Izzet Bensusan - President & CEO
Izzet Bensusan is the President & CEO of Karbone, an environmental commodities brokerage, renewable energy project finance, and emission reduction research and advisory firm based in New York City. Mr. Bensusan plays an active role in Karbone’s operational activities, from sourcing capital partners for projects, to development of proprietary research, to structuring of OTC and forward contracts for environmental credits. He is a frequent speaker at emissions market and sustainability conferences, and a vocal advocate of policies for the uptake of renewable energy and the shaping of sustainable economies. Mr. Bensusan is also active in the academic community, where he teaches topics in environmental finance and emissions markets at first-tier universities and specialty executive institutions.
Throughout his career Mr. Bensusan has been involved in entrepreneurial ventures focused on cutting edge markets. Prior to Karbone, Mr. Bensusan was a partner at Net2s, a global consulting firm now a part of British Telecom, where he built the privacy and IT security division and established it as the firm’s leading practice. At Net2s, he managed a team of over 100 consultants and engineers servicing top financial firms located primarily in North America. Before joining Net2s, Mr. Bensusan was one of the founding members of Parlo.com, the first online language-learning experience.
Mr. Bensusan holds an MBA from Columbia University and an MA and BA in international economics and finance from Brandeis University. He is a co-founder of the Entrepreneurs Network of Brandeis University Alumni in New York and serves on the board of the NYC Association for Energy Economics.
Richard R. Weihe - Managing Director
Richard Weihe has over sixteen years experience in the environmental and energy sectors in a variety of roles including investment management and derivative structuring, environmental and emissions credit brokerage, risk management, and engineering consulting project management. As managing director, he spearheads business development activities and is an integral advisor to and oversees of all Karbone divisions.
Prior to Karbone. Mr. Weihe was a senior investment analyst with RNK Capital where he originated, structured and directed investment analysis on a variety of private equity and project-related renewable energy and environmental credit transactions in North America and Latin America. Before RNK, he directed structuring of environmental risk management products for emerging market clients in the energy, chemical and infrastructure sectors, and underwrote insurance products for Clean Development Mechanism carbon reduction projects for AIG. Prior to AIG, Mr. Weihe served as a senior environmental credit advisor for Natsource LLC, where he structured a variety of North American environmental credit transactions for energy, utility and chemical companies. He joined Natsource from Enron Global Markets, where he structured and marketed a variety of energy risk management products for the power sector.
Mr. Weihe has served as project manager and consultant at Arcadis in a variety of environmental engineering and water resource projects for the energy, manufacturing and utility sectors. He holds an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from Northwestern University, a M.S. in Geology from Ohio State University and a B.A. in Geology from Denison University. Mr. Weihe also is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University where he teaches a course in Environmental Markets through the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation.
Alex Anich - Director of Research
Alex Anich has over 6 years finance experience in the energy industry for Royal Dutch Shell's renewable energy and IT businesses. Mr. Anich joins Karbone tasked with establishing the company's research division, overseeing all emission and renewable market analysis, and research and data publishing.
Beginning his career with Shell in London, Mr Anich transfered to The Netherlands under the finance graduate training program where he worked as senior financial analyst in Group IT Infrastructure - Application Hosting. Mr Anich lead the finance team in support of the offshore consolidation of Shell's global application hosting infrastructure into data centers in the Netherlands, U.S. and Malaysia, as a lead up to the outsourcing of the Group IT Infrastructure business.
Mr. Anich then made the move into Shell International Renewables as a planning and reporting analyst for the wind energy business. Mr. Anich's roles involved the financial management of the business development, construction and management of Shell's wind farms around the world. Of particular note is the financial management of the construction of the first offshore wind farm in The Netherlands, Offshore Windpark Egmond an Zee, a joint venture between Shell and Nuon.
Mr. Anich joins Karbone after graduating from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs with a Master of International Affairs, focusing on economic and environmental policy. A native of Australia, Mr. Anich has a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Finance from Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
Adam Raphaely - Director
Adam Raphaely has joined as Director of Structured Sales and Trading. As part of Karbone's executive management team, Mr. Raphaely plays a key role in building out the firm’s presence in all Western North American environmental commodity markets.
Mr. Raphaely served as a Senior Broker on the award winning Environmental Markets Trading Desk at TFS Energy (Tradition) where he covered Western Renewable Energy, Carbon and Emissions Markets. He brings with him a wealth of experience in Capital Markets having worked in Investment and Risk Management at a number of leading Convertible Arbitrage Hedge Funds in Stamford, CT and New York City.
Mr. Raphaely holds a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, a Master of Science in Investment Management from The Cass Business School (City of London University) and a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from the University of South Africa.
