John Ragan is the Chief Executive Officer of Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC and a member of the Board of Directors of Cogentrix Power Holdings, LLC. Mr. Ragan joined Cogentrix in 2017, with a long career in the energy sector, with over three decades of leadership experience. After starting his career with Getty Oil Co.’s (now Chevron) upstream exploration and production division in 1983, Mr. Ragan moved to the power industry in 1996, joining Mirant Corporation. His roles with Mirant included Chief Commercial Officer for North America and Chief Executive Officer, International Group. He then joined FPL Energy (now NextEra Energy Resources) as Vice President of Business Management for the northeast region, later becoming a Vice President of Trading, Transmission and Operations.
Mr. Ragan joined NRG in 2006, where he held several positions overseeing diverse regional fleets of power plants, commercial activities and NRG’s carbon capture business. He has also served as NRG’s Chief Operating Officer and President of NRG’s Northeast and Gulf Coast regions. Mr. Ragan left NRG in 2016 to join NextEra Energy, where he held a senior leadership position overseeing NextEra’s U.S.-based oil and gas operations and midstream natural gas pipeline activities.
Mr. Ragan has served as Chairman of the Board for the Houston Food Bank, the largest food bank in the U.S., and on the board of the Energy Institute of the University of Texas at Austin. He has also served as chairman of the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company and was a board member of Perigrine Midstream Partners, an industry leader in high-deliverability, multi-cycle natural gas storage. He is a four-time recipient of Who’s Who in Energy in Houston.
Mr. Ragan earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science degrees from West Virginia University and an MBA in finance from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.
Jeff Ingraham is Senior Vice President – Chief Operating Officer for Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC. In this role he is responsible for the departments within Cogentrix that directly support the Cogentrix-operated power plants including operations, engineering, procurement, Cogentrix Field Services, EH&S, and NERC compliance. The operations department includes providing technical support to all the facilities operated by Cogentrix.
Mr. Ingraham joined Cogentrix in 2018, following 16 years with Duke Energy where he held various leadership positions responsible for engineering, turbine maintenance, and environmental strategy. Mr. Ingraham also has plant engineering experience with Florida Power and Light and fuel cell research and development experience with Plug Power.
Mr. Ingraham earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florida.
Kevin McCarthy, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, joined Cogentrix in 2022. Previously, Kevin spent more than seven years at The Carlyle Group as a Managing Director where he provided strategic direction to the Cogentrix platform.
Prior to joining Carlyle in 2014, Kevin spent over 17 years with GE Capital’s Energy Financial Services business in various roles of increasing span of influence and responsibility including both Chief Risk Officer of the Power Team and Head of the GE Capital Water platform. The combination of Kevin’s Carlyle and GE Capital experiences provide Cogentrix with the leadership needed to enable Cogentrix to maximize asset profitability for its investors and pivot/transition the platform through the U.S. energy transition producing cleaner, more efficient power and renewables projects.
Additionally, during his tenure at GE Capital, Kevin oversaw teams that focused on development, acquisition and divestitures of assets including natural gas, water and mid-stream projects.
Kevin will have responsibility for the Origination, Mergers & Acquisitions, Asset Management, Regulatory Affairs and Market Analytics teams.
Kevin is a 1988 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and received an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Jason Solimini currently serves as Senior Vice President – Chief Financial Officer for Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC. Mr. Solimini is responsible for all of the finance, accounting, financial reporting, consolidations and control, treasury, tax and financial planning and analysis functions. He joined Cogentrix in 2016 following the acquisition of Essential Power by Carlyle Power Partners and the integration of Essential Power Services into Cogentrix.
Prior to joining Cogentrix, Mr. Solimini served as Chief Financial Officer of Essential Power, a wholesale power generation company engaged in the ownership, operation, and commercial management of over 1,700 MW of natural gas fired and hydro generating facilities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States.
Mr. Solimini joined Essential Power in August 2008 and managed the implementation of the Finance, Accounting and Settlements functions, supported multiple refinancing efforts, piloted the budget and three year plan development process, and in addition to leading the finance team, he provided oversight for the enterprise risk control and supply chain functions as well.
Prior to joining Essential Power, from 2005 to 2008, Mr. Solimini served as Controller for LS Power Development, LLC, an independent power producer and developer which operated independent power generation facilities across the United States. Prior to that, he worked for 14 years at New Jersey Resources Corporation (NJRC), an energy services holding company that provided retail and wholesale energy services to over 475,000 customers in the northeast region of the United States. At NJRC Mr. Solimini held various roles of increasing responsibility over the 14 year period, including the position of Controller from 1995-2005.
Mr. Solimini holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Business Administration in Finance, both from the W. Paul Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University.
George Knapp is the Senior Vice President – General Counsel of Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC. Mr. Knapp joined Cogentrix in 2019, having previously been a government attorney, law firm partner, and corporate general counsel. Mr. Knapp’s career has focused on energy sector acquisitions and business transactions, corporate and project financings, joint ventures, and project development.
Mr. Knapp has served as Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. He has been listed in Law Business Research’s International Who’s Who of Project Finance Lawyers and Euromoney’s Guides to the World’s Leading Energy Lawyers and the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers.
Mr. Knapp received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and his law degree from the George Washington University.
Linda Okowita currently serves as Senior Vice President – Human Resources for Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC. In this role, she has overall accountability for all aspects of Human Resources across the corporation. These include, but are not limited to, Strategic HR Planning, Benefits & Compensation, Mergers/ Acquisition/ Divestitures, Employee Relations, Labor Relations, Leadership Development, Staffing as well as oversight of the company Payroll function. Ms. Okowita also serves on the Management Committee. Ms. Okowita joined Cogentrix in 2004 as the head of the HR function. Over the course of her career she has held positions of increasing responsibility, servicing global Fortune 500 corporations and supporting and working with their Senior Leadership Teams, and employees, across the globe.
Ms. Okowita earned a B.A. in Labor Studies (Human Resources Management) from McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada.
The management of Cogentrix believes that the strength and competitive positioning of an organization is highly correlated to the quality, timeliness and consistency of the decision making in the organization.
Within the firm, Cogentrix has adopted a matrix approach to decision making and the allocation of responsibilities associated with each project, both operating and developmental. A project lead is assigned overall deal responsibility, and a team of multi-functional experts, typically including members of the firm’s engineering, asset management, operations, legal and finance departments, are selected as team members.
For broader, more strategically oriented issues and decisions, the management committee is typically involved and decisions are reached with input from all sources of relevant expertise within the Company. The Company has found that this approach minimizes the barriers and maximizes the collective incentives to achieve the targeted outcomes for each project and transaction.
At the senior-most management level, the open communications and inclusion of the entire management committee in material decisions shaping the future of the Company and the nature of opportunities pursued is among the reasons Cogentrix has consistently delivered above-market returns.