Biography
Richard (Rip) Pratt brings 25 years of business development experience to Power 7. Through his consultancy/ business advisory firm, Rip has developed an extensive portfolio in areas critical to advancing client directives: (1) multiple facets of project and/or structured finance as a vehicle for corporate growth; (2) complex multi-party contract development and negotiation; (3) guidance of business from concept to proven going concern, which includes but is not limited to the authoring of bankable business cases and evaluations, identifying and developing revenue models, implementation of business plans while retaining agility to adjust for unforeseen shifts in market conditions, and ultimately, arrival and execution of predetermined exit strategies.
For the past 15 years, Rip has played a key role in project development in the areas of disaster response, renewable energy, power generation/transmission, as well as large municipal infrastructure projects. He worked on consecutive FEMA funded disaster response events starting with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, municipal infrastructure projects and partnered with a prime contractor during the BP Oil Spill where over 800 company workers were deployed to monitor the clean-up efforts. Working closely with principals of the prime contractor positioned him to participate in the formation of SGI Global Holdings and going forward to play a principal role in identifying, developing, negotiating and implementing a multitude of opportunities in the Horn of Africa and throughout Eastern Africa.
From 2010 to 2016 he led a team to Africa in which complex concession agreements with numerous African countries were negotiated and executed
As a result, SGI Global Holdings has binding government executed concession agreements in the sectors of Infrastructure Development, Energy Production / Transmission, Municipal Water Treatment /Distribution, Timber, and Agriculture. Additionally, Rip, through The Rockwell Group, was contracted by Black Rhino, a Blackstone portfolio company, which was building an 800 km finished fuel pipeline from the coast of Africa to Ethiopia. Specifically, he advocated on Black Rhino’s behalf to the DoD, US Navy and the DLA as it related to building a finished fuel spur from the receipt terminal and tank farm to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti (a 5,000 person US military base on the continent of Africa). In this capacity he handled all aspects of the pipeline project related to interaction with relevant government agencies in the greater Washington, D.C. area, as well as identifying and negotiating supply contracts with US based companies vying to deliver finished fuel to the pipeline.
Through his experiences, Rip has developed extensive Director/ Minster/ Secretary-level relationships or higher with the following organizations or entities: DoD, USN CNIC (Command, Navy Installation Command), AFRICOM, DLA, NSC-EOP, National Defense University-Africa Center for Strategic Studies, CRS-Africa Affairs (Congressional Research Services), USIP (US Institute for Peace), members of Congress and professional staff, US Dept. of State, in addition to developing business interests with the Governments of Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland, Kuwait, and Qatar. Rip took over the leadership of Power 7 in 2018 from his predecessor CEO and Co-Founder, Kevin Mulligan, who took an appointment with USAID on Global Food and Water Security.