Our Board

Russell Bennett is a Managing Director and Head of Oil & Gas at Starwood Capital Group, with responsibility for leading the Firm’s expansion into the oil & gas sector. In November 2013, Mr. Bennett closed Starwood Capital’s first investment in the industry—a $35 million investment in Northeast Natural Energy. In June 2015, Mr. Bennett led a $110 million investment in EagleRidge Energy and a $20 million follow-on investment in June 2017.  In January 2017, Mr. Bennett led a $65 million equity commitment in Ventana Exploration & Production and a $70 million follow-on equity commitment in February 2019.

Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2013, Mr. Bennett worked as an investment professional at Metalmark from 2004 to 2013 and played an active role in 15 investments, including portfolio add-on acquisitions. Mr. Bennett has served as a member of Northeast Natural Energy’s Board of Directors from 2010 to present, Chairman of EagleRidge Energy since June 2015 and a member of Ventana Exploration & Production’s Board of Directors from January 2017 to present. He began his career in the leverage finance and private equity coverage groups at JPMorgan.

Mr. Bennett received a B.S. degree in economics from Northwestern University. 

Matt Lumpkin is a Vice President at Starwood Oil & Gas, with responsibility for due diligence and the underwriting of new investments, as well as for monitoring the performance of portfolio investments.

Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2014, Mr. Lumpkin worked at Tortoise Capital, where he was responsible for making investments in the public E&P and pipeline sectors across the firm’s $14B asset platform. Before that, Mr. Lumpkin worked closely with SOG’s Managing Director, Russell Bennett, on a variety of energy transactions during his four-year tenure at Metalmark.  Mr. Lumpkin is a board observer at Northeast Natural Energy and EagleRidge Energy and a board member of Ventana Exploration & Production.  Mr. Lumpkin began his career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the firm’s leverage acquisition finance/ financial sponsors and energy groups. 

Mr. Lumpkin received B.S. and M.S. degrees in accounting from the University of Missouri.

Rahul sources and evaluates new credit and equity investment opportunities, and works with existing investments to maximize their value. 

He serves on the boards of several EGI portfolio companies, including RailUSA, a short-line and regional railroad platform; Cross Border Xpress, a bi-national airport terminal that connects San Diego directly to the Tijuana Airport; and Ventana Exploration and Production, an oil and gas acquisition and development firm. Rahul also supports EGI’s investments in: Ardent Health Partners, LLC, a provider of hospital and healthcare services and EagleRidge Energy, LLC, an oil and gas development and production company. Previously, he supported other investments in industries such as manufacturing, logistics and energy.

Prior to joining EGI in 2015, Rahul worked as a private equity associate at BTC Partners, a search fund focused on the lower middle market, and as a senior consultant in the strategy and analytics practice at IBM. He also worked at Home Trust Company where he helped with the strategy for the launch of a new direct-to-consumer retail banking deposits business known as Oaken Financial, and at OneClass, a venture-backed startup, and provided strategic consulting to technology startups based out of Google’s Communitech Hub. 

He graduated with an Honors BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University.

The youngest of five, born to tenant farmers in rural Oklahoma, Mo Anderson was the first in her family to earn a college degree.  She taught music in the public schools before entering the world of real estate.  Her first Century 21 franchise quickly rose to the third-highest producing out of 7,500 locations in North America.  She served on the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission, including 2 terms as chairman.  

She convinced Keller Williams Realty Co-founder, Gary Keller, to expand his franchise company outside of Texas.  Anderson became the regional owner for Keller Williams Realty Oklahoma.  In 1995, Mo became the first CEO and co-owner of Keller Williams Realty International.  The Company is now the number one Real Estate Franchise company in the world in size, units, and volume.  She currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board.  Deemed one of America’s top 25 Influential Thought Leaders by REALTOR magazine and One of Real Estates Most Influential People, Anderson continues to cultivate the firm’s culture, inspiring 200,000 agents in 33 countries to maintain high standards of character.

A member of the OK Hall of Fame (class of 2018), Mo is the author of A Joy-filled Life: Lessons from a Tenant Farmer’s Daughter Who Became a CEO, and she launched MoAnderson.com, an online mentoring community.

Anderson’s greatest legacy will be her philanthropic giving.  Her local community, charitable organizations, and ministries around the world have been richly blessed by her belief that the higher purpose of business is to give, care and share.

Mike Leahy applies 20 years of operational experience across industries to manage existing assets and assess potential new investments, specializing in organic and M&A growth, integrations, turnarounds, restructurings, and asset optimization. Mike holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame and completed the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Emerge Global Program.