Senior Team

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Senior Team

Alexander Burpee
Managing Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 5796

Alex Burpee is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in advising clients in the energy sector. Alex has over 15 years of oil and gas industry experience, specializing in originating and executing mandates for a variety of companies in the sector.

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Alex was a Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim, where he co-led the Upstream Oil and Gas team in the Energy Investment Banking group. Before that, he was a Director in the Global Energy Group at Citi, where he helped to lead the technical team and originate new business. Alex began his banking career at Jefferies and previously worked in upstream exploration and production at both Hess and Schlumberger.

Alex holds an M.S. from the Pennsylvania State University and a B.A. from Washington and Lee University.

Senior Team

David Cunningham
Managing Director
Head of US Energy
Houston

T: +1 713 343 5880

David Cunningham is a Managing Director and Head of US Energy at Moelis & Company. He has over 27 years of investment banking experience advising on and executing various mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, debt, equity and asset valuation transactions.

Previously, David was a Managing Director at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. and a Managing Director in the Global Energy Group at Credit Suisse. David holds a B.A. in Finance from Texas Christian University and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Senior Team

Philip Holder
Managing Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 5792

Philip Holder is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where he provides strategic advice to clients with a focus on the utility, financial sponsor, and clean technology sectors. Phil has almost 20 years of experience across the energy, power and utility industries as both an investment banker and operations professional, with deep expertise in M&A, restructuring, and corporate strategy.

Phil was previously the Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at CenterPoint Energy, where he was responsible for corporate strategy, M&A, and financial planning, in addition to the company’s ESG and Energy Transition strategy. He previously spent over 15 years as an investment banker where he provided a broad range of strategic advice on M&A and restructuring situations in the Power & Utilities sector, holding roles at Guggenheim, Citigroup, and UBS. Notably, he was the financial advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom regarding the establishment of the California State Wildfire Fund.

Phil holds a B.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from the Goizeuta Business School at Emory University.

Senior Team

Martin Houston
Advisory Partner
Chairman of the Global Energy Group
Houston

T: +1 713 343 6420

Martin Houston is an Advisory Partner and Chairman of the Global Energy Group at Moelis & Company. Martin has nearly 40 years of experience managing all forms of enterprise across the energy industry. He began his career in 1979 with Baker Hughes and in 1983 joined BG Group and remained with the company until 2014, when he retired as Chief Operating Officer and a member of the company’s board of directors. Since his retirement, he most recently co-founded Tellurian Inc., a company building a low-cost natural gas business, where he currently serves as Vice Chairman. In addition to advising Moelis & Company, Martin is a Vice Chairman of Hakluyt North America, a subsidiary of the UK-based strategic advisor to multinationals and financial institutions; a Non-Executive Director of CCC Energy, a private oil E&P company; and a Non-Executive Director at BUPA, the international healthcare group.

Martin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from Newcastle University and a Master’s degree in Petroleum Geology from Imperial College London. He serves as an advisory board member of the Global Energy Policy unit at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, a council member of the National Petroleum Council of the United States of America, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

Senior Team

Muhammad Laghari
Mananging Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 5799

Muhammad Laghari is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in providing strategic and financial advice to clients in the energy sector. Muhammad has over 15 years of investment banking experience, including a broad range of strategic advisory and capital markets engagements. He has led several transactions totaling over $150 billion in value and spanning North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Muhammad helped lead energy investment banking teams at Guggenheim Securities and Citigroup, where he led the firm’s North American Upstream Investment Banking business. Prior to Citigroup, Muhammad worked in the Global Natural Resources Group at Barclays Investment Bank.

Muhammad holds an M.A. in Financial Risk Management from the Segal Graduate School of Business at Simon Fraser University and graduated with Honors from Lahore University of Management Sciences with a B.Sc. in Economics and a minor in Mathematics.

Senior Team

Bryan Lastrapes
Senior Advisor
Houston

T: +1 713 343 6431

Bryan Lastrapes is a Senior Advisor at Moelis & Company where he focuses on advising clients in the oil & gas sector. Bryan has over 34 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and focuses on acquisitions, divestments, capital markets transactions, restructurings, and strategic advisory mandates. Before joining Moelis & Company, Bryan was Chief Operating Officer at Quantum Reservoir Impact, where he was responsible for the company’s strategy, operations and business development. Prior to that, Bryan worked at Shell E&P for over 30 years in various management and leadership roles, including Business Development Manager for North America Onshore. In this role, he was responsible for growth of the onshore North America unconventional portfolio, including all exploration, acquisitions and joint ventures.

Bryan holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Houston.

Senior Team

Bassam Latif
Managing Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 6422

Bassam Latif is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where he specializes in Capital Structure Advisory for companies, sponsors and creditors across a wide range of industries. He has also been instrumental in building out the Firm’s Maritime Shipping Advisory business where he focuses on M&A and strategic transactions.

