Two Energy & Environment events at Fuqua on Feb. 24

Ralph Eads Chairman of Jefferies Energy Investment Banking and Vice Chairman of Jefferies & Company, Inc. Jefferies is the leading independent U.S. investment bank with over 3,000 employees in 27 offices worldwide. Mr. Eads has a broad network of relationships from his high-profile roles in energy and finance. Under his leadership, Jefferies has established one of the leading energy investment banking practices in the world. His extensive M&A experience includes working on over $100 billion in energy M&A transactions, including several large gas shale joint ventures for Chesapeake Energy, the sale of East Resources to Shell, the merger of XTO Energy with ExxonMobil, and Atlas Energy’s sale to Chevron.

Beyond his M&A experience, Mr. Eads has a long track record of investing in the oil and gas industry, principally through his family oil and gas firm, Sierra Resources. Prior to joining Jefferies, Mr. Eads was Executive Vice President of El Paso Corporation where he was responsible for its unregulated businesses. Previously, he was head of the Energy Group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and has held senior positions at S.G. Warburg and Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Eads is a graduate of Duke University with high honors in economics in 1981 and currently serves on their Board of Trustees. He is also Chairman of Expectation Graduation, an initiative with the City of Houston to increase the city’s high school graduation rate.

“Creating a Post Carbon Economy”
Speaker: Jigar Shah, CEO, Carbon War Room
February 24, 2011
7:00 – 8:00 pm
McClendon Auditorium, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Organized by the Duke Net Impact Club

A renowned visionary committed to renewable energy, Jigar Shah launched SunEdison in 2003 based upon a business plan he developed in 1999 for a university class. That plan became the basis of the SunEdison business model: Simplify solar as a service. This model changed the status quo, allowing organizations to purchase solar energy services under long-term predictably priced contracts and avoid the significant capital costs of ownership and operation of solar energy systems. Under Shah’s guidance, SunEdison pioneered the solar power services agreement (SPSA) model, which has turned solar services into a multi-billion dollar industry. SunEdison now has more solar energy systems and megawatts under management than any other company.

Shah is an expert on energy project finance, changing energy policy, working with entrenched stakeholders, convincing different type of customers to embrace energy technology. Today, Shah works closely with some of the world’s leading influencers and guides policy makers around the globe on key issues surrounding renewable energy, global warming and sustainability. Shah holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA from The University of Maryland. He sits on the boards of the Prometheus Institute and Greenpeace USA.