John D. Kuhns

John D. Kuhns is the Chairman & CEO of Kuhns Brothers, an investment boutique. He has spent his business career in electric power production, investment banking and venture capital. Mr. Kuhns also has considerable experience investing in and financing companies and projects in foreign countries, including China, Brazil, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

In the electric power and infrastructure industries, Mr. Kuhns has been an innovator and trendsetter, founding 4 companies that have conducted underwritten initial public offerings.

Catalyst Energy Corporation, founded by Mr. Kuhns in 1982, was the first significant independent power company in the US and the world. Catalyst Energy was the fastest growing public company in the United States from 1982 to 1987, according to Inc. Magazine. Catalyst went public in 1984 and listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in 1986. During this time, Mr. Kuhns also founded Catalyst Thermal Corporation, one of the nation's largest steam utilities, and help found Municipal Development Corporation, both of which went public in 1987.

The New World Power Corporation, founded by Mr. Kuhns in 1988, was the first wind power company to go public. New World was also in the solar power business, and during the early 1990's, the solar division of New World was the largest systems integrator and distributor of packaged photovoltaic solar equipment in the Western Hemisphere.

Most recently, Mr. Kuhns founded China Hydroelectric Corporation, a company organized to acquire operating hydroelectric projects in China.

Mr. Kuhns has pursued a parallel career as an investment banker and venture capitalist.

Originally employed at Salomon Brothers in 1976 in the publicly owned electric utility department, in the early 1980's Mr. Kuhns and several partners from Salomon Brothers founded J.J. Lowrey & Co., a new firm which financed many of the electric utility projects in the US during this period. In the mid 1980's Mr. Kuhns merged his investment company with Laidlaw, Adams & Peck, a larger organization tracing its roots to 1842, and financed many power companies including California Energy, the largest geothermal company in the world.

Mr. Kuhns has been one of the most active venture capitalists in the power technology field since his first investment in the Cheng Cycle, a new form of cogeneration device, in 1981.

Recently, Mr. Kuhns has focus on raising money for electric power and infrastructure companies in China, India and Brazil. He became involved in China after purchasing hydroelectric generating equipment there in 1986, and went on to develop several hydroelectric projects in China in the mid 1990's. Since 2003, Mr. Kuhns and his firm have become one of the most active investment bankers raising equity in the US capital markets for Chinese companies. Mr. Kuhns is a board member of several companies, as well as investment funds focused on the power technology industry.

Mr. Kuhns received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and in Fine Arts from Georgetown University, where he was also captain of the varsity football team and is a member of the University's Athletic Hall of Fame; a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Chicago, where he was also a teaching assistant in sculpture and drawing; and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School.