Maziar Dalaeli, Partner

Maziar comes with 20 years of experience in financial services, energy and renewable energy. He leads business development, sales and marketing at IPPsolar.

Maziar completed financial advisory work for a number of energy and alternative energy companies (e.g., NanoPV Technologies, an equipment manufacturer of thin film photovoltaic solar panels based in New Jersey and DBP Exploration, an oil and gas exploration company based in Texas). Maziar has advised several institutional investors including the second largest insurance company in Korea on their investments in hedge funds. He also led the assembly of a portfolio of hedge funds for a family office client.

Maziar has held leadership roles in large financial services firms. He was Chief Operating Officer of the New Business Group at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the second largest German bank. The New Business Group led the e-initiatives of the bank by investing in companies like Capital IQ, FxALL, Creditex, and others, and by developing the bank's internal electronic trading systems. Prior to that, he was a derivatives trader and ran the Brady bond options portfolio of Chase Manhattan Bank in London.

Maziar holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Universite Paris-Dauphine in applied mathematics and statistics.

 

Paul Jeun, Partner

Paul has over 16 years of experience as a corporate attorney and investment advisor. He leads transaction structuring and financing at IPPsolar.

Previously, he was president of an investment advisory firm that represented institutional investors and family offices in connection with alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity funds. The firm was responsible for allocations of over $150 million in various alternative investments. The firm's representation also included financial advisory work for a number of energy and alternative energy companies.

Prior to that, Paul was a senior attorney at Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP, a leading international law firm based in New York City, where he specialized in the representation of private investment funds in transnational settings.

Prior to Curtis, Paul was an attorney at Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP where he focused on the representation of issuers and underwriters in connection with tax-exempt financing of power and environmental projects.

Paul holds a JD from Fordham University Law School and a BA from Northwestern University.

 

David Picard, Partner

David Picard has over 10 years of experience in IT systems and has run operations in several start-up environments. He leads operations and project implementation at IPPsolar.

Between the years 2004 and 2008, in the context of investment advisory to institutional investors, David developed from the ground-up a proprietary database platform to store, organize, and distribute complex hedge fund research collected from over 600 hedge fund managers. He has also developed several advanced portfolio construction and management tools.

In 2000, David co-founded and was Director of Technology at bCorner, a leading online provider of private-labeled e-commerce solutions.He oversaw the start-up's launch and independently developed bCorner's full-featured “cash-back marketplace” engine to implement a completely managed system including 500 of the web's most popular retailers on any client's website within a few hours. He also led the design and implementation of Pinoy Dolyar, a bCorner spin-off company providing an online money remittance system for overseas workers through a web-based transfer system using ATM cards.

David studied Applied Physics at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada).

 

Benny Ghahramani, Business Development

Benny comes with 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry as an engineer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He started his career as a design engineer for France Telecom and project manager for the first digital cellular network in the US where he managed the implementation of a large multi-million dollar network.

In 1994, Benny founded Expert Wireless Solutions and grew the company to a large and successful engineering consulting firm. The company had projects in all 50 states and developed a strong presence in other countries including France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and Canada. Benny eventually sold his interest in the company to Tetra Tech, a NASDAQ � traded company.

Benny later founded Europa Telecom Group (ETG). ETG was a UK-based independent engineering firm with branches in the UK, Norway, and Spain, providing telecommunications and IT products and services.

He is currently active as a venture capitalist in technology companies and evaluating new IP-based products.

Benny is a graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax VA where he obtained his electrical engineering degree. Among numerous other achievements, Benny won the Entrepreneur of the Year award by the State of New Jersey in 1997 for his outstanding contributions in the telecommunications industry.

 

Michael Latefi, Partner

Michael is an entrepreneur, corporate architect, turnaround specialist and private equity executive with more than 15 years of experience through the development, growth, and positioning of over 40 companies including Oxford Health Plans (OHP), iVillage Inc. (IVIL), and Quovadx Inc. (QVDX). He recently served as Chief Financial Officer of NanoPV Technologies Inc., a leading supplier of the state of the art manufacturing equipment for nanocrystalline thin-film solar modules.

Michael spearheaded the growth of NanoPV’s international sales bookings from $32MM to $650MM over a one year period, while also building its global financial infrastructure with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Prior to joining NanoPV, Michael served as Senior Vice President of the Growth Markets under the Private Equity division at Bank of America Securities, where he led the efforts of the Bank to expand its credit card services through new market verticals via investments, acquisitions and strategic partnerships.

Previous to this appointment, Michael was a General Partner at Nazem and Company, a veteran private equity firm focused primarily on high technology. In his capacity as a General Partner at Nazem and Company, Michael also served as General Partner at Hedgeworth Capital, Senior Vice President of Product Development at Munshee, Inc., Vice President of Global Business Development at US Open Healthcare, Chief Financial Officer and later Senior Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at NetFabric, Inc. (NFBH.OB), Chief Financial Officer of Protek LLC, and Chief Financial Officer of BodySelect Surgery Centers LLC.

Mr. Latefi has also played a key investment and operational role in the a number of companies including Dulance, Inc., Clear to Close LLC, Universata Inc., Sound Surgical Technologies LLC, China WorldBest Group Ltd. (leading textile and health care groups in Asia) and Paramount Healthcare Ltd (leading Third Party Administrative company in India). He currently serves on the board of BodySelect LLC, NanoPV Technologies Inc., and Kenmos Photovoltaic Co. Ltd.

Mr. Latefi earned a Bachelors of Science from Columbia University in 1995 and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 2004. He has published papers in hypertension in the Journal of Nephrology from Georgetown University and has done extensive research-work at Aaron Diamonds Laboratory, Rockefeller Research Center.