Edward Geiser
Managing Partner and Head of Investment Committee
Mr. Geiser is the Executive Managing Partner of Juniper and the head of the Investment Committee for the Firm and its funds. Prior to the formation of JCA, Mr. Geiser was a Managing Director at Och-Ziff where he focused on Och-Ziff’s private investing activity in the energy industry in North America for over five years from 2008 to 2013. While at Och-Ziff, Mr. Geiser interacted with eight operating management teams and was on the board, advisory or steering committees of over 30 companies or investment entities. Prior to Och-Ziff, Mr. Geiser worked at each of the Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Investment Banking Groups in Houston, where he provided strategic advisory and capital markets services to companies involved in the energy industry, with a particular emphasis on buy-side and sell-side advisory services to companies in the E&P sector. Mr. Geiser was also involved with the formation and investment activities of Juniper I. During his time at Juniper I, Mr. Geiser helped to source, structure and manage the firm’s investments. Mr. Geiser received a B.S. in Finance from Louisiana State University.
Josh Schmidt
Partner and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Schmidt is a Partner of Juniper and a member of the Investment Committee for Juniper IV. Mr. Schmidt has over 15 years of experience in the Energy Industry and has been involved in the formation and management of over ten private energy companies. He currently serves on the boards of several private energy companies and one public energy company. Prior to joining Juniper, Mr. Schmidt served as a portfolio manager and fundamental analyst for Whiteside Energy, a Houston-based hedge fund. At Whiteside, Mr. Schmidt was responsible for managing a portfolio of investments in the natural gas and electricity markets across all regions of the United States. In addition to his role as a portfolio manager, Mr. Schmidt was responsible for developing and maintaining numerous models that provided a proprietary, data-driven view of real-time supply and demand fundamentals in both natural gas and electricity markets. Prior to Whiteside, Mr. Schmidt worked at Citigroup Energy in Houston as a natural gas and electricity trader. Mr. Schmidt received a B.S. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
Kevin Cumming
Partner
Mr. Cumming is a Partner of Juniper and a member of the Investment Committees for Juniper II, Juniper III and Juniper IV. Prior to the Firm, Mr. Cumming co-founded and served as President and a member of the Board of Directors of Expedition Water Solutions, a private equity-backed oilfield wastewater disposal company. Prior to Expedition, Mr. Cumming was Director of Corporate Development at Select Energy Services, where he led sourcing, evaluating and closing acquisitions and organic investment opportunities for Select’s various oilfield service businesses. Prior to joining Select, Mr. Cumming served as a Vice President of White Deer Energy, a Houston-based middle-market private equity firm focused on the energy industry (but primarily upstream, oilfield services and oilfield equipment manufacturing). Earlier in his career, Mr. Cumming was an investment professional at Buckeye Partners, Juniper I, and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Cumming holds a B.B.A. in Business Honors and Finance from The University of Texas at Austin and a M.B.A. from Rice University.
Tim Gray
Partner, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer
Mr. Gray joined the firm in 2017. Mr. Gray has over 20 years of experience as a transactional attorney, having advised companies and investment funds in their acquisition and divestiture activities and in the oversight of their portfolio investments. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Gray was a Managing Director and General Counsel at Och-Ziff where he supported Och-Ziff’s private investing activities and advised on a range of legal and compliance issues involving the firm. During Mr. Gray’s eight years at Och-Ziff, he advised on over 45 of the firm’s private investments in the energy, credit and structured credit strategies and served on the board of directors/managers of several portfolio companies. Prior to joining Och-Ziff, Mr. Gray was Counsel in the Corporate and Transactional Practice Group at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Mr. Gray holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School and a B.S. in Business Administration and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Todd Dittmann
Partner
Mr. Dittmann joined Juniper in January 2023. Prior to joining Juniper, Mr. Dittmann was a Managing Director at Angelo Gordon and led the firm’s energy strategy since 2013. He is a seasoned and experienced investment professional who has spent more than 25 years in energy finance with investing and board experience in both public and private companies. His experience includes the closing of approximately 150 debt, equity, M&A, derivative-linked and other energy related transactions, most of which he completed as a principal investor or lead lender. Mr. Dittmann has also held various roles with D.B. Zwirn & Co., Jefferies & Co. and the Chase Manhattan Bank. Mr. Dittmann holds a B.B.A. degree with a concentration in finance and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Texas, Austin and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Richard Gordon
Senior Advisor
Mr. Gordon is a Senior Advisor of the Firm and a member of the Investment Committees for Juniper II, Juniper III and Juniper IV. Mr. Gordon founded Juniper I in 2003 which successfully invested in and monetized eight investments in the energy industry. Prior to the establishment of Juniper I, Mr. Gordon was a Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch’s Investment Banking Group and head of the firm’s energy, power, structured finance and Canadian groups. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1993, Mr. Gordon was a Managing Director of The First Boston Corporation where he led that firm’s energy investment banking efforts. Over his career, Mr. Gordon has founded or co-founded more than ten private companies engaged in various industries, including energy, telecommunications, restaurants, and real estate. Outside of his activities at Juniper, Mr. Gordon currently serves as a Director on the Board of Directors of Atmos Energy (NYSE: ATO), the nation’s second largest distributor of natural gas. Mr. Gordon holds a B.A. from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.
