Charles Costenbader
Charles has served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer in both public and private entities. Recently he worked 6 years in various roles as President, CFO, COO and finally as a Board Advisor to a company he helped establish that is commercializing a technology for chemical recycling of scrap plastic. He successfully positioned this company with a site he identified and acquired via a long term lease structure in Pennsylvania and FEED work was completed through to initial EPC Agreement negotiations.
He has also worked in Shanghai, China as Chief Operating Officer of Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc., a publicly traded entity listed on NASDAQ. Previously his position was Chief Financial Officer in this coal to syngas to chemicals company. He has 35 years of physical asset operations and commodity risk management experience in the power generation, refining, natural gas storage, biofuels, demand response, energy storage and renewable energy sectors, including 10 years in the Structured Finance Group of GE Capital and 6 years in the energy commodities division at Macquarie Bank. He has served as a Board Director for several energy companies in the United States and China.
He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, an M.B.A. in finance and operations management from Columbia University, and a B.A. degree in German Language & Literature studies, Oregon State University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and has published a continuing education course for Professional Engineering License candidates titled “Design and Commissioning of Power Plants”. He is also co-author of “Scale up Practices for Today’s Breakthrough Technologies” written for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. On July 10, 2010 the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation granted him the Legion of Honor Award for his ongoing 36 years of voluntary service as a Eucharistic Minister in the US Military working with disabled veterans. He currently serves as 7th term re-elected Board Chairperson for Montgomery County Crime Stoppers , a 501C3 charity supporting local law enforcement in Texas.