Mr. A. Parks Cobb

A. Parks Cobb, Jr.

Mr. Cobb has over 43 years of professional experience with over 34 years in the energy industry, in engineering, project management, project development, subsidiary operations, and retail and wholesale power purchase and sale in the U.S and the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr. Cobb completed a 25 year career with Duke Energy, where he held key positions in both regulated and unregulated operations including Group, Section, and Division manager posts on the regulated side (10 yrs.) and founder and president or executive vice president of three unregulated subsidiaries involved in engineering, construction, and development of power plants in deregulated markets (15 yrs.). As the senior Duke executive in the subsidiaries, he was a member of Duke's 40-person officer team during the period when Duke was consistently voted the best utility company in the U.S. by Fortune and other publications. His last position was a five-year assignment as Managing Director of Duke Energy Asia based in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for establishing and managing Duke Energy International's project development and acquisition activities in Asia and Australia. He has extensive experience in deregulated electricity markets in the U.S., China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia, where Duke acquired or developed over $300 million in power projects. Mr. Cobb elected to take early retirement from Duke in 1998.

After his career at Duke, Mr. Cobb was Senior Vice President of HEI Power Corporation, the international energy project investment affiliate of Hawaiian Electric Industries, where he was responsible for development and management of power generation projects in Guam and the Philippines.

Mr. Cobb has been involved with competitive retail electricity in Texas on behalf of retail electric providers since 2001, negotiating wholesale power purchase agreements, buying wholesale electricity on behalf of retail electricity providers, developing pricing scenarios for retail customers of all sizes, and closing sales with large commercial and industrial customers including facilities owned or operated by the end users of electricity such as U.S. Department of Homeland Security, agencies of the State of Texas, Duke Energy, and Nucor Steel.

Mr. Cobb received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University, completed Masters Degree coursework requirements in engineering mechanics at the University of Alabama, and completed the Executive Management Program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Mr. Cobb started his career as Senior Project Engineer for the Boeing Company's Space Division during a nine year term in the U.S. Space Program in Huntsville, Alabama.