About
Refined Products | Renewables | Critical Minerals
Who we are.
Hudson Partners is focused on helping Romania and its neighbors, especially Ukraine and Moldova, address their energy security needs, whether for the immediate supply of refined oil products or to realize a more sustainable, lower carbon energy future.
Ambassador (retired) Robert Cekuta
President
Hudson Partners President Robert Cekuta has extensive international experience, including as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan (2015 - 2018). Deeply engaged in advancing high-profile global energy projects, trade policy initiatives and
agreements, commercial sales, as well as other complex foreign policy and security matters, Amb. Cekuta’s positions in the Department of State included Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources as well as Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Energy, Sanctions, and Commodities. His overseas postings included senior positions in the U.S. Embassies in Germany and Japan where he oversaw the full range of economic, commercial, non-proliferation, and science relations.
In addition, he was Deputy Chief of Mission in Albania, and held posts in Kabul, Vienna, Baghdad, Johannesburg, and Sana’a, Yemen. He served on the boards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), where he also chaired the IEA’s Standing Group on Long-
term Cooperation charged with anticipating global energy developments.
Ambassador Cekuta is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, Professor of Diplomatic Practice at American University, and has lectured and
published widely on energy security and other important international issues.
Ambassador (retired) Allan Mustard
Board Member
Ambassador Mustard capped 38 years of diplomatic service as U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan from January 2015 to June 2019. A fluent Russian speaker, Ambassador Mustard spent roughly a third of his career as an American diplomat either in the former Soviet Union or in Washington dealing with that region. His other postings included Vienna, where he covered seven countries of Central Europe; Istanbul, where he covered Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon; Mexico City; and New Delhi, where he covered India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Ambassador Mustard received the Presidential Meritorious Service Award five times; U.S. Department of Agriculture's highest award, the Distinguished Honor Award, once; USDA's second-highest award, the Superior Honor Award, twice; and numerous lesser U.S. government awards, as well as the Grand Golden Medal of Merit from the president of Austria, the highest decoration Austria can bestow on a foreigner. Ambassador Mustard holds degrees from Grays Harbor College, the University of Washington (Seattle), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned a certificate in Russian from Leningrad State University. He was chairman of the board of the OpenStreetMap Foundation 2019-2021, and is currently on the board of directors of American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras.
Michael Pochna
Board Member
Michael Pochna has a long and distinguished career in venture capital, finance, and asset management. Having attended Le Rosey and Deerfield Academy, and since graduating from Harvard in 1960, he has founded diverse enterprises and served on numerous boards both as an advisor and as an active part of management. During this time, Mr. Pochna was a partner at Lansdowne Limited in Paris, Asian Oceanic Group in Hong Kong, and Dexter Capital in New York.
Among his successful activities, Mr. Pochna and a group of investors took control of Diversified Industries in 1985, a NYSE listed manufacturer. With Mr. Pochna serving on the Board and as President of Diversified Industries International, the company was restructured and taken private, resulting in the creation of United Recycling Industries, which was sold in 2007 to the Sims Group. Mr. Pochna also formed and managed several real estate partnerships in Tudor City, New York from 1990 to 2000. For the past ten years Mr. Pochna has concentrated on asset management and financial services through Dexter Capital Limited where he is Managing Director. Dexter Capital has past and ongoing advisory relationships with Guggenheim Partners, The Carlyle Group, Partners Group, The Argent Group, Omega Advisors, BSI/Ifabanque, AES Corporation and others.
Throughout his career, Mr. Pochna developed numerous projects in culture, arts, and entertainment. In 1980 he became President of MSquare International and developed several New York properties, including the Orpheum Theater and the Minetta Lane Theater. He has produced various films including 'Key Exchange for Fox and 'Starlight' for Disney. He is active in classical music and has produced many concerts and events as well as recordings for the Naxos label, one of which was nominated for a Grammy. Mr. Pochna is a member of the Recording Academy. He divides his time between New York and France.
Daniel P. Puls
Board Member
Daniel Puls has served as the President and CEO of PASS LLC since it was founded in 2014. In senior roles, Mr. Puls has partnered with governments, multilateral organizations, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, philanthropies, businesses, and nonprofits to develop and implement complex cross-border initiatives focused on saving lives and alleviating suffering. Mr. Puls has led in its growth in size, influence, and relevance. He serves as an action oriented senior advisor to high-level officials, private sector executives, and leaders of non-governmental organizations.
Previously, Dan served as Vice President of the Atlantic Council, Senior Director of the EastWest Institute, and senior executive positions with Freedom House and International Relief and Development. He serves and has served on national and international boards including the Roberto Clemente Health Clinic, Society of International Business Fellows, Reserva Del Mar Foundation, Megatrends Foundation, and Rural Development Foundation.
Brett Heenan
Board Member
Brett Heenan brings many years of successful experience in oil trading. Brett was trading manager at Verum Plus SA for five years handling fuel oil, VGO and distillates with over 4.0 million metric tons purchased, priced, hedged and shipped to U.S., Asian, and European destinations. Prior to that he was trading manager at Optima Energy SA trading in fuel oil and VGO from Iraq, Russia, and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union for markets in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Brett joined LITASCO in 2004 to develop the company’s Fuel Oil and Feedstock Trading Desk. Becoming the desk’s Trading Manager in 2006, Brett developed and managed LITASCO`s team of 15 traders and key support personnel in offices in Geneva, Rotterdam, Singapore and New York. Under his leadership the desk became a global trader with over 40 million metric tons of physical product traded yearly, and he developed basic hedging into a full paper trading profit center on the fuel book along with managing the trading teams’ VaR, credit, and trading mandates within corporate limits. He also implemented the Global Book Policy for trading, risk management and pertinent LUKOIL key performance indicators. Brett’s earlier positions include oil products trading manager at Tyumen Oil company, Manager of Business Development for high sulphur crude oil at Shell Trading (STASCo), crude oil and aluminum trading with the South
African firm Metalcor, and opening the commodities trading office for Aletri Limited in Kyiv. Now living with his family in Geneva, Brett holds a degree in
Russian Language from Tulane University, and has pursued coursework at the College of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Oxford and at the College of
Petroleum and Energy Studies in Cape Town. He speaks French as well as being fluent in Russian, and enjoys sailing, skiing, history, reading, and cooking.
Specific projects
Specific projects include needed new facilities to store, supply, and transport diesel and heating oil. Another is construction of major solar and wind-powered renewable energy projects along with developing new ways to handle and recycle lithium ion batteries — all essential to a lower carbon future.
New sources of minerals
Hudson Partners has invested as well in developing new sources of rare earths and other minerals critical to today’s economy and prosperity and to the security Americans, Romanians, and others look for in their future.
Located in the US and Europe
A U.S. company seated in Texas with offices in Washington DC, Miami, London, and Bucharest, Hudson Partners brings together in-depth market knowledge, strong, extensive experience in realizing and financing major capital projects, deep expertise in global logistics, and proven ability to meet the needs of Romania and its neighbors in today’s multifaceted, evolving energy environment.
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