Leadership

Derick Dahlen President and CEO

Derick Dahlen is President and CEO of Avant. Since its founding, Mr. Dahlen has provided leadership, strategic guidance, and long-term power planning services to Avant and its clients. Mr. Dahlen has over 35 years of experience negotiating with utilities.

Mr. Dahlen holds an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia. He did his undergraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Oncu Er Chief Operating Officer

Oncu Er is Avant’s Chief Operating Officer. At Avant, Mr. Er oversees market operations and planning activities, including clients’ energy supply portfolios. He has extensive experience providing complex hedging and risk management analyses. Mr. Er also has over 20 years of experience in natural gas and electricity futures and options trading.

Mr. Er received a B.A. in Economics magna cum laude from Macalester College. He received an M.B.A. in finance from University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Mr. Er also completed Harvard Business School’s Program For Leadership Development and High Potentials Leadership Program.

James Larson Vice President and Corporate Treasurer

James Larson is a Vice President at Avant and an attorney with 35 years of utility regulation experience.

Mr. Larson has negotiated gas and electric supply contracts on behalf of large industrial customers and municipal wholesale customers. In addition, Mr. Larson has managed the permitting and regulatory processes for large electric projects. Mr. Larson managed the siting, permitting, and interconnection processes for a 300 MW combined cycle gas turbine generating project and has managed the regulatory processes for three utility scale wind farms, including siting and interconnection.

Mr. Larson received a J.D. magna cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law. He received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from the United States Air Force Academy.

Joe Fulliero Vice President

Joe Fulliero is a Vice President at Avant Energy and has over 35 years of utility industry experience. Mr. Fulliero has a background in portfolio management, operations management and power plant operations, environmental engineering, commodity trading, fuel procurement, dispatch, and risk assessment and mitigation.

Mr. Fulliero has a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Fairfield University, a B.S. in Engineering from University of Connecticut and a M.S. in Science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

David Niles Senior Vice President

David Niles is a Senior Vice President at Avant who has advised municipal utilities, municipal power agencies, Native American tribes, and colleges & universities for more than 15 years on a variety of electric industry issues. Mr. Niles’s primary areas of interest and expertise include strategic planning, utility management, and financial management. His breadth of experience also includes power supply planning, energy market operations, power plant development, and utility accounting.

Mr. Niles has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Carleton College and a M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is also licensed as a CPA in Minnesota and registered with the SEC as a municipal advisor.

Noah Hansen Vice President

Noah Hansen is a Vice President at Avant. Mr. Hansen is responsible for managing market operations for clients, including energy procurement and economic dispatch of generating resources. Mr. Hansen has worked in the Operations Division at Avant Energy for the last 14 years, and has extensive experience in asset management and portfolio optimization.

Mr. Hansen received his B.A. in Economics and Chemistry summa cum laude from St. Olaf College, and his M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management (Carlson Scholar designation).

John Lewis Managing Director, Native American Energy

Mr. Lewis has been with Avant Energy since 2012 serving as Avant’s Managing Director of Native American Energy.  In this role, Mr. Lewis brings over 15 years of infrastructure-related consulting experience to Avant’s Native American energy projects.  Mr. Lewis has been directly involved with every Native American client engagement, overseeing a wide array of projects including Tribal utility formation, renewable energy development, Tribal organizational management, energy infrastructure development and energy and utility related negotiations.

Mr. Lewis is actively involved in his own community’s infrastructure development at Gila River.  He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Gila River Indian Community Utility Authority (GRICUA) of Arizona from 2010-2020.  GRICUA has provided electric utility service to the Gila River Indian Community’s 11,000 residents and commercial businesses for over twenty years.  Mr. Lewis is very proud of his decade with Gila River’s electric utility and was excited to finalize GRICUA’s 50 MW utility-scale solar project earlier this year.

Currently, Mr. Lewis serves on the Corporate Board of Directors as the Vice Chairman for Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GRTI).  GRTI is a corporation wholly owned by the Gila River Indian Community composed of six separate subsidiaries that focus on telecommunications, wireless and fiber business activities. John has been with the GRTI Corporate Board since 2012 and believes that broadband connectivity and internet access are integral to the success of Native American commercial endeavors.

Mr. Lewis studied Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford University.  Mr. Lewis is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona and a dedicated father.  Mr. Lewis believes his experience as both consultant and serving as a Community Council-appointed official for his own Tribe has given him a deeper understanding of energy and infrastructure issues in Indian Country that few have.

Mr. Lewis has received national recognition over the years but believes the highlight was being chosen in 2014 to participate in the Department of Energy’s Quadrennial Energy Review to represent Native American energy interests.

Jim Richardson Director, Energy Marketing

Jim Richardson is Director of Energy Marketing at Avant Energy and has over 35 years’ experience in the electric utility and aerospace industries.

Mr. Richardson has extensive experience throughout the utility sector including power plant operations, trading-floor, mid-office, risk management, and energy marketing.  

Mr. Richardson holds an B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.  

Kim Lillyblad Director

Ms. Lillyblad is Director at Avant and has over 30 years in the energy industry.  She provides consulting services and manages Energy Conservation, Wholesale Metering, Wholesale Power Billing, and Energy Education programs.  She has advised Tribal, municipal, industrial, and institutional clients in multiple areas, including cost of service and rate design studies, billing and rate analyses, energy supply planning, energy conservation, utility operations, regulatory compliance, and electric and gas utility rate cases.

Ms. Lillyblad received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and studied at the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Science.

 

 

Contact Us to Learn More


Send Message