Executive Officers

Charif Souki (see Board of Directors)

Jean Abiteboul, Senior Vice President, International since November 2007. Since February 2006, Mr. Abiteboul has also served as Executive Director, Cheniere LNG Services S.A.R.L., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. From 1975 until February 2006, he held different positions within Gaz de France, a publicly-traded natural gas distribution company, including Secretary to the Board of Directors from 2004 until 2006; International Executive Vice President from 2003 to 2004; Executive Vice President, Gas Supply, Trading and Marketing from 2002 until 2003; and Executive Vice President, Gas Supply from 1998 to 2003. He also served on the Board of Directors of Tejas Power Corporation (USA), Gas Metropolitan (Canada), Sceptre Resources (Canada) and other affiliated companies of Gaz de France in Europe. Mr. Abiteboul graduated as an Engineer from Ecole Centrale de Lyon and obtained a Diploma in Economics from Université de Lyon.

Meg Gentle, Executive Vice President, Marketing since March 2014. Ms. Gentle previously served as Senior Vice President, and President of Cheniere Marketing, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company from June 2013 to March 2014. Prior to 2013, she served as CFO of Cheniere from March 2009 to June 2013. Prior to 2009, she served as Senior Vice President—Strategic Planning & Finance since February 2008. Prior to February 2008, she served as Vice President of Strategic Planning since September 2005 and Manager of Strategic Planning since June 2004. Prior to joining Cheniere in June 2004 as Manager, Strategic Planning, Ms. Gentle spent eight years in energy market development, economic evaluation, and long-range planning. She conducted international business development and strategic planning for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, a publicly-traded integrated energy company, from January 1998 to May 2004 and energy market analysis for Pace Global Energy Services, an energy management and consulting firm, from August 1996 to December 1998. Ms. Gentle is currently a director and Senior Vice President of Cheniere Partners GP, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. Ms. Gentle received her B.A. in Economics and International Affairs from James Madison University in 1996 and her M.B.A. from Rice University in 2004.

Anatol Feygin, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development since March 2014. Prior to joining Cheniere Mr. Feygin worked with Loews Corporation where he spent six years, most recently as their Vice President, Energy Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager. In these roles, he developed forecasts for Loews' three energy platforms (upstream, midstream and services), identifying risks and making capital allocation decisions. Prior to joining Loews, Mr. Feygin spent three years at Bank of America as Head of Global Commodity Strategy and as Senior Analyst covering natural gas pipelines and distributors.  Mr. Feygin began his career at J.P. Morgan Securities where he covered natural gas pipelines, distributors and electric utilities as a senior analyst.  Mr. Feygin earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University and his MBA in Finance from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at NYU.

Katie Pipkin, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Communications since March 2014. Ms. Pipkin previously served as Vice President of Finance. She has also held various positions in both finance and investor relations, primarily in the energy industry. In her current role at Cheniere, Ms. Pipkin participated on the team that secured the financing for the Sabine Pass LNG liquefaction project. Prior to joining Cheniere she was a sell-side analyst at Lehman Brothers in the regulated and unregulated Natural Gas sector; coverage included large cap c-corp and several midstream/pipeline MLPs.  Ms. Pipkin earned a B.B.A. degree in finance from the University of Texas. 

Greg W. Rayford, Senior Vice President and General Counsel since March 2011. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Rayford served as corporate partner of Andrews Kurth LLP with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and corporate and commercial transactions from July 2007 to February 2011. Prior to July 2007, he served as corporate counsel at Science Applications International Corporation, a scientific, engineering and technology applications company. Prior to that, Mr. Rayford was a corporate partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP where his experience included various strategic and leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, divestitures, venture capital and minority investments, and public and private offerings of debt and equity securities. Mr. Rayford earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School and his B.B.A. in Finance Investment and Banking from the University of Wisconsin.

R. Keith Teague, Executive Vice President, Asset Group since March 2014 and President of Cheniere Pipeline Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, since January 2005. Prior to March 2014, he served as Senior Vice President—Asset Group since April 2008. Prior to April 2008, he served as Vice President—Pipeline Operations since May 2006. He is responsible for the development, construction and operation of the Company’s LNG terminal and pipeline assets. Mr. Teague began his career with the Company in February 2004 as Director of Facility Planning. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Teague served as the Director of Strategic Planning for the CMS Panhandle Companies from December 2001 until September 2003. Mr. Teague is currently a director, President and Chief Operating Officer of Cheniere Partners GP. Mr. Teague received a B.S. in civil engineering from Louisiana Tech University and an M.B.A. from Louisiana State University.

