USAEA Founders

Barry H. Fromm Chairman and CEO - Value Recovery Group of Companies

Barry Fromm draws from extensive experience as an entrepreneur, Chairman and CEO of Value Recovery Group and its portfolio companies. He has a long standing history of developing public-private partnerships that align the incentives of both parties to produce high quality results through a documented history of clear communication and highly responsive action in all agency interactions. He has developed partnerships with FDIC, the Resolution Trust Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of The United States and the Ohio Attorney General.

Prior to his current role at Value Recovery Group, Mr. Fromm served as corporate counsel for a savings & loan association, and served as a financial institutions management consultant for Deloitte and Price Waterhouse. He also served as an asset valuation and asset management contractor to the Resolution Trust Corporation, where he managed a $200 million portfolio of non-performing loans and real estate.

He earned a JD from The University of Akron Blake McDowell School of Law, and bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Butler University.

Rob Clem CEO - Phase 5

Robert Clem has over 20 years experience leading and managing multi-million dollar technical and operational projects and organizations. In 1996, Robert joined A.G. Edwards, Inc. as a Vice President to create, staff, and lead a new department of internet services. Since 2000, he has been the Principal at Phase 5 Consulting, where he has personally led or overseen the design and implementation of over 50 Program Management Offices (PMOs) and over $1 billion in project budgets across more than 20 industry verticals, including Energy, Healthcare, Information Technology, Research, Automotive, Insurance, Construction, Consumer Packaged Goods, Tech Transfer, Financial Services and Government.

Robert has become nationally recognized for his expertise in developing industry-first solutions centered on the disintermediation of outdated value chains. He is an expert in applying project management methodology to the use of management tools, techniques and reporting services, to help convert client strategies into action. Robert has been a pioneer in using web-based project collaboration tools to bring work teams and stakeholders together, both nationally and internationally, to achieve industry changing missions.

Robert is a Certified Project Management Professional and holds a bachelor's degree in Electronic Media from Missouri State University.

USAEA Senior Management

Keith A. Conroy Senior Vice President - USA Energy Advisors, LLC and Value Recovery Group, Inc.

Keith Conroy has extensive global experience in economic development and governmental relations. Through his service as the Assistant Deputy Director of the Ohio Department of Development, he oversaw the Economic Development Division with a budget of $253 million, managed a loan/bond portfolio of over $400 million, and advised the Lt. Governor and Governor on key issues that affected businesses in Ohio. In this capacity, Mr. Conroy served on the Development Finance Advisory Council (DFAC) and the Board of the Ohio Water Development Authority. He was instrumental part of the Governor's Energy Task Force, attracting a $1.2 billion energy project to the State of Ohio. He was one of the architects of the State of Ohio's Advanced Energy Loan Program. Throughout his career he has worked extensively with government agencies at all levels, from the US Department of Energy, to the Ohio Department of Air Quality Development Authