Meet the Amerex Energy
Services Team
Amerex Energy Services’ highly experienced and respected team continues to keep Amerex at the forefront of the energy market through a focus on unparalleled customer service and innovation.
John Bolton
Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director, Renewable Energy Origination & Structured Solutions
Vince Martinez
Senior Vice President, Energy Consulting
Phyllis Anzalone
Senior Vice President, Energy Consulting
Steve Willett
Vice President, Energy Consulting
Shelley Virene
Vice President, Energy Consulting
Blaise Pepitone
Vice President, Special Projects
Chris Wiederspahn
Vice President, Business Development
Rob McKim
Senior Vice President, Pricing & Structured Products
Francisco Gonzalez de Cosio
Senior Director Portfolio Management
Amalia Berrios
Vice President, Senior Counsel
Chnell Scott
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
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John Bolton
Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director, Renewable Energy Origination & Structured Solutions
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In his roles as Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Amerex Brokers LLC, John oversees and is responsible for the entirety of Amerex’s business – comprised of wholesale energy brokering services and commercial, industrial and municipal energy procurement consulting services (under the umbrella of Amerex Energy Services). Amerex’s wholesale brokering business and its team of 50 brokers facilitates the trading of power, natural gas, crude products and renewable energy credits amongst the largest generators, producers and financial institutions in the U.S. This wholesale business gives Amerex unique and unparalleled views into wholesale market pricing throughout the country.
In his role as Managing Director of Amerex Energy Services, John leads a team of 15 highly experienced energy industry veterans in bringing our clients the best risk-adjusted energy delivery contracts in all U.S. deregulated markets. John leads Amerex’s delivery of renewable energy solutions to commercial, industrial and municipal entities throughout the U.S. Over the past four years he has established an extensive network of utility scale renewable energy project developers that stand ready to provide 100% renewable energy to Amerex’s clients. John is integral in structuring renewable energy solutions for Amerex’s clients, working with all parties involved (developer, retail supplier and client) throughout the transaction to deliver to our clients the most competitively priced load-following 100% renewable energy, provided on a standard retail energy supply agreement.
Mr. Bolton spent the first 13 years of his career as a partner and commercial litigator at Nixon Peabody LLP, a top-100 Global law firm. Prior to joining Amerex in 2014, John held General Counsel, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, and Senior Vice-President positions at Phoenix Partners Group and GFI Group (Amerex’s corporate parent), focusing on the brokering of financial instruments. John graduated from Hamilton College and received a law degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
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Vince Martinez
Senior Vice President, Energy Consulting
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Vince Martinez possesses more than 8 years of experience in deregulated energy procurement for large C&I clients. Mr. Martinez has been instrumental in developing and implementing the Amerex managed product for a wide range of clients including K-12 schools, colleges and universities, healthcare, business and industry. Mr. Martinez has assisted clients in navigating electric deregulation, and trained personnel on unique strategies and products available to mitigate risk.
Mr. Martinez took part in one of the first ten year retail power deals in the nation, and also was a key contributor to the first retail heat rate program developed by Amerex. He has extensive experience working with both the private and public sectors, and delivering under budget objectives.
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Phyllis Anzalone
Senior Vice President, Energy Consulting
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Phyllis Anzalone has gained significant expertise through her 27 years’ experience assisting energy buyers in deregulated markets. Performing consulting/risk management/strategy and procurement services, Ms. Anzalone is widely recognized by her clients and peers for her focused, client-centric style and passion.
Prior to joining Amerex, in early 2002 Ms. Anzalone co-founded and served as Managing Partner of CETX Energy Agency. For seven (7) years she played a significant role in setting the strategic direction, culture, and branding of CETX as a boutique energy consulting firm, focusing on delivering the highest level of representation and service to its clients. In 2009, she joined forces with Amerex when Amerex acquired the assets and personnel of CETX.
Phyllis spent nine (9) years in the commercial real estate industry prior to entering the energy sector in 1996. Her understanding of operational and leasing issues as well as the challenges ownership endures aids Amerex’s ability to provide practical support at both asset and property management levels.
Ms. Anzalone began her energy career when she joined Enron and led the initial sales efforts of opening new retail energy markets across the US. She was Enron Energy Services’ Top Producer for three (3) years.
Ms. Anzalone’s energy experience is considerable and varied. Several examples include directing the first successful, non-subsidization aggregation program in the US, the development of the first matrix sales program for small commercial buyers and directing over 100 governmental entities in setting and implementing energy procurement strategies. Ms. Anzalone was awarded Texas Retailers Association’s prestigious Vendor of the Year Award in 2007. Prior to 1996, Ms. Anzalone spent 17 years in professional sales, focused on commercial real estate.
Ms. Anzalone graduated summa cum laude from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Government. She was the recipient of the State of Louisiana Academic Scholarship as well as the Police Jury Association of Louisiana Academic Scholarship. During her college tenure, she owned and operated a successful business.
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Steve Willett
Vice President, Energy Consulting
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Steve Willett joined Amerex Energy Services in 2011 after it acquired Energy Choice Solutions, his independent energy consulting firm. Mr. Willett was retained as Vice President to maintain, manage and develop the expansion of operations in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast markets, working in Amerex’s West Chester, PA office.
Mr. Willett has enjoyed a progressive and successful career over 25 years, and his roles and responsibilities have focused on electricity and energy markets within the commercial and industrial business sectors. As a certified electrical engineer, technical sales representative, regional and national sales manager and business owner, Mr. Willett has developed a breadth and depth of insights and experience about how businesses operate, and how to provide value and excellent customer service to his clients.
Mr. Willett holds a strong belief that many large consumers of electricity and natural gas undervalue energy procurement. His focus is helping them better understand and navigate the ever-changing and volatile energy landscape by developing long term energy procurement and risk management strategies.
Mr. Willett began his career in the UK as an electrical apprentice working for the National Coal Board. He attended Nottingham Trent University to achieve his B.Tech and Class 1 electrical engineering accreditations. Mr. Willett and his family moved to the USA (Philadelphia) in 2002.
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Shelley Virene
Vice President, Energy Consulting
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Shelley Virene joined Amerex in 2015 as an Energy Consulting Analyst. With a talent and passion for developing, growing, and maintaining relationship, Ms. Virene’s current responsibilities are focused on the facilitation and coordination of communications throughout the sales process between internal Amerex stakeholders, external clients, and electric and natural gas providers. She facilitates client relationships from initial onboarding and orientation to implementing energy purchasing strategies and providing strategic guidance. Ms. Virene also serves as primary liaison to third-party service providers, enabling Amerex to negotiate lower supplier rates when applicable.
In Ms. Virene’s initial role as part of the sales support team, she developed and maintained standard workflows and processes. Ms. Virene’s role centered around preparing, submitting, and managing procurement opportunities. Her attention to detail is impeccable, a critical component in analyzing retail supplier bids, identifying, and resolving retail supplier quotation issues, preparing price analysis for client review, and reviewing supplier contracts for execution. Additionally, Mrs. Virene was instrumental in the development and implementation of Amerex Energy Services’ client resource management tool and proprietary accounting system.
Ms. Virene began her career in the Oil and Gas industry as a logistics and transportation specialist for eight (8) years, managing comprehensive international and domestic logistic operations.
Ms. Virene holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
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Blaise Pepitone
Vice President, Special Projects
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Mr. Pepitone joined Amerex in late 2017 and leads the Special Project Division. Mr. Pepitone has a deep knowledge and understanding of deregulated electricity and natural gas markets, specifically in PJM and ERCOT. Mr. Pepitone deals with large commercial industrial clients that require a level of sophistication that includes a detailed procurement strategy, negotiated supply and demand response contracts to a final invoicing audit to prove the procurement strategy is being achieved. Mr. Pepitone currently advises manufacturers, school districts, municipalities, retailers, traditional data centers and bitcoin mining companies. Mr. Pepitone is a Certified Energy Procurement Manager with the Association of Energy Engineers. Mr. Pepitone has achieved significant value to his clients and suppliers with unique procurement strategies based on customers load profile to ensure the best purchasing strategy for his clients. Brining full transparency in retail deregulated electricity and natural gas supply markets is Mr. Pepitone primary goal.
Mr. Pepitone is a husband to Adrianne and a father to Noah (10), Maple (6) and Olive (4). Born in NJ, Blaise graduated in 2009 from Arcadia University with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. Mr. Pepitone in his spare time enjoys playing basketball, fly fishing, playing 7+ musical instruments, golf, and other activities.
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Chris Wiederspahn
Vice President, Business Development
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When it comes to deregulated energy procurement, Chris Wiederspahn has been there and done that. Chris is an accomplished and recognized energy professional with a wealth of business and leadership experience that has helped many scores of organizations achieve bottom line results over the past eighteen years through strategic energy procurement and related services.
Chris’s role at Amerex is to perform sales and sales support activities, provide strategic account management as well as technical and marketing expertise in support of Amerex’s evolving business strategy.
Prior to joining Amerex, Chris was a consultant for utility companies and director of sales and marketing for a successful retail electricity provider in PJM. He went to hold key positions at some of the country’s most prestigious energy procurement consulting firms. Those who know Chris know he is dedicated to doing the right thing for customers at all times, and has built a reputation based firmly on trust, experience and a frequently misplaced but well-intentioned sense of humor.
Earlier on, Chris held numerous and eclectic jobs ranging from commercial photographer to first mate on a corporate yacht and from shipyard welder to radio announcer. His former exploits also include hitchhiking to California, living in a cave in Hawaii and spending two years on a treasure hunting expedition in Miami and the Florida Keys. He now works out of Reading, PA where he relaxes by doing nature photography and fly fishing.
Despite those escapades and partly because of them, Chris performs his duties with enthusiasm and a knowledge of what works in the real world. He is driven by a desire to serve and delighted to be part of the Amerex team.
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Rob McKim
Senior Vice President, Pricing & Structured Products
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Robert McKim possesses 39 years of experience in energy in the areas of regulatory affairs, natural gas storage, structured transactions for large end users and utilities, pricing retail transactions, and providing consultative advice to end use customers. As Senior Vice President at Amerex Energy Services, Mr. McKim is responsible for technical sales, structure, and management of client portfolios for both electricity and natural gas arrangements. He is intimately involved in most major client relationships maintained by Amerex.
Prior to joining Amerex in 2004, Mr. McKim was Managing Director, Energy Structure and Pricing for Reliant Energy, where he was responsible for the pricing and execution of thousands of commercial contracts and mass market campaigns. He began his career at Consolidated Natural Gas Co. in Pittsburgh (now a unit of Dominion Resources) and worked to form a deregulated unit of DTE Energy, Ann Arbor and Detroit, MI.
Mr. McKim has in-depth knowledge of pricing mechanics, energy markets, supply logistics and regional markets in each of the areas in which Amerex operates. Mr. McKim is also responsible for the development and execution of several products currently in widespread use by many current retail market participants including the Amerex managed heat rate product. In addition, Mr. McKim speaks regularly at energy related conferences where he typically covers energy markets, renewables, and the retail / wholesale interface.
Mr. McKim holds a degree in Business Administration from Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA and an MBA from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA.
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Francisco Gonzalez de Cosio
Senior Director Portfolio Management
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With 23 years’ experience, Francisco Gonzalez de Cosio serves as Senior Director of Portfolio Management where he actively tracks and manages open positions for Amerex clients on Portfolio Managed Products. Mr. Gonzalez de Cosio is instrumental in assisting such clients in developing customized natural gas and power purchasing strategies from product structuring through to contract execution and implementation. As part of the implementation process, he is involved in fulfilling monthly, quarterly, seasonal, and yearly hedging strategies using commodities futures markets according to individual client-established risk tolerance.
In addition, Mr. Gonzalez prepares customized reports on a client-by-client basis, communicates directly with Amerex clients on the appropriate action throughout the life of the contract, verifies supplier rate transparency, and executes gas locks on behalf of such clients.
Prior to his arrival at Amerex in February 2009, Mr. Gonzalez de Cosio held the position of Pricing Project Manager for an energy consulting group, where he successfully structured 560 retail power transactions. He managed all aspects of the retail power pricing desk, including management of the pricing queue; structuring transactions; analysis/reporting and communications with the internal sales department and indirect sales departments of retail electric providers. His in-depth knowledge of retail electricity pricing is a contributing factor in keeping Amerex on the cutting edge of energy consulting.
Mr. Gonzalez de Cosio began his career in the energy sector in 2000 as a systems analyst for Enron Energy Services. Mr. Gonzalez de Cosio holds an MBA in International Business and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX.
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Amalia Berrios
Vice President, Senior Counsel
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Amalia Berrios is an energy lawyer and has been practicing law for over 21 years. Ms. Berrios is instrumental in both the wholesale brokerage and retail energy procurement divisions of Amerex, providing commercially focused legal and business advice on corporate governance, risk, regulatory, contractual, employment, and litigation matters affecting Amerex. Ms. Berrios is responsible for managing the legal and risk functions of the company and oversees the proper administration and execution of legal agreements, including energy services agreements and all energy and environmental commodity agreements. Ms. Berrios also serves as counsel to BGC and GFI’s Latin American operations and speaks both Spanish and Portuguese.
Prior to joining Amerex in 2008, Ms. Berrios primarily practiced in the areas of corporate law, tax law, securities, and general commercial litigation with a focus in the energy sector. Ms. Berrios was formerly affiliated with PricewaterhouseCoopers where she served as a senior international tax attorney and with Mayer Brown where she worked primarily on the Enron-related securities litigation.
Ms. Berrios received her B.A degree in the History Honors Program at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and J.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Chnell Scott
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
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Chnell Scott is the VP, Sr. Human Resources Business Partner for the Amerex Brokers LLC – Amerex Energy Services office, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of BGC Partners.
Chnell oversees all human resources administration functions for the Sugar Land, TX office location and is a part of the Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, North Americas, Human Resources team. Mrs. Scott began her career at Amerex in 1997 as a temporary employee and during her tenure has served as Contract Administrator, Human Resources Coordinator, and Generalist before being promoted to her current position within the company in 2018.
Prior to joining Amerex, Chnell served in the U.S. Armed Forces/Army and achieved an honorable discharge in 1993. During her Army career she was stationed at Ft. Cavazos, previously known as Ft. Hood, TX and was deployed to Somalia, Africa at the start of Operation Restore Hope.