Scott Gallun
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Gallun joined the Firm in 2016. Mr. Gallun is a CPA with over 20 years of accounting, finance and investing experience, primarily in the energy industry. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Gallun served as Controller at PVI Holdings, working with a portfolio of eight wholly owned operating companies. While at PVI, Mr. Gallun was responsible for the overall accounting and finance functions of the group, working closely with operating company accounting and finance personnel and outside CPA firms. Also, at PVI, Mr. Gallun was involved in the due diligence process of acquisition targets as well as the integration of acquired entities. Prior to joining PVI, Mr. Gallun worked in the corporate accounting groups at Nabors Industries and Loews Corporation as well as a financial auditor for Ernst & Young. Mr. Gallun was in the Integrated MPA program at the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Masters in Professional Accounting. Mr. Gallun also graduated from Brooklyn Law School with a Juris Doctor degree.
Craig Fox
Managing Director
Mr. Fox joined Juniper in February 2023. Prior to joining Juniper, Mr. Fox was a Managing Director in Angelo Gordon’s energy group. Craig has more than 25 years of experience supporting energy finance transactions as a petroleum engineer. Prior to joining the Firm, Craig was a Managing Director at Apollo Management where he focused primarily on upstream mezzanine transactions. He has also previously held senior engineering positions with a number of energy and investment management firms and held reservoir and production engineering positions with several exploration and production companies. His E&P experience includes Sandefer Oil & Gas, Tenneco Oil, and Houston Oil & Minerals. Craig holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Keith Petersen
Managing Director
Keith Petersen joined Juniper in July 2023. He has over 30 years of experience in the energy space most recently as a Managing Director at Benefit Street Partners based in their New York Office. Prior to Benefit Street, Mr. Petersen spent five years at Claren Road Asset Management, LLC, as a Managing Director covering Energy, Power and Mining. Prior to Claren Road, Mr. Petersen spent 14 years at Salomon Brothers / Citigroup Global markets Inc. as a Managing Director and Co-head of the Corporate Credit Research Team with a focus on energy credit. Mr. Petersen holds a B.S. degree from Westchester University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Fordham Gabelli School of Business.
Rosemarie Cicalese
Director / Investor Relations
Ms. Cicalese joined the Firm in May 2023. Prior to joining JCA in 2023, Ms. Cicalese was the CFO of ROC Energy Acquisition Corp. (“ROC Energy”) where she focused on the identification and negotiation of energy acquisitions, equity capital markets activities including ROC Energy’s oversubscribed 2021 IPO, and fundraising efforts associated with ROC Energy’s announced acquisition of Drilling Tools International. Prior to ROC Energy, Ms. Cicalese worked as an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan in various roles from 2004 to 2020, including energy corporate banking in Houston and global commodities in New York, where she focused on reserve-based lending and energy markets hedging respectively, with a particular emphasis on the E&P sector. Ms. Cicalese received a B.E. in Engineering Management from Stevens Institute of Technology and is a CFA® charterholder. Ms. Cicalese also serves on the Board of Directors of The Periwinkle Foundation, a non-profit organization in Houston, since 2019.
F. Hunter Goodall
Director
Mr. Goodall joined Juniper in May 2023. He has over 11 years of experience in the energy industry. Prior to joining Juniper, Mr. Goodall was a Vice President at Akira Impact, a Calgary-based renewables and energy transition-focused investment firm. During his time at Akira, Hunter focused primarily on lower middle market debt and equity investments in the energy-in-transition space. Prior to Akira Impact, Mr. Goodall was a Vice President at Benefit Street Partners based in the Houston office. While at BSP, he was responsible for due diligence, structuring, execution, and monitoring of energy debt investments. Prior to BSP, Mr. Goodall was an Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in the Energy & Power Investment Banking Group, where he spent his time on M&A advisory and public capital markets engagements. Mr. Goodall holds a B.B.A. in Finance and a minor in Spanish from Texas Christian University, where he graduated summa cum laude.
