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Western is a Houston-based company engaged in the development of North American liquefied natural gas export facilities. Managed by a seasoned team of executives experienced in the LNG and related energy infrastructure industries, Western is developing an integrated solution for delivering abundant, low-cost North America natural gas to markets that need it most.
Western has been evaluating mid-scale LNG solutions and identifying sites for development of next-generation liquefaction plants since 2015. By deploying innovative floating liquefaction technology at inland locations, particularly those that have existing pipeline access to natural gas basins, Western is opening up markets for these resources, which are stranded behind burgeoning shale production.
The very nature of a floating liquefaction approach results in a minimized impact to its surroundings. Floating LNG reduces land disturbance, and at the end of the project’s life, the floating facilities can be removed and the berths and other land-side facilities restored to their original states.
Mr. Thames founded Western LNG in 2015. Prior to that Mr. Thames held several senior positions at Cheniere Energy Inc., the industry pioneer in exporting LNG from the lower 48 US states. Mr. Thames was Senior Vice President of Cheniere Energy Inc. and President of wholly-owned Cheniere Marketing LLC, where he was responsible for Cheniere’s commercial activities and its LNG trading business. In this role he developed the commercial model for Sabine Pass Liquefaction and led the team that negotiated and entered into its sales and purchase agreements. Mr. Thames later became Cheniere’s Chief Financial Officer and led the initial public offering of Cheniere Energy Partners Holdings LLC, the proceeds of which were used as equity capital to launch Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG export project.
Prior to joining Cheniere in 2005 Mr. Thames worked in finance and risk management roles at an interstate natural gas pipeline holding company that was formed after the bankruptcy of Enron Corp in 2001, and prior to that at Enron itself, from the time he joined the company in 1999. Prior to that Mr. Thames was responsible for a centrifugal pump engineering and testing group at Flowserve Corp’s Los Angeles facilities, and worked in the research and development group of predecessor BW/IP International starting in 1992. Mr. Thames has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and is a registered Professional Engineer.
Mr. Thames founded Western in 2017. Prior to that Mr. Thames held several senior positions at Cheniere Energy Inc., the industry pioneer in exporting LNG from the lower 48 US states. Mr. Thames was Senior Vice President of Cheniere Energy Inc. and President of wholly-owned Cheniere Marketing LLC, where he was responsible for Cheniere’s commercial activities and its LNG trading business. In this role he developed the commercial model for Sabine Pass Liquefaction and led the team that negotiated and entered into its sales and purchase agreements. Mr. Thames later became Cheniere’s Chief Financial Officer and led the initial public offering of Cheniere Energy Partners Holdings LLC, the proceeds of which were used as equity capital to launch Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG export project.
Prior to joining Cheniere in 2005 Mr. Thames worked in finance and risk management roles at an interstate natural gas pipeline holding company that was formed after the bankruptcy of Enron Corp in 2001, and prior to that at Enron itself, from the time he joined the company in 1999. Prior to that Mr. Thames was responsible for a centrifugal pump engineering and testing group at Flowserve Corp’s Los Angeles facilities, and worked in the research and development group of predecessor BW/IP International starting in 1992. Mr. Thames has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and is a registered Professional Engineer.
Mr. Goldman is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Hildred Capital Management LLC. Mr. Goldman previously served as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Hildred Capital Partners where he was responsible for overseeing Hildred’s capital allocation and day-to-day investing activities. Since joining Hildred in 2015, Mr. Goldman, has overseen the management of the entire Hildred portfolio.
Prior to joining Hildred, Mr. Goldman was a founding General Partner in Priam Capital, a private equity firm with a series of private equity partnerships focused on investments in financial services.
Mr. Goldman received his B.A. from the University of Delaware and his M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Lynch has over 40 years of Energy Industry experience. Since March 2021, Mr. Lynch has been an Advisor to Western LNG. Mr. Lynch retired from Cheniere Energy as Sr. Vice President, Operations in 2020 after 14 years. While at Cheniere Mr. Lynch was involved in the LNG markets and LNG implementation and commissioning processes. Prior to Cheniere Mr. Lynch was employed by Enron for 16 years in various commodity markets including Gas, Crude, Water, and Metals. When Mr. Lynch left Enron he was the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Enron Metals based in London, UK. Experience before Enron Mr. Lynch spent a number of years working for Chevron and BP in their upstream and marketing operations.
