Cypress Creek Renewables

Our People

• Ben Van De Bunt

  Chairman

  As board chairman, Ben leads Cypress Creek in its mission to be the nation’s foremost developer of small-scale utility solar farms. Prior to taking the lead at Cypress, Ben was a principal at Guthy-Renker, where he was the longtime president and CEO. He has served on the Board of Directors/Advisors for companies including Solar City and Houlihan Lokey, in addition to several non-profit and mission-based organizations. He received his JD from Harvard Law School and a BA from UCLA.

• Matthew McGovern

  CEO

  As CEO, Matt oversees all operations and investor relations for Cypress Creek Renewables. Prior to forming Cypress, he served as the CFO of Paramount Equity, a role he held from December 2012 to April 2014. As CFO of Paramount, Matt launched the firm’s first tax equity fund with US Bank in March 2013. Before joining Paramount, he was the CFO of Gehrlicher Solar America Corporation from 2010 to 2012, where he developed and financed a large portfolio of utility-scale and commercial solar projects.

• Michael Cohen

  President

  As President of Cypress, Mike is instrumental in business development, financing and strategic initiatives. Prior to Cypress, Mike led business development and project finance for Strata Solar from 2011 to 2014. Before building Strata’s development and finance model, he was an attorney with Kirkland & Ellis from 2008 to 2011, where he focused on the development, financing and purchase/sale of renewable energy projects both domestically and abroad.

• Jerome O’Brien

  Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel

  Jerome oversees all of Cypress Creek’s contract negotiations and legal due diligence activities. Prior to joining Cypress Creek Renewables, Jerome was an attorney in the New York office of Jones Day, a leading international firm, from 2008 to 2014.

• Brian Matthay

  Chief Investment Officer

  Brian is Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives at Cypress Creek, focusing on activities that span Cypress’ finance and development needs. Prior to Cypress, Brian was a Senior Vice President in the Environmental Finance Group at Wells Fargo where he originated and structured tax equity investments for the bank’s own account from 2008 to 2014.

• Patrick McConnell

  Chief Structured FInance Officer

  Patrick is responsible for managing project investment and asset management at Cypress. Prior to Cypress, Patrick led renewable energy finance and solar development for Stonehenge Capital Company and its sister development company, Heelstone Energy. Prior to his time at Stonehenge/Heelstone, Patrick was a managing director at Carrboro Capital, a lower middle-market private equity firm focused on buyouts in the Southeast. Before Carrboro, Patrick was the lead analyst in the structured finance group of RBS Greenwich Capital where he focused on CMBS, mezzanine, and credit-tenant financings.

• Kevin Knee

  Co-Founder

  Kevin is one of the Co-Founders of Cypress Creek and serves on the Board of Directors. Prior to his current private equity investing activities, Kevin was a principal at Guthy-Renker for the past 22 years and served in various roles from CFO, COO, CEO and Vice Chairman. Prior to that Kevin was the EVP and CFO for Walt Disney Direct Marketing Services. He also serves on the Board of Directors for several privately held companies.

• Peter Farlekas

  EPC President

  As Cypress Creek’s EPC President, Peter is responsible for the entire EPC team as it coordinates and supports all phases of project execution. Prior to joining Cypress Creek, Peter was most recently the EVP for EPC/Operations for Gehrlicher Solar America Corporations (M+W Group).

• Brad Bauer

  Chief Capital Markets Officer

  As executive vice president of Tax and Structuring, Brad is responsible for the optimization of Cypress Creek's organizational structure and investments. Brad has experience in the renewable energy industry that includes work as an investor, executive and attorney. Prior to joining Cypress Creek, Brad was Managing Partner at BLU Leaf Ventures, founder and President of MP2 Capital, and a partner at KPMG LLP.

• Jaime Carlson

  Executive Vice President, Operations and Capital Structure

  Jaime oversees operations and capital planning for Cypress. Prior to Cypress, she was director of finance at TerraForm group, a $2B market cap renewable energy operating company. Jaime also served as senior advisor to then US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, overseeing the deployment of $35B in Recovery Act money that doubled the US’ renewable energy production in just 5 years. Bloomberg New Energy Finance named her one of the country’s thought-leaders in Alternative Energy. Jaime received her MBA and MEM from Yale University and a BS from Tufts University.