Brent Willson
Director of Portfolio Services
Mr. Willson joined the Firm in early 2018. He has over 20 years of investment management, finance and accounting experience, primarily in the oil and gas, mining and power industries. Mr. Willson previously served as the Director of the Portfolio Services Group at Denham Capital Management. Mr. Willson has been responsible for building out the portfolio management function at both Denham and more recently at Juniper. In that role, Mr. Willson implemented processes and systems to gather, analyze and report portfolio company performance, identified and executed fund and portfolio company improvement efforts, and temporarily served as the CFO of one of Denham’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining Denham, Mr. Willson was a Director in the Transaction Services Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he provided due diligence services for energy clients, and prior to that was an auditor at Ernst & Young. Mr. Willson holds a B.S. in Accounting from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a M.B.A. from Rice University, and is a CPA.
Garrett Chunn
Senior Vice President
Mr. Chunn joined the Firm in August 2020. Mr. Chunn has over 8 years of experience in the energy industry in both operational and business development related roles. Prior to joining the Firm, he was a Vice President at Kayne Anderson’s Energy Group. While at Kayne Anderson, Mr. Chunn was responsible for reserve-based valuations and engineering oversight of Kayne Anderson’s oil & gas portfolio companies. Prior to joining Kayne Anderson, Mr. Chunn held various A&D, engineering, and asset development roles at Encana Oil & Gas. During his time at Encana, Mr. Chunn focused on reservoir engineering, drilling and completions engineering, and A&D activity across a number of the company’s assets in various basins. Mr. Chunn holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University.
Andria Berman
Vice President
Ms. Berman joined the Firm in May 2021. Ms. Berman has ten years of experience in the energy industry with nine years in energy investment banking. Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Berman was a Vice President for Citigroup’s Global Energy Group Investment Banking team, specifically for the Acquisitions and Divestitures team, where she primarily focused on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures for upstream companies. She was responsible for business development and transaction execution, as well as asset-based valuations, financial analysis, and marketing for sell-side transactions. Prior to joining Citi, Ms. Berman was an analyst for UBS’ Natural Resources Group Investment Banking team, where she focused on the upstream, midstream, and oilfield service sectors for mergers and acquisitions and debt and equity capital markets transactions. Ms. Berman holds a B.B.A. in Finance and a minor in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. She was also part of the Financial Analyst Program at McCombs.
Christopher Boyd
Senior Associate
Mr. Boyd joined the Firm in 2020. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Boyd was an Analyst at Petrie Partners, a boutique investment banking firm focused on the oil and gas industry. While at Petrie Partners, Mr. Boyd gained experience working on acquisitions, divestitures and corporate mergers for upstream-focused clients. Mr. Boyd holds a B.B.A. in Finance with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.
Paige Graf
Associate
Ms. Graf joined the Firm in August 2022. Prior to the Firm, Ms. Graf was the Director of Upstream Research at US Capital Advisors, where she focused on large/mid cap exploration and production companies. She was responsible for developing weekly technical research reports pertaining to a variety of topics such as upstream equities, shale basin studies, commodities and ESG topics. Prior to US Capital, Ms. Graf held several internship roles at Valero, Noble Group and Energy XXI. Ms. Graf holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and a certificate in the Petroleum Ventures Program from Texas A&M University.
Juanmanuel Roman-Pavajeau
Associate
Mr. Roman joined the Firm in October 2022. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Roman was an analyst in the Energy Investment Banking Group at Jefferies. While at Jefferies, Mr. Roman focused on upstream, midstream, oilfield services, and energy transition sectors for mergers and acquisitions and debt and equity capital markets transactions. Prior to joining Jefferies, Mr. Roman was an analyst for Detring Energy Advisors where he focused on acquisitions and divestitures in the lower middle market upstream oil and gas sector. Mr. Roman holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and a certificate in the Petroleum Ventures Program from Texas A&M University.
Roel Tunjar
Associate
Mr. Tunjar joined the Firm in April 2023. Prior to joining the Firm Juniper, Mr. Tunjar was an analyst at Detring Energy Advisors, an investment banking firm where he primarily focused on acquisitions and divestitures of upstream middle market oil and gas assets. Mr. Tunjar holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Laura Giroir
Office Manager
Ms. Giroir has been with Juniper I since 2003. Ms. Giroir oversees administration and manages the day-to-day office operations as well as provides support to the full team. Ms. Giroir has worked in the energy industry for 25+ years. Ms. Giroir worked in the Investment Banking department at The First Boston Corporation from 1985 to 1993 and Merrill Lynch from 1993 to 2003. Ms. Giroir holds a B.S. from Stephen F. Austin State University.