George Schaefer has over 30 years’ experience in the domestic and international electric power and renewable energy industries. He served as CFO of several three successful renewable energy startups in the solar and biofuels sectors. The first of these, ASABiofuels, had a successful exit yielding a return in excess of 3.5x to its investors in 12 months; the other two, Mascoma and Soltage, have been in profitable operation for over 5 years. In these roles George was responsible for all of the corporate and project finance, accounting, financial reporting, legal and administrative functions. Among other responsibilities, he led a $40 million “B” equity round, a $20 million corporate debt issuance, a SEC S-1 filing (which obtained approval in less than 90 days) and the financing of over $225 million in debt.

Prior to these roles, George was Vice President and Treasurer of NRG Energy, one of the largest independent power companies in the world. In 2002, he was recruited by the NRG Board to serve as CFO to lead the company through its bankruptcy filing. Upon its emergence, he remained as VP and Treasurer and led the successful listing of the Company on the NYSE and its $2.7 billion exit financing. In 2006, George led the successful $10.2 billion financing of NRG’s acquisition of Texas Genco, doubling the size of the Company.

Mr. Schaefer also was Vice President and Treasurer of Reliant Energy International and PSEG Global were he led the financing of over $5 billion of equity and debt for the acquisition of international and domestic power companies (including the two largest electric distribution companies in Latin America) and power generation assets. Mr. Schaefer was Senior Vice President at GE Capital for over 10 years, where he founded and led its Energy Project Finance Group in 2002 and its European Structured Finance Group in 2008. In these roles he completed the financing of coal and gas fired cogeneration plants, renewable energy facilities, a rail car manufacturing plant, an aluminum smelter and several strategic acquisitions in the energy industry. His team invested over $1.5 billion in equity and $2.5 billion in debt for these assets.

Mr. Schaefer is an active member of the Central Texas Angel Network and the Austin Technology Incubator, where he mentors and invests in early stage startups in the energy and technology industries.

George previously served on the Boards of the Maxwell School for Public Affairs at Syracuse University, the School of Public Affairs at American University and the Center for Environmental Policy in Washington, DC. He has his MPA from Syracuse University and his BA from American University. He and his wife live in Austin, Texas.