Virtually all modern social, economic, and political systems rely first and foremost on a robust and stable energy infrastructure. This is Puerto Rico’s most glaring weakness laid bare by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. But the devastation of infrastructure wrought by these storms, the failure of the government-owned utility, and the bankruptcy of that utility and the Commonwealth have paradoxically created fertile conditions for transformation and a globally unparalleled opportunity to build back a first-of-its-kind modern system of infrastructure.
In this talk, Mr. King will discuss how Puerto Rico is now and will be for years to come the "sandbox" where clean and sustainable energy technologies, business practices, financial innovation, dynamic regulatory structure, and political will are all tested and refined to create the modern, resilient, distributed grid and energy infrastructure of the future. This is an extremely valuable opportunity for the future of Puerto Rico and must be nurtured.
With more than thirty years experience in finance and energy, Mr. King has completed more than $25 billion of equity and debt investments across six continents acting both in a proprietary capacity and for many of the world's most prominent energy and infrastructure companies. He has provided path-finding leadership in structured debt financings leading to solar energy ABS and was an early investor in and proponent of PACE financing.
Mr. King recently launched and serves as President of the Borincana Foundation, an energy infrastructure non-profit and think tank for Puerto Rico. Mr. King is also Managing Partner of CrossRiver Capital and was a Founding Partner of US Renewables Group, the first private equity group focused solely on renewable power, bio-fuels/chemicals, and related infrastructure.