Principal Investor, President & CEO, Global Development

Mr. Caffyn has a strong personal interest in developing environmentally friendly renewable energy which has resulted in a dedication to uncovering new technologies, business models and financing that rapidly expand the deployment of renewable energy projects. To that end, Brian is the Chairman of the UPC Solar & UPC Renewables Group of Companies and has directed the development of Wind and Solar projects in the US, Canada, Europe, China, Philippines and Indonesia amongst other locations. Brian was the founder and inaugural Chairman of UPC Wind (subsequently First Wind and recently acquired by Sun Edison for $2.5bn) and previously Brian personally oversaw the establishment and construction of the largest wind energy company in Italy — Italian Vento Power Corporation. In addition, Brian is also a Founding Partner of UPC Capital Ventures and was President of Wind City Oil & Gas (recently sold to Penn View Exploration). Brian spent the first part of his career in project financing for wind, cogeneration, hydro, solar, geothermal, waste-to-energy and biomass energy projects with GE Capital, Heller Financial, Inc., and several private companies. Brian received a BA in Finance and Quantitative Methods from Babson College.

Managing Partner – Portfolio Management, Operations, Funding

John Wallington, Managing Partner, is a qualified accountant with over 25 years experience in senior management positions in large global manufacturing and service based industries. John trained as an accountant with Unilever PLC working in a number of accounting and financial management roles in different business entities across the UK and Europe. In 2000, John joined Clifford Chance LLP as the Global Head of Financial Planning and Business Analysis providing analytical support to various client teams in various industry sectors including Banking & Finance, Energy and Technology. In 2005 John co-founded and was appointed the CFO of a technology startup, which secured seed capital funding from the UPC Energy Group. In November 2006, John formally joined the UPC Group and was appointed Group Corporate Controller, managing the finances and accounting for an international business portfolio of renewable energy related companies, property, mining, oil & gas and energy and technology investments. In addition to his role as Managing Partner of UPC Capital Ventures, John is Chief Operating Officer of UPC Management, CFO of UPC Solar and a Partner in UPC Renewables Asia Pacific Holdings. John is a Director of the K2 Wind Foundation, which supports philanthropic endeavors in Sustainability, Energy Efficiency and the Environment, an advisory Board Member of the UBS Sustainable Trends Group, a Board Member of the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association (C.C.I.A) and a Board Director of Llanllyr Water Company, Ltd,  Plastics for Change Ltd, TripHero, LLC, and Mindpass, LLC. John received his BA (Hons) degree in Geography from Exeter University (U.K.), is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (FCMA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.

Operating Partner

Caleb Avery provides financial, operational, and strategic support to various UPC projects and portfolio entities. He was previously focused on the UPC Renewables Asia Pacific Wind and Solar development portfolio. Caleb is currently focused on analyzing new investment opportunities to add to the UPC Capital Ventures portfolio as well as helping manage the existing portfolio.  He has a strong background in Finance and Entrepreneurship. For the past eight years, he has served as CFO of PayBright, a startup credit card processing company. He was responsible for managing company finances, payroll, and budgeting. During his time with PayBright, Caleb managed a network of sales agents and thousands of accounts across the United States. Caleb spent this first year with UPC working Internationally performing financial modeling and fundraising for various UPC Projects. Caleb received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Furman University.

Portfolio Holding Company COO

John Allen is a 5-time CEO (2 as founder, 3 investor-appointed) with deep corporate development experience, creating highly structured, high velocity, data-optimized organizations. John has expert corporate finance and sales ops skills, having achieved profitability in 2 cash-yield companies. Achieved through resolute budget governance, P&L and cashflow management and the roll-out of KPI-driven sales operations, highly visible in investor relations. For a large family office, part of deal-team for the investment in, roll-up of and subsequent performance of the family’s technology and tech-enabled portfolio companies. John is also a Mentor at The Founder Institute, delivering lectures on “Capital Strategy & Fundraising”, “Scaling Revenues”, “Team Formation for ScaleUp” and “Investor Relations” each year.

Accounting, Financial Reporting

Blanca is responsible for managing the accounting department and financial reporting for the various portfolio companies within the UPC group. She also provides support with financial analysis and special projects to the CFO. Blanca is currently also engaged in the financial management of some of our Asian subsidiaries, specifically in Indonesia. Blanca has over 15 years experience in accounting and financial analysis. Prior to joining the UPC group, she worked at World Fuel Services Corporation in the Business Controls Group as an internal auditor (SOX compliance). Her responsibilities included the main offices in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Prior to that Blanca worked at Ericsson Corporation, starting in Mexico City where she held different positions including that as Senior Financial Analyst for the Latin America Region at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Int., AB. Blanca holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting (CPA in Mexico) and a Diploma for Continued Education in Finance from Technological University of Mexico.

Tax, Financial Analysis

Steven is a Certified Public Accountant with over 27 years of experience in accounting, income tax and private industry. Steven joined UPC to support its growing development activities around the world. Steven’s responsibilities include accounting for several UPC North Africa developments in Tunisia and Morocco; accounting for various portfolio companies within the UPC group; United States income tax preparation; and providing insight for all tax related matters submitted by government agencies as well as international parties. Prior to joining UPC group, Steven started his career working for Arthur Andersen & Co. as a Tax Senior and then joined Berkowitz Dick & Pollack CPA’s as a Tax Supervisor. During his seven years in public accounting, he managed a broad spectrum of clients and performed tax return preparation, tax research, income tax planning and client representation before the IRS. Afterwards, he was hired by his main client Weda Developers, Inc., a multi-million dollar, closely-held, real estate developer, as their CFO. Steven received from University of Florida his Bachelor of Science in Accounting, with Honors and Master of Accounting, Emphasis in Tax.

Indira is responsible for providing assistance in areas of insurance, office management, human resources and the overall administrative support of the management team. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. For more than ten years, she has held similar positions where she has successfully handled corporate processes and personal activities for top management executives of publicly and privately held corporations in Los Angeles, New York and Miami. She has demonstrated her operations and management professionalism in legal, large-scale manufacturing & distribution, energy and health related industries such as Elizabeth Arden, InterGen and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Indira is a Florida Notary Public. She holds a Masters degree in Liberal Studies from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL, a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. and an Associate’s degree in Office Systems Management from Berkeley College in West Patterson, New Jersey.