Our Partnership
ENGIE North America and Axium Infrastructure joined forces in 2017 to form Ohio State Energy Partners. The partnership operates the systems that heat, cool and distribute power to the university’s Columbus campus. ENGIE as the operator of these important functions, is responsible for the resiliency and reliability of utilities for main campus. The ENGIE logo will be seen around campus on service vehicles, technician uniforms, during events and other signage.
About Axium
Axium Infrastructure is an independent infrastructure investment firm focused on investments in core infrastructure assets. Axium manages two infrastructure funds totaling over $1.5 billion in assets, as well as $1 billion in managed co-investments.
Axium is an active investor in renewable energy with interests in over 2.5 GW of wind, solar, and hydroelectric power generation across North America.
About ENGIE
In addition to the 250 heating and cooling energy systems under management globally, ENGIE provides energy procurement, utility, and operations and maintenance services to approximately 150 higher education and health-care facilities, including the University of Maryland. ENGIE North America is one of the largest non-residential retail electricity suppliers in the United States serving customers in 14 markets nationwide. ENGIE’s commitment to environmental, social and governance best practices has been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index, placing ENGIE among the top 10 percent of sustainability-driven companies in its peer group.
Bill King heads up the partnership in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to his role at OSEP, Bill was the CEO of Arabian Power Company at ENGIE which is one of the largest power and desalination plants in the Middle East. Bill has held a variety of senior management positions globally including managing director, regional manager, plant manager and board member.
Thierry Vandal is President of Axium Infrastructure U.S. He was the President and CEO of Hydro-Quebec, one of North America’s largest power companies, with world class infrastructure energy, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) operations, until May 2015. He joined Hydro-Quebec in 1996 and served in various progressive leadership capacities until his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer in 2005. He was previously active in the natural gas infrastructure sector, the petrochemical and the downstream oil industries. Thierry is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Royal Bank of Canada (RY:TSX and NYSE), Veresen Inc (VSN: TSX), HEC Montreal. He is a Governor Emeritus of McGill University, where he served as the Chair of the Finance Committee until 2017. He is also a past chairman of BioFuelNet Canada and of the Conference Board of Canada.
Employed by the Group for the last 23 years, Stefaan Sercu most recently served as President & CEO of ENGIE Generation North America LLC and the Chief IT Officer, ENGIE North America, where his responsibilities include all operational and management activities surrounding the Company’s power generation facilities and IT services for the entire North American business unit. Prior to that role, he served as President and CEO of GDF SUEZ Energy Marketing NA, Inc. (now ENGIE Energy Marketing NA, Inc.), the North American business unit performing all market-facing commercial activities of the Company’s power generation fleet, including portfolio management and trading. Stefaan holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Mons Hainaut, Belgium, and a master’s degree in marketing, with high honors, from KU Leuven, Belgium.
Paulo Arencibia has 15 years of global finance and strategic management experience in the areas of principal investment, financial advisory, asset-based, export and project finance. Based in the firm’s New York office, Paulo joined Axium Infrastructure in 2012 and serves as a senior member of the US management team primarily responsible for origination and execution of US investments. Paulo began his career in London with Citigroup, where he focused on financial advisory and debt structuring and placement in support of the development of large scale energy and water facilities in Europe and the Middle East. In 2004, Paulo joined the Energy & Infrastructure Banking team at BNP Paribas in New York, where he executed multiple greenfield project finance transactions for natural gas-fired and renewable energy generation projects. He was also responsible for the build-out of BNP Paribas’ transportation and public private partnership platform in the United States and Canada. Acting as financial advisor and debt arranger/underwriter, he led the bidding and financing of brownfield acquisitions and greenfield development projects in the social and transportation sectors.
Brian Larkin has 6 years of experience in principal investing and project finance lending in the power generation and infrastructure industry. Brian joined Axium Infrastructure in 2014 and is responsible for the origination, due diligence, and execution of US transactions. Brian began his career in 2011 at GE Energy Financial Services where he was primarily responsible for transaction execution and portfolio management on debt and equity investments in both domestic and international power projects.
Serdar Tufekci was the first CEO of OSEP and has recently transitioned to Head of Major Campuses with ENGIE North America. Prior to his role at OSEP, Serdar was the vice president of the Technical Services group at ENGIE which provided engineering, construction, project management, and contract management services to ENGIE’s North American business unit. Serdar has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, an MBA from Purdue University, and a Master’s degree in engineering from The Ohio State University.
Bio coming soon!