Philip R. Van Horne, President & CEO

As President of BlueRock, Phil is responsible for overall company operations and strategy. His 25 years of energy experience includes trading and marketing, contract negotiation and administration, wholesale back office operations, interconnection, power system planning and systems development. Phil founded BlueRock after serving as President and COO for Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing, Inc., where he oversaw all aspects of operations for unregulated retail and wholesale natural gas and electricity. Prior to that, Phil was with Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (NMPC), where he dealt with all aspects of wholesale power, including serving as lead negotiator on FERC matters, and acting as NMPC's representative on the NY Power Pool Operating Committee. Phil worked directly for the NY Power Pool before joining NMPC, where he was involved in imports to New York from Canada and operations of the interconnected network. Early in his career, Phil worked for General Electric, where he was involved with utilities nationwide on a range of planning and strategic issues. He is a founding member, past Chairman, and Executive Committee member of National Energy Marketers Association. Phil holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Master of Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering from Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University).

Jon M. Gipson, Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Gipson joined BlueRock Energy, Inc. as COO in March 2011.  He brings 25 years of experience in the energy industry growing and developing companies and projects on a national level.  Mr. Gipson was a founder and President of Shamrock Energy from 1994 until 2008, overseeing its growth from a start-up into a highly regarded upstream producer services marketing company with over $125mm in annual gross sales.  In 2002, Mr. Gipson joined Optigas, Inc. as its fourth employee as a result of Optigas’ asset acquisition of Shamrock Energy Corporation serving as both Vice President of Marketing and President of Shamrock Energy.  He integrated the Shamrock subsidiary into the organization along with all back-office functions surrounding the marketing, transportation, risk management, contract administration, gas accounting and scheduling of natural gas.  At Optigas, he contributed in growing the midstream gas gathering and processing businesses in East Texas, North Louisiana and Wyoming from a start-up to over 10 gas gathering facilities, ultimately resulting in the sale of the Company in 2006.  Mr. Gipson also served as Vice President of Business Development and Gas Marketing of a public exploration and production company, GeoMet, Inc. in 2008 through 2010 while continuing in his role as President of Shamrock Energy.  Mr. Gipson is a founding member of the National Energy Marketers Association and has served as Membership Chairman and Chairman of the Southeast Regional Committee on Natural Gas and Electricity Restructuring.  

Chuck Hurley,  Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

As Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at BlueRock Energy, Chuck is responsible for all activities as it relates to brand development. Chuck has defined the sales force with designated territories, new management structure, upgraded sales material, as well as appointing a broker manager to handle this very significant sales component. Chuck has started the process of developing BlueRock Energy into a strong brand, one that incorporates character, integrity and trust as well as separating BlueRock Energy from the competition.  Prior to BlueRock Energy, Chuck worked in sales for the consumer packaged industry for over 30 years with The Gillette Company and Procter & Gamble. Chuck earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from St. Bonaventure University.

Michael Young, Vice President & Corporate Controller

Mike has over 15 years of experience in financial operations and management.  He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of BlueRock Energy’s accounting & finance function as well as the company’s employee benefit programs and corporate insurance.  Mike joined BlueRock Energy in 2007 as Finance Manager where he created the accounting & finance function from the ground up, implementing policies, procedures and controls as well as updating the company’s financial systems.  Mike was also instrumental in obtaining and implementing a new credit structure which has enhanced the company’s ability to grow existing markets and expand into new markets.  Mike was promoted to Vice President & Controller in 2011 and currently supervises a staff that collectively controls the daily accounting, billing and financial operations of the company. 
Prior to BlueRock Energy, Mike spent over 6 years as an assistant controller with Aspen Dental Management, Inc. overseeing financial operations and analysis for over 40 dental offices in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.  Prior to joining Aspen Dental, Mike served as a staff accountant at both Coyne Textile Services and Byrne Dairy, Inc.  Mike holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Le Moyne College as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Niagara University.

Jerry Schavone, Director of Sales

Jerry joined Bluerock Energy as a Sales Manager in February 2008.  Jerry has more than 13 years of experience in business to business outside sales, marketing, and training. He was instrumental in implementing a structured sales process, compensation plan and CRM system.  He has hired and trained over 18 Account Managers within New York State.  Due to the tremendous sales growth and the overall expansion of Bluerock Energy, Jerry was  promoted to Director of Sales, overseeing regional sales managers and their ever growing sales force.  His professional career includes several sales management positions with Cintas Corporation (CTAS).  As a market sales manager, he was in charge of sales people within Syracuse, NY and Kingston, Ontario Canada.  Jerry Holds a B.A. in Marketing Communications and Public Relations from FIT in New York City. He also received an A.A.S in Marketing from Herkimer County Community College.

Jim Nichols, Power Operations Manager

Jim is responsible for the development of quantitative models, daily power operations, market planning, and analysis in the areas of: pricing, customer savings and sales forecasting.  His experience includes over 11 years of energy related experience in the deregulated energy markets across the Northeast sector of the United States.  Prior to joining BlueRock Energy, he held the position of Pricing and Planning Analyst from 1999 to 2005 at Select Energy New York, Inc. (formerly Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing, Inc.).  His responsibilities included assisting the Manager of Market Planning and Analysis with strategic planning and analysis. Jim was responsible for the market planning for the retail organization, including product development, market evaluation, sales planning and reporting, pricing, tariff analysis, regulatory affairs, EDI and back office system development. Jim holds a Master of Business Administration degree from LeMoyne College.  He also received a B.S. in Marketing from Oswego State University, Oswego, New York and an A.A.S. Computer Information Systems from Onondaga Community College, Syracuse, New York.

Jon Collins, Gas Operations Manager

Jon has 10 over years experience in the deregulated energy markets in New York.   As an analyst for Select Energy NY, Jon was responsible for electric and natural gas utility tariff analysis in support of company sales efforts.  Further, Jon was responsible for the company’s Request for Proposal responses for various electricity and natural gas bids to supply electricity and natural gas to government agencies, specifically the General Services Administration and New York Office of General Services.  Jon also participated in various rate cases and retail regulatory proceedings for all of the major utilities in New York State.  Jon is currently the Gas Operations Manager for BlueRock Energy, Inc.  In that capacity Jon is responsible for leading the operations department’s efforts related to gas supply including purchasing, pricing, nominating and other needed activities.  Jon holds a B.A. in English from SUNY Oswego and an M.B.A. from the University of Buffalo.

Tammy Maule, Executive Administrator

Tammy has over 25 years of experience within the energy industry with roles including contract and customer administration, energy broker management, and office management.  As executive administrator Tammy reports directly to the President/CEO and is responsible for managing a number of corporate tasks such as purchasing, new hire orientation, corporate event planning as well as handling all corporate compliance with utilities and state Public Service Commissions.  Prior to her role as executive administrator Tammy was the office manager for BlueRock Energy which entailed supervising a customer administration team that handled all new customer enrollments and contracts.  Previously Tammy held numerous administrative positions with Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing and Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation.  Tammy possesses an A.A.S degree from Onondaga County Community College.