Board of Directors

Ralph Alexander

Mr. Alexander has served as director on the Board since our inception in November 2013. On September 19, 2023, Mr. Alexander began duties as Interim Chairman of the Board (“the Board”) when Mr. Keppler stepped down from his position as Executive Chairman. Mr. Alexander also serves as Lead Independent Director of the Board and was formerly CEO of Talen Energy Corp. He became affiliated with Riverstone Holdings LLC in September 2007. For nearly 25 years, Mr. Alexander served in various positions with subsidiaries and affiliates of BP plc, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. From June 2004 until December 2006, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Innovene, BP’s $20 billion olefins and derivatives subsidiary. From 2001 until June 2004, he served as Chief Executive Officer of BP’s Gas, Power and Renewables and Solar segment and was a member of the BP group executive committee. Prior to that, Mr. Alexander served as a Group Vice President in BP’s Exploration and Production segment and BP’s Refinery and Marketing segment. He held responsibilities for various regions of the world, including North America, Russia, the Caspian, Africa, and Latin America. Prior to these positions, Mr. Alexander held various positions in the upstream, downstream, and finance groups of BP. Mr. Alexander has served on the board of NET Power LLC’s since June 2023 and has served on the board of Talen Energy Corporation since June 2015. From December 2014 through December 2016, Mr. Alexander served on the board of EP Energy Corporation. He has previously served on the boards of Foster Wheeler, Stein Mart, Inc., Amyris, and AngloAmerican plc. Mr. Alexander holds an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Brooklyn Polytech (now NYU School of Engineering—Polytechnic) and an M.S. in Management Science from Stanford University.

John C. Bumgarner, Jr.

Mr. Bumgarner has served as a director on the Board since April 2015. Mr. Bumgarner has been engaged in private investment since November 2002, and currently assists in operating a family-owned, multi-faceted real estate company. Mr. Bumgarner previously served as Co-Chief Operating Officer and President of Strategic Investments for Williams Communications Group, Inc., a high technology company, from May 2001 to November 2002. Mr. Bumgarner joined The Williams Companies, Inc., in 1977 and, prior to working at Williams Communications Group, Inc., served as Senior Vice President of Williams Companies Corporate Development and Planning, President of Williams International Company and President of Williams Real Estate Company. He most recently served as a director of Energy Partners, Ltd., an oil and natural gas exploration and production company, from January 2000 to February 2009, and at Market Planning Solutions Inc. from February 1982 until April 2011. Mr. Bumgarner holds a B.S. from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. Mr. Bumgarner’s substantial experience as an executive at a conglomerate and as a director on boards of public and private companies engaged in a variety of industries provide him with unique insight that is particularly helpful and valuable to the Board.

Janet S. Wong

Ms. Wong has served as a director on the Board since April 2015. Since January 2013, Ms. Wong has served as a National Executive Advisor for Ascend, a non‑profit professional organization that enables its members, corporate partners and the community to realize the leadership potential of Asians in global corporations. At Ascend, Ms. Wong has led the largest network of Asian corporate board directors and is recognized as a global thought leader on leadership and diversity issues. Currently, Ms. Wong serves on the board of Lumentum Holdings Inc., a market-leading high technology manufacturer of innovative optical and photonics products where she is a member of the Audit Committee, and the board of Allegiance Bancshares, Inc., a financial services company where she is a member of the Audit Committee and the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. In addition, she serves on the non-profit boards of the Computer History Museum, Louisiana Tech University Foundation and the Thirty Percent Coalition. Ms. Wong served as a Partner at Grant Thornton LLP from August 2008 through July 2012, where she was the Central Region Corporate and Partnership Services Lead Partner. In 2008, Ms. Wong retired from the partnership of KPMG, culminating a career with the global firm from 1985 through 2008, where she served as a National Industry Practice Lead Partner. Ms. Wong has extensive experience working with clients in the consumer markets, energy, financial services, manufacturing, and technology sectors. She is a Certified Public Accountant. She holds a Master of Professional Accountancy from Louisiana Tech University and a Master of Taxation from Golden Gate University. We believe Ms. Wong’s audit expertise and her professional and leadership experience enable her to provide essential guidance to the Board and our management team.

Eva T. Zlotnicka

Ms. Zlotnicka is a Founder and former President of Inclusive Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based investment firm which partners with companies that enable solutions to address environmental and social problems. Just prior to founding Inclusive Capital Partners, she was a Founder and Managing Director of the ValueAct Spring Fund and Head of Stewardship at ValueAct Capital. Prior to joining ValueAct Capital in 2018, Ms. Zlotnicka spent more than 10 years on the sell side. Most recently, she was US lead Sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) equity research analyst at Morgan Stanley. Ms. Zlotnicka is a director of Unifi, Inc., where she serves on the Audit Committee and serves as chairman for the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Ms. Zlotnicka was previously a director of Hawaiian Electric Industries where she was a member of the Compensation Committee. Ms. Zlotnicka also co-founded Women Investing for a Sustainable Economy (WISE), a global professional community. She has two B.S.c. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, including one from the Wharton School, and an M.B.A and a Master of Environmental Science degree from Yale University.

