The TLR Energy Team

Michael S. Thaler: Founder and President Environmental Markets Group

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York; Michael Thaler graduated SUNY Binghamton in 1987 with a B.S. in Accounting. Upon graduation he practiced as a Staff Accountant for Rochlin, Lipsky, Goodkin, Stohler LLP, a mid-sized C.P.A. firm. In September of 1988, Michael joined the team at Astroline Inc., at the time the second largest private oil trading company in America, where he was a Futures and Options clerk and managed their clearinghouse. In 1990 Michael established TLR Energy as a Natural Gas and Crude Oil trading and brokering firm, having participated in the trading of Natural Gas futures since its inception and having had a positive influence on its success and progress. Since 1999, Michael has been on the NYMEX Charitable Foundation (NCF) facilitating the raising of many millions of dollars and dispersing the funds to hundreds of local charities. Currently Michael spearheads green projects on behalf of NCF.

Michael Thaler now serves as President of the Environmental Markets group at TLR Energy, leading and managing all aspects of its environmental markets business. With today's technology providing efficient and instant market price data, Michael knows that exceptional brokering is about solving logistics and supreme client service, which are the standards he has established for TLR Energy. Michael Thaler was an invited attendee at the World Business Summit on Global Climate Change in Copenhagen and continues to work to mobilize collaboration for businesses to be part of the solution to climate change.

Azmin Yusof: Vice President of Business Development

Azmin has over ten years of financial consulting experience. He began in 2000 as a Financial Analyst with a Boutique Quantitative Financial Consulting firm with last titled as Quantitative Financial Consultant in mid 2009. His passion for alternative energy lead him to an adhoc market research project as part of a team assisting Indo BioFuels Energy analyzing suitable energy intensive clients based on their business strategies, supply chain models, fuel requirements, legislation mandates, government subsidies, trade barriers and existing infrastructure: completed in 2010. Azmin joined TLR Energy in the role of sourcing and procurement of various energy products and other natural resources such as CPO focusing within the ASEAN region. Azmin is a 2000 graduate of Duquesne University with a double major in Finance and Investment Management.

 

Jonathan Webb: Vice President of Business Development

As the founder of Simple Choice Solutions, Jonathan Webb has worked with developers, organizations, and landowners both domestically and internationally to advise on the development of renewable energy facilities. He has worked with governments in the Middle East to harvest untapped wind and solar resources and has been outspoken for renewable energy in the US. In Washington D.C., he has expressed the need for renewable devolvement in the offices of both Senators and Congressmen. He has also worked at the state level with the Department of Energy, particularly in the coal state of Kentucky, to express the need for renewable energy and discussed the need for alternative development with advisors for the state Governor. Mr. Webb is a graduate from the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics with a degree in Marketing and is currently based out of New York City. Jonathan joins the team at TLR Energy to apply his passions in physical commodity trade, and renewable energy finance. 

The Team

Miriam E. Villani

Miriam is a Partner with the law firm of Sahn Ward Coschignano & Baker, PLLC. Her practice focuses on all aspects of environmental law including litigation, transactional matters, permitting, and regulatory and compliance proceedings. Ms. Villani represents and advises developers, corporations, municipalities, buyers, sellers, and lenders in transactions involving brownfields and other contaminated properties. She also represents clients in environmental litigation in both federal and state courts and before administrative agencies. Her extensive experience and her knowledge of environmental law includes the New York State Environmental Conservation Law, the New York State Navigation Law, the Wetlands Acts, RCRA, TSCA, and CERCLA.

Ms. Villani began her career almost 30 years ago as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She was counsel with environmental law practice groups at two prominent Long Island law firms, and was special environmental counsel to Pfizer Inc., where she managed complex environmental insurance litigation.
Ms. Villani has served as Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and is currently Editor-in-Chief of The New York Environmental Lawyer, a quarterly journal published by the New York State Bar Association. She has been published in several legal journals and books, including West’s New York Practice Series, and regularly teaches and speaks on environmental issues and the law. In addition to the New York State Bar Association, she is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association.
Ms. Villani is admitted to practice in the State of New York and before the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (B.A., cum laude, 1981), and her Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law (J.D., 1984).

