A GLOBAL LEADER IN ENERGY STORAGE
WindSoHy Team
WindSoHy's innovative team is comprised of forward-looking business and energy industry
leaders deeply committed to WindSoHy's vision, goals, and success.
Joe Spease
Joe Spease, President and CEO, is an executive known for his expertise on Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) and renewable hydrogen. His unique idea is to combine CAES with wind power to create renewable baseload power; and combine wind power with electrolysis to make renewable hydrogen fuel. He has provided expert testimony on energy storage policy to DOE and FERC, and consulted on CAES with scientists at Sandia Labs, NREL and Brookhaven. He's provided expert testimony for state legislative energy committees, published articles, and been a speaker at energy forums and conferences. Before starting WindSoHy, Joe Spease was President of Pristine Power, developing wind, solar, and hydrogen projects for a major telecommunication company, and a refinery and fertilizer plant. He is active as an executive committee member on environmental and jazz committees in Kansas City.
Phil Duran
Phil Duran, VP of Energy Project Development, is a top-level, energy-industry executive with 25 years of experience as a power engineer and 20 years of hands-on project management for the largest energy companies in the world such as Exxon, Koch Industries, Burns & McDonnell, Aquila, and Prevailing Wind Development. His leadership, broad experience, project management skills, and expertise in project siting and feasibility studies have prepared him to manage WindSoHy's projects working closely with our engineering and construction partners. Mr. Duran has worked in energy commodities, and holds degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration from the University of Kansas.
Advisory Board
Thomas M. Turmell
Thomas M. Turmell
Thomas M. Turmell
Thomas M. Turmell is a Managing Director with TMT Capital Partners, LLC, a private investment firm focused on making direct investments in the middle and lower-end of the middle market, and on providing financial advisory services to high growth companies. Prior to founding TMT Capital, Mr. Turmell held the position of Principal at Golub Capital, providing senior debt, junior debt, and equity capital to middle market companies. Mr. Turmell joined the firm in 2004 to establish and build the firm’s Chicago office, make new investments, and participate in portfolio management.
Prior to Golub Capital, Mr. Turmell was a Vice President with Pfingsten Partners, L.L.C., an operationally-oriented, middle market private equity firm focused on making control investments in middle market companies in the manufacturing, distribution, and publishing sectors. Before Pfingsten, Mr. Turmell was a Vice President at LaSalle Bank, N.A., providing credit and non-credit financial solutions to middle market manufacturing, distribution and service businesses.
A Michigan native, Mr. Turmell holds a degree in Busines Admnistration from the University of Notre Dame, and an MBA degree in Finance, Management & Strategy, and Organizational Behavior form the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Donald J. Hurd
Thomas M. Turmell
Thomas M. Turmell
Donald J. Hurd is President & CEO of E3 Consulting, a Denver-based firm serving the energy-production sector. He has three decades of business experience, primarily providing a broad range of technical advisory services for electric utilities, municipalities, independent power producers, and lending institutions involved with
existing and green-field projects in the United States and abroad. Mr. Hurd’s work spans the industry from renewable energy to central generating systems. His expertise is in solar and biomass technologies, combustion turbines, geothermal energy, reciprocating engines, fluid-bed combustion systems, and conventional solid-fuel boilers.
Accomplished at building high-performing business teams, he has a successful track record of envisioning, contracting, designing, and executing professional services for complex energy projects. Over the past 25 years Mr. Hurd has performed all aspects of due diligence from pre-financial closing to annual operations reviews. He has been involved with single-project financings totaling $1.7 billion.
He's reviewed several first-of-a-kind technology applications for renewable and conventional energy projects and has evaluated the US Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Technology Program projects. In addition, Mr. Hurd has worked with US, Japanese and German export credit agencies.
Among Mr. Hurd’s skills are providing technical advisory services in support of legal counsel to owners and lenders on distressed projects in operation and under construction. He has assessed a variety of potential operating scenarios
and construction completion alternatives on both solid fuel and combustion turbine projects based on proposed recovery strategies. Mr. Hurd has assisted independent power producers and municipalities with engineering, procurement , and construction contract negotiations; preparation of performance specifications for equipment bidding and inclusion in EPC contracts; bid evaluation; thermal cycle development; dispute resolution and O&M program assessment.
Donald J. Hurd has a BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Metropolitan State College of Denver and has been President & CEO of E3 Consulting for 10 years.