- Frank Ramirez, CEO
- John McGee, COO
- David Schwarzbach, CFO
- Brian Parsonnet, CTO
- Greg Tropsa, Executive Vice President
- Mike Hopkins, Executive Vice President & General Counsel
- Chris Hickman, Senior Vice President, Utility Solutions
Frank Ramirez, CEO
Frank Ramirez is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ice Energy.
A former principal of Alex Brown & Sons, Mr. Ramirez previously served as a managing director of Bear, Stearns and Co., and a staff attorney with the SEC in Washington, D.C.
Formerly, he founded and managed a Calpine Energy funded start-up that developed innovative inside-the-fence energy solutions for mission critical facilities, and founded and directed Structured Capital Management, a northern California boutique investment bank specializing in complex asset securitizations.
A native of Colorado, he holds a B.A. in economics and an M.B.A from Stanford University, and a J.D. from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley.
John McGee, COO
John McGee serves as Chief Operating Officer for Ice Energy.
An accomplished senior executive with broad general management and operational experience in the commercial, energy, and industrial sectors, Mr. McGee previously held the position of COO at Union Switch & Signal, where he was responsible for managing enterprise-wide operations and business processes, including product marketing, research and development, application engineering, and project delivery.
During his 30-year career, Mr. McGee has worked in the semiconductor, industrial process controls, building controls, facility management, and rail and transportation industries, holding management and operational positions with General Electric, Johnson Controls, EMCOR, ABB, and Finmeccanica in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Italy and Ireland.
He is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA). He holds European qualifications in information technology, finance, and marketing, as well as an MBA from Ohio University.
Mr. David Schwarzbach, CFO
David Schwarzbach serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Ice Energy.
Beginning his career at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and later with GE Capital, Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley, Mr. Schwarzbach has worked in the energy field for more than 15 years. He brings to Ice Energy broad experience in both project and corporate finance. While at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, where he was most recently an Executive Director, Mr. Schwarzbach placed over $20 billion in capital for a broad range of companies, including many in the power and technology sectors. He also served as Vice President, Business Development for Net1 UEPS Technologies (NASDAQ: UEPS).
He received a B.S. from the University of California at Davis and an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Brian Parsonnet, CTO
Brian Parsonnet is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Ice Energy.
He brings to the Company more than 20 years of experience in the fields of technology innovation and strategic business development. Mr. Parsonnet has founded successful start-up companies in each of three disciplines: software, hardware, and services.
A twelve-year veteran of Honeywell, Mr. Parsonnet invented System Health Management technology while with the company, which led to the creation of a new business within the Industrial Automation and Control division, and spawned similar lines of business in the Aerospace and Homes & Buildings divisions under his direction.
Mr. Parsonnet brings to Ice Energy a unique combination of business and analytical excellence, as well as an established track record for turning long-term market vision into short-term, bottom-line results. Mr. Parsonnet and his team have developed Ice Energy’s advanced control programming, data collection, and analysis software.
Mr. Parsonnet holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with honors from Princeton University, and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Columbia University.
Greg Tropsa, Executive Vice President
Greg Tropsa is co-founder and Executive Vice President of Ice Energy.
A seasoned startup professional with more than 20 years of experience in domestic and international business, Mr. Tropsa previously served as co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of MegaEnergy, Inc., a successful privately owned company that monetized stranded and undervalued natural gas assets and developed natural-gas-fired peaking power plants. Mr. Tropsa has developed and permitted peaking power plants, wind farms, natural gas wells, natural gas pipelines, and is fluent with the legislative, regulatory, and technical nuances of the natural gas production and electrical power industries.
Previously, Mr. Tropsa worked within Honeywell’s Process Control Division, where he led the turnaround of a regional industrial services branch and later was responsible for developing new business opportunities in the asset management business unit in Fort Collins, CO.
He also he served as Vice-President of Global Operations, and President of the German and UK business of Industrial Dynamics. Mr. Tropsa joined Industrial Dynamics as its Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing following a successful ten year career at Cutler Hammer.
Mr. Tropsa received a B.S. from Clarkson College of Technology and pursued graduate studies in business and finance at Wayne State University.
Mike Hopkins, Executive Vice President & General Counsel
Mike Hopkins joined Ice Energy in 2009 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel.
Previously, Mr. Hopkins practiced law for 18 years as a partner with Bennett Jones LLP, a pre-eminent Canadian law firm recognized internationally as a leader in the fields of energy and climate change. He specialized in the development and financing of power projects, served on the firm's Executive Committee and led their Utilities Group, International Group and Independent Power Group. Mr. Hopkins left Bennett Jones at the end of 2002 to lead the workout of a private data center developer that resulted in its sale. After the sale of that company, Mr. Hopkins co-founded a geospatial information services company and assisted several other startups.
He holds a B.A. and a law degree from the University of Ottawa, an M.A. (Law and Economics) from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Alberta.
Chris Hickman, Senior Vice President, Utility Solutions
Chris Hickman serves as Senior Vice President of Utility Solutions for Ice Energy.
With over two decades of utility industry experience, Mr. Hickman has dedicated his career to finding ways to modernize the electric grid and leverage new technologies to increase its capacity and reliability.
Mr. Hickman previously served as President of Energy Services for Site Controls, responsible for the strategic vision and direction of its innovative, carbon-negative advanced energy and demand response initiatives. He also worked for Cellnet Technology, where he led the alignment of corporate strategy with regulatory involvement at the state and federal level, and was instrumental in driving policy to enable smart grid technologies throughout the industry.
Mr. Hickman spent 11 years in various executive-level positions at PNM Resources. He has extensive experience in engineering, federal and state policy development, infrastructure planning and budgeting, environmental management systems for coal and natural gas generation plants, and telecommunications.
Mr. Hickman holds a BSEE degree from New Mexico State University, an MSEE degree in the Electric Utility Management Program at New Mexico State University, and an MBA with concentration study in policy and planning from the University of New Mexico.