Our Senior Team
Our Managing Directors and Senior Advisors are supported by the collective strength of our integrated global team comprised of 1,450 professionals working seamlessly across 23 locations worldwide.
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Alexander Burpee
Managing DirectorHouston
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 lead the technical team and originate new business. In 2026, he was named to Hart Energy’s “40 Under 40” list, recognizing influential talent across the energy industry. 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.
David Cunningham
Managing DirectorChairman of Energy, North AmericaHouston
David Cunningham is a Managing Director and Chairman of Energy, North America at Moelis & Company, and previously served as Head of Energy, North America. He has over 30 years of investment banking experience, having advised on various mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, debt, equity, and asset valuation transactions.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, David was a Managing Director and a Founding Partner 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.
Benjamin Dubois
Managing DirectorHouston
Benjamin Dubois is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in providing strategic and financial advice to clients across the Energy sector, with a focus on upstream energy. He has over 15 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience, advising clients on a broad range of strategic advisory and capital markets transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and debt and equity financings.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Ben was a Managing Director on the Energy Investment Banking team at Guggenheim Securities. Before that, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Citigroup and BMO Capital Markets. Ben holds a B.S. in Finance from Louisiana State University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Small Steps Nurturing Center.
Ali Hassen
Managing DirectorLondon
Ali Hassen is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in providing financial and strategic advice to clients in the Energy sector. Ali has nearly 20 years of investment banking experience, having advised on and executed a variety of transactions, including M&A, capital markets, strategic advisory, and capital solutions.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Ali held positions at Citi, Barclays, and NRG Capital Partners, covering Energy and Natural Resources for clients across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Ali holds a B.Eng. in Computer & Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut and an M.Phil. in Computer, Speech, Text & Internet Technology from the University of Cambridge.
Rick Haythornthwaite
Advisory PartnerLondon
Rick Haythornthwaite is the Chairman of NatWest Bank, the AA, and a Senior Advisory Partner at Moelis & Company.
After a 19-year career in the oil & gas industry with BP and, latterly, Premier Oil, he joined the Blue Circle cement group in 1997 with responsibility for Europe & Asia before being promoted to Group Chief Executive in 1999. Following a successful hostile bid defence, performance turnaround, and sale of the company, he led the rescue of Invensys as CEO, one of the world’s leading industrial controls companies at the time.
He has since served as Chairman of Ocado, Mastercard Inc., Centrica, Network Rail, QiO Technologies, and Railsr, as well as a Partner at Star Capital. His past non-executive directorships include Cookson plc, Lafarge SA, Land Securities plc, ICI plc, and Globant. He has also chaired the U.K. Better Regulation Commission, the Risk & Regulatory Advisory Council, and the Haythornthwaite Review of U.K. Armed Forces incentivisation. In the not-for-profit sector, he has chaired the World Wide Web Foundation and, in the U.K., the Creative Industries Federation, Creative England, the Southbank Centre, and Almeida Theatre. Rick was educated at MIT and The Queen’s College, Oxford.
Martin Houston
Advisory Parter, Global Energy GroupHouston
Martin Houston is an Advisory Partner for the Global Energy Group at Moelis & Company. Martin has over 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, where he remained with the company until 2014, retiring as Chief Operating Officer and a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Since his retirement, Martin has held a number of board and advisory positions around the world. He is currently Chairman of Omega Oil & Gas in Australia and a Non-Executive Director of CC Energy Limited, Bupa Arabia SA, Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corporation, and Energean PLC.
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.
Muhammad Laghari
Managing DirectorHead of Energy, North AmericaHouston
Muhammad Laghari is a Managing Director and Head of Energy, North America 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 $160 billion in value, 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. Muhammad holds an M.A. in Financial Risk Management from the Segal Graduate School of Business at Simon Fraser University and a B.Sc. in Economics and a minor in Mathematics, with Honors, from Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Bryan Lastrapes
Senior AdvisorHouston
Bryan Lastrapes is a Senior Advisor at Moelis & Company, where he focuses on advising clients in the oil and gas sector. Bryan has nearly 45 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and focuses on acquisitions, divestments, capital markets transactions, restructurings, and strategic advisory mandates.
