Team
The Starwood Energy team combines extensive specialized and sophisticated experience in acquiring, financing, developing and optimizing energy infrastructure assets.
Executive team is deeply experienced in energy and infrastructure investing with more than eight decades of combined experience in the power sector and approx. $7 billion in principal transactions.Chairman
Barry S. Sternlicht, Chairman
Barry Sternlicht is Chairman of Starwood Energy Group, which he founded in 2005. Mr. Sternlicht is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Capital Group, the private investment firm he formed in 1991 that is focused on global real estate, hotel management, oil and gas, energy infrastructure and securities trading. He also serves as Chairman of Starwood Property Trust, the largest commercial mortgage REIT in the U.S. (NYSE: STWD); Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust (NYSE: SWAY), one of the largest publicly traded investors, owners and operators of single-family homes in the U.S.; TRI Pointe Homes (NYSE: TPH), one of the U.S.’s largest homebuilders.
For the past 23 years, Mr. Sternlicht has structured investments with an asset value of approximately $55 billion.
From 1995 through early 2005, Mr. Sternlicht was Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (NYSE: HOT), a company he founded in 1995. During his tenure, he built Starwood Hotels into one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, employing more than 120,000 people with 895 properties in 100 countries. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels. Mr. Sternlicht created W Hotels, perhaps the world’s most successful “boutique” brand, and built the St. Regis Hotels brand from a single hotel to a global brand.
In 2013, Mr. Sternlicht was named the Most Important Person in Commercial Real Estate Finance by The Mortgage Observer. In 2010, Mr. Sternlicht was named Executive of the Year and Investor of the Year by Commercial Property Executive. Mr. Sternlicht was also named America’s Best Lodging CEO by Institutional Investor magazine. He is a member of the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. He has received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University, the CEO Diversity Award from Diversity Best Practices/Business Women’s Network, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the Hospitality Heritage Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and the Marketer of the Year Award from Brandweek. Mr. Sternlicht’s humanitarian efforts have garnered prestigious national honors such as JDRF’s Man of the Year, JDRF’s Living and Giving Award and JDRF’s Chairman’s Award.
Mr. Sternlicht is a trustee of his alma mater, Brown University. He is also on the Board of Directors of The Estée Lauder Companies, the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) and the Real Estate Roundtable. Additionally, he serves as Chairman of the Board of The Robin Hood Foundation, and is on the board of the Dreamland Film & Performing Arts Center and the Executive Advisory Board of Americans for the Arts. He is a member of the World Presidents Organization and the Urban Land Institute.
Barry Sternlicht received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Management Team
Himanshu Saxena, Chief Executive Officer
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 in North America, with aggregate enterprise value of more than $10 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 F. Grose, Vice Chairman, Senior Managing Director and Co-General Counsel
Madison Grose is Vice Chairman, Senior Managing Director and Co-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.
Professionals
Alex Daberko, Managing Director
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, Managing Director
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, Managing Director
Jeffrey Delgado is a Managing Director of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for the asset management of Starwood’s operating assets. In addition, Mr. Delgado supports acquisition, development and construction activities. Mr. Delgado has over 26 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, Senior Vice President
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, Vice President
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, Vice President
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, Vice President
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.
Martha Kammoun, Co-General Counsel
Martha Kammoun is Co-General Counsel of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, she works closely with the team and advises from a legal perspective on all aspects of the business, including acquisitions, financing transactions, development and asset management, and fund structuring and governance.
Ms. Kammoun joined Starwood Energy Group as deputy general counsel in 2015 from O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where her practice focused on financing transactions and mergers and acquisitions.
Ms. Kammoun holds an LL.M from Harvard Law School and an LL.B. from Saint-Joseph University.
Finance and Accounting
David Arbia, Chief Financial Officer
David Arbia is the CFO of Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he is responsible for financial reporting, tax compliance, cash management and financial diligence on prospective investments.
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.
Daniel Sack, Assistant Controller
Daniel Sack is an Assistant Controller at Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he supports the business’ financial reporting, tax compliance and cash management efforts.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2015, Mr. Sack worked in the private equity fund accounting group at First Reserve Corp., where he was responsible for financial and tax reporting for several alternative investment vehicles. Before that, he served on the private equity partnership tax team at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Sack began his career in the portfolio management group at Alliance Bernstein L.P.
Mr. Sack, a Certified Public Accountant, holds a B.S. degree in finance from Sacred Heart University and an MBA in accounting from Fordham University.
Diana DeVoe, Senior Portfolio Accountant
Diana DeVoe is a Senior Portfolio Accountant for Starwood Energy Group. Her responsibilities include financial reporting, tax compliance, and cash management.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy in 2007, Ms. DeVoe was an Assistant Controller for Dolce Hotels and Resorts where she managed accounting functions and facilitated the implementation of proper controls and procedures at the properties.
Dylan Horowitz, Senior Portfolio Accountant
Dylan Horowitz is a Senior Portfolio Accountant at Starwood Energy Group. In this role, he supports the financial reporting, tax compliance and cash management efforts.
Prior to joining Starwood Energy Group in 2017, Mr. Horowitz was an Audit Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, where he worked primarily within the Asset Management Alternative Investment practice.
Investor Relations
Olga Bruce, Investor Relations
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.