PHYT

Unit Split

PHYT
First $9.90
Recent $10.98
11%

Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp.

Underwriter: UBS Securities
Raised
$175M
CIK
1848756
SPAC Ticker
PHYT.U
Focus
Renewable Energy, Energy, Transportation, Decarbonization
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

Sten L. Gustafson has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a director since our inception. Mr. Gustafson is a highly experienced energy service industry executive, investment banker, and corporate securities attorney. Since 2018, Mr. Gustafson has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the publicly traded Norwegian company, Golden Energy Offshore and has also served as an independent director for Western Rare Earths, the U.S. subsidiary of Australian rare earth mining company, American Rare Earths, since 2020. From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Gustafson was Chief Executive Officer and Director of Era Group Inc. (previously NYSE: ERA), where he led the successful spin out of Era from Seacor Holdings in January 2013, generating record quarterly revenues every quarter during his tenure while meaningfully de-leveraging the balance sheet. From 2017 to 2018, Mr. Gustafson served as a member of the Founding Steering Committee created by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to establish a private commercial helicopter operator (The Helicopter Company) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. From 2017 to 2019, Mr. Gustafson served as a director at CHC Helicopter. Mr. Gustafson earned a B.A. in English from Rice University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Houston Law Center. With over 25 years of experience in the global energy sector, Mr. Gustafson is well qualified to serve on our board of directors, having advised on over 100 corporate transactions around the world for over $100 billion of transaction value.

Thomas W. Major has served as our Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Business Development since our inception. Mr. Major is an energy leader with over a decade of corporate experience in various technical, business, and management roles. From 2010 to 2020, Mr. Major worked with National Oilwell Varco, most recently as Director Corporate Development, assessing over 500 transactions and leading multiple energy services and technology transactions to closure. After leaving NOV in 2020, Mr. Major has provided consulting and advisory services to companies and investors operating in wind, solar, and energy storage. Mr. Major earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta.

Dr. Bernard J. Duroc-Danner will serve as the chairman of our board of directors following the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Since 2018, Dr. Duroc-Danner co-founded, raised the seed and second round capital and co-managed the incubation of an energy sensing and artificial intelligence software company with applications in wind renewable energy. In addition, Dr. Duroc-Danner has been involved in the planning of the development of a solar power generation and CO2 sequestration project as part of a broader energy project in the Eastern Hemisphere. Dr. Duroc-Danner currently serves as advisory director to the Energy Intelligence Group (EIG). As an internationally recognized energy executive, Dr. Duroc-Danner is well qualified to serve as chairman of our Board of Directors, having built two global market and industry leaders through hundreds of focused acquisitions around the world. Dr. Duroc-Danner started EVI, Inc. (NYSE: EVI), an oilfield service and equipment company in May 1987, for which he served as Chairman, President and CEO until he retired in 2016, and upon retirement was given the distinction of Chairman Emeritus of Weatherford, EVI’s successor company Dr. Duroc-Danner was a director for a number of many public companies with global operations. Prior to the startup of EVI, Dr. Duroc-Danner was a management consultant with Arthur D. Little in Boston working in the metals, minerals and power generating industry. Dr. Duroc-Danner received his MBA and a PhD degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. We believe Dr. Duroc-Danner is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive operational and transactional experience in building companies around the globe.

Bryan Guido Hassin will serve on our board of directors following the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Mr. Hassin is a global energy technology entrepreneur and since March 2021 has served as the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Third Derivative, a joint venture between Rocky Mountain Institute and New Energy Nexus that is transforming the way that innovative startups, investment funds, and large corporations accelerate the energy transition by creating a global, vertically integrated engine for climate innovation. Prior to Third Derivative, Mr. Hassin spent 20 years as a global energy technology entrepreneur and executive, founding, leading and scaling high-growth energy transition startups. Mr. Hassin is well qualified to act as a Director, having spent much of his career in the private sector raising venture capital, building and leading startup teams, scaling operations, and negotiating partnerships and acquisitions. Mr. Hassin received his MBA with Honors and Leadership Distinction from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has a Master’s in Computer Science and undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rice University. We believe Mr. Hassin is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his long career in operating and advising energy transition companies, and the broad network of relationships in the sector that he has developed.

Per Hornung Pedersen will serve on our board of directors following the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Since 2011, Mr. Pedersen has worked as an Independent Director and Industry Advisor in the renewable energy industry. Mr. Pedersen is currently the Chairman of PNE AG Germany, one of Europe’s largest project developers in onshore and offshore wind as well as solar. Mr. Pedersen also serves as Independent Director in Suzlon Energy Ltd India (since 2015), Independent Director in Swire Energy Services and Independent Director in SeaTower AS Norway. Since 2017, Mr. Pedersen has served as a Senior Advisor to McKinsey and an independent member of the Investment Committee of Caribbean Clean Energy Fund. Mr. Pedersen is well-qualified to serve on our Board of Directors as a highly experienced veteran in the renewable energy industry, with 20 years of experience as a senior executive as well as an independent director in leading global companies in the renewable energy industry across the value chain. Mr. Pedersen received his MBA with honors from Copenhagen Business School (University of Copenhagen) and holds a BSc in Finance and Accounting from Copenhagen Business School. We believe Mr. Pedersen is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his decades of operating experience in the renewable energy industry, particularly in Europe and Asia.

Adam Pierce will serve on our board of directors following the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Since 2020, Mr. Pierce has been the Founder and Managing Partner of Tenkara Capital, an investment firm focused on opportunistic credit and structured equity investments across multiple industries. Prior to founding Tenkara Capital in 2020, Mr. Pierce spent nearly 17 years as an investment professional at Oaktree Capital Management, most recently as Managing Director and a member of the Investment Committee for the Special Situations and Global Principal Opportunities Group. During this time, Mr. Pierce identified, executed and subsequently oversaw nearly $2 billion in direct capital investments into 35 new investment vehicles, five of which were international companies. In addition, Mr. Pierce led over 30 debt financing transactions, four IPOs, nearly 20 add-on acquisitions and 17 merger transactions, and served on 12 different boards of directors. A number of these investments Mr. Pierce was involved in and board positions he held were in companies participating in the Energy Transition. Prior to joining Oaktree in 2003, Mr. Pierce was an investment banker with J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Pierce received a B.A. in Economics with a focus on business administration from Vanderbilt University. We believe Mr. Pierce is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his decades of deal experience, and his extensive network of relationships in the private equity industry.