About Us
Directors
Eric McAfee, Founder and Director Mr. McAfee has been an entrepreneur, merchant banker, venture capitalist and farmer/dairyman for more than 25 years. Mr. McAfee is the principal of McAfee Capital, an investment firm. Mr. McAfee co-founded AE Biofuels, Inc. (trading under the symbol AEBF.OB) in 2005 and has served as its Chairman of the Board since February 2006. Mr. McAfee was appointed AE Biofuels, Inc. Chief Executive Officer in February 2007. Since 1998, Mr. McAfee has been a principal of Berg McAfee Companies, an investment company. Since 2000, Mr. McAfee has been a principal of Cagan McAfee Capital Partners ("CMCP") through which Mr. McAfee has founded or acquired ten energy and technology companies. In 2003, Mr. McAfee co-founded Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (Nasdaq PEIX), a West Coast ethanol producer and marketer. Mr. McAfee received a B.S. in Management from Fresno State University in 1986. Mr. McAfee is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Private Equity and Venture Capital Program, and is a 1993 graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program.
Michael Peterson, Chairman of the Board, and President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Peterson has worked in the securities industry in various capacities for approximately 19 years. From 1989 to 2000, he was employed by Goldman Sachs & Co., including as a vice president with responsibility for a team of professionals that advised and managed over $7 billion in assets for high net worth individuals and institutions. Mr. Peterson joined Merrill Lynch in 2001 to form and help launch its Private Investment Group and was with Merrill Lynch until July 2004. From July 2004 until January 2005, Mr. Peterson was a self-employed financial consultant. In January 2005, Mr. Peterson joined American Institutional Partners, L.L.C. as a managing partner. On December 31, 2005, Mr. Peterson founded his own investment firm, Pascal Management LLC. Since May 2008, Mr. Peterson has been a director of Blast Energy, Inc., oil drilling technology company (BESV.OB). Mr. Peterson has served as a member of AE Biofuels, Inc.’s Board of Directors since February 2006 (AEBF). Further, Mr. Peterson was formerly a director of Navitas Corporation, an energy company, which merged with publicly traded Pacific Asia Petroleum (PFAP). Mr. Peterson received a B.S. in Computer Science and Statistics from Brigham Young University in 1985 and an M.B.A. from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in 1989.
Management
Adam McAfee, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. McAfee has served as the President of Solargen since inception. He has twenty years experience as a financial controller and executive with leadership roles in mergers and acquisitions, financial planning and analysis, project finance, operations, audit and enterprise system implementations. He recently served as CFO and then was promoted to CEO of Navitas Corporation, an energy company, which merged with publicly traded Pacific Asia Petroleum (PFAP). In 2003 Mr. McAfee founded Park Capital Management, LLC, a fund that manages assets acquired through PIPE and private equity investments in technology and renewable energy companies. Mr. McAfee spent more than eleven years in significant corporate finance roles at Apple Computer in the Worldwide Financial Planning and Analysis, Sales, R&D and Operations divisions. Further, Mr. McAfee currently serves as Managing Member of Navitas, LLC, a privately held investment holding company. Mr. McAfee currently serves as the President and Chairman of McAfee Charitable Ventures, a private non-profit organization. Mr. McAfee is a Certified Management Accountant and graduated with an MBA from the University of California, Irvine and the Harvard Business School Private Equity and Venture Capital Program.
Eric Cherniss, Vice President, Project Development Mr. Cherniss is an experienced professional in semiconductor manufacturing and business development holding various positions at Cypress Semiconductor involving large scale project management, global supply chain management and building partnerships with technical corporations. He obtained his electrical engineering degree from the University of Southern California.
Michael McTeigue, Business Development Mr. McTeigue has more than twenty years' experience in the creation and management of new and emerging companies. He has been an active affiliate of Cagan McAfee Capital Partners since July 2006, and CFO of WorldSage since its inception in 2006. Previously, he was Vice President of Business Development for Audible Magic Corporation, a digital media company located in Los Gatos, California, serving in such capacity from 2002 to 2006. Mr.McTeigue also served as managing partner of MLM Consulting's JumpStart division from 1997 to 2002, located in San Mateo, California, where he assisted numerous early stage technology, internet, and medical device companies in business strategy and planning and business development. In addition, Mr. McTeigue served as part-time COO of QuantaVision, Inc., a medical diagnostic imaging technology company located in San Mateo, California, from 1998 to 1999.
Mr. McTeigue has served on the boards of directors of Norian Corporation from 1987 to 1988, SportSense, Inc. from 1990 to 1997, VoiceofDance.com from 2001 to 2002, and Child Advocates of Silicon Valley from 1997 to 2003.
Mr. McTeigue graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Psychology from UCLA and earned his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is licensed by NASD under Series 7 and 63.
Steven Lee, Esq. – General Counsel. Mr. Lee currently acts as Special Legal Counsel to AE Biofuels, Inc., a biofuels company trading under the symbol AEBF.OB, and as In-House Counsel to Cagan McAfee Capital Partners, LLC, a California merchant bank. Mr. Lee was former legal counsel to Evolution Petroleum, Inc., an oil and gas company trading under the symbol EPM, and was also a former corporate associate at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, the leading law firm for technology companies in the Silicon Valley. He also served as corporate legal counsel and VP of Acquisitions and Alliances for BarterNet, a consolidator of B2B trading companies. Mr. Lee holds a degree in European Studies from the University of Washington and is a graduate of Stanford University Law School, where he currently serves on the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors.
Advisors
Laird Cagan, Advisor Mr. Laird Q. Cagan is Managing Director and co-founder of Cagan McAfee Capital Partners, LLC a merchant bank in Cupertino, California. CMCP has founded, funded and taken public 10 companies in a variety of industries including energy, computing, healthcare, and environmental. CMCP has raised over $400 million for these companies which have a combined market capitalization of over $2 billion. Mr. Cagan is the founder/Chairman of Evolution Petroleum Corporation (AMEX: EPM), a company he founded to develop mature oil & gas fields with advanced technologies. He is also a Managing Director and Principal of Chadbourn Securities, Inc., a NASD-licensed Broker-Dealer, a director of American Ethanol and Pacific Asia Petroleum.
Mr. Cagan previously worked for the two of the largest private investment banks in the world, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Drexel Burnham Lambert. While at Goldman, Sachs & Co., he worked on merger and acquisition transactions. At Drexel Burnham Lambert, Mr. Cagan worked on merger and LBO transactions with 200 of the most active corporate and financial buyers in the United States and Europe. In all, he was involved in over 30 transaction valued at more than $15 billion, bankruptcy work-out transactions of more than $2 billion, and a variety of equity, high-yield bond and senior debt financings.
Mr. Cagan attended M.I.T. and received a BS, MS and MBA from Stanford University. Mr. Cagan is licensed by the SEC under Series 24, 7 and 63.
John Pimentel, Advisor Mr. Pimentel is an entrepreneurial, results-oriented with 12 years experience leading teams to solve business problems for large companies, start-ups and public institutions. He has experience in financial services, transportation, manufacturing, internet services, building products and consumer products.
Most recently, Mr. Pimentel was a consultant at Bain & Company where he worked in Bain's Private Equity Group performing strategic diligence for principal investors. Mr. Pimentel also worked in Bain's general consulting practice where his projects included: creating and implementing a business strategy for a major CRM enterprise, working with distressed B2B internet venture, and helping develop a manufacturing outsourcing strategy for a consumer electronics maker. Previously he worked eight years as a political appointee with the State of California and several of those years as Deputy Secretary for Transportation. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School.