Oberon Fuels appoints CFO, COO

San Diego-based renewable fuels supplier Oberon Fuels has hired Ann Anthony as its first Chief Financial Officer as well as new Chief Operating Officer Derek Winkel. Anthony and Winkel will be expected to play critical roles in growing the business as it scales up the commercializations of its renewable DME and methanol within the propane industry.

Ann Anthony

“Ann and Derek each bring invaluable experience to support Oberon Fuels on its journey to commercialization and deliver the full impact that renewable fuels can have on reducing carbon emissions,” said Oberon Fuels president and CEO Rebecca Boudreaux, Ph.D. “They’re the ideal partners to build new markets, scale our solutions and open up a critical new front against climate change. I’m already seeing their names open doors.”

Anthony brings nearly 30 years of experience helping innovative energy companies scale and successfully introduced OPAL Fuels, a renewable natural gas company, to the public markets. Before OPAL Fuels, Anthony served as the chief financial officer and secretary for Key Capture Energy, a VC-backed start-up focused on stand-alone battery storage in key electricity markets, where she played an instrumental role in the company’s acquisition by SK E&S Co., Ltd. She was also responsible for leading the company’s finance and human resources function, including financial planning and analysis, corporate procurement and capitalization efforts.

Winkel has nearly two decades of experience leading and scaling operations for renewable energy innovators. He most recently served as the vice president of manufacturing development, commercial performance and services for Chevron following the company’s acquisition of Renewable Energy Group (REG) at a $3.15B valuation. Following the acquisition, Winkel played a pivotal role in the improvement and expansion of their renewable diesel production facility, which took total site production capacity from 90M gallons per year to 340M gallons per year.

The company also announced a number of other new appointments:

Derek Winkel

​Vice President of Sales, Jason Sweeney: Sweeney brings more than two decades of experience driving business development for gas producers and pipelines, as well as for power producers. He most recently served as vice president of Business Development for Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline and before that was a director of Business Development at Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America.

Vice President of Project Engineering, Karan Dawra: Dawra has an extensive track record of steering engineering teams and capital projects with over 17 years of experience on a global scale predominantly with ExxonMobil. Most recently, Dawra served as the vice president of Engineering for Ambercycle and commissioning manager for an $8 billion Exxon-SABIC polyethylene and monoethylene glycol joint venture where he managed a team of more than 150 people.

“Oberon has successfully commercialized renewable DME to reduce the carbon emissions associated with propane, which is used in 50 million American homes as well as a range of industrial applications,” said Winkel. “With decarbonization only growing as a top priority, now is the right time to scale Oberon’s solutions globally across a range of industries.”

​Oberon has developed a proprietary process turning organic waste into low-carbon or carbon-negative renewable DME and renewable methano. It is also advancing infrastructure that can transport hydrogen at a lower cost using existing infrastructure. The company currently serves more than 450 customers through notable partners such as Suburban Propane.