Team Bios

Johannes Rittershausen
CEO

Johannes is responsible for strategic planning, business development, investor relations, and organizational stewardship. He is devoted to developing and executing the innovative business models that enable cost-effective energy storage projects.

He has 10 years of experience in the utility industry, including a 5-year career at Southern California Edison performing functions including wholesale electricity market procurement and corporate strategic planning.

Johannes holds a BA from Pomona College and an MA from Georgetown University.

Frank Genova
Chief Operating Officer

Frank is responsible for the development, design, operation, and improvement of the corporate and project systems that deliver fully integrated energy storage assets. Responsibilities include financial analysis and structuring, contract negotiations and procurement, project management, engineering-procurement-construction (EPC), and the continuing operations and maintenance of company assets.

Frank came to Convergent after 6 years working in construction project management and private equity with Fisher Brothers and Plaza Construction, including demonstrated field experience in deploying mechanical and electrical systems integration as well as a financial background evaluating and leading several investments in the clean-tech space.

Frank holds a BA from Villanova University in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA – Finance, Phi Kappa Phi from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business.

Chris Streeter
Chief Information Officer

Chris is responsible for the quantitative analysis of energy markets and grid infrastructure, regulatory and compliance activities, and the design, production, deployment, and maintenance of software systems to optimize storage asset operations and financial returns.

Prior to joining Convergent, Chris spent 8 years as a strategy consultant, both as an independent contractor and as a member of the firm AltshulerGray, LLC, focusing on complex data analysis and developing / implementing evaluation frameworks to meet profit maximization and compliance targets.

Chris graduated with honors from Harvard University with an A.B. in Biology.

Toby Tiktinsky
Vice President Project Development

Toby is responsible for originating, negotiating, closing, and developing behind-the-meter projects with commercial and industrial clients, while supporting the firm’s overall business development strategy.

Toby comes to Convergent with 15 years of experience in project development, environmental policy and markets, and B2B sales and consulting. As Pakistan Country Director for EcoSecurities, Toby established the country’s first private carbon finance company and helped to finance distributed generation and energy efficiency projects. More recently, Toby started a renewable energy origination and brokerage platform where he partnered with leading solar developers to develop projects for retailers. Previously, Toby served as Director of Business Development for BrightFarms, a venture-backed start-up that adapted the power purchase agreement contracting model to finance and build controlled environment agriculture facilities.

Toby graduated with honors from the University of San Francisco and holds an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Oscar Araujo
Senior Vice President, Global Project Development

Oscar is responsible for commercial engagement, energy storage solution design, project development, and project contracting for the commercial and industrial market segment as well as part of the team focused on project development in utility markets.

He has more than a decade of experience in the solar power and electrical manufacturing industries, working for Fortune 500 and solar industry leaders including Schneider Electric and Canadian Solar. Oscar brings to Convergent an extensive knowledge of the U.S., Canadian and Latin American markets where he has been involved in award-winning, utility-scale solar projects accounting for more than 600MWs of installed capacity.

Oscar is an Electrical and Electronics Engineering grad from Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia. He also holds an MBA degree from the University of Toronto, Canada and a Global EMBA degree from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Derek Oosterman
Executive VP - Real Estate

Derek is responsible for all property-related aspects of Convergent’s business lines, including the identification, acquisition, development, and ongoing management of energy storage asset locations throughout North America including greenfields, brownfields, and commercial and industrial properties.

He has fifteen years of experience in the real estate sector, including extensive work in the acquisition, management, and disposition of commercial real estate debt and assets, with a focus on distress. He has advised builders, developers, investment managers and government entities on strategic land use decisions, with particular emphasis on mixed-use, urban/suburban, residential-led regeneration.

Derek holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Pomona College and an MBA with emphasis in Finance and Real Estate from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Lawrence Tsang
Project Executive

Lawrence is currently a Project Executive for Convergent Energy + Power, growing and overseeing an expanding project pipeline.

Lawrence has 10 years of global energy industry expertise, alternative energy project development and execution, and policy development. He was previously the Director of Global Strategy and Project Finance at OCI Solar Power where he successfully developed and built 450 MW of solar power for CPS Energy of San Antonio, Texas and managed an economic development program of manufacturers to bring over 800 permanent jobs to San Antonio. Lawrence was also charged with leading all capital market raises where he brought in over $400M of debt and equity. Moreover, he led a global team to develop market analysis and business cases for high-potential growth opportunities in strategic markets including Africa, China, Mexico, and India. Previous to this, Lawrence was a management and strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Lawrence holds a BSc. in Biology from Concordia University (Canada) and a Masters in Environmental Management from Harvard University.

Fay Muhammad
Business Development Associate

As Business Development Associate, Fay is responsible for supporting the sales cycle by generating new leads and building Convergent's behind-the-meter pipeline. Fay brings experience in the energy industry, spanning operations, risk, process improvement, and customer service.

Prior to joining Convergent, Fay worked with the Solar Loan Program at PSE&G, where she oversaw solar power and SREC production for over 900 residential customers in New Jersey. Previously, Fay served as an analyst for Constellation's Wholesale Operations group and an intern for the U.S. Energy Information Administration and Carbon Capital Management.

Fay holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the George Washington University and is currently earning her M.Sc. from the Norwegian School of Economics.

John Markley
Project Executive

John is responsible for all aspects of real estate acquisition including the identification of land suitable for the siting of energy storage assets and the negotiation of long-term leases.

John comes to Convergent with 25+ years of investment and project management experience. Prior to joining Convergent, he was a managing director for a New York based private equity firm making investments in commercial and residential real estate, media, and energy sector services. His experience also includes work as a software developer, managing a wide variety of projects and teams.

John holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Arizona.