• Jon Buttles

  Chief Financial Officer

  As CFO, Jon is responsible for guiding and evaluating Cypress Creek’s immediate and long-range financial planning, budgets and performance. With a background in investment banking, private equity, and venture capital at companies including Core Equity Group, Monument Capital Partners and Merriman Capital, Inc., Jon is instrumental in Cypress Creek’s strategic growth. Jon also currently serves on the board of advisors for a number of companies including GTX Corp. and Boldface LLC.

• David Bunge

  VP Strategic Development

  David is responsible for managing the development team at Cypress. David has been active in solar project development since 2007. Prior to joining Cypress Creek Renewables, David founded Solexus Development where he was responsible for development and execution of Missouri’s largest solar facility in Springfield, Missouri.

• Fred Robinson

  VP New Markets Development

  Fred is currently helping lead Cypress’ development efforts in new markets focusing on deal origination, structuring and market analysis. Prior to joining Cypress, Fred was a Manager of Mergers and Acquisitions at NextEra Energy Resources, LLC. There he led the acquisition of over 500 MW of development assets to be operational by 2016. Fred was also a member of the team that led the initial vetting of NextEra’s YieldCo, NextEra Energy Partners, LLC.

• Evan Riley

  VP Development

  Evan Riley leads the development team at Cypress Creek. The scope of this team is to move projects from confirmed site control to shovel and project finance ready. Evan formerly led the PV Performance Services Group at Black & Veatch where he provided independent engineering and/or development support for over 6,000 MW of utility, commercial and residential scale photovoltaic projects in various stages of development, construction and operation.

• Chris Norqual

  VP Utilities

  Chris manages the interconnection process and interfaces with utilities and power off-takers for Cypress Creek projects. With over 10 years of project management experience, Chris has been involved in developing early Cypress assets from site control to commercial operation. He holds an undergraduate degree from Amherst College and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

• Steve Levitas

  VP Business Affairs and General Counsel

  Steve oversees the company’s legal, regulatory, and government affairs functions and leads Cypress Creek’s development of new business opportunities. Prior to joining Cypress, Steve spent over twenty years in private law practice, concentrating his practice on renewable energy project development and environmental regulatory matters. In 2015 he was the recipient of The Charlotte Business Journal’s Energy Leaders Award and he has consistently been recognized as one of the leading environmental lawyers in North Carolina. Steve is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School.

• David Riester

  Managing Director

  David helps lead project financing and capital raising efforts as part of the Project Finance team at Cypress. Prior to Cypress, David was managing director and part of the investment committee at GSSG Solar, a private investment firm focused exclusively on solar. Prior to co-founding GSSG, David was a director in the Global Special Situations Group at SunEdison where he was responsible for acquisitions, capital formation, and innovative financial structures. Before SunEdison, David was on the investment team at the venture capital firm SVB Capital and a consultant at Cambridge Associates.

• Allan Riska

  Director of Project Finance

  Allan is a Director in the Project Finance group, where he is part of a team that sources and closes tax-equity and debt capital to finance the solar facilities from development through operation. Prior to joining Cypress Creek Renewables Allan worked in structured products at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Recently he was a Sr. Manager at SunEdison where he financed commercial and utility-scale solar assets. Allan has an undergraduate degree in finance from Virginia Tech and an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

• Tiffany Elliott

  VP Project Sales and M&A

  As Vice President of Project Sales, Tiffany is responsible for the sale of Cypress Creek’s project portfolio. Tiffany has over 16 years of industry experience leading the origination and structuring of tailored commodity transactions. Prior to joining Cypress Creek, Tiffany was Senior Vice President of Market Strategy and Business Development for Recurrent Energy where she originated 1.1 GW of solar PPAs, led M&A and helped to spearhead corporate strategy between 2010 and 2015.