Rusty Smith

Prior to founding Solea in 2014, Rusty was the Director & Portfolio Manager of Power Trading at Trademark Energy from 2009-2013. Rusty also held the position of Director of Wholesale Energy Operations at Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L). At KCP&L, Rusty was directly responsible for a staff of 80 personnel engaged in dispatching power plants, balancing KCP&L’s 5,000 MW system on an hourly basis, long-term contracting for power supply, fuels purchasing and scheduling (natural gas, coal, rail, wind, oil), negotiating power purchase agreements (PPA) with commercial customers and independent power producers, as well as all aspects of regulatory reliability (FERC & NERC).

Rusty has also held senior trading and management positions at Valero Energy, where he was the Senior Energy Derivatives Trading Manager. At Valero, Rusty was responsible for executing hedges and trading strategies associated with Valero’s 3.5 million barrel-per-day refined products production.

During the late 1990’s and 2000’s, Rusty worked for Aquila Energy as Director of Trading for Aquila’s European operations. Based in London, Rusty directed the trading operations for Aquila’s wholesale and retail power and natural gas operations in the U.K., Continental Europe, and Scandinavia.

Rusty holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.S. from Texas A&M University.