John P. Dennis III
Principal/Managing Director

Mr. Dennis has been a Principal and Managing Director of WoodRock & Co. since he founded the firm in April 1998.  He is responsible for deal origination and selection, deal and project leadership, strategy, and business management.  To date, Mr. Dennis has executed over $6 billion in transactions.  Prior to WoodRock, he was a Vice President with Koch Industries, Inc. in their international and capital services groups. In these positions, he was responsible for Koch's global merchant banking and M&A efforts. From early 1996 through June 1997, he served as Chief Financial Officer, and later as acting Chief Operating Officer, of Gas Services International, Limited (“GSI”), a contract compression and engineering services company with offices in Houston, Texas, and Singapore.  Before GSI, he advised both American Breco Corporation and Aviation Sales Company (NYSE: AVS) in their merger, acquisition, divestiture, and financing activities. His prior investment banking experience includes Simmons & Company International and Goldman Sachs & Co.  Prior private equity experience includes SCF Partners, L.P. and Breco Holdings, Inc.  He holds an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from Rice University's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. Following college, he served as an officer in the United States Navy.

John H. Diesel
Principal / Managing Director

Mr. Diesel joined WoodRock & Co. in 2005 and became a Principal in 2007.  Mr. Diesel has over 25 years of operating and financial experience in a variety of industries.   Prior to joining WoodRock, he served as Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Executive Officer of CKS, Inc, a firm providing specialized tax services to manufacturers.  From 2000 through 2003, he was Vice President of Sales & Marketing of SalvageSale, Inc., and subsequently served on its board of directors until its sale in 2007.  Mr. Diesel served as Vice President of Anadarko New Ventures in London and Houston from 1997 to 2000, focusing on international negotiations and M&A.   He also worked with Amoco Corporation on progressive management assignments in strategic planning, international business development, and operations.  With Amoco, Mr. Diesel was stationed in Chicago, Houston, and Stavanger, Norway.  Prior to Amoco, Mr. Diesel ran Carr Oil & Gas, an independent oil and gas production company founded in 1948.  He holds a BA in Economics from Rice University and an MBA from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

J. Christian Baker, III
Managing Director

Mr. Baker joined Woodrock & Co. in 2009. Prior to joining WoodRock, he was a founding partner of Abshier Webb Donnelly & Baker, LLC, a boutique investment banking firm. Mr. Baker has over 30 years of experience in investment banking and has held senior investment banking positions with Morgan Keegan, Stephens, E.F. Hutton and Underwood Neuhaus. Mr. Baker’s investment banking experience includes taxable and tax-exempt fixed and variable-rate securities, asset securitization, project financing, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, derivates, private equity and venture capital. He has worked on transactions throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Central America. Before entering the investment banking industry, Mr. Baker was a management consultant with Touche Ross & Co. and an acquisition analyst with Texas Commerce Bancshares. Mr. Baker graduated with a BA from the University of Texas at Austin. He also holds licenses with FINRA including being a Registered Securities Principal and Financial Operations Principal.

Ronald Chamness
Managing Director

Mr. Chamness joined WoodRock & Co in 2008 as a Managing Director.  Mr. Chamness has over 20 years of management consulting, operation and global business development experience in the financial services, high-tech manufacturing, energy, and telecommunication industries.  Prior to joining WoodRock, Mr. Chamness was the SVP of International for SalvageSale, a global online marketplace for damaged commercial goods and end of life assets, where he ran the domestic sales effort from 2004 to 2006, and then lead the international expansion into the UK, Europe, Latin America and Asia and opened the London office in 2007.  He was a co-founder of SalvageSale in 2000 and successfully sold the company to a Private Equity firm in 2007.  Prior to SalvageSale, Mr. Chamness spent 12 years in the management consulting business where he most recently was a Principal at CSC Consulting in Houston.  As a management consultant, Mr. Chamness focused on developing and implementing e-commerce, supply chain and order management strategies and solutions in the high-tech manufacturing, energy and telecommunication industries.  Mr. Chamness holds a BSME from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Alejandro Hellmund
Managing Director

Mr. Hellmund joined WoodRock & Co. in 2010 after twelve years as the Managing Partner and Vice President of New Business Development for Breco Holdings, Inc., a private family office and investment firm. During this period, Mr. Hellmund managed and successfully exited twenty-three (23) private equity investments on behalf of Breco Holdings and its partners in the aerospace, energy, consumer products, financial services, pharmaceutical, and industrial sectors, both in the United States and Mexico. He has previously held CEO and CFO positions in a variety of private companies and has substantial operating experience in both countries. He holds a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).