Since Retirement from Cheniere, Mr. Lynch has been actively involved in the Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation Board (Board Chairman) an international organization with over 200,000 living alumni providing education and leadership to college undergraduate students. Additionally, Mr. Lynch serves on the Columbus Community Hospital Board (Board Chairman) a local hospital serving the needs of Columbus Texas and surrounding areas, which is recognized as a top 20 rural hospital in the United States. Mr. Lynch has a BBA from Texas State University and an MBA from the University of Texas.
Mr. Bertrand has 25 years of experience in the EPC industry. Prior to joining Western, Mr. Bertrand worked with Fluor in engineering and project management roles on several multi-billion dollar EPC projects. Subsequently, he held leadership positions with CB&I Lummus, and VP positions with Bechtel and Wison Offshore & Marine, focusing on the LNG and floating LNG markets. Mr. Bertrand brings a well-informed perspective on project contracting and execution.
Mr. Mellen has been engaged in the U.S. natural gas and power industries for the past 25 years, and most recently worked for Methanex Corp., securing gas supply and transportation capacity for their methanol plants in several countries including Canada. Prior to that Mr. Mellen worked for Chesapeake Energy and Cheniere Energy securing markets for sales of natural gas. He also worked for Calpine Corporation and Koch Industries.
Mr. Kerrigan has more than 25 years of energy finance experience in banking, investment banking and private equity. His focus is primarily on the upstream, midstream and power industry. Prior to joining Western, Mr. Kerrigan served as Senior Vice President of Finance at Sunnova Energy Corporation; Senior Vice President of Investment Banking at Pritchard Capital Partners, LLC; and Managing Director for CIT Energy focusing on providing junior and senior capital to upstream clients. He has also worked for a variety of energy companies and financial institutions focusing on structured finance.
Mr. desGarennes has over 20 years of financial executive experience. Mr. desGarennes is a Senior Operating Partner at Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners. Previously, Mr. desGarennes served as Chief Financial Officer of Zayo Group for 10 years until 2018. Joining shortly after its inception, Ken was directly responsible for its financial strategy and operations as well as legal, tax, investor relations and treasury. He led more than 40 successful acquisitions and over $20 billion of capital raises, culminating in the Company’s 2014 IPO. During his tenure as CFO, Zayo grew from 50 employees to 4,000 and from less than $100 million in revenue to $2.6 billion with $1.3 billion of EBITDA. Zayo achieved an enterprise value of $15 billion which represented a 7X return on its invested equity. The Company grew to become the largest independent global fiber infrastructure provider.
Prior to joining Zayo in 2007, Ken was CFO of Wire One Communications, a portfolio company of the Gores Group. The Gores Group is a technology-focused private equity firm where Ken was a Senior Director leading financial due diligence and negotiations on numerous acquisitions in both the telecom and technology markets. Previously, Ken worked at Accenture in a corporate development role after starting his career as a commercial banking officer with First Union Bank. He has a BS in finance from the University of Maryland in College Park.
Mr. Humphrey has over 45 years of engineering and construction experience, having served as the project director at Cameron LNG Export. He was also responsible for pre-award activities and EPC project execution at the Cameron and Freeport export projects. He oversaw FEED execution for Mozambique LNG, Kitimat LNG, Elba Island, Golden Pass, Singapore, Peru LNG, and several US receiving terminal expansion projects. He has also been responsible for project execution at Northwest Shelf LNG in Australia, MLNG Dua in Malaysia, and various pre-project development activities at LNG facilities in Qatar, Australia, Oman, Nigeria, Malaysia, UAE, Indonesia and Alaska.
Mr. Myers has over 40 years of Energy Industry experience. Since 2011, Mr. Myers has been involved with a number of organizations as an energy project developer, investor, advisor, partner and Board member. Mr. Myers is currently a Senior Operating Partner with Stonepeak Infrastructure with focus on industrial build projects including power, district energy, LNG (Calcasieu Pass and Golar Power) and water desalination. Also, he is a co-founder of, and advisor to Green Impact Partners (TSXV:GIP) and an executive Board member of Kalina Power Inc.(ASX:KPO). Prior to 2011, Mr. Myers was a co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Pristine Power Inc. from its founding in 2003 to public listing in 2008 to sale in 2010. From 1980 to 2003, Mr. Myers was involved in utility operations and power and pipeline project development, construction and operations, including executive leadership with over US$10 billion in projects completed from concept to in-service. Mr. Myers has an HBA from Western University and an MBA from the University of Windsor.