Team
Himanshu Saxena is Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Energy and is responsible for supervision of the Firm’s investment program and strategy, as well as overall management of the Firm. Mr. Saxena sits on both the Investment Committee and the boards of portfolio companies. Mr. Saxena is also responsible for the development and management of the investment team. In addition, he maintains responsibilities for origination, structuring, execution, monitoring and exiting investments across the energy industry. Mr. Saxena has led the acquisition and development of numerous power generation and transmission projects and midstream and downstream assets in North America, with aggregate enterprise value of more than $13 billion.
Mr. Saxena currently serves on the Advisory Board at Cornell University’s Program in Infrastructure Policy (CPIP), as a Board Member for the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), and on the Advisory Council of Cornell Energy Systems Institute.
Mr. Saxena earned an MBA from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Bachelor’s of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (“IIT”) in Bombay, India.
Madison Grose is Vice Chairman, Senior Managing Director and General Counsel of Starwood Energy Group. In addition, he serves as a Senior Managing Director and Co-General Counsel of Starwood Capital Group. In 2004, Mr. Grose led the structuring and underwriting of Starwood Energy’s first investment, Neptune, a 660 MW undersea transmission line connecting New Jersey (PJM grid) and Long Island. Mr. Grose has served as General Counsel or Co-General Counsel of Starwood Energy Group from its inception and as General Counsel or Co-General Counsel of Starwood Capital Group since 1992, as a Trustee or Director of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (formerly NYSE: HOT, since merged with Marriott Hotels) from 1994 until 2001, and as a Director of iStar Financial (NYSE: STAR), from 1999 until 2003.
Mr. Grose holds a B.A with distinction and highest departmental honors from Stanford University and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where he served as the Chief Comment Editor of the UCLA Law Review.
Alex Daberko is a Managing Director of Starwood Energy Group. Since joining Starwood in 2007, he has played an active role in many of the firm’s M&A and development transactions, including conventional generation (Thermo Ft. Lupton, Starwood Power Midway, Richland-Stryker), solar (Starwood SSM), biomass (Gainesville Renewable Energy Center), and transmission (Neptune and Hudson). More recently, Mr. Daberko has led Starwood’s wind development efforts, successfully financing and constructing six projects totaling more than 1,100MW in four years. Mr. Daberko was also instrumental in the formation and financing of Compass Power in 2017.
Prior to Starwood, Mr. Daberko was a part of the Energy & Power Investment Banking team at Merrill Lynch where he specialized in commodity and commodity-linked transactions. Mr. Daberko holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. in Mathematics & Economics from Yale University.
Philipp Pletka is a Managing Director of Starwood Energy Group and plays an active role in the firm’s investment activities. Mr. Pletka joined the firm from BlackRock’s Energy & Power private equity team where he played an active role in implementing the division’s growth strategy within BlackRock’s Real Assets direct investment platform. Prior to BlackRock, Mr. Pletka was a director at Quantum Energy Partners where his primary responsibilities included structuring and executing of capital deployments across all active funds focused in the power, midstream and upstream sectors. Mr. Pletka started his career in JPMorgan’s Natural Resources Investment Banking team. He has 17 years of experience in the energy space.
Jeffrey Delgado is a Managing Director of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for the asset management and commercial optimization of Starwood’s operating assets. In addition, Mr. Delgado supports acquisition, development and construction activities. Mr. Delgado has over 28 years of experience in operations and management of power and transmission projects.
Mr. Delgado holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnic University and a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance and Investments from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business.
Ali Amirali is a Senior Vice President of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for the expansion of Starwood Energy Group’s StarTrans high-voltage transmission assets, as well as for new business/project opportunities in the transmission and distribution arena in North America. He also supports the origination, development and acquisition activities associated with utility-scale power generation and storage projects.
Anik Gandhi is a Vice President for Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for principal investing and asset management within the power sector.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2014, Mr. Gandhi was an Associate in Goldman Sachs’s Global Natural Resources Investment Banking group. At Goldman Mr. Gandhi focused on transactions involving regulated utilities, merchant generators, and conventional generation assets.
Mr. Gandhi holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College.
Cheng Chang is a Vice President of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he leads energy management, strategy and market analysis for Starwood’s energy portfolio. In addition, Mr. Chang supports due diligence, acquisition and development of investment opportunities.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy Group in 2017, Mr. Chang led the global commercial and development teams of Intergen where he was responsible for asset management, origination, structuring and operations oversight of eighteen gas, coal, wind, compression station and pipeline projects in Australia, Europe, Mexico and U.S. markets totaling over $4B.
Mr. Chang is a graduate of Tsinghua University and Stanford University.
William Ouyang is a Vice President of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for principal investing and asset management in the power sector. He was actively involved in the acquisition and development of the Stephens Ranch I and II, Shannon, Horse Creek, Electra, and Northwest Ohio projects.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2013, Mr. Ouyang was an Analyst in Citigroup’s Alternative Energy Finance group where he worked primarily on renewable energy transactions involving wind, solar PV, and solar CSP facilities.
Mr. Ouyang holds a B.S. in Economics, Statistics, and Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University.
David Siegel is a Vice President of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for principal investing and asset management in the power sector.
Prior to joining Starwood in June 2019, Mr. Siegel was a Vice President of Beowulf Energy, where he focused on opportunistic operational and distressed power investments. His responsibilities also included asset management functions, such as portfolio financings, asset redevelopment and power/capacity optimization.
Mr. Siegel holds a B.S., cum laude, with a concentration of Financial Analysis Honors from the State University of New York at Albany.
Lela Jgerenaia is a Vice President of Starwood Energy and is responsible for principal investing and asset management in the power sector.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2018, Ms. Jgerenaia was a Senior Analyst at GE Capital’s Energy Financial Services group where she worked on thermal, renewable and energy storage transactions. Her responsibilities included managing a portfolio of assets, supporting asset sale processes and conducting due diligence on potential investment opportunities.
Ms. Jgerenaia holds an M.A. in International Economics with a concentration in Finance and Energy from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. in International Relations in Political Science from Wellesley College.
David Arbia is the CFO of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is mainly responsible for financial reporting to investors, tax compliance, cash management, tax structuring for investments, and fundraising.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2013, Mr. Arbia served as the Controller of Credit Suisse USA subsidiary Asset Management Finance LLC, where he oversaw an investment portfolio consisting of $700 million in assets. Before that, Mr. Arbia was an Audit Manager in the financial services division at Deloitte & Touche LLP.
Mr. Arbia received a B.S. degree with honors in accounting and finance from the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he graduated magna cum laude. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Olga Bruce is responsible for investor relations, marketing, fundraising and public relations activities at Starwood Energy. Mrs. Bruce has over five years of experience in investor relations in Private Equity.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2005, Mrs. Bruce worked in The Quantitative Analysis Group at Citigroup Asset Management. Mrs. Bruce holds a B.S. in Business Management from Albertus Magnus College and an MBA in Business Administration from Colorado State University.