Pete Jeffe

Chief Executive Officer

Pete Jeffe joined StratosFuel in 2021 and serves as the company’s CEO. Mr. Jeffe brings 18 years of operating, finance, energy, transaction, and technical experience at both public and private companies. Prior to joining Stratos, Mr. Jeffe co-founded Hawkwood Energy, an upstream oil & gas business backed by private equity. During his 10-year tenure, the company grew from 1 employee to a $300M EBITDA business. Mr. Jeffe began his career Goldman Sachs & Co, in New York. He holds an MBA from Stanford University, and a BA from Lafayette College, where he played Division-I golf.

Steve Morton

Chief Operating Officer

Steve Morton joined Stratos as Chief Operating Officer in 2022. Mr. Morton brings over 35 years of industrial gas, operations, and executive leadership experience to the team. Mr. Morton started his career in 1986 at Linde in Field Operations, ultimately rising to the position of VP of Operations for all of the US. As VP at Linde, Mr. Morton was accountable for over 450 operating plants contributing in excess of $2B in revenue. After retiring from Linde in 2022, Mr. Morton started a management consulting business focused on safety, training, and plant assessments. Mr. Morton is an expert at process gas plant operations and safety with a proven track record of project development, commissioning, profitability improvement, and safe and reliable production. He holds a BS from SUNY, and an MBA from ONU.

Eric Friedman

Chief Financial Officer

Eric Friedman joined StratosFuel as Chief Financial Officer in 2024. Mr. Friedman brings over 13 years of finance, operating, startup, and clean energy experience. Mr. Friedman began his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse and private equity investing at New Mountain Capital. He spent over 4 years in East Africa helping to build and lead regional operations for GiveDirectly, ultimately managing a team of over 150 delivering over $50M in cash transfers. Prior to joining StratosFuel, Mr. Friedman worked with multiple clean energy startups pursuing hydrogen. He holds a BA from Yale University.

Sean Walsh

Vice President of Development

Sean Walsh has over 20 years’ experience in project development. Mr. Walsh joined StratosFuel at the end of 2020, and serves as the company's VP of Development.  His previous experience spans both local and international development, from the early stages of entitlement, permitting, and environmental,   through the execution of complex civil and vertical construction. During his career, Mr. Walsh has held senior positions with some of the world’s leading developers such as Emaar and Starwood, working on projects such as The Burj Khalifa - at the time the world’s tallest building - and the Talega Master Planned Community - a $1.2 billion development - in San Clemente.  Sean also has previously owned and operated a successful investor focused construction and project management company, and maintains a Class B General Building License in California.

Jonathan Palacios-Avila

Co-Founder/Vice President of Marketing

Jonathan Palacios-Avila co-founded StratosFuel with his father in 2014 and currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing. Since the company’s founding, Jonathan has been instrumental in writing and securing over $12 million in grant funding for the company and initially lead the company from inception to execution when Pete Jeffe joined as CEO in 2021. Prior to co-founding Stratos, Mr. Avila worked for the City of Ontario in the Planning Department. He worked on multiple sustainability projects that involved public health and climate action policies for alternative fuels. He has over 10+ years experience in the hydrogen fuel cell space and holds a Bachelor’s degree from CSULA in Chemistry & Public Administration.

Melissa Gilbert

Business Ops Manager

Melissa Gilbert joined StratosFuel in 2022 and serves as the company’s Business Operations Manager. Ms. Gilbert brings 16 years of operations, logistics, procurement, system development, and accounting experience to the team. She has spent the last 3 years in hydrogen with a wide range of responsibilities including project logistics for new stations, vendor relations, inventory management, grant management, mobile refueling coordination, and financial reporting. Prior to working in hydrogen, Ms. Gilbert owned her own freight brokerage company, working on large industrial projects throughout the US, specializing in oversized and specialty projects. She received her BS in Communications from Portland State University and graduated from the political fellowship program at the Institute for a Democratic Future.

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