directors and vice presidents


John Sachs
Director

John Sachs brings more than 15 years of experience in making direct equity investments, lending and investment banking in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has led large, multi-disciplined teams in successfully originating, managing and closing transactions totaling over US$4 billion in value in the United States, Asia and the Middle East-North Africa ("MENA") region. He is focused on leading transaction teams and business development activities, with an emphasis on the energy and infrastructure sector. Current activities include advising on structuring and capital raising for a port privatization, unconventional fuel development and LNG regasification terminal.

John's experience includes raising over $400 million in private equity and sub-debt for infrastructure in MENA and Asia, acting as lead financial advisor on the successful purchase of controlling interest in the largest independent power producer (IPP) in Tunisia, the largest foreign-owned IPP operating in China and north Asia, and in the successful sale of controlling interest in a portfolio of power assets in the Philippines.

Prior to joining TDJ, Mr. Sachs served as Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC in New York and Washington, D.C. Before that, he was Associate Director with Fieldstone Private Capital Group in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Mr. Sachs has an MBA with a concentration in finance from Vanderbilt University, and a BA in economics and finance from Albion College, Michigan. Washington, D.C.


Afonso Reis e Sousa
Director

Afonso Reis e Sousa joined Taylor-DeJongh in 2005 and now heads the London office. As well as advising on project financings, he has acted on a number of asset acquisitions and other M&A transactions. He specializes in the oil & gas sector and has worked on projects across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as in Russia and Australasia.

Prior to joining Taylor-DeJongh, Afonso had over a decade of experience in project finance, advising sponsors on the financing of major capital projects and also advising concession authorities on the evaluation of tenders. For several years, he was an independent consultant acting for various project sponsors and financial institutions, including Dresdner Kleinwort (London), where he was a Vice President-equivalent in the Natural Resources, Corporate Finance & Origination Group. He originally started his career in the Project Finance and Advisory Group at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (London), where he worked on various UK transportation projects and South Asia power projects.

Mr. Reis e Sousa holds an MSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Warwick and a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. London


Drew Osterman

Louis Blanchard
Associate Director—TDJ International

Mr. Blanchard will be working on behalf of all of TDJ's offices in the oil & gas and renewable energy sectors. He will participate in all firm business and project development activities globally.

Mr. Blanchard is an investment banker with over seven years of experience specializing in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, and project financing for both debt and equity. Mr. Blanchard's expertise is in financial structuring (Islamic and conventional), investment opportunity evaluation, and deal negotiation and execution. He has advised both buy-side and sell-side clients on M&A deals and ECM transactions with an emphasis in the energy sector, including exploration and production assets, oil and gas service companies, and the telecom sector, with a focus on mobile operators.

Mr. Blanchard has a specialized Masters Degree in Sustainable Development Management from the HEC School of Management in France, a specialized Masters Degree in Finance and a Masters Degree in Economics, major in finance, from Paris X University.


Artur Davtyan
Vice President

Artur Davtyan has over 12 years of financial advisory services experience and 18 years of experience assessing project feasibility. He has a strong track record in comprehensive project management, and infrastructure project analysis for companies as well as governments, including performing financial due diligence, conducting project risk analysis, drafting information memoranda, developing and auditing complex financial models, preparing and assessing financial statements, conducting overall project management and cost analysis.

Mr. Davtyan is highly experienced in financial analysis of power projects, including fossil fuel fired power generation, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and transmission and distribution. He is currently advising the U.S. Department of Transportation on its credit program.
Prior to joining TDJ, Mr. Davtyan held various senior engineering positions with ACT Trust Construction Co. and Hydropower Institute in Armenia, where he was involved in the development of large scale energy infrastructure projects in the former Soviet Republics. As a team member, Mr. Davtyan conducted economic and technical feasibility analysis for rehabilitation and development of hydroelectric plants, tunnels, dams and roads.

Mr. Davtyan holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a B.S. in Civil and Industrial Engineering from the State Engineering University, Yerevan Armenia. Washington, D.C.


Paolo Curiel
Vice President

Paolo Curiel has 8 years experience advising sponsors, governments, and lenders on structuring and executing project/structured financings and M&A transactions, with a focus on energy and infrastructure.
His current activities include advising a government in a major privatization effort in the Middle East, assisting a sponsor in the development and financing of an LNG-fired power plant, advising an international investor on the acquisition of US oil & gas assets, and advising a lender on a PPP transaction in the United States.

Mr. Curiel's core responsibilities include advising on all transaction aspects, including performing financial due diligence, developing complex financial models, performing credit analyses, drafting valuations reports and information memoranda, and negotiating term sheets and closing documents. He has worked on projects in several emerging markets, including Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Jordan, UAE, Russia, Romania, Vietnam and Cote D'Ivoire.

Prior to joining Taylor-DeJongh in 2005, he was an investment banking associate with PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC, where he worked on several structured/project finance and cross-border M&A transactions with a focus on power and infrastructure transactions.

Mr. Curiel has an M.A. in International Business from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and an Economics and Business degree from the Business School of the Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. Washington, D.C.


Jennifer L. Hara
Vice President, Marketing

Jennifer Hara is part of the management teams for strategy, business development, CRM, marketing and training. She leads the proposals team, manages projects and supports the recruitment and research functions. She manages client outreach and communication and assists in all corporate marketing activities, including conference management and sponsorship, branding and public relations. She is the manager of the firm's government contracts, including the contracts with the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program, the U.S. Department of Transportation Innovative Financing program (TIFIA) for both roads and shipping, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) "Project Development, Project Management, Environmental and General Engineering Consulting Services" contract, and for six USAID Contracts, including Energy and the Environment, Integrated Water and Resource Management, Privatization, and Financial Services. Ms. Hara was the project manager for the Potential for Growth of Gas as a Clean Energy Source in APEC Developing Economies study / workshop project funded by APEC and US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) and is currently managing the Tajikistan Energy Loss Reduction project funded by the World Bank. Ms. Hara also manages all the firm's feasibility studies and manages the relationships with the multilateral and bilateral agencies. She is an active Rotarian with the Rotary Club of Washington, DC and was named her club's "Rotarian of the Year 2008-2009."

She has an M.A. in International Economics from The George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs and a B.A. in International Politics and Spanish from Seattle University. Washington, D.C.


William Clark
Vice President

William Clark has advised on multiple assignments in the upstream oil & gas, power, and LNG sectors. Most recently, Mr. Clark has advised clients on the structuring of reserve based loans for the acquisition of hydrocarbon fields in Africa and the former Soviet Union. He also has been advising the sponsors of a large-scale Pacific Basin LNG project and the developers of an early-stage 250,000 bpd refinery project in Africa. He was placed on-site in a Russian natural gas company, where he assisted in the firm's efforts toward developing a large-scale upstream and LNG liquefaction project.

Prior to joining Taylor-DeJongh, Mr. Clark held positions at Lehman Brothers, where he tracked pending energy legislation and regulations for market and sector impacts, and at the U.S. Commerce Department, where he researched energy related commercial issues and trade barriers.

Mr. Clark has an M.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University (concentrations in Russia, Energy and International Finance) and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. Washington, D.C.


John Sachs
Director

Afonso Reis e Sousa
Director

Louis Blanchard
Associate Director

Artur Davtyan
Vice President

Paolo Curiel
Vice President

Jennifer Hara
Vice President,
Marketing

William Clark
Vice President