Jason L. Kaplan

Jason is an associate with the law firm of Sahn Ward Coschignano & Baker, PLLC. Jason represents clients in environmental and land use matters in both federal and state courts and before administrative agencies. He also represents corporations and individuals in business and real estate transactions involving environmental due diligence and environmental regulations as they relate to those transactions. Mr. Kaplan counsels clients about environmental regulatory compliance and investigation and remediation of contaminated properties, including superfund sites, brownfield sites, and petroleum impacted sites.

Before joining the Firm, Mr. Kaplan was a law clerk for General Electric Company, where he focused on Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) matters on behalf of the Corporate Environmental Program’s EHS management. Mr. Kaplan also served as a legal intern in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office, and on the Environmental Team at Holland & Knight’s Washington D.C. office.
Jason has been appointed as the New York State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section Co-Liaison to the Environmental Law Section, as well as Co-Chair of the Environmental Law Section’s Membership Committee. Mr. Kaplan is also a Young Professionals Group member of the Nature Conservancy.
Mr. Kaplan is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and in Connecticut. He graduated from Colgate University cum laude with a B.A. in geology (2006) and received his Juris Doctor, cum laude, and Master of Studies degree in Environmental Law and Policies, cum laude, from Vermont Law School (2009). Mr. Kaplan was a Notes Editor on the Vermont Law Review.

Lyle Landon: Sales/Marketing Director

Lyle founded the Cameron Company in 2007 to provide sales/marketing, communications and project management for corporations seeking improvements in brand awareness, sales, profits, reputation, etc. and serves TLR Energy as their Marketing Director and handles sales in NY and NJ. Her interest in “green” began when she was publisher of the B2B magazine, Kitchen & Bath Business, where she worked with LEED designers and architects, created green curriculum for seminars, conventions and trade shows in the US, Brazil and China and served as Sustainability Steward, creating benchmarks, goals, strategies and reports for this Nielsen business unit.

Previously Lyle spent 15+ years working in executive positions at top US media companies such as Scholastic, Meredith, Hearst and has also helped launch two start-ups.  Her academic background includes graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University, followed by securing a MA in Industrial Psychology from NYU, and most recently completing the cleantechExecs course at NYU-Poly.  She's currently a member of Advertising Women of New York (past Member of the Board of Directors), the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future and on the PR Committee for GreenFaith. She can be reached at 201-247-0288 and LLandon@TLREnergy.com.

Daniel Doyle – Energy Management Consultant

Daniel achieved his bachelor’s degree in Middle East Studies and Classical Languages from Fordham University in May 2011. As a student, he became passionate about energy sustainability and environmental responsibility, in addition to his wide-ranging studies. While studying abroad, he interned at Wild Jordan, an ecotourism organization based in Amman. As an intern, Daniel gained familiarity with the makeup of the Jordanian environment as it relates to socioeconomics, as well as with the problems of water scarcity, deforestation, and pollution as they relate to politics. Since his graduation, Daniel joined the energy industry with TLR Energy as an Energy Management Consultant. His experiences will enable him to work with burgeoning sustainable energy markets such as those in the Middle East and elsewhere. He speaks Arabic, and is based in New Jersey. Daniel can be reached at DDoyle@TLREnergy.com.
 

Paul Tuminaro: Midwest Operations Manager

Paul has worked professionally in Chicago for over 25 years, beginning his career in the legal field and then moving into finance working for Pru Bache on the CBOT Bond Trading Floor and then on Project A and Globex as an auxiliary trader for the New York Trading Desk. Later stints included Asian and early European shift electronic and exchange execution for BofA Futures and ChiCorp. His financial background includes work in Risk Management, Proprietary Software Development in both Institutional Futures and Hedge Fund Sales and Marketing. His work on numerous charitable boards led him to attend a symposium at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He came away wanting to have his work dovetail with his environmental values. Paul now utilizes his substantial business, charitable and political relationships to grow TLR Energy's Midwest operations. Paul can be reached at PTuminaro@TLREnergy.com.

 
Jeff Picard: Sales Washington, D.C.

Jeff brings a government experience to the TLR Energy team, having served as a Legislative Intern at The Office of Massachusetts State Senate President and on a federal level as a development professional for the US Agency for International Development.. Jeff also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa, and has expertise resolving complex challenges in resource-constrained settings.

Jeff graduate from Boston College in 2006, having studied philosophy, history and Pre-Law and serving as President of Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society. His passion for cutting-edge energy development and knowledge of the DC market enables him to offer creative solutions from a menu of options to meet their energy needs.