Dimple Kaur
Vice President

Ms. Kaur joined WoodRock & Co. in 2010 as a Vice President in the Houston Office. She has previously worked as a private business consultant, investment banker, management consultant, and software and systems analyst. Her previous investment banking experience includes Morgan Stanley – Global Energy Team, UBS – Financial Institutions Team, and Katabiann Advisors – Healthcare Team. Ms. Kaur holds a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.

Paul H. Dickerson
Managing Director

Mr. Dickerson, a recognized leader and sought-after speaker on all matters related to energy, joined Woodrock & Co. in 2012. Prior to joining Woodrock & Co., Mr. Dickerson served as a partner in an international law firm. He served as the Chief Operating Officer for the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). While overseeing the EERE's $2 billion budget, he managed the international commercialization of advanced energy solutions. Mr. Dickerson also served as Chief of Staff for the United States and Foreign Commercial Service at the U.S. Department of Commerce where he managed a worldwide network of 1,700 employees in 260 offices. He is a certified public accountant, has published numerous articles, and frequently appears on the media circuit discussing energy, politics, business, private equity, and international trade. Mr. Dickerson holds a JD from South Texas College of Law, a BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin, and licenses with FINRA.

Kevin P. Regan
Managing Director

Mr. Regan joined WoodRock & Co. in 2009. Prior to WoodRock, from 2007-2009, Mr. Regan served in a turnaround capacity in the positions of consultant, chief operating officer, president, chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors of a publicly-traded security and business information software development company. From 2003-2006, Mr. Regan served in a turnaround capacity as a member of the board of directors and as chief executive officer a publicly-traded U.S. military contractor, on behalf of the company’s senior lenders and subsequently, as president of two former subsidiary companies. From 1997-2006, Mr. Regan was a co-founder and managing director of Genesis Financial Group, LLC, a boutique investment banking partnership providing corporate finance advisory services to emerging public and private companies. From 1994-1997, he served as a senior analyst for a venture/merchant bank where he was the lead deal analyst on the financing and taking public of several technology companies and consolidation plays resulting in approximately $1 billion in market value. Mr. Regan serves and has served on the board of directors of various privately-held and publicly-traded corporations. Mr. Regan received his B.S. of Economics from the University of Houston.

Pietro Sollecito
Managing Director

Mr. Sollecito joined WoodRock & Co. in 2009 as a Managing Director of WoodRock's London office and European Investment Banking platform. He has worked in various capacities to originate, structure and underwrite in diverse capital raising projects and over a variety of industry sectors, including public sector, financial institutions, mining, heavy industry, real estate, and energy generation and distribution. Prior to WoodRock & Co., Mr. Sollecito was Head of Nomura's Central Eastern Europe and CIS Capital Markets practice in London, and Director in Rome and London for Nomura as Deputy Head of the South Eastern European Capital Markets group. In both capacities, he supervised and was directly responsible for originating, structuring and negotiating a variety of sophisticated financing transactions. Prior to Nomura, Mr. Sollecito was a Vice President with Merrill Lynch in London, working as part of its Southern European Debt Capital Markets practice as an originator and senior structurer from 1999-2001. Previously, he worked with ING Barings as Vice President/Local Markets Trader in New York from 1996-1999 and as an Analyst/Associate at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in various roles on the Interest Rate and Foreign Exchange Options desks. He started his career at Citicorp as a Foreign Exchange junior trader in New York from 1993-1994. Mr. Sollecito holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Fordham University and an MBA in Finance/International Business from NYU's Stern School of Business.

Timothy S. Proffitt
Managing Director

Mr. Proffitt joined WoodRock & Co. in 2009 as a Managing Director and has 16 years experience exclusively in the energy industry. His background includes work in merchant banking, investment banking, commodity trading, consulting, corporate development, and treasury. In both principal and advisory roles, he has negotiated a significant number of financing transactions, joint venture and acquisition agreements, supply/offtake agreements, and operating agreements.  In his career, he has raised over $5 billion of capital, including: senior debt, non-recourse project finance, high yield public notes, subordinated debt, mezzanine debt, equity, letters of credit, securitizations, forward sales, asset monetizations, and volumetric production payments.  In addition, he has developed a significant number of customized risk management strategies for energy companies. Mr. Proffitt’s experience includes positions in industry, banking, trading, and consulting including: BP (where he ran North American operations for Energy Financial Services); Societe Generale (MD and head of structured products); Huron Consulting; Bank of America (global head of structured commodity products); Enron; NationsBank and Hibernia.  He graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce in 1986 and earned a Master of Business Administration from the AB Freeman School at Tulane University.

Ye Xiao
Associate

Ms. Xiao joined WoodRock & Co. in 2011 as a associate in the Houston Office. She has previously worked as a financial analyst and financial consultant. Her previous investment banking experience includes John Thomas Capital Management Group. Ms. Xiao holds a MS in Finance from University of Houston.