Tonga Capital Corp. (“Tonga”) (OTCBB:TGPC) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Momentum Biofuels, Inc. (“Momentum”), are pleased to formally announce the following new management team who joined the Company in March 2007. Barent “Barry” W. Cater will serve the Company as President, CEO and a Director. He has added to the management team Jim O’Neal as the COO and Stuart Cater as the CFO.
“We are thrilled with the depth and strength of our executive team,” said Jeff Ploen, Director of Tonga. “Each brings extensive technical and leadership skills that will serve us well as we grow our company and expand into new markets.”
“Our initial objectives of addressing the Company’s compliance and internal controls are on track. In three short months, this management team has put forth a massive effort to get the Company back on schedule. Now that the internal operations have been addressed, the Company is shifting its focus to consistent production, feedstock acquisition and distribution options. The new team is absolutely tooled to take the Company to the next level,” stated Mr. Barry Cater.
In addition to Mr. Cater and Mr. Ploen, three new directors have joined the Company’s Board of Directors. The biographical information of Tonga’s new management team and new directors follows. Mr. Barry Cater and Mr. Stuart Cater are brothers.
Barent “Barry” W. Cater - President, CEO and Director
Mr. Cater will serve as President, CEO and Director. Mr. Cater is a retired Managing Partner with Accenture, which is now Accenture Ltd. (NYSE:ACN), where he spent 24 years providing operational and technology consulting services to some of the world's largest companies. During his career with Accenture, he held numerous positions including most recently Founding General Partner of Accenture Technology Ventures, where he was responsible for Accenture's Supply Chain, B2B and Oil and Gas related venture investments. In this capacity, he evaluated investment opportunities, managed Accenture's investments, participated on portfolio company boards, assisted in fund raising activities and provided assistance to portfolio company management teams. Mr. Cater was also Global Managing Partner Business Development, Managing Partner Outsourcing Sales North America, and Managing Partner Capital Markets. Mr. Cater also served as CEO of an Accenture affiliated company "Epvalue", which provided outsourced procurement services for US and European companies. He was also Accenture's lead in the formation of Avanade, a joint venture company created with Microsoft focused on providing technology solutions for businesses. Mr. Cater holds a BS in Economics and an MBA in Finance from Texas A&M University.
Jim O’Neal - Chief Operations Officer
Mr. O'Neal is a senior level executive with experience across a broad landscape of industries including logistics, transportation, energy, consulting, manufacturing and aerospace. He has held positions with Dynegy, Chevron, Gulf Oil, and NASA. His operational experience includes Director of Inland/Marine operations with Dynegy, where he managed transportation, terminals, marine operations, pipelines and distribution of all gas liquids for the company. He also was Area/Division Manager for Warren Petroleum where his responsibilities included managing terminal, marine and rail fleets for the distribution of product. Mr. O'Neal holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Finance from the University of Arkansas and is a registered member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
Stuart C. Cater, CPA - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Cater began his professional career in public accounting with both Ernst and Young and Arthur Andersen. During this part of his career, he provided taxation and business consulting services to his clients. Mr. Cater then moved into private industry and has held management positions with both start-up and publicly traded companies in the finance and information technology arenas. Mr. Cater holds a B.S. in Economics from S.U.N.Y. at Oneonta and an MBA in Accounting from Texas A&M University. He is a member of the AICPA, Texas Society of CPA's and the Houston Chapter of CPA's.
Richard C. Cilento – Director
Mr. Cilento serves as a director of the Company. He is currently the President, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of FuelQuest, Inc. FuelQuest provides on-demand supply chain management and tax automation software and services for suppliers, distributors, fuel buyers, and traders in Global Downstream Energy. Mr. Cilento brought a broad scope of experience in technology, operations and business development to his role as President and Chief Executive Officer of FuelQuest. He is a co-founder of The Bollard Group, which provides investment banking services to petroleum distribution companies and other high-growth business ventures. Prior to co-founding The Bollard Group, he held senior-management positions with several technology firms, including Xerox Corp, where he served as Vice President of Strategic Services. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Corporate Services for XLConnect Solutions, where he served as the lead technologist for advanced systems and managed the organization through its Initial Public Offering and its eventual merger with Xerox, forming Xerox Connect Solutions. Mr. Cilento began his career at NASA, where he and the Flight Planning team were responsible for redesigning NASA's Mission Control Center and implementing NASA's Software Management Plan. He holds a BS degree in Aeronautical and Astronomical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an MBA at the University of Houston.
