- TeamOver 125 years of experience in world-scale process plant development.
- FinancingBacked by one of the largest energy PE firms in the world with decades of experience in public and private equity and debt financing.
- Proven TechnologySelected technologies with proven industrial scale and billions of dollars in assets operating worldwide.
- ConstructionVeteran management team that has developed more than $5 billion of complex energy projects worldwide.
- OperationsBest-in-class operation capabilities with a proven track record in safe, efficient, and responsible operations.
- LogisticsDeep experience and relationships in safe, reliable, and efficient distribution of renewable gasoline and hydrogen.
Meet Our team
Timothy E. Vail
Tim has a long career of successfully building energy companies in the downstream and alternative energy arena. His latest venture, Arbor Renewable Gas, focuses on the conversion of waste wood biomass into pure hydrogen at industrial scale for chemical producers and refiners. Prior to Arbor, Tim founded G2X Energy in May of 2012. Tim’s central role at G2X was developing, financing and building of world scale energy infrastructure projects, using proprietary processes and a proven execution team, that convert abundant natural gas into methanol and ultimately automotive gasoline. Since the founding of G2X, Tim grew the business into one of the largest producers of methanol in the world, commissioning the world’s largest methanol plant located in Beaumont, Texas. In May of 2018, Tim sold G2X Energy to a group of private investors that included his largest investor, Consolidated Energy Limited of Zurich. Prior to his current position, Tim was President and CEO of Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc, a global developer of coal gasification facilities. During his tenure at SES, Tim successfully listed the company on the NASDAQ. Before SES, Tim held various leadership roles including Director of Commercialization of General Motors fuel cell program, head of alternative energy technologies at Enron Corporation and an MLP securities law practice with Andrews & Kurth. Tim holds a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and a B.A. in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin. He resides in Houston, Texas with his wife, Elizabeth, and has grown twins, Peter and Alexandra.
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Brian Zatarain
Brian is a senior executive with over 25 years of strategic, M&A, development, commercial, operations, finance and asset management experience involving diverse infrastructure and commodity businesses globally. Prior to joining Arbor Renewable Gas, he was President of US Grid Company, a grid stability and energy transition company, Chief Executive Officer of Itafos, a vertically integrated phosphate fertilizer and specialty products company and Executive Vice President of Development and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Ashmore Energy International (AEI), an energy infrastructure company (at its peak AEI owned and operated more than 50 businesses in 19 countries delivering power and natural gas to more than 7 million people). Earlier in his career Brian held roles of increasing and multidisciplinary responsibility for Enron and Coastal. He also co-founded several companies including a renewable energy and battery storage investment holding company and a strategic advisory company which provides operating partner and board of director services for private equity investment managers, family offices and public and private companies. Brian holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas.
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Trey Fielder
Trey’s energy career has focused on leading the successful execution of energy projects across all phases, including greenfield development, construction, commissioning, logistics and full operations. The most recent project was Natgasoline LLC, a $2+ billion methanol facility located in Beaumont, Texas. Trey served as Chief Operating Officer of Natgasoline LLC., a joint venture partnership between G2X Energy and OCI N.V. Prior to joining Natgasoline, Trey worked for G2X Energy as General Manager for Big Lake Fuels, another world-scale greenfield methanol project located in Lake Charles, Louisiana. While at G2X, Trey also completed the construction of the Pampa Fuels methanol facility served and was Director of Business Development for other greenfield chemical projects. Trey has also successfully completed multiple pipeline projects for commodities such as hydrogen, methanol and natural gas. Trey also served as Director of Development for Synthesis Energy Systems (SES), a global developer of coal gasification facilities that cleanly produce transportation fuels from coal resources. Additionally, Trey’s experience includes business development and management in the technology field, working for companies such as Yahoo, Oracle and BEA Systems. Trey holds a BBA from the University of Texas and an MBA from SMU Cox School of Business.
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George Burdette III
Mr. Burdette is a senior executive with over 15 years of corporate development, financial, commercial, and investment management experience. During his career, Mr. Burdette has executed over $8 billion of M&A transactions and financings. Prior to joining Arbor, Mr. Burdette was Chief Financial Officer of Itafos, where he was responsible for all aspects of finance for a publicly traded, global phosphate fertilizer producer. Prior to Itafos, he was head of Americas project finance at First Solar where he was responsible for project financing and commercial initiatives in the US, Latin America, and South Africa. Prior to First Solar, Mr. Burdette had a range of experience in private equity and corporate roles at both Zaff Capital and AEI, where he shaped strategy and led various corporate development, financing, and portfolio company optimization initiatives. Mr. Burdette has served as a strategic and financial advisor to both private equity firms and major utilities. Mr. Burdette holds a Bachelor of Arts in international business and French from Wofford College and a Master of Business Administration from the University of South Carolina.
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George E. (Ned) Crady
George E. (Ned) Crady has over 30 years of experience in the development, construction, financing, purchase and sale of large energy infrastructure projects including refining and processing facilities, transportation and storage facilities, liquefaction and regasification facilities, and power generation and distribution facilities. Prior to joining Arbor Renewable Gas, Ned was a senior partner at several global energy law firms representing private and public company investors develop, finance, purchase or sell tens of billions of dollars’ worth of energy infrastructure projects and commodities. Additionally, Ned worked in house at a Fortune 10 energy company to develop, finance and monetize numerous infrastructure projects including power generation and distribution facilities, refining and storage facilities, regasification facilities, and pipeline transportation and distribution facilities. Ned earned a B.A. from Washington & Lee University, and a J.D. from the South Texas College of Law.
