Belltown Power Team | Renewable Energy

Dan Allen

CFO

As CFO, Dan leads the M&A and project finance activities at Belltown. Dan has worked in infrastructure and energy investment for 15 years and was central in building Belltown’s UK portfolio. Since 2018, Dan has been in the US, focused on optimizing the US development portfolio. Prior to Belltown, Dan was at John Laing, sourcing and closing investments and project finance in Europe, North America, and Australia. He has also worked as a financial/commercial advisor to sponsors on infrastructure projects globally.

Dan has a MEng in Aerospace Engineering from Liverpool University.

Ava Atkins

Finance Manager

Ava joined Belltown in 2023 as Finance Coordinator, with the primary responsibility of providing comprehensive support for the accounting and human resources functions of the organization. She brings over five years of hands-on accounting experience from across the construction, oil and gas, and real estate industries, and has led successful efforts to accelerate accounting close timelines, build and automate routine processes, compose and implement policies and procedures, and increase internal control. Ava graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston Downtown, and holds dual Bachelor of Business Administration degrees in Accounting and Finance, with a minor in economics.

Theresa Baker

Director of Development

Theresa joined Belltown in 2021 as a member of the US development team focused on the PJM region. Theresa is responsible for directing project development efforts across PJM, MISO and other emerging markets. Theresa values building strong relationships with landowners and delivering successful projects by managing key steps in the development process, such as environmental reviews, preliminary permitting, and interconnection feasibility, among other items. Prior to joining Belltown, Theresa worked for national C&I developers Distributed Solar Development and Safari Energy, where she was responsible for development efforts including securing the necessary regulatory and utility approvals and key incentives for over 100MW of commercial PV and energy storage projects throughout the U.S.

Jeff Clay

COO

Jeff co-founded Belltown Power Texas in 2016 and currently serves as a non-executive director. Prior to Belltown, Jeff led strategy and corporate development for Roofing Supply Group (RSG), a $1bn national distributor of building products owned by private equity firm CD&R. Over three years, Jeff opened 26 new locations delivering over $170M in revenue and $12M in EBITDA. Prior to RSG, Jeff served as the COO of Buck Consultants, a $400M HR consulting and outsourcing business unit at Xerox. Jeff started his career as a consultant with Bain & Company in the US, Europe, and Central America and has extensive commercial construction and development experience.

Jeff has a BBA in Accounting and MS in Finance from Texas A&M University, an MBA from INSEAD, and holds an active CPA license.

Dr. Bob Currie

CTO

Bob joined Belltown in 2024 as CTO to focus on innovative solutions to integrating renewable energy and battery storage projects to the power grid. Bob was the co-founder and CTO of Smarter Grid Solutions, set-up to commercialize his PhD work on overcoming barriers to connecting renewables to constrained power networks. Smarter Grid Solutions was acquired by Mitsubishi in 2021. Bob joined the executive team of Kevala Analytics in 2021 where he led product and strategy. In 2023, Bob co-founded Daisychain Energy to focus on the decarbonization of the multi-unit residential building sector.

Bob received his BEng, MSc, and PhD degrees from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.

Melissa Elkinton

Vice President of Development

Melissa joined Belltown in 2023 and brings more than 15 years of experience in renewables to her role leading Belltown’s wind development activities. Before joining Belltown, she led resource assessment & energy modeling, development and construction engineering, and GIS at Avangrid Renewables, and prior to that, she led solar and wind energy assessments at DNV, supporting project-financing of more than 16 GW of installed wind capacity.

In 2016, Melissa was honored with the AWEA Technical Achievement Award. She has an MS and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boise State University, respectively.

Hernan Farace

CEO

Hernan joined Belltown in 2017 to lead the expansion into the US and subsequently became CEO of Belltown Power USA. Hernan has over 15 years of experience in the renewable energy industry, spending 9 years at Deutsche Bank (London and New York), and 3 years as a member of the senior management team at Greenwood Energy. Hernan has experience structuring, raising, and deploying capital into renewable energy projects in the US, Europe, and Latin America.

Hernan holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with honors, and a Baccalaureate in Economics from Universidad de San Andres in Argentina, graduating magna cum laude.

Tyler Gingrich

Geospatial Data Scientist

Tyler joined Belltown in 2024 to assist the US development team as the GIS and data science expert. His passion for renewable energy began with a month-long wind energy research experience at the University of Applied Sciences located in Saarbrücken, Germany. Prior to joining Belltown, Tyler started his renewable energy career in the US as a GIS Intern at Apex Clean Energy for their New Markets team. After graduate school, Tyler joined Ørsted North America as a GIS Analyst focusing primarily on the development, construction, and operation of onshore wind, solar, and storage projects through geoprocessing automation, data collection and cleaning, and high-quality cartography.

