Len Cozzolino is an engineer and former investment banker who headed business development for Amerada Hess UK in the 1990s when the group grew from 25 to 300 people. As an investment banker for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Cozzolino led the investment banking team which managed the largest private natural gas energy swap in history (at the time) of natural gas assets in Columbia and Malaysia between Shell and Occidental in 1998. Cozzolino is expert on comprehensive spreadsheet models central to our decision making.

Robert Gibbs during the formative years of the development of North Sea oil and gas was an executive, principal consultant, with Kongsberg Vapenfabrik AS (KV) His responsibility was the development of KV’s oil and gas related business. KV was, at the time, one the largest companies in Europe and had 5,000 employees and a turnover of $2.8 billion. KV was the principal Norwegian offshore technology developer and initiator of numerous world-class companies established to develop North Sea hydrocarbon reserves. Gibbs played a key role in the creation of numerous KV jointly owned companies and joint venture projects; with offices in Europe, North and South America, Africa, China the Middle and the Far East. In addition to his business accomplishments, Gibbs’ engineering experience includes the design of oil refineries and petrochemical plants, he played a prominent role pioneering marine and subsea development of offshore oil and gas fields, utilising tanker, semi-sub and TLP production facilities producing from the sea bed.

Harper Howell joined Optima in 2020 to help establish Optima BioPharma, Optima’s South Carolina hemp processing and marketing subsidiary. Howell is a part owner and operator of a Z-3 Sciences, a Denver extractor. He had been president of Elab for 12 years, a pharmaceutical compliance, process optimization and validation company. Harper is working with Optima on technology identification, development, and optimization. He will work with Halsey in marketing and operations.

Harry Edelson, CFA, CCP, CDP, is an advisor to Optima. Edelson is a renowned venture capitalist and general partner of Edelson Technology Partners. He brings considerable experience to the Optima team, having served on the boards of directors of more than 150 companies and is published on corporate governance. Edelson has played a role in numerous mergers and acquisitions during his venture capital career. He is not an energy investor but became interested in Optima and its IMO 2020 pursuit and provides valuable business advice based on his impressive career. You can read more on Edelson at Edelson Technology Partners.

Peter Veillon is an advisor to Optima. Veillon currently serves as Managing Director at Realcap Strategies, LLC, a private investment firm charged with the oversight of operating companies and real asset investments of a multi-generational, single family office. Prior to joining the group, he spent a number of years in private equity, investing in energy and power and prior to this in manufacturing and business services. He began his post-graduate career investment banking at Bank of America Securities in the Natural Resources Group. Prior to his career in finance, Veillon worked for multinational companies in the energy and natural resource sectors.

Veillon is a graduate of Queen’s University at Kingston where he received his BSc in engineering and received his MBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.

Tyson Halsey, CFA, is an entrepreneur with 35 years of investment industry experience. Halsey has owned and operated investment advisories and hedge funds with a focus on technology and markets. His greatest successes have grown out of groups of technology experts in growth sectors like when he won the USA Today/CNBC Investment Challenge or forming Helsinki Advisors, LLC in 1999. Halsey studies market trends, valuations, behavioral economics, and technology, and been a shareholder rights advocate and activist investor whose work and accomplishments cited in Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal, on CNBC and chronicled on Seeking Alpha.