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Heather Haley
Heather brings to her role over 20 years of experience in Human Resource Management, Executive Support, and Facilities and Assets Management, ultimately gaining experience in operations, human resources, strategy, management, accounting, compliance and ethics, information technology, health, safety, and security. As senior vice president of corporate business services and general manager, Heather is responsible for leading Arbor's overall day-to-day operations with a permanent focus on human resource management, office administration and information technology. As a co-founder of Arbor, Heather strategically designed and implemented and continues to oversee all back-office services to support the enterprise for growth and scale. Prior to joining Arbor, Heather spent nearly 7 years with G2X Energy where she administratively supported C-Suite leadership and developed and implemented the D&I strategy to improve the company culture during a time of exponential growth for the company. Heather has an entrepreneurial interest for helping small businesses and start-ups with organizational solutions, a passion that she continues to cultivate and bring to her current position with Arbor. She is an active member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). Additionally, Heather is currently studying for the SHRM-SCP and other specialty credentials. Heather is married with one grown daughter.
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Adil Rajabali
Adil leads a broad range of finance and analytical functions at Arbor, including operational budgeting and forecasting, capital planning, financial analytics, and reporting. Adil collaborates with the Arbor executive team to make decisions regarding the company’s financial strategy and operations. Prior to joining Arbor, Adil was a vice president in Wells Fargo’s Corporate and Investment Banking group, where he executed bank debt and capital raise transactions across the Energy Services & Technology segment. While at Wells Fargo, Adil was responsible for underwriting, financial modeling, due diligence, execution, and monitoring of the bank’s +$4 billion debt portfolio. Adil started his career as an investment banking analyst at Doren Mayhew Capital Advisors, primarily focusing on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, debt and equity capital raising, and recapitalizations for companies in the lower middle market segment. Adil earned a B.A. focused in Finance at University of Houston.
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Jim Bob Mitchell
Jim Bob started his career at Celanese Chemical Plant in Pampa, TX in 1989 working in the wastewater treatment laboratory. He spent the next 19 years in positions of progressively increasing responsibility. The last five years of his Celanese career were spent as the operations section leader for utilities managing the operation of the coal and gas fired boilers for the plant. This included the management of the electrical cogeneration unit for the local utility as well as the operation of the plant water and wastewater treatment systems. Jim Bob wrapped up his career with Celanese with the shuttering of the Pampa site in 2008. After a brief stint as the Plant Manager for the Tumbleweed project at the Pampa site, Jim Bob accepted the position of Operations Manager for the Cabot PDMC plant manufacturing specialty carbon black in a research and development setting. In late 2012, he got the opportunity to help start up a new company by accepting the General Manager role for the G2X Energy Pampa Fuels plant. He was directly responsible for the engineering, construction, staffing, commissioning, and startup of a 65,000 MT/year methanol plant that was constructed on the old Celanese Pampa site. After successfully operating the plant for two years, Jim Bob accepted an offer to relocate to Beaumont, TX to serve as the Operations Manager for the construction, commissioning, and startup of the Natgasoline plant which is a 1.7M MT/year methanol plant. This plant was successfully started in 2018 and Jim Bob returned to the Panhandle to be closer to his family. In May 2019, he accepted the position of Plant Manager for White Energy in Plainview, Texas. He is responsible for the management and operation of a 125M gallon/year ethanol plant that converts corn and milo into renewable energy. He possesses significant experience in the design, construction, commissioning, and startup of methanol plants including the staffing and budget development of new plants. Jim Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Tarleton State University and lives with his wife in the Texas panhandle. Jim Bob has two grown daughters.
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Darren Lanthier
Darren’s experience includes over 20 years in the environmental, health, safety and security sector(s). Darren began his professional career with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality as an Environmental Scientist in the Water Quality Division and finished his government career in the Air Quality Surveillance Division. Moving into the private industry he has filled key roles related to environmental, health and safety compliance and assurance in oil and gas exploration, natural gas storage and transmission, and various other petrochemical manufacturing sectors. Being responsible for or directly involved with environmental and safety compliance in multiple industry types he has successfully developed and implemented HSSE policies, procedures and processes to accomplish HSSE goals for multiple projects and operating assets. He has managed and/or directly executed major source air permitting, water permitting, wetlands mitigation planning, environmental site assessments, settlement agreements, and remediation efforts for a multitude of operating assets and major expansions projects. Prior to joining Arbor Renewable Gas in September of 2022, Darren was previously a member of the G2X team serving as HSSE Manager. Darren was responsible for all aspects of environmental permitting and risk management for several G2X development projects. He was also directly responsible for establishing the HSSE organization, executing all employee HSSE training and implementing the emergency response program ahead of commissioning, and startup of a 1.7M MT/year methanol plant in southeast Texas. Once successful production began in 2018, Darren returned to Louisiana to work closer to home in southwest Louisiana. He and his wife Kelly have 3 boys. Education B.S., Wildlife Science, McNeese State University
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Margaret Litchford
Margaret brings over 20 years of experience in all aspects of general accounting including accounts payable, accounts receivables well as purchasing. In her role as Accounting Manager, Margaret will use her significant experience to oversee the day-to-day operational accounting functions as well as develop the department to prepare for future company growth. Prior to joining Arbor Renewable Gas in March of 2022, Margaret spent 8 years as an Accountant at G2X Energy, where she gained valuable industry knowledge and experience. Some of Margaret’s key accomplishments include successful implementation of key software’s as well as creating and implementing various company and department policies and procedures to drive automation and efficiencies to improve productivity. Margaret holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from WGU. Margaret is married to Joe, and they have 4 grown children.
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