Michael Wortley, Senior Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to becoming CFO, Mr. Wortley served as Vice President, Strategy and Risk of the Company since January 2013. Prior to January 2013, he served as Vice President – Business Development and President of Corpus Christi Liquefaction, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, since September 2011. Prior to September 2011, Mr. Wortley served as Vice President – Strategic Planning since January 2009 and Manager – Strategic New Business since August 2007. Prior to joining the Company in February 2005, Mr. Wortley spent five years in oil and gas corporate development, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, a publicly traded oil and gas exploration and production company. Mr. Wortley began his career as an Internal Auditor with Union Pacific Resources Corporation, a publicly traded oil and gas exploration and production company subsequently acquired by Anadarko. Mr. Wortley is currently a director and the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cheniere Energy Partners GP, LLC, a subsidiary of the Company, and a director and the Chief Financial Officer of Cheniere Energy Partners LP Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of the Company. Mr. Wortley will also be Chief Financial Officer of the general partner of Sabine Pass LNG, L.P. Mr. Wortley received a B.B.A. degree in Finance from Southern Methodist University.

Officers

Scott Abshire, Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Mr. Abshire joined Cheniere in February, 2005. Prior to joining Cheniere, he served as the Senior Director of Information Technology of Southern Union's CrossCountry Energy and Panhandle Energy - owner and operator of 18,000 miles of interstate pipelines and the Lake Charles LNG receiving terminal. Previous positions include Senior Director of Infrastructure, Gas Control and Field IT Operations for Florida Gas Transmission and Transwestern Pipeline and Director of Infrastructure for Northern Natural Gas and Northern Border Pipelines. Mr. Abshire spent 9 years with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) as a Senior Account Operations Manager supporting several different industries including energy, travel and transportation, manufacturing, engineering, retail and finance. Mr. Abshire received a B.S. degree from McNeese State University in 1989.

Daniel Belhumeur, Vice President, Tax. Mr. Belhumeur began his career with Cheniere Energy in 2007 as Domestic Tax Counsel.  He continued to work in that capacity until 2010 when he was named Tax Director of the Company.  In January of 2011, he was elected Vice President by Cheniere’s Board of Directors.  Prior to joining Cheniere, Mr. Belhumeur served in the tax departments of UHY Advisors LLC and Ernst & Young LLP. He holds a B.B.A. in Accounting and a Masters Degree in Tax Accounting from Texas A&M University.  In 2007, he earned his law degree from the University of Kansas where he also obtained certification in International Trade Law and Finance.

Ankit Desai, Vice President, Government Relations. Mr. Desai comes to Cheniere Energy, LLC from MWW Group where he served as a Senior Vice President and Strategic Counsel, managing the business portfolios and developing business leads for the privately-held and politically-active public affairs firm. Prior to his engagement with Cheniere, Mr. Desai held senior stations with the Health Information Center, an organization designed to promote the Affordable Care act, and with the life science venture capital firm Third Security, where he acted as Managing Director of the firm’s corporate communications and public relations enterprises. He’s also had a far-reaching political career, most recently as a lead fundraiser for Governor Mark Warner’s Forward Together Political Action Committee. Additionally, Mr. Desai has been part of the Senate Offices and Campaigns of then-Senator Joseph Biden, Senator John Kerry, Senator Frank Lautenberg and Senator Robert Torricelli.

J. Corey Grindal, Vice President – Supply.  Mr. Grindal joined Cheniere in 2013 and is responsible for the gas and power supply at the Cheniere facilities.  This includes acquiring and managing transportation capacity, enabling and managing the relationships with suppliers and markets, buying and hedging the required commodity, and managing any load disruptions.  He has over 20 years of experience in engineering and project management, operations, energy trading and risk management.  Prior to joining Cheniere, Mr. Grindal was with Deutsche Bank managing physical and financial trading for their natural gas business.  Prior to Deutsche Bank, he worked with Louis Dreyfus and the Tenneco/ El Paso regulated natural gas pipelines (Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Southern Natural Gas, and ANR Pipeline).  Mr. Grindal received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas.

Darron Granger, PE, Vice President of Engineering & Construction. Mr. Granger has more than 37 years of cryogenic engineering in project management and process design. His experience emphasis is in Owner's Engineer, Project Management, HAZOP analysis, hydrocarbon processing, LNG, LPG, refrigeration and cryogenic system designs and their start-ups. This background includes natural gas process design, hydrocarbon pipelines, cryogenic refrigeration systems, LNG/ LPG terminal design, LNG peakshaving plant design, utility plant and distribution systems, gas compressor stations, computer process simulations, and detail knowledge of the Codes for LNG facilities (NFPA-59A, 49 CFR Part 193, BS-EN-1473) and FERC requirements. Also field experience in pre-commissioning, start-ups, equipment testing, and system troubleshooting. He was a self-employed, Process Engineering Consultant for 14 years associated with LNG, primarily as the Owner's Engineer. Mr. Granger is also the developer/owner of several LNG related patents as well as the shipping simulation program; ShipSim ®.

