Our Team

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Jan Ziemecki Sr. - CEO

Jan began his career as Commodities Trader for Nichimen America in New York. Nichimen is one of Japan’s 7 largest global trading companies trading Cotton, spot and futures contracts. He later transitioned into finance as a Series 7 Stock Broker for Wheat First Butcher & Singer in Philadelphia, specializing in Municipal fixed income securities, and covered HNW individuals and smaller financial institutions and pensions funds. As Emerging European began the move to a market economy, Boston's Pioneer Group recruited Jan to start up an institutional equity department for their brokerage business in Warsaw - Pioneer Polski Dom Maklerski (Pioneer PDM). Jan marketed WSE listed equities, trade execution, and equity research to some of the industry’s largest Investment banks and pension funds: Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch, Bankers Trust, Oppenheimer Funds, DuPont Pension Funds, American Funds, Vontobel and others. Elected to the Management Board of Pioneer Brokerage he continued to manage and grow international sales until the company was sold to Deutsche Bank.

Bank Austria CA-IB Investment Fund Co. (CA-IB TFI) in Warsaw was a startup when Jan joined as Vice President of the two man Management Board. He was responsible for new fund development, direct corporate and institutional sales, multi bank platform distribution, marketing, and equity / debt investment committee oversight. Jan managed the creation of cutting edge institutional and retail funds such as the CA-IB Dividend Fund and CA-IB Top America, at the time, Poland’s first registered international fund. When he left for Merrill Lynch, CA-IB Investment Fund Company was ranked No. 3 in Poland as far as AUM.

Jan then joined Merrill Lynch Bank Suisse in Geneva and Luxemburg, as a Vice President of Merrill’s Global Private Client unit. He brought Merrill Lynch Bank Suisse Private Banking, Merrill Lynch Investment Banking and Merrill Lynch Commodities CO2 and Energy trading products to Public, Private and Forbes 100 Family Holding Co's in Central Eastern Europe. After Merryl Lynch Bank Suisse was sold to Julius Baer, after which moved to Bank of America - Merrill Lynch in Boca Raton, Florida, and worked on a Private Banking Team managing close to a billion USD.

Jan has served on the Supervisory Boards of several publically listed companies in Poland, including two Warsaw Stock Exchange listed Polish National Privatization Funds (NFI’s), and the Warsaw Stock Exchange listed industrial fire retardant producer Ropczyce SA. In the US, he served on the Supervisory Board of The Republican Party of Palm Beach County under Party Chairman Anita Mitchell. As a consultant, Jan has developed renewable energy Investment Funds and worked with major Polish Wind and Biomass Developers obtaining financing, strategic and financial partners.

In Waste to Energy, he assisted Wheelabrator Industries, the renewable energy arm of US based waste sector leader Waste Management Corporation, and helped bid a major Waste to Energy project for a Polish Municipality, and helped them assess the Moroccan Waste to Energy market. In Morocco, in collaboration with Shems Capital in Casablanca, where together with Shems he advised major Asian EPCs on Moroccan market penetration. Jan currently advises leading Polish Private Equity, and Private Debt Funds on US fund raising strategies, and assists Polish biomass and coal trading companies supplying Polish State power plants (I.e. Tauron) and municipal CHP plants with coal and biomass, and Polish LPG traders with procuring and contract negotiations on energy raw materials from the USA.

Jan has held various US securities licenses over his career, including: Series 63, Series 65, Series 66 Investment Advisor, Series 7 Financial Advisor, and did his BA at the University of Delaware in the USA.

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Warren Belmar - Senior Advisor

Warren was a partner for 22 years in the Washington office of Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright), where he primarily represented firms in the oil and gas, renewable energy, and financial services sectors. After his retirement, he started his consulting firm, Capitol Counsel Group, where he has focused on assisting firms in the renewable energy sector.

Among his notable positions, Warren served as Deputy General Counsel for Energy Policy at the United States Department of Energy, as Chairman of the Board of the US Clean Economy Network Education Fund, as General Counsel of the Florida Bioenergy Association, and as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Federal Infrastructure and Clean Energy Finance Committee. Among his current pro bono activities, he serves as a Senior Fellow at the Administrative Conference of the United States, and as a Life Member of the American Law Institute.

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Biplab Raksh - Senior Advisor

For over three decades, Biplab has had a multinational career in the energy and infrastructure sector where he is widely known as a clean energy specialist and board advisor where his focus is strategic investment, M&A and corporate development. Biplab began his career at Shell International before moving to Mobil Oil. Upon receiving an MBA from Cranfield Business School, Biplab joined TXU EUROPE to oversee M&A transactions across the various European energy markets, acquiring several utilities in Scandinavia and the UK. He subsequently joined CDC Capital as a strategic advisor focusing on M&A transactions across Asia.

Over the last decade Biplab has advised both governments and corporations on clean energy. He co-authored the UK Government report on micro-nuclear and has been named in reports by Canadian regulators and quoted in articles published by the World Economic Forum. Biplab continues to advise various boards including Hatch Inc (Canada) and ONET Technologies (France). He was instrumental in delivering the de-designation order at URENCO Capenhurst and subsequently helped initiate their UBattery programme. Regarded as a specialist in zero carbon, Biplab sits on the boards of two infrastructure think tanks.

Based in London, Biplab is a Chartered Chemical Engineer and has professional qualifications in accountancy and finance. He is the Chairman of the Institute of Directors (East of England) that represents the voice of 3,000 business across the EoE. He also serves as a trustee on two charities.