About Us

Overview:
Apex is a Texas-based company created to develop, construct, own and operate compressed air energy storage (CAES) plants. CAES is a proven power storage and generation technology with unique capabilities advantageous to emerging grid and power market needs. Development and operation of our projects will adhere to Apex’s core values.

Team:
The Apex management team possesses exceptionally deep power industry experience encompassing power project development, underground storage, marketing, trading, power plant operations and finance. The company’s principal investor, Haddington Ventures, has over 20 years of experience developing, constructing and operating underground natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids storage projects, further enhancing Apex’s ability to achieve its project development objectives.

Jack L. Farley
President & Chief Executive Officer
Most recently, Mr. Farley consulted with Haddington on the Norton CAES project, where he developed strategies to maximize revenue from the project, and communicated attributes of the project to potential customers, including First Energy. Mr. Farley co-founded Liberty Green Renewables, LLC (LGR) in July 2008 to pursue development, construction and operation of biomass-to-electricity generation projects in the Midwest and Southeast United States. LGR completed development of two 32 MW waste wood fired generating units with Macquarie Energy. From 2003 to February 2008, Mr. Farley was Senior Vice President of Cinergy Corp., where he was responsible for the Power Trading and Marketing group. Prior to joining Cinergy/Duke, Mr. Farley was President of the West Region at Reliant Energy, where he managed a $1.1 billion portfolio of over 5,000 MW of power generation assets. There he was responsible for the development and construction of two combined-cycle gas turbine projects with an investment of approximately $750 million. Prior to joining Reliant, he held positions with NP Energy, Inc. a US power and gas trading firm, and was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, specializing in energy strategy and mergers & acquisitions.

Mr. Farley graduated with highest honors from the University of Kentucky with a B.B.A. and received his M.B.A. with a concentration in finance and operations management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to attending business school, he was a Captain in the U.S. Army.

Stephen W. Naeve
Chief Operating Officer
Prior to joining Apex, Mr. Naeve was a partner with Mr. Farley at LGR. Mr. Naeve spent the majority of his career at Reliant Resources and its predecessor companies, retiring as Vice Chairman in 2003. At the time of his retirement, Reliant was the 2nd largest owner of merchant power generation in the U.S., with ownership of power generation and distribution facilities in Europe and Latin America as well. Mr. Naeve’s senior executive assignments included Vice Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Naeve’s experience includes power plant planning, environmental permitting, construction and operation; natural gas and coal fuel procurement and transport; gas and power trading and marketing; risk management; corporate strategy; corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; corporate finance and corporate treasury functions; investor relations; and regulatory affairs. Mr. Naeve was a Director of KBLCOM, Inc. and Houston Lighting & Power Company, and was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Reliant Energy B.V., a Netherlands-based power generation company.

Mr. Naeve earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with Honors and a Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Keith Volf
Vice President – Structuring
Most recently, Mr. Volf was an Executive Officer and Board Member of Keystone Energy Partners, LP, a privately funded wholesale energy trading company. He was also an officer of Kinetic Energy LLC, a wholly owned retail electric subsidiary of Keystone. His responsibilities included financial analysis and reporting, risk management, investor relations, treasury management, credit, and strategic planning for both entities.

Prior to co-founding Keystone in 2005, Mr. Volf served as Director of Structuring at Reliant Energy. During the ten years he spent at Reliant, his responsibilities included structuring and analytics in both the wholesale and retail markets, fundamental modeling of wholesale electricity markets, regulatory support, and project analysis.

Mr. Volf earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and is a CFA charterholder.

Kyle Gionis
Controller
Prior to joining Apex, Mr. Gionis was Controller of Keystone Energy Partners, LP, a privately funded wholesale energy trading company and Kinetic Energy, LLC, a wholly owned retail electric subsidiary of Keystone. Mr. Gionis served in these roles from 2005 to 2012 and was responsible for all accounting functions and for regulatory reporting. From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Gionis served as manager of risk control at Reliant Energy, Inc., both at the corporate level and within the wholesale trading group. From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Gionis was an auditor and consultant with Arthur Andersen, specializing in energy commodity trading clients.

Mr. Gionis earned a Bachelor of Art degree in Quantitative Economics and Decision Sciences from the University of California, San Diego and a Master’s Degree in Accounting from Rice University. Mr. Gionis is an active CPA in the State of Texas.

Investors:
Haddington Ventures is a Houston, Texas based private equity firm with primary focus on the midstream energy sector. Haddington makes control-oriented investments through acquisitions or greenfield development in gathering, separation, processing, treating, compression, storage, and transmission assets. The firm has over 20 years of experience developing, constructing and operating underground natural gas storage projects.

Siemens AG, supplier of the critical power block equipment, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of large gas compressors and expanders and is currently the only provider of complete, integrated utility-scale CAES systems in the world. Siemens AG equipment has demonstrated outstanding reliability, and Siemens is among today’s most trusted power industry equipment suppliers.

Values:
The Apex team is committed to making a positive contribution to the communities in which we work. Every decision we make is measured against our core values:

  • Integrity – We adhere to the highest ethical standards in pursuit of our objectives
  • Excellence – We hold ourselves to the highest standard of excellence in everything we do
  • Innovation – We strive to lead the industry in project design, execution, and operations
  • Balance – We account for all stakeholder interests – investors, customers, employees, surrounding communities, grid operators, and regulators