Research Staff Member for MIT-Lincoln Laboratory and the NASA- Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Mr. Daher holds an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin where he was the recipient of a scholarship from Oryx Energy Company. He also received an M.S. in Physics from M.I.T., and a B.S. in Physics/Computer Science from Suffolk University in Boston.