Richard A. Robert, CPA - Director
Mr. Robert serves as a director of the Company. He is a financial executive with expertise in acquisitions, divestitures, economic analysis, capital formation via debt and equity markets, and financial risk management. Through the course of his career, he has dealt extensively with Wall Street analysts, investment bankers, and commercial bankers. He is currently the Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Vanguard Natural Resources, LLC which is a natural gas and oil production company focused on the development and exploitation of mature long-lived natural gas and oil reserves in the Appalachian basin. In addition, he is the current co-owner and co-founder of Cova Hand-Selected Wines, Custom Living Properties, LP and Lifewear Products, LP. He served as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of Massey Energy Company, a coal company in the United States. Mr. Robert was the Vice-President of Finance of Enbridge US, Inc. ("Enbridge") after Enbridge's acquisition of Midcoast Energy Resources, Inc (“Midcoast"). Enbridge is an energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. Mr. Robert served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Midcoast. Midcoast was a growth-oriented energy company engaged in the transportation, gathering, processing, and marketing of natural gas and other petroleum products. He was involved in the merger by and between Midcoast and Enbridge. Mr. Robert began his career with Arthur Andersen, LLP as an energy auditor. He holds a BBA from Southwest Texas State University with a Concentration in Accounting.
Jackson L. Wilson, Jr. – Director
Mr. Wilson serves as a director of the Company. From 1975 through August 2004, Mr. Wilson served in various roles at Accenture Ltd. including Managing Partner - Accenture Technology Ventures, Corporate Development Officer and, most recently, Chief Executive Officer – Business Process Outsourcing. In August 2004, Mr. Wilson retired. Mr. Wilson has served as a director and Audit Committee Chairman of i2 Technologies Inc. since April 2005, as a director of Seraph Group since June 2005 and as a director of Garrison Enterprises since May 2007. Mr. Wilson formerly served on several public company boards, including Accenture LTD, Security First and SeeBeyond Technologies and numerous private company boards.
Jeffery P. Ploen - Director
Mr. Ploen has served as a director of the Company since October 2006. He has been a member of the investment banking industry for over 25 years specializing in small or micro cap firms. He is a founding partner and is currently the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Iofina Natural Gas plc. He served as the former Chairman, President and CEO of Tonga Capital Corp. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Paradigm Holdings, Inc. He is the former hedge fund manager of the Olive Fund, LLC. Mr. Ploen held positions with several small cap brokerage houses from 1972 through 1994 including Engler and Budd, Cohig and Associates, Neidiger, Tucker and Brunner and Institutional Securities, Inc. For the past ten years, Mr. Ploen has served as the President of J. Paul Consulting Corp., a firm specializing in financing for small and micro cap firms.
About Tonga Capital and Momentum Biofuels
Tonga operates in the biodiesel industry through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Momentum Biofuels. Momentum is a start-up biodiesel producer focused on servicing the U.S. Gulf Coast and international biodiesel markets. Momentum plans to manufacture high quality, low cost and socially responsible biodiesel fuels that complement and integrate with the existing diesel fuel supply chain. Biodiesel is a domestic, renewable fuel for use in diesel engines that is derived from natural vegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but can be used in any concentration with petroleum-based diesel fuel in existing diesel engines without engine modification. Biodiesel is the fastest growing segment of the alternative fuel market and has been shown to reduce emissions of total unburned hydrocarbon by as much as 70% and total carbon monoxide and other particulate matter by almost 50%.
Momentum’s goal is to construct four (4) 20 million gallon biodiesel plants. The company has decided to build plants in the 20 million gallon range to maximize Federal and State production incentives. If the current structure of the incentives is changed or if its economic model shows efficiencies with increased plant size, Momentum can easily transition to larger plants because the Company’s technology is fully scalable. The Company’s construction plans and manufacturing processes utilize a multi-feedstock strategy to diversify financial risk and unanticipated feedstock supply limitations.
For more information, visit the Company's website at www.momentumbiofuels.com.
The company’s public competitors include Nova Biosource Inc. (AMEX: NBF), Kreido Biofuels, Inc. (OTCBB: KRBF), H2Diesel Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: HTWO), US BioEnergy Corp. (NASDAQ: USBE), Earth Biofuels, Inc. (OTCBB: EBOF), Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX), Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AVR) and VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE: VSE). Momentum feels that it has a competitive advantage in the biodiesel industry because of its low plant construction costs and extensive industry experience.
To the extent that this press release discusses expectations about market conditions, market acceptance, future sales, future financial performance, future disclosures, or otherwise statements about the future: such statements are forward-looking and are subject to a number of risk factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. These factors include the risks associated with our limited operating history, our ability to manage future acquisitions and expand operations, our ability to obtain contracts with suppliers of raw materials (for production of biodiesel fuel) and with distributors of our biodiesel fuel product, the risks inherent in the mutual performance of such supplier and distributor contracts, our performance and efficiency in producing biodiesel, our ability to raise necessary financing to execute the Company's business plans, and other risk factors discussed in the Business Description and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections of Tonga Capital, Corp.’s Annual Report on Form 10-KSB filed with the SEC on April 16, 2007, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-QSB and current reports on Form 8-K. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or simply state future results, performance or achievements of Tonga or Momentum and can be identified by the use of forward-looking language such as "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "plan," project," and variations of such words with similar meanings. Tonga does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances after the date of such statements.