Prior to 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. Before 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 the growth of the North America onshore 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.
Curt Launer
Senior AdvisorNew York
Curt Launer is a Senior Advisor at Moelis & Company, where he advises midstream energy clients. He has over 35 years of experience in the energy sector as an equity research analyst, investment banker, and principal investor.
Curt is a co-founder of Bakken Energy, a developer of natural gas-fueled power generation and related infrastructure. He previously led teams at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Credit Suisse, Sagent Advisors, and Deutsche Bank and was a principal at American Energy Partners, where he originated and participated in over $30 billion in mergers and acquisitions and more than $50 billion in equity and debt capital raising.
Curt began his career at DLJ as an equity research analyst covering natural gas, pipelines, and midstream infrastructure. During this time, he was the No. 1-ranked analyst by Institutional Investor Magazine for 12 years and was inducted into the “Institutional Investor Hall of Fame.” Curt holds a B.S. in Accounting from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Wouter Leemhuis
Managing DirectorDubai
Wouter Leemhuis is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in advising clients in the energy sector. Wouter has over 20 years of investment banking experience.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Wouter held positions at Nomura and Lehman Brothers, focusing on the energy sector, Benelux and Middle East while based in London, Amsterdam and Dubai. Wouter holds a M.Sc. in Business Administration (Finance & Investments) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Dave McGuiness
Managing DirectorHouston
Dave McGuiness is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he leads the Firm’s midstream investment banking efforts. Additionally, he leads the Firm’s efforts across the minerals and royalties sector and is active across energy-related special situations. He advises founders, investors, companies, and boards of directors on mergers and acquisitions, special situations, and restructurings, with expertise in guiding companies at an inflection point across energy (traditional and new) value chains – including oil and gas, clean energy, infrastructure, and transportation.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Dave was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Barclays Capital. He was previously an attorney specializing in advising clients on a wide range of transactions, financings, and general corporate matters. Dave holds both a B.S. in Accounting and a Master of Business Taxation from the University of Southern California. He also holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Certificate in Business Economics and Public Policy from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dave is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and a member of the New York Bar. He is also a member of the American Bar Association (Oil & Gas Committee), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Tax Section), the Turnaround Management Association, and the Houston Producer’s Forum.
Michael Openlander
Managing DirectorHouston
Michael Openlander is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he advises clients in the energy infrastructure sector, including the LNG, downstream, midstream, and energy transition subsectors. Michael has over 20 years of investment banking, corporate finance, and accounting experience and has advised on a wide variety of strategic advisory, M&A, capital markets, and restructuring transactions in the U.S. and globally.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Michael worked in the Global Energy & Power Investment Banking Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing responsibility at PwC, Marsico Capital Management, and Baird. He earned 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.
Mark Renton
Managing DirectorNew York
Mark Renton is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in providing financial and strategic advice to oil and gas clients. Mark has over 35 years of investment banking experience advising energy companies, particularly in the upstream and oilfield services sectors.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Mark was a Managing Director in the Energy Group at Lazard and Vice Chairman of the Global Energy Group at Citigroup Global Markets. He also served as Head of Investment Banking for Asia-Pacific and Co-Head of the Public Sector Group at Citigroup. Mark holds a B.A. and M.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Christ Church at the University of Oxford and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Stephen Trauber
Managing DirectorChairman & Global Head of Energy and Clean TechnologyHouston
Stephen Trauber is a Managing Director and 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 $800 billion of energy transactions, including many of the energy 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 the firm’s 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. He currently serves on several 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 on the Boards of Directors of Theater Under the Stars and Performing Arts Houston and its Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.
Adam Walker
Managing DirectorHouston
Adam Walker is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, where he advises clients in the energy services and technology sector. Adam has extensive energy investment banking and commercial banking experience, having advised on and executed a variety of mandates, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and restructuring transactions for public and private companies.
Before joining Moelis & Company, Adam was on the Energy Investment Banking team at Raymond James and the Energy Commercial Banking team at Capital One. He holds a B.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Texas Christian University and an M.B.A. from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.