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, he held roles at Rothschild Inc. where he focused on restructuring and M&A transactions. Bassam holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from Rice University, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Senior Team

Arash Nazhad
Managing Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 5790

Arash Nazhad is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he co-leads the Clean Technology Group. Arash has nearly 20 years of experience and deep expertise in clean energy technology and across the energy landscape, having served as a strategic and capital markets advisor to growth- driven technology companies. His extensive investment banking experience includes originating and executing transactions across the corporate lifecycle including M&A, IPOs, public and private debt and equity capital raises, defense and other strategic mandates. Arash works with both private and public companies across clean technology and sustainability subsectors.

Prior to Moelis & Company, Arash was a Managing Director in the Clean Energy Transition team at Citi, where he was instrumental in establishing the firm’s coverage efforts across the ecosystem. He led coverage for companies in various sectors including Electrification, Grid Modernization, Clean Power, Transition Metals, Alternative Fuels, Carbon Tech and Climate Software. Before that, Arash held various operational and leadership roles at Equinor, a Norwegian international energy company and began his career working on Clean Development Mechanism projects across East Asia.

Arash holds an M.A. in Energy & Earth Resources from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B. Comm in Business Administration and Management from Concordia University.

Senior Team

Michael Openlander
Managing Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 4764

Michael Openlander is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where he advises clients in the energy infrastructure sector including midstream, downstream, LNG and energy transition. Michael has over 15 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience and has advised on a wide variety of strategic advisory, M&A, capital markets and restructuring transactions in the U.S. and globally.

Michael previously worked in the Global Energy & Power Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Earlier in his career, he held financial roles in the investment banking group at Baird, the Corporate Finance and Accounting Group at Marsico Capital Management and the Audit and Assurance Practice at PwC.

Michael holds a B.S. in Finance and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and an M.B.A. from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.

Senior Team

Augusto Sasso
Managing Director
Global Head of Capital Markets
Global Head of REGLL and Consumer & Retail
Houston

T: +1 972 849 1576

Augusto Sasso is a Managing Director and serves as Global Head of Capital Markets and Global Head of Real Estate, Gaming, Lodging & Leisure (REGLL) and Consumer & Retail at Moelis & Company. Augusto has over 25 years of diversified investment banking and real estate experience, having completed numerous high-profile M&A transactions, joint venture partnerships, equity and debt financings, leveraged buyouts and restructurings with both U.S. and international clients.

Augusto has extensive experience building and managing investment banking franchises at Moelis & Company. He joined Moelis & Company at its inception and was also instrumental in establishing and leading the Firm’s Middle East Investment Banking Group. He has been based in Los Angeles, Dubai, London, New York and Dallas.

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Augusto was an investment banker and real estate investor with Credit Suisse First Boston, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Preservation Partners Development. Before that, he held corporate finance and business development positions with Raytheon Company and Hughes Electronics.

Augusto holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated first in his class magna cum laude with an M.B.A. from the University of Arizona.

Senior Team

Stephen Trauber
Manging Director
Chairman and Global Head of Energy and Clean Technology
Houston

T: +1 713 343 5794

Stephen Trauber is a Managing Director and the Chairman and Global Head of Energy and Clean Technology at Moelis & Company. Steve has over 35 years of investment banking experience, having advised on more than $700 billion of energy transactions, including many of the sector’s most significant and transformative M&A and financing transactions. In addition to assembling more than 300 oil and natural gas transactions, he has also served as lead financier for many of the industry’s IPOs and equity and debt capital markets deals.

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Steve was Vice Chairman and Global Co-Head of Natural Resources and Clean Energy Transition at Citi, where he was responsible for creating and building its Clean Energy Transition business. Prior to Citi, Steve was Vice Chairman and Global Head of Energy at UBS Investment Bank. He began his career with Credit Suisse and subsequently managed Morgan Stanley’s Energy Group in Houston.

Steve holds a B.A. in Economics and Managerial Studies from Rice University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was an Austin Scholar. Steve currently serves on a number of corporate Boards of Directors, including Global Geophysical Services, Geophysical Technology Inc, Nabors Energy Transition Corp II, where he serves as Audit Chair, NXTClean Fuels, New Asean Energy and Odyssey Trust Company. He also serves as an Advisory Director for Aon, Element Resources, and Last Energy. In addition, Steve serves as Chairman of the Memorial Hermann Hospital Foundation and is on the Board of Directors for Theater Under the Stars and Performing Arts Houston and its Foundation. He is also on the Board of Advisors of the Jones Business School at Rice University.

Senior Team

Kevin Voelte
Managing Director
Houston

T: +1 713 343 6429

Kevin Voelte is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where he specializes in advising clients in the upstream oil and gas sector and leads the Firm’s oil and gas Acquisitions & Divestitures (A&D) business. Kevin has extensive experience executing mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, capital markets and restructuring/recapitalization transactions primarily covering oil and gas exploration and production companies and financial sponsors.

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Kevin was an upstream oil and gas banker in the Global Natural Resources Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Before that, he was Director of Government Relations at The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association in Washington D.C. where he represented industry on Capitol Hill covering energy, transportation, tax and labor issues.

Kevin holds a B.S., summa cum laude, in Finance from Wayne State College in Nebraska and an M.B.A. from Rice University. He is also a graduate of the Bryce Harlow Institute on Business and Government Affairs at Georgetown University.