Jack Alvo: Sales Manager

Jack has over twenty years of Wall Street and real estate experience. He began in 1986 as a clerk on the floors of both the NYSE and ASE in the junk bond business with direct lines into Drexel Burnham Lambert. His financial experience includes stints as an institutional currency broker with Tullet Prebon on the forward swap desk, a proprietary equity trader for Schonfeld Securities, in 1999, a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley and, in 2004, a real estate broker for Prudential Douglas Elliman. In 2007, he built a trading desk for Rochoet NY, Inc., a prime manufacturer and full-service refiner of platinum group metals. In 2010, he completed the cleantechExecs program at NYU-Poly.

Jack is a 1986 graduate of Babson College and is a vital member of the TLR Energy Sales Team. Jack can be reached at JAlvo@TLREnergy.com.

Yves Branche:Sales Manager

 Yves joined TLR Energy in the role of New Business Development for the fields of energy management, energy trading and brokering, renewable energies and carbon finance. Selected to participate to two highly competitive and reputable trainings, in Green Finance at the Levin Graduate Institute of Commerce and International Affairs, and in the cleantechExecs program at NYU-Poly, Yves has been working at the implementation of green finance business activities based on a financially sustainable business plan to much acclaim by a number of top U.S. financial management firms. As a result, he has developed a financial mechanism allowing for the funding of energy saving and building retrofitting implementations.

Yves trading and financial expertise comes from his long practice in trading cash commodities along with advising investment bankers for commodities related investments. His research on global lumber trading has been published by renowned European financial magazines. As an entrepreneur, Yves worked on multiple international commodity business ventures in Africa and South America, and on the implementation of commodity and foreign exchange market risk hedging plans. Yves has been navigating the finance and commodities trading markets in New York for many years. He studied International Business and Finance in Europe and obtained a Certification in Financial Risk Management at the NYU Stern Graduate School of Business. Yves can be reached at   YBranche@TLREnergy.com.

Naomi Cathleen Alexis: Sales Manager

Naomi was born and raised in New York City and attended the University of Connecticut where she achieved her bachelors in Liberal Arts in 2003. Subsequent to her education she forged a career in sales, first for Gabriella Importers where she sold and marketed French and Californian wines to the city's best restaurants and purveyors of beverage. Her introduction to alternative energy and sustainable business solutions came in 2008 as she sold solar paneling for Sunergy Power, sustainable printing solutions for Encore Images and began to see the benefits of how properly procured, implemented and sustainable supply chains can reduce costs and the environmental impact commercial entities make on the world. She continues with TLR to seeking to leave a big footprint on the planet by helping to reduce the carbon footprint of businesses and institutions.

Italo Valerio: Sales Manager

Italo Valerio is a licensed New York attorney with an international background. He holds a bachelor’s in Liberal Arts and a J.D. from the “Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru.” He also studied Political Sciences at “Institut d’Etudes Politiques-Sciences Po” in Paris for a year and afterwards he obtained an LL.M. (Masters in Law) in New York Law School. Over the years he has worked with both small and large businesses, especially in the fields of hospitality and real estate.

Italo possesses a firsthand knowledge of the necessity of businesses to optimize energy and operational costs. It’s with that experience and motivation that Italo joins the TLR Energy team in 2011. Besides English, Italo is fluent in French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Italo can be reached at IValerio@TLREnergy.com.


Ronit Leora: Business Development and Energy Efficiency Project Management

Ronit Leora is PMP® (Project Management Professional) certified and has extensive experience leading cross-functional teams to deliver multimillion-dollar, complex, enterprise-wide and international projects on time and on budget. She completed her Project Energy Professional Level 1 (PEP) certificate at CheetahPower, an accredited Project Management Institute course for energy efficiency and obtained the requisite skills to lead energy improvement and renewable energy projects. Additionally, Ronit attended the CleantechExecs program at NYU-poly.

For over 15 years, Ronit has been a strategic advisor with expertise in creating business roadmaps and optimizing online customer experiences. She has built interactive brand value propositions and identified product expansion opportunities for multiple industries; comprising financial services, technology, advertising and philanthropy. Her clients have included: Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Development Bank of Singapore, IBM, SUNDAY Mobile in Hong Kong, Grey Advertising and UJA-Federation of New York.

Passionate about environmental sustainability, Ronit advocates for various organizations to influence congressional legislation regarding climate change issues; including, Environmental Defense Fund, NRDC and New York League of Conservation Voters. Ronit can be reached at RLeora@TLREnergy.com.