Ronald H. Joe is Director of Portfolio Management at AIG Investments.  Since 2000, he has supervised a group of external portfolio managers with over $20 billion in assets under management. From 1995 through 1999, Ronald held investment positions at American General Corporation (AGC) before its merger with AIG. As Senior Investment Manger he managed a derivatives hedge portfolio, and as Associate Portfolio Manager he co-managed a fixed income portfolio in the corporate pension fund. Ronald joined AGC in 1992 as Corporate Development Analyst in the Office of the President, where he managed mergers and acquisitions, developed capital allocation strategies, and consulted on corporate finance policy. He has also served as finance director for a private investment company and as budget officer for an international development foundation. A native Houstonian, Ronald earned BA degrees in economics and business from Rice University and an MBA in finance, with honors, from the University of Texas at Austin.  In addition to the CFA® charter, he holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification.

Jeffrey E. Curtiss is a private investor and a member of the Board of Directors of KBR, Inc. He serves as Chairman of its Audit Committee and also serves on its Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.  He served as a member of its Independent Committee which evaluated aspects of the KBR split-off from Halliburton and also served on the KBR Compensation and Nominating/Corporate Governance Committees during 2007.

Mr. Curtiss received a BSBA degree from the University of  Nebraska College of Business Administration (1970) with high distinction; a JD degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law (1971) and an LLM degree in taxation from the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis (1975).  He became a CPA in 1971; a practicing lawyer in 1972 and a CFA charterholder in 2006.   He has experience with Peat, Marwick & Mitchell, a CPA firm, and with Nelson, Harding, Marchetti, Leonard & Tate, a law firm.  From 1973-2006, he was employed by Monsanto Company, G.D. Searle & Co., The Coleman Company; Heritage Media Corporation; Browning-Ferris Industries or Service Corporation International.  He served as a Chief Financial Officer from 1988-2006.

Email:  jcurtiss@comcast.net

Luis Vaca, CFA, joined the Houston office of SMBC in June 2007 and is responsible for leading new energy related transactions in SMBC’s Americas Division.  He is also responsible for the ongoing management of existing relationships, representing the bank with existing and prospective clients, and supporting the credit approval for new transactions and monitoring of the performance of his lending portfolio.

Luis has over 10 years of experience in the energy industry, with special focus on commercial and financial aspects, including evaluation of investments in E&P activities in North America, international trading of petroleum related products, and development of new business opportunities not only in the oil & gas industry, but also in the specialty chemical sector. 

Prior to joining SMBC in Houston, he worked for JM Huber Corp as Director of New Business Development (5 yrs), and was Senior Trader of liquified gas products in PMI Comercio Internacional, the international branch of PEMEX (7 years).  He received his MBA from the Tuch Shool of Business at Dartmouth College in 2002, and his a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City in 1993.
 

Ms. Kassenyeva, a native Azerbaijani, graduated from Baku State University with the Diploma in Computer Science and Applied Mathematic in 1995. She also holds MS in Finance from Texas A&M University. Ms. Kassenyeva received her CFA charter in 2002 and is currently working towards her PRM designation.

Prior to attending Texas A&M Ms. Kassenyeva worked as a Financial Manager for UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) Azerbaijan and Project Secretary for UNICEF/Azerbaijan. Ms. Kassenyeva was with Paul Comstock Partners for over 10 years. Her responsibilities as a Vice President of Research included investment manager searches, performance monitoring, asset allocation and investment analysis for high net worth individuals and endowment/foundations.

Currently, Ms. Kassenyeva is with Citibank / Commercial Lending Division. Her responsibilities include detailed financial, ratio and trend analysis, quantitative credit risk analysis, collateral evaluation, risk rating monitoring and adjustment.
 

Pat is a portfolio manager and securities analyst for King Investment Advisors, Inc. Pat, a CFA charterholder and Chartered Investment Counselor, has been with the firm eighteen years and has twenty-seven years of experience in the investment business. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a B.S. in Economics. He also has an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University. His business experience includes serving as a United States Air Force contract negotiator/financial analyst at Hughes Aircraft, and as an acquisition-financing specialist at Republic Bank Dallas, where he managed a fixed-income portfolio of senior secured private placements in its Media & Communications Lending

Group. Before joining KING, Pat served as a high yield fixed-income portfolio manager/analyst for US WEST Financial Services. Currently, Pat is Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer for King Investment Advisors. He serves on the Board of Governors Investment Adviser Association (“IAA”), is Chair of the IAA PAC, and is a member of the IAA Membership Committee. Pat is a former member of the CFA Institute Professional Development Committee, and is a former President of the CFA Society of Houston.

Since 2003, Patrick Oakes has served as Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Sterling Bank.  He joined Sterling in 2001 as vice president and Assistant Treasurer.  His responsibilities as Treasurer include managing the bank’s investment portfolio, mergers & acquisitions, wholesale funding &

liquidity, interest rate risk management, and capital management.  Prior to joining Sterling, Mr. Oakes was a vice president and Fixed Income Trader with Southwest Bank of Texas.  His previous experience also includes extensive fixed income portfolio management and structured finance work. 

Mr. Oakes is a CFA Charterholder and presently serves as a board member of the CFA Society of Houston.  He received a BS degree from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Richmond College in London.

Email: patoakes@hotmail.com

Jim Jordon is a Director in the Houston Financial Advisory Services practice.  He has over 12 years of experience in the valuation of businesses, business interests, and intangible assets across different industries and sizes of companies.  Jim’s client responsibilities include client development and service, project leadership, and reviewing and approving reports and analyses.

Mr. Jordon’s assignments have included assisting in both buy and sell-side advisory, transaction structuring, debt capacity analysis, and valuation studies. In addition, Mr. Jordon has provided valuation services related to Intellectual Property, Buy-Sell Agreements, Federal Tax, GAAP, and other regulatory purposes. He has experience in valuing international investments and addressing valuation issues related to the cost of capital, currency risk, and country-specific risk factors. He has worked on international valuation assignments involving purchase allocations, impairment testing, and the valuation of private equity portfolios. Most recently, he has prepared valuations in the health care, energy, consumer business and manufacturing industries.

Before joining Deloitte FAS, Mr. Jordon was a Senior Analyst with a Houston-based boutique valuation firm.  His previous experience also includes Business Valuation Resources, LLC, in Portland, Oregon, where he was the Managing Editor of Shannon Pratt’s Business Valuation Update.  Finally, before entering the field of private equity and business valuation, Jim was an investment advisor employed by Bank United Financial Markets and PaineWebber.

Jill Foote is Senior Lecturer in Finance at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, where her principal teaching responsibilities are in investment management. She is also Rice’s Director of the El Paso Corporation Finance Center, Director of the M.A. Wright Fund (the MBA student-managed investment portfolio). She is also the faculty advisor to the Rice Finance Club and is Executive Director of the Rice Summer Business Institute for high school students from Houston’s low and moderate income communities.

Dr. Foote has 13 years of experience from Goldman Sachs in New York. Her final seven years there were spent as a Vice President, managing projects covering strategic initiatives, new business ventures, risk management, and operational, regulatory, and financial audits and risk reviews. The first six years were spent as a sales associate in Fixed Income – first in Money Markets, then in Emerging Debt.

She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Fordham University, an M.A. in Economics from New York University, and a B.A. in Economics and Managerial Studies from Rice University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She also has a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.