TEP Advisory Board
General (Ret.) Charles H. Jacoby, Jr.
Former Commander, United States Northern Command
Senior Vice Chairman and Partner, Capital Peak Asset Management
In 2017, General Charles “Chuck” H. Jacoby, Jr. joined the Board of Advisors for Thermal Energy Partners, LLC and has been serving as Senior Vice Chairman of Capitol Peak Asset Management since 2015. General Jacoby brings over 36 years of experience leading military, government, and international organizations. Prior to retiring from the United States Army, he was the first Army officer to command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Northern Command, where he reorganized the 1,800-person bi-national and joint headquarters and integrated 35 federal, state and non-governmental organizations for the defense and security of North America.
General Jacoby has commanded at all levels in joint and Army assignments, from company to geographic combatant command, including combat operations in Grenada with the 82nd Airborne Division; Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan; and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq. He also served as an instructor and assistant professor in the Department of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. As the deputy commander of Combined/Joint Task Force-76 from 2004 to 2005, he was responsible for the 18,000 troops conducting combat operations in Afghanistan. As the commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq from 2009 to 2010, he commanded the 135,000 troops conducting combat operations across Iraq. General Jacoby served as the director for Strategic Plans and Policy for the Joint Staff, where he led planning for coalition and NATO operations in Libya, assisted in the Middle East peace process and served as the U.S. military representative to the United Nations.
His military decorations include awards from the governments of Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and Colombia. An avid writer and historian, he has penned scholarly monographs on the efficacy of air campaigns and the organization of modern brigade combat teams and articles on ballistic missile defense, strategic deterrence, and institutional agility and risk. General Jacoby has been involved with several organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the El Pomar Foundation, the Association of the United States Army and the United States Naval Institute. He is also the distinguished chair of the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy.
General Jacoby is currently writing a book with his Capitol Peak partner, Leo Tilman on the critical business capabilities of agility and risk intelligence to succeed in the global economy.
General Jacoby holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy, an M.A. in history from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in military arts and science from the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and an M.A. in strategic studies from the National War College at Fort McNair, Washington, DC.
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Manny Diaz
Former Mayor of Miami, President of US Conference of Mayors & Board Member Bloomberg Family Foundation
Former Miami Mayor, Manny Diaz joined the Board of Advisors in 2014. Mayor Diaz understands the need to develop smarter infrastructure projects that include plans for renewable energy. A force in local, state and national politics for nearly three decades, Manny Diaz was first elected City of Miami Mayor in 2001, having never before held elective office. He was reelected to a second term in 2005, and was chosen to lead the United States Conference of Mayors as its president in 2008. Mayor Diaz developed a vision for Miami as an international City that embodies diversity, economic opportunity, effective customer service and a highly rated quality of life. To achieve this goal, he re-engineered Miami government from top to bottom. During his two-term tenure, Diaz was recognized for completely transforming the City of Miami, and for many nationally recognized innovative programs in the areas of urban design, sustainability and green initiatives, education, infrastructure investment, affordable housing, law enforcement, poverty and homelessness, and arts and culture.
Diaz is a member of the Board of Directors of CBS Outdoor Americas, Inc., Eastern Air Lines, Inc. and Intercredit Bank, N.A. He also serves on a wide range of commissions and cultural, educational and volunteer boards including Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics Senior Advisory Committee, Bloomberg Family Foundation, University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research, City Year U.S.A., Miami Foundation, League of Conservation Voters, Urban Land Institute Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use, Mayors’ Institute on City Design, Perez Art Museum Miami, Town Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, NewDEAL, New Leaders Council, Fair Districts Florida, Florida After School Network, Sustainable Cities Institute, U.S. Green Building Council- South Florida Chapter; Florida Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and the Florida Steering Committee for The Children’s Movement of Florida. He is a former member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council/U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In recognition of his efforts, Diaz has received almost 100 awards and recognitions including, America’s Best Leaders by US News and World Report and The Center for Public Leadership (Kennedy School of Government); the Urban Innovator of the Year by the Manhattan Institute; University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research- Urban Leadership Award; Americans for the Arts-National Award for Local Arts Leadership; American Architectural Foundation Keystone Award; The American Institute of Architects Presidential Citation; Top 100 City Innovators Worldwide by UBM Future Cities; Hispanic Business- 50 Influentials; United States Conference of Mayors- President’s Award; Alvah H. Chapman, Jr., Award of Excellence, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; the AIA (Miami Chapter)- Governmental Leadership Award; The Congress for the New Urbanism- Groves Award; Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce Power Leader of the Year and Green Visionary Awards; the Government Award by Hispanic Magazine; the Business Leader of the Year Award by South Florida CEO Magazine; Poder Hispanic Magazine Climate Award of the Year and was named an Outstanding American by Choice by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
Mayor Diaz served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, and is the author of Miami Transformed: Rebuilding America One Neighborhood, One City at a Time.
Mayor Diaz is a senior partner at Lydecker Diaz in Miami, Florida.
William Wechsler, CFA
Vice Chairman, Capitol Peak Asset Management
Mr. Wechsler joined the Board of Advisors in 2016, and brings to TEP his decades of experience in senior leadership positions in both the private and public sectors. Mr. Wechsler is Vice Chairman of Capitol Peak Asset Management, whose mission is to harness the power of public-private partnerships and the capital markets to foster critical infrastructure projects that spur economic growth and job creation on a significant scale. Earlier in his career Mr. Wechsler was a Managing Director of Greenwich Associates, a boutique management consultancy specializing in the financial services industry, where he led the firm’s global asset management practice.
Over the years Mr. Wechsler has also served in multiple government positions, including as Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury, as Director for Transnational Threats at the National Security Council and, most recently, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combatting Terrorism. At the Pentagon he directly managed a budget of $1.6 billion and helped provide civilian oversight of a command with a budget of approximately $11 billion, while advising the Secretary on sensitive operations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Mr. Wechsler is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has contributed chapters to two edited volumes and has been published in the Financial Times, Pensions & Investments, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs and The National Interest. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the CFA Institute.
Hervé Touati, PhD
CEO, Virgrid
Dr. Touati is currently CEO of Virgrid GmbH, a Swiss-based consultancy in the energy sector. He previously held senior executive positions with Shell, E.ON, Rocky Mountain Institute and was the co-founder and first CEO of Energy Web Foundation. At E.ON and then at Shell, Hervé built from scratch two distributed energy businesses, two solar businesses, one biomass business and one biogas business.
While at Rocky Mountain Institute, he was the sponsor and first Chairman of Black Bear Energy. He also created the Business Renewable Center, now renamed REBA, for which he received the C.K. Prahalad Award for global business sustainability leadership in 2017.
His deep energy expertise takes its roots in his 13 years at McKinsey, serving energy clients in Europe and North America. Hervé brings to Thermal Energy Partners unequaled insights into the energy transition – from fossil fuels to renewable energy, microgrids and electric vehicles – enabling communities to enjoy cleaner, more affordable and more resilient energy.