Martin N. Davidson

Dr. Davidson is the Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He currently serves as senior associate dean and global chief diversity officer for the school. His thought leadership has changed how many executives approach inclusion and diversity in their organizations. He teaches, conducts research, and consults with global leaders to help them use diversity strategically to drive high performance. His book, The End of Diversity as We Know It:  Why Diversity Efforts Fail and How Leveraging Difference Can Succeed, co-authored with Heather Wishik, introduces a research-driven roadmap to help leaders more effectively create and capitalize on diversity in organizations. Davidson has consulted with leaders of a host of global firms, government agencies and social profit organizations, including Bank of America, The World Health Organization, The Walt Disney Company, Credit Suisse Group, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Navy SEALs. Davidson has been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and CNN. He has been a member of the Darden faculty since 1998. Previously, he was a member of the faculty of the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He earned his A.B. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Jim H. Derryberry

Mr. Derryberry has served as a director on the Board since July 2018. Mr. Derryberry served as a director of USA Compression GP, LLC from January 2013 to April 2018. He is currently a special advisor for Riverstone Holdings LLC where he held the office of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer until 2006. In September 2022, Mr. Derryberry received the “Distinguished Engineering Graduate Award” from the Cockrell School of Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, which is the highest honor that the Cockrell School bestows on its alumni.

Prior to joining Riverstone, Mr. Derryberry was a managing director of J.P. Morgan where he was head of the Natural Resources and Power Group. He had previously served in the Goldman Sachs Global Energy and Power Group where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, capital markets financing, and the management of relationships with major energy companies. He also served on the board of directors of Magellan GP, LLC, the general partner of Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P, from 2005-2006. Mr. Derryberry has been a member of the Board of Overseers for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and is a member of the Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

John Keppler

Mr. Keppler is a director of the Board of Enviva Inc., a position he has held since the Company’s founding. Mr. Keppler was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Enviva from 2004 until 2022, when he stepped down from these roles to focus on treatment and recovery from heart health challenges.  

As a founder of Enviva Inc., Mr. Keppler was responsible for setting the company’s strategic direction and leading and managing its growth from a start-up to the world’s largest producer of sustainable wood pellets, a reliable, renewable alternative to coal and other fossil fuels.

Mr. Keppler led Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE: EVA) to its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on April 29, 2015, making it the first publicly traded company in the industry. He serves on the Board of the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP), a non-profit standard-setting organization that manages a voluntary certification system designed for woody biomass used in energy production. Mr. Keppler is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Red Sea Farms. In 2021, Mr. Keppler was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 National Award winner by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US). He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a Master of Business Administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Gerrity Lansing

Mr. Lansing has served as a director on the Board since October 2020. Mr. Lansing is a Managing Director and Partner of BTG Pactual and Head of BTG Pactual Tangible Assets Group, which includes BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (“TIG”). TIG is one of the world’s largest timberland investment managers with more than US$ 4.5 billion under management and investments including more than 3 million acres across four continents. Mr. Lansing leads a management team at TIG with more than 800 years of combined experience and which operates in accordance with the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and with first-class sustainable forestry practices including those set forth by the Forest Stewardship Council and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, as validated by extensive independent audits. Prior to his current role, he was a Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Equator, LLC and its Brazilian subsidiary, TTG Brasil Investimentos Florestais Ltda, which was acquired by BTG Pactual in 2012. Prior to this, as Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lansing spent nearly a decade building Madison Trading, LLC and Chatham Energy Partners, LLC (acquired by The Intercontinental Exchange). He is on the board of directors of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Buckley School in New York City, the National Alliance of Forest Owners and La Fundación de la Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Mr. Lansing received his B.A. from Duke University.

Pierre F. Lapeyre, Jr.

Mr. Lapeyre is a co-founder and senior managing director of Riverstone Holdings LLC. Prior to co-founding Riverstone in 2000, Mr. Lapeyre was a managing director of Goldman Sachs in its Global Energy & Power Group. Mr. Lapeyre joined Goldman Sachs in 1986 and spent his 14-year investment banking career focused on energy and power and leading client coverage and execution of a wide variety of M&A, IPO, strategic advisory and capital markets financings for clients across all sectors of the industry. Mr. Lapeyre received his B.S. in Finance/Economics from the University of Kentucky and his M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mr. Lapeyre serves on the boards of directors or equivalent bodies of a number of public and private Riverstone portfolio companies and their affiliates. In addition to his duties at Riverstone, Mr. Lapeyre serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Visitors of the MD Anderson Cancer Center and is a Trustee and Treasurer of The Convent of the Sacred Heart.

David M. Leuschen

Mr. Leuschen is the Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Riverstone. He sits on the Investment Committees of all the various Riverstone investment vehicles.

Prior to founding Riverstone, Mr. Leuschen was a Partner and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and founder and head of the Goldman Sachs Global Energy and Power Group.

Mr. Leuschen was responsible for building the Goldman Sachs energy and power investment banking practice into one of the leading franchises in the global energy and power industry. Mr. Leuschen additionally served as Chairman of the Goldman Sachs Energy Investment Committee, where he was responsible for screening potential direct investments by Goldman Sachs in the energy and power industry.

Mr. Leuschen has served as a Director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Cross Timbers Oil Company (predecessor to XTO Energy) and J. Aron Resources. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Riverstone Energy Limited, Centennial Energy Development, and CNOR. He is also president and sole owner of Switchback Ranch LLC and on the Advisory Board of Big Sky Investment Holdings LLC. David serves on a number of nonprofit boards of directors, including as a Trustee of United States Olympic Committee Foundation, a Director of Conservation International, a Director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Founding Member of the Peterson Institute’s Economic Leadership Council, a Director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and a Director of the Montana Land Reliance.

Mr. Leuschen received his A.B. from Dartmouth and his M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business.

Thomas Meth

Mr. Meth is a co-founder and President of Enviva Inc. (Enviva), a global renewable energy company specializing in sustainable wood bioenergy. Enviva sells most of its wood pellets through long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts with customers in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Asia, helping to accelerate the energy transition in the energy sector and aiming to de-fossilize hard-to-abate sectors like steel, cement, lime, chemicals, and aviation, and other transportation fuels. 

Mr. Meth previously served as the Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chief Commercial Officer of Enviva at different points of his Enviva career. Mr. Meth has been instrumental in growing and scaling the company and establishing Enviva as a leader in sustainability progress and most recently, in its operational recovery. He has led Enviva’s business development, sales, shipping, and commercial customer relations teams as well as developed and managed the fiber procurement and sustainability teams to establish Enviva as an industry leader in environmental stewardship and sustainability standards. In addition, he has had oversight of the company’s broader plant and port operations and global public affairs initiatives. 

Mr. Meth was a key member of the management team in the pursuit of transitioning Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE: EVA), now Enviva Inc., to its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on April 29, 2015, making it the first publicly traded company in the industry. In 2011, Mr. Meth led the launch of the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association (USIPA), a not-for-profit trade association promoting sustainability and safety practices within the U.S. wood energy industry with the goal of expanding wood bioenergy’s market access internationally, serving as its Chairman since 2016. Mr. Meth was also the Treasurer and founding board member of #forestproud, a program that is now under the auspices of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) which promotes and supports forest climate solutions.  

Mr. Meth holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria as well as an M.B.A. from The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at The University of Virginia. Originally from Vienna, Austria, Mr. Meth currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, two daughters, and their dog. Mr. Meth enjoys tennis, skiing, traveling, history and spending time with his family.

Glenn Nunziata

Mr. Nunziata is a director of the Board of Enviva Inc. and has served as interim Chief Executive Officer since November 2023, after joining Enviva Inc. as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in August 2023. As interim CEO, Mr. Nunziata oversees all aspects of Enviva’s day-to-day operations, with a current focus on strengthening the Company’s balance sheet and providing strategic financial leadership to support the company’s transformation. Most recently, Mr. Nunziata served as CFO of Smithfield Foods Inc., an $18 billion company that owns and operates processing facilities across the U.S. and works with thousands of farmers and landowners each year managing its diversified supply chain. Prior to his tenure at Smithfield, he held various positions of increasing responsibility at EY over the span of 19 years, most recently as a Partner in Assurance Services. Mr. Nunziata holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Accounting from James Madison University. Mr. Nunziata currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of StoneBridge School and sits on the Board of Advisors for the College of Business at James Madison University.

Gary L. Whitlock

Mr. Whitlock has served as a director on the Board since April 2016 and is Chair of the Finance Committee. Mr. Whitlock served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (“CenterPoint”) from September 2002 until April 2015. From April 2015 until his retirement on October 1, 2015, he served as Special Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of CenterPoint. While at CenterPoint, Mr. Whitlock was responsible for accounting, treasury, risk management, tax, strategic planning, business development, emerging businesses and investor relations. From July 2001 to September 2002, Mr. Whitlock served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Delivery Group of Reliant Energy, Incorporated (“Reliant”). Prior to joining Reliant, Mr. Whitlock served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”), from 1998 to 2001. He began his career with Dow in 1972, where he held a number of financial leadership positions, both in the United States and globally. While at Dow, Mr. Whitlock served on the boards of directors of various Dow entities. Mr. Whitlock is a Certified Public Accountant and received a BBA in accounting from Sam Houston State University in 1972. He has previously served on the board of directors of Texas Genco Holdings, Inc., the board of directors of the general partner of Enable Midstream Partners, LP from March 2013 to August 2015, the board of directors of KiOR, Inc. from December 2010 to June 2015, the board of directors of CHI St. Luke’s Health System, The Woodlands, and the Leadership Cabinet of Texas Children’s Hospital. Mr. Whitlock brings extensive experience in public company financial management and reporting to the Board.