Majida Mourad, Vice President, Government Relations. Majida Mourad served as President of Abraham & Roetzel LLC, and Vice President and Partner of The Abraham Group LLC, a strategic consulting firm focused on the international energy sector. Prior to joining The Abraham Group, Ms. Mourad served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy from January 2001 until February 2005. During that time Ms. Mourad focused on the United States Department of Energy international relations in the Middle East, Australia, Russia and a host of European and Asian countries. In this role, Ms. Mourad traveled extensively on behalf of the Department and on DOE delegations to the North American Initiative, the G8 Energy Ministerial Conferences, the Western Hemispheric and US-African Energy Ministerial Conferences as well as numerous other DOE initiatives. In addition, she performed key Department assignments with the International Energy Agency, International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Energy Forum. She also served as one of the Department’s senior officials for the Liquefied Natural Gas Summit, the International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. In 1999, she served in the Senate for U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham from Michigan. Ms. Mourad began her career in the legislative field in 1996 with Congressman Sonny Bono, and later to his successor, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack.

Albert G. Nahas, Vice President, International Government Affairs. Mr. Nahas heads up the Company's Washington, D.C., office, serving as a liaison between Cheniere and senior level political and national oil company leaders around the world. Albert Nahas has over thirty years of diplomatic experience, including service with the U.S. Department of State, as an Economic Officer, Chief of Mission, and on delegations to the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States. Mr. Nahas joined the United States Department of State in 1977 as a Foreign Service Officer and retired as Director for Iraq Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of State's Near East Bureau, Office of Iraq Affairs. Albert Nahas received his Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from the University of Montreal in 1972 and his Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University on 1976. Mr. Nahas is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including the Superior Honor Award, and the Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Award for innovative improvement of business climate for U.S. Companies abroad.

Patricia Outtrim, Vice President, Governmental and Regulatory Affairs. Ms. Outtrim is responsible for all government and regulatory affairs and oversees the Environmental, Health and Safety groups at Cheniere.  She has over 26 years of experience in project management including site selection, development, hazard/risk assessment, LNG technology, LNG fuel tank analysis, LNG underground tanks, cost analysis and code compliance audits.  Prior to joining Cheniere she was president of Project Technical Liaison Associates, Inc.  Ms. Outtrim assisted in the site development, permitting, expansion or reauthorization of seven of the LNG import terminals currently operating in the U.S.

Ann Raden, Vice President, Human Resources and Administration. Ms. Raden joined Cheniere in June, 2005 and has over 25 years of experience in Human Resources management. She spent the first seventeen years of her career in Commercial Banking followed by 10 years in Energy. Prior to joining Cheniere, Ms. Raden was employed with El Paso Corporation in various capacities including Vice President of Human Resources for El Paso Production and Non-regulated Operations and Vice President of Human Resources for El Paso Merchant Energy. Prior to her experience with El Paso she served as Vice President of Human Resources and Administration for ANR Pipeline Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Coastal Corporation. Ms. Raden received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and also completed the University of Michigan Human Resources Executive Program.

Khaled A. Sharafeldin, Vice President – Internal Audit. Prior to joining Cheniere in April 2012, Mr. Sharafeldin served as Director of Quality Management at Pride International, Inc. From 2005 to 2010 he served as Director of Internal Audit also with Pride International, Inc. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Director of Internal Audit at BJ Services Company. From 1996 to 2003, he served in several financial management roles at Schlumberger Limited. From 1989 to 1996, he was employed by the public accounting firm Price Waterhouse LLP in Cairo, Egypt and Houston, Texas. Mr. Sharafeldin received his Bachelor of Commerce from Cairo University in Egypt. He is also a Certified Public Accountant in the State of California.

Len Travis, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Travis, prior to joining Cheniere, served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Well Services, LLC, an upstream oil and gas service provider, from January 2012 through August 2012. Prior to that time, Mr. Travis was the Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of Pride International, Inc., an offshore drilling company, from December 2006 until June 2011, when Pride International, Inc. was sold to Ensco, Plc.  Prior to joining Pride, Mr. Travis, served BMC Software as Vice President, Controller since May 2004. Mr. Travis was promoted to Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of BMC Software in September 2004.  From 2001 through 2004, Mr. Travis was Vice President, Corporate Controller of Arris Group, Inc. From 1998 through 2001, he was the Finance Director-Europe of RELTEC Corporation and the Vice President of Finance of Marconi Services-Americas, a division of RELTEC's successor, Marconi, Plc.  Prior to 1998, Mr. Travis held various controller positions in finance and operations at RELTEC Corporation and spent two years at Ernst & Whinney.  Mr. Travis is a CPA and a CMA, achieved his undergraduate degree in Accounting from Northern Illinois University, and has his MBA in Finance from The University of Chicago.