Kate Siskel
Director of Marketing

Kate is responsible for sharing Convergent's story across multiple platforms in a dynamic, inspiring way.

Kate comes to Convergent with over a decade of marketing and communications experience and a passion for swaying hearts and minds through powerful storytelling. Most recently, she drove marketing strategies and influencer engagement to increase brand awareness at the national nonprofit the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Prior, Kate owned all marketing and communications efforts at BrightFarms, an urban agriculture start-up. There, she led a team to rebrand the company and secured strategic national and local media placements that generated millions of impressions and directly impacted business development goals.

Kate holds a BA from Yale University and an MA from New York University.

Peter Triassi
Business Development Manager

Peter is responsible for commercial engagement and project contracting for Convergent’s commercial and industrial market segment.

Prior to joining Convergent, Peter served as Project Developer at Soventix Canada where he undertook origination and development activities on a 160 MW solar project portfolio. He supported the company in establishing a market presence in the province of Alberta, from initial site selection through RFP submission.

Peter holds a BA from Concordia University and an MSc Renewable Energy with distinction from the University of Reading.

Stephanie Reyes
Analyst

Stephanie works on rotating projects and functions across Convergent, providing support in business development, customer engagement and marketing, project execution, asset management, financial optimization, and regulatory and policy development.

Stephanie holds a B.A in Latin American Studies from Pomona College.

Jim Tarpey
Project Executive

Jim is responsible for providing technical guidance and expert regulatory support on behalf of Convergent’s projects.

Jim comes to Convergent with 45 years of engineering and operations experience in gas and electric systems. At the end of 2011, he retired from Orange and Rockland Utilities (a Consolidated Edison company) as Vice President, Operations. He has been involved in corporate strategies, long range planning, service reliability initiatives, Smart Grid, emergency management, underground and overhead systems, integrated planning, project management, RTO participation, risk management and mitigation, demand side management, distributed generation, power quality, regulatory affairs, capital and O&M budgeting, cost containment, labor relations, safety, environmental, emerging technologies, and research and development.

Jim holds a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MSEE from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and is a registered Professional Engineer.

Robin Gray
VP of Development and Engineering

Robin is responsible for the development, design, construction, and operation of Convergent’s fully-integrated energy storage assets. Responsibilities include all aspects of project execution, including scheduling, budgeting, supplier management, permitting and interconnection coordination, as well as all aspects of on-site construction oversight and on-going maintenance requirements.

Robin came to Convergent with over 15 years of project execution experience including 10 years of direct utility experience with Consolidated Edison of NY. During Robin’s time with Con Edison, he was responsible for the execution of large scale capital projects including the design and project management of Con Edison’s first energy storage asset. At Con Edison, Robin was also responsible for the interconnection of customer-owned medium voltage substations and distributed generation (DG) equipment. As a subject matter expert for utility DG interconnections, Robin spent several years working for the IEEE 1547 Distributed Generation Interconnection Standards Working Group to standardize the interconnection process of DG assets.

Robin holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester, Manchester, England, UK.

Tremor Temchin
Director of Canadian Development

Tremor is active in all phases of the project development cycle including opportunity identification, pre-development / construction, and the continued operations and maintenance of company assets.

Prior to joining Convergent, Tremor served as the Founder and Executive Director of the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation, a non-governmental organization based in Fiji that builds healthier communities by providing sustainable access to safer drinking water and sanitation in the Pacific Island Nations. He also worked as a writer for various television series and assisted in the production of several feature films.

Tremor graduated with honors from Pomona College and holds an M.A. from the University of the South Pacific’s Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development.

Derek Longo
Senior Project Manager

Derek is responsible for all phases of project execution including technical coordination, supplier oversight and expediting, project budgeting, installation, and commissioning of project equipment. He also provides technical support to Convergent’s sales team in identifying and validating new project opportunities.

Derek has 8+ years of industrial project development and execution experience. Prior to joining Convergent, he served as a Field Engineer and Project Manager for FLSmidth Inc.’s Cement and Minerals Projects divisions. As a Field Engineer, he was stationed on site in order to troubleshoot the electro-mechanical hurdles during the installation and commissioning of company equipment. As a Project Manager, he managed budget and schedule from design to commissioning.

Derek graduated from Lehigh University with a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering.

David Nie
Senior Manager of Analytics

David is responsible for economic and financial evaluation of potential project opportunities, managing participation in public solicitations, designing marketing materials and models, and providing general sales support across the contracting process.

Prior to joining Convergent, David worked at EnerNOC on the demand response team managing their portfolio in the PJM region. He has experience in day-to-day operations and long term strategy execution in capacity and energy markets.

David holds a BA from Dartmouth in Mathematics and Economics.

Avital Szulc
Senior Product Manager

Avital is responsible for managing Convergent’s Asset Management Platform, including its design, engineering, testing, deployment and ongoing maintenance.

Prior to joining Convergent, Avital worked as a product manager at A.F.Mensah, a distributed energy technology and development company, where she managed the development of its asset management platform and integration of the platform with deployed battery storage systems.

Avital holds a B.S.E in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sumeet Sikka
Controller

Sumeet is responsible for establishing and executing policies and internal controls over Convergent’s accounting and financial procedures to safeguard the company’s assets as well as protect the integrity of its financial data. Responsibilities include overseeing all accounting operations including financial close, preparation of financial statements, treasury, internal management reporting, compliance, budgeting and project management.

Sumeet joined Convergent with over 20 years of experience across a broad range of accounting/finance areas including financial/management reporting, ERP implementation, compliance, audit and taxation. Prior to joining Convergent, Sumeet served as an Assistant Controller at SUEZ where he was instrumental in overall internal control management, optimization of information systems and financial reporting. Prior to that, he held several senior management positions including Director at National Grid.

Sumeet holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from NJCU. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of NY and is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.