Management Team

US Global’s management team has over 80 years of collective project development and finance experience, as well as in-house technical and engineering expertise.

Strategy

Our Team

Jack Parell

Co-Founder, President & CEO

Mr. Parell is a co-founder, President and CEO of US Global, LLC (“USG”). Mr. Parell has over 35 years of investment, investment banking and project development experience. Prior to USG, Mr. Parell was a Managing Director at the investment banking firm of Jefferies & Company and was responsible for the firm’s infrastructure and project finance activities. Jefferies is particularly well known for the underwriting of high yield debt and high-risk equity transactions.

History
Prior to joining Jefferies, Mr. Parell was employed by Credit Suisse First Boston (principal) and Goldman Sachs (vice president). His expertise includes both corporate and municipal finance. He has operated as the developer for a number of infrastructure and heavy industrial projects. His investment banking experience includes corporate debt and equity financing, project financing, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, consortium formation, privatizations, government debt financing, and equipment and project leasing. He has completed in excess of U.S. $100 billion of financing for his clients, while serving as financial advisor, underwriter or placement agent.

In 1993, he formed a small boutique firm where he and his partners operated both independently and through a number of joint ventures, providing consulting, financing and development services on projects in Asia, particularly in China and the Philippines. He resided in the City of Manila, Republic of the Philippines for two years and then in Beijing, Peoples Republic of China, for two years. As Managing Partner, he had overall responsibility for the project development and finance activities of the company, including the development and financing of heavy industrial projects and of infrastructure projects such as power projects, toll roads, wholesale water facilities, rail projects, telecommunications projects, port facilities and airports.

Through one of the firm’s joint ventures, he also served as a Managing Director of Clemente Capital, an international equity fund manager with approximately $1 billion under management. For Clemente, he managed the company’s Asian activities from their Beijing office. His responsibilities primarily involved direct investments in unlisted companies and infrastructure projects and the preparation of two China equity funds.

Education
Mr. Parell’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctorate from the Villanova School of Law and an M.B.A. in finance from the New York University Graduate Business School. Prior to becoming an investment banker, Mr. Parell was a practicing attorney. He served as a criminal prosecutor in the trial division of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey and as a civil attorney specializing in general corporate and banking matters.
Contact

(954) 784-6442

Cell (954) 778-7050

jparell@usgloballlc.com

Neil Bhambhani

Co-Founder, Executive Vice President

Neil Bhambhani is a co-founder and Executive Vice President of US Global, LLC (“USG”). Prior to USG, Mr. Bhambhani was a Vice President at the Investment Banking firm of Jefferies & Company and was responsible for the firm’s infrastructure and project finance activities. Mr. Bhambhani focused on energy and project financings in the domestic and emerging markets including Asia and Latin America. Mr. Bhambhani has approximately 25 years of investment, project finance & advisory experience. 

History
Prior to joining Jefferies, he was employed by NatWest Markets as a Vice President in their Project Finance & Advisory Group. Mr. Bhambhani has experience in project finance, advisory and syndication & asset sales in the US market working mainly on IPP/cogeneration projects utilizing various technologies and fuel types, including coal, natural gas, waste coal and geothermal. He also worked on a number of other major infrastructure projects such as stadiums, theme parks and toll roads. He transferred to NatWest Markets’ Asian Project Finance and Advisory group in 1994 based in Hong Kong. In Asia, he was principally engaged in advising on power and infrastructure projects in China, India, Philippines and Thailand, involving Export Credit Agencies and multilateral financing. Mr. Bhambhani returned to the US in 1996.

 

Mr. Bhambhani has extensive experience of structuring and negotiating project financing transactions including contracts, security packages and financial modeling and reviewing and analyzing engineering studies, environmental reports and insurance requirements. He also has extensive experience of leading and coordinating all the aspects of a major project finance transaction including marketing equity to developers and investors, and dealing with financial institutions, lawyers, engineers, and various consultants to deliver a successful financial closing.

Education

Mr. Bhambhani’s educational background includes a Masters degree in Marketing and Finance from Sam Houston State University and a Bachelors degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Houston, Texas.

Contact

(954) 384-4160

Cell (954) 682-6106

nbhambhani@usgloballlc.com

Benoit Wirz

Partner

Mr. Wirz is also a Partner in U.S. Global, LLC (“USG”) and has over a decade of experience in venture capital and private equity. Currently, he is the Director of Business Consulting for the Knight Foundation. Among other responsibilities, he focuses on making seed stage investments in media and technology companies that help to further the foundation’s mission of informed and engaged communities. 

History
Mr. Wirz has a strong background in financial modeling and quantitative analysis and has worked extensively on transactions in the US, Russia and Latin America. Prior to joining Jefferies, he worked for a major newspaper reporting on regional and financial issues in Latin America and the United States. Mr. Wirz’s strengths include financial analysis, research and structuring with respect to a variety of infrastructure, manufacturing, power and energy transactions in the US and emerging markets (especially Latin America) including: private equity investments, public & 144A debt offerings, financial advisory and project development. He also has experience in market and industry analysis, on-site and financial statement due diligence, investor and client presentations and facilitating all aspects of investment and development transactions.
Education

Mr. Wirz’s educational background includes a Masters degree in International Policy Studies and a Bachelors degree in International Relations, both from Stanford University and an MBA from INSEAD. Mr. Wirz speaks fluent French, Spanish and Russian and his independent study at Stanford focused on development in the former Soviet Union.

Contact

(954) 990-0106

bwirz@usgloballlc.com

Clay Lebhar

Managing Director

Clay Lebhar joined US Global, LLC in 2007. Prior to that, Mr. Lebhar was a Managing Director of CBA Real Estate Partners LLC, a private merchant banking and asset management company from 2002-2007. Mr Lebhar has over twenty years of experience in the capital markets involving responsibility for over $5 billion of principal transactions in structured mortgage finance and real estate.

History

From mid-1987 until mid-1997 and from late 1998 through October 2001, Mr. Lebhar was a Managing Director at Prudential Securities serving in various capacities including group head of the Real Estate Investment Banking and Financial Institutions Group as well as the Real Estate Debt Capital Group. In 1997 and 1998, he was the President and CEO of Prudential Mortgage Capital Company.

 

Previously, Mr. Lebhar served as a Vice President in the Mortgage Finance Group at The First Boston Corporation and in the Financial Institutions Group at Dean Witter Reynolds. Mr. Lebhar is a former director of Anthracite Capital, a publicly traded mortgage REIT managed by BlackRock Financial Management. Mr. Lebhar is a director of CBA – Mezzanine Capital Holdings, LLC (dba Mezz Cap) and is a director of several Mezz Cap affiliates. Mr. Lebhar is also a director of: BlackRock Granite Property Fund, Inc., BlackRock Diamond Property Fund, Inc., BlackRock Strategic Apartment Fund, Inc. and BlackRock Retail Opportunity Fund, LLC.

Education

Mr. Lebhar earned a B.S. from Tufts University and a M.B.A. from Columbia Business School with Beta Gamma Sigma Honors.

 

Contact

Cell:(201) 446-1566

Home Office: (954) 227-0892

clebhar@usgloballlc.com