W&L Energy Forum

Patrick Bell is a director of investments at QTS, responsible for evaluating and executing strategic data center development investments. He specializes in land acquisition, power strategy, infrastructure development, commercial underwriting and large-scale capital deployment, working across teams to advance hyperscale data center projects from origination through execution.

Owen Brannigan is a senior director on the business development team at Summit Ridge Energy (SRE). After starting his career at KPMG in its mergers and acquisitions advisory and infrastructure group, he joined SRE in 2021 as an analyst on the business development team. SRE is a distributed generation solar and storage independent power producer based in Arlington, Virginia, that was recently acquired by Global Infrastructure Partners, a BlackRock company.

At SRE, Brannigan has held several roles, including head of offtake origination. Over the last three years, he has signed more than 30 corporate customers to community solar and power purchase agreements totaling 350 megawatts of direct-current capacity. In addition to managing corporate customers, he managed SRE’s large portfolio of residential customers. He recently joined the mergers and acquisitions team, focusing on purchasing assets before they receive notice to proceed to grow SRE’s portfolio.

Brannigan’s entry into solar was made possible by his connection with the late W&L alumnus Mark Raeder ’01, who co-founded SRE in 2017. Brannigan lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Davis Straske Brannigan ’19. They were married at Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia, in June 2025.

Elizabeth Elium is a geoscientist at ExxonMobil, where she works on the exploration and new ventures team. Her current role involves global exploration and opportunity identification. Before joining ExxonMobil, she worked for Denbury Resources in Plano, Texas, supporting enhanced oil recovery projects in development and operational roles. Elium holds a master’s degree in geology from Oklahoma State University and a bachelor’s degree in geology from Washington and Lee University. She has more than eight years of industry experience.

Allen Frierson serves as vice president of geology at Veritas and is responsible for subsurface evaluation and operations. Before joining the team in 2024, he worked for Devon Energy and Titus Oil & Gas. Frierson has worked on a wide variety of projects in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Powder River and San Juan basins. He earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Washington and Lee University, a master’s degree in geology from Colorado School of Mines and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma. He is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Fort Worth Geological Society.

Edward Hudson IV holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from Washington and Lee University. He began his career as a landman in Denver, primarily working in the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia for a small nonoperating company. Since 2021, he has served as land manager for his family-run entity in Fort Worth, Texas, Javelina Partners, managing a portfolio of nonoperated oil and gas interests primarily across southeastern New Mexico. His current focus is land administration, asset management and the use of geographic information systems for acreage evaluation.

Parker Kasmer is head of government affairs for Mariana Minerals, a software-first owner and operator of critical minerals projects in the U.S. Previously, he led government affairs for the American Exploration & Production Council, the national trade association for America’s leading independent producers of oil and gas. During a brief stint practicing law, he worked in Sidley Austin’s Washington, D.C., office, advising Fortune 500 companies on government strategy and regulatory engagement. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama and graduated magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 2012, where he served on the Powell Lecture Board.

Luke Langford is associate director of structured finance and strategy for EDF power solutions Distribution-Scale Power, where he is responsible for mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategy. Before joining EDF, Langford worked for KeyBanc Capital Markets in the utility, power and renewable energy mergers and acquisitions investment banking coverage group. In his free time, he enjoys exploring the outdoors and staying active. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from Washington and Lee University.

Cordelia Peters is a private equity investor at Blue Earth Capital. She is deploying and managing the firm’s $375 million Climate Growth Equity Fund I, which invests in companies at the Series B stage and beyond that drive decarbonization or efficiency across buildings, mobility, energy, industrials and waste.

Before joining Blue Earth in 2023, Peters held positions at Goldman Sachs in investment banking and the executive office. Most recently, she worked as an associate in Goldman’s Sustainable Finance Group, which partners with the firm’s businesses to drive sustainability-related commercial activity for the firm and its clients. She also supported the firm’s leadership on climate change by advancing its thought leadership, policy positions, business practices and external engagement efforts.

Previously, Peters spent two years in investment banking, advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions, with a focus on real estate, lodging, gaming and real estate technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Washington and Lee University, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2019. She was a member of the varsity women’s lacrosse team and a two-time Academic All-American.

Lizzy Scully is a senior staff geologist at TG Natural Resources and a petroleum geologist with 13 years of experience across the Haynesville, Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken and SCOOP/STACK. At TG Natural Resources, she manages the life-of-field portfolio, leads inventory planning for a five-rig program and supports business development and acquisition evaluation. Previously at Marathon Oil, she led the company’s reentry into the northern Delaware Basin and prospected three of its top five unconventional wells companywide. She holds a master’s degree in geology from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree in geology from Washington and Lee University.

Katy Shurin’s practice sits at the intersection of project development, offtake and energy trading. Helping clients negotiate a wide array of structured transactions and related commodity and hedging arrangements, she facilitates the construction, financing and operation of energy and infrastructure projects while allowing counterparties to manage risk efficiently and effectively. Shurin co-leads the energy and infrastructure and digital infrastructure teams.

With experience across all major U.S. power markets, Shurin advises clients nationwide on structuring and negotiating front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter power purchase agreements, hedging arrangements and other revenue contracts, gas supply agreements and other supply and offtake transactions. Her work spans the renewables, battery storage, conventional power and oil and gas sectors and includes transactions that support the development and operation of data centers and other digital infrastructure.

Franklin Wolfe is a vice president in Guggenheim Securities’ energy investment banking practice, where he focuses on upstream oil and gas. He holds a doctorate in Earth and planetary sciences from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in geology from Washington and Lee University. He began his career at Chevron in Houston, supporting upstream exploration, and brings a subsurface geoscience background to upstream mergers and acquisitions and capital markets execution.

Alex Burpee is a managing director at Moelis & Company, where he specializes in advising clients in the energy sector. He has more than 15 years of oil and gas industry experience, specializing in originating and executing mandates for a variety of companies in the sector.

Before joining Moelis & Company, Burpee was a senior managing director at Guggenheim, where he co-led the upstream oil and gas team in the energy investment banking group. Previously, he was a director in the global energy group at Citi, where he helped lead the technical team and originate new business. Burpee began his banking career at Jefferies and previously worked in upstream exploration and production at Hess and Schlumberger.

He holds a master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University.

Jim Kerr is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Southern Company Gas, one of America’s leading natural gas providers, serving more than 4.4 million customers. Kerr began his Southern Company career in 2014 as executive vice president, chief legal officer and chief compliance officer. He led the Office of the General Counsel, which includes the company’s legal, corporate governance, audit and compliance functions.

Before joining Southern Company, Kerr was a partner at McGuireWoods LLP and a senior adviser at McGuireWoods Consulting LLC. He also served for eight years as a member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which regulates the rates and services of public utilities in the state. He was elected president of both the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

Kerr has extensive knowledge of federal and state energy policy and regulations from his work as a utility executive, attorney in private practice and public servant. He has held leadership positions with the American Gas Association, the National Petroleum Council, the Rotary Club of Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Electric Power Research Institute. He also remains active in the legal and nonprofit communities.

Kerr earned a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Washington and Lee University and a law degree with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law. He and his wife, Frances, have two children.

Reed Stevens is vice president of geology at Hibernia Resources IV and an original partner at Hibernia Resources III, which sold to Civitas in August 2023. Before joining Hibernia Resources III, Stevens worked for five years as a geologist at Pioneer Natural Resources in various roles on its Permian asset team. He received a master’s degree in geological sciences from the University of Oklahoma in 2012 and a bachelor’s degree in business and geology from Washington and Lee University in 2010.