Tyler has an MS in Geography from Virginia Tech, and a BS in Geographic Science from James Madison University, graduating from both programs as the Outstanding Geography Master’s Student and Outstanding Geographic Science Student, respectively.

Clint Johnson

CDO

Clint is the CDO of Belltown Power USA and leads its development activities. Clint joined Belltown in 2018 and was instrumental in solidifying the PJM strategy as well as assisting the development efforts in ERCOT. Prior to Belltown, Clint spent over 15 years at DNV GL, where he was most recently the head of Renewables Advisory for North America. During his time at DNV GL, he supported the development, project finance, and operation of over 60GW of operating US solar and wind energy projects.

Clint has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Bachelors in Physics from Colorado College, graduating magna cum laude.

Michael Kaplan

Non-Executive Director

Michael is one of the founders of Belltown in the UK and is currently a non-executive director of Belltown’s business in the US. Prior to Belltown, Michael was a partner at Albion Ventures LLP. Between 2009 and 2013 Michael helped to establish Albion as one of the pioneering investors in the UK’s community-scale renewable energy sector. Prior to Albion, Michael worked at The Boston Consulting Group and before that, the Chief Financial Officer of Widevine Technologies, a security software company (sold to Google in 2010).

Michael has a BA from the University of Washington and an MBA from INSEAD.

Riley Lindsay

Development Analyst

Riley joined Belltown Power Texas in 2022 as a Development Analyst focused on the ERCOT region. Riley is a recent graduate of the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University, with a minor in Business Administration. Riley is responsible for supporting the development team with project diligence and permitting efforts and contributes to the overall development of Belltown’s solar and storage projects.

Jacquelyn Parker

Development Associate

Jacquelyn joined Belltown at the beginning of 2020 to support their expanding accounting and administrative needs. Before joining Belltown, she spent 15 years in the energy production sector where she led the regulatory and accounting departments. Jacquelyn is responsible for providing project administrative and accounting support through budgets, schedules, and document management as well as handling all accounting and operational tasks for Belltown. Over the course of her time at Belltown, Jacquelyn has become an integral team member.

Lloyd Pope

COO

Lloyd co-founded Belltown Power Texas in 2016. Prior to that, Lloyd was VP of Supply Chain at Roofing Supply Group (RSG). Prior to RSG, he was a Director in the Enterprise Improvement Group at AlixPartners; a global consulting firm specializing in improving corporate financial and operational performance. He has also worked as a consultant with ICG Commerce (now Accenture), and in the operations group at Centex Homes (now Pulte Homes). Lloyd has led the Texas development activities since inception, building an impressive pipeline of solar and storage projects. As COO of Belltown Power Texas, Lloyd has completed over 730 MW of M&A transactions, while continuing to lead the Texas team.

Lloyd has a BBA in Marketing and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Vanessa Ramirez

Development Manager

Vanessa joined Belltown Power USA in 2022 as a Project Developer to support the development activities in the PJM region. Prior to Belltown, Vanessa spent over 4 years advancing greenfield projects from initial origination through solar plant design & optimization, permitting, utility interconnection process and engineering to the start of construction. Vanessa also spent 7 years in the Oil & Gas industry supporting the sales cycle and performing hydraulic simulations of single-phase fluid flow in pipeline systems.

Vanessa brings a strong background in project development management and engineering concepts. She has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Tyler and is a Certified Engineer-in-Training by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers.

Austin Willis

Director of Solar and Storage

Austin joined Belltown at the beginning of 2018, quickly becoming a key member of the ERCOT development team. Austin is responsible for managing project development workstreams from land acquisition to M&A transactions. Austin has developed great relationships with landowners for several Belltown projects and oversees matters such as securing the mineral rights ownership, preliminary site design, tax abatement, etc. Austin is now the Director of Solar and Storage, acting as the senior development lead on the M&A sell-side transactions for Texas’s portfolio of solar and storage projects. He has successfully developed three ERCOT solar projects to construction, which are now operational, totaling 335 MW.

Austin has an Industrial Distribution BS at Texas A&M University, with a minor in Business Administration.

OUR TEAM

WE ARE BELLTOWN POWER IN THE US

Belltown Power specializes in greenfield development of solar PV, wind, energy storage projects, and data centers, starting with site identification and navigating interconnection, real estate, permitting, environmental, tax, and all other development items to bring these projects to fruition. The Belltown Power team’s strong track record follows a thoughtful and disciplined approach to development, leveraging its excellent technical expertise and industry relationships to deliver quality projects from greenfield through to operations.