Cedars Capital has recognized the need for acquisition and late stage development capital within the renewable power sector. Cedars Capital is in the process of talking to potential private equity partners about the opportunities within the biomass power space. A new entity will be created to respond to the need for capital in this dynamic market: Cedar Power Company. Cedar Power is in the formative stages of identifying and allocating direct equity capital into strategic opportunities for biomass power assets.
Given the projected need for renewable energy sources and the timely legislative mandates supporting such endeavors, Cedar Power hopes to help fill the need for green energy throughout the U.S. and its trading partners. The Cedar Power team has deep experience in the development and acquisition of biomass power assets and is poised to capture significant market share in this fractured market. Cedar Power recognizes the current capital constraints and will use its extensive knowledge of the markets to target mutually beneficial opportunities within the biomass value chain.
If you have an interest in the biomass power space, please don’t hesitate to contact us Thomas Suffield at: Cedars Capital, 1 (713) 554-3017 or tsuffield@cedarscapital.com 1330 Post Oak Blvd, Suite 1375, Houston, TX 77056. Please find below applicable descriptions of our current team members:
Prior to Oso Negro, LLC, Mr. Lay was president and CEO of EnviroFuels, LLC, a fuel technology company focused on the manufacture and distribution of a proprietary combustion catalyst to large industrial companies. Mr. Lay built from startup to annual revenues in excess of $3.5 million per year. He successfully originated and completed multi-year agreements with the second largest global mining company generating revenue opportunity of $10+ million per year and managed EPA testing to secure first and only stand alone Environmental Technology Verification ever awarded in sector demonstrating fuel economy and emissions benefits of core products. Mr. Lay remains a member of the board of managers of EnviroFuels.
Prior to EnviroFuels, LLC, Mr. Lay was a principal for Bruin Interests, LLC where he developed business, financial, and marketing strategies for clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 200 corporations. He also provided strategy-building and risk-management training to clients at the board and senior executive level, successfully identified and developed profitable client relationships for start-up nanotechnology company and developed and implemented risk management strategies for a Fortune 200 company, mid-sized waste company, and cellulose fiber manufacturing company.
Prior to Bruin Interests, LLC, Mr. Lay was the President of Enron Investment Partners, a $38 million private equity investment fund targeting underserved markets in the U.S. He managed a portfolio of 17 companies with board positions on the largest.
Prior to becoming president of Enron Investment Partners, Mr. Lay was a VP at Enron Capital and Trade resources. Mr. Lay was responsible for strategic development of global customers which generated $20 million of gross profit in year 1. Mr. Lay also completed a $365 million financing for Repap Enterprises with convertible and asset backed debt with physical and financial marketing services associated with the pulp, paper and energy products of Repap.
Mr. Lay joined Enron through their purchase of Paper & Print Management Corp, a company he co-founded to pursue the development of pulp and paper derivatives. Prior to Paper & Print, Mr. Lay was a VP at AIG Trading and an associate with Enron Gas Services where he worked in energy derivatives.
Mr. Lay graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989, magna cum laude with a B.A. in Economics. He was also made a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Clay Davis is a financial and research analyst for Cedars Capital and Cedar Power Company. He maintains financial models and works closely with the business development group in the identification, evaluation, and development of biomass power and biomass pellet opportunities within the renewable energy space. He further manages and maintains various Cedars Capital strategic and intellectual assets.
Mr. Davis’ career experience began with Reissig Builders, a specialty residential developer, that inculcated a familiarity with the intricacies of one-off project management as well as the total economic implications of the project development and construction environment. Subsequently, Mr. Davis founded Potential Energy, a privately held venture into distributed photovoltaic generation for light commercial and residential application, within the renewable power space.
Mr. Davis holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communication Studies from the College of Communication and a Minor Concentration in Business Administration from McCombs School of Business; both at The University of Texas at Austin.
He was a Senior Vice President at El Paso Corp responsible for mergers and acquisitions within the Merchant Energy group, buying domestic power assets and maximizing their value. Restructuring was the key value driver of his acquisition strategy. He completed power plant acquisitions in the Qualifying Facility space and was able to create significant value in restructuring of the power off-take contracts. His specific experience included gas, biomass and waste coal fired projects as well as originating and trading intermediate to long term power for El Paso’s merchant portfolio.
Prior to El Paso, he was a Vice President at Enron, working on development teams within North America and Asia, including India, as well as structuring power, LNG and other fuel businesses. He also worked domestically and within Latin American for Azurix, the Enron water company.
Mr. Suffield started his energy career with Falcon Seaboard Power, an energy development company concentrating on domestic and European opportunities. He worked to maximize the value of Falcon’s gas fired power portfolio and also worked on European and Turkish development opportunities, including biomass, solar, gas, coal and liquid fueled projects.
Prior to that, he worked within the commercial real estate development and financing community, being involved with the acquisition, development and marketing of commercial real estate projects.
Mr. Suffield has advised and coordinated commercial opportunities with various energy and financial companies on structured transactions, including Renegy Holdings, Inc, Kinder Morgan and Macquarie Cook Power. He has structured and closed significant energy transactions throughout his career and continues to represent some of the world’s premier energy and private equity groups, that are looking to deploy capital throughout the energy space. Mr. Suffield has also provided expert consulting and testimony to firms in need of financial understanding of the domestic and international power businesses.
He started his career as commercial banker with First City National Bank in Houston, later to become JPMorgan/Chase Bank. He received his BBA in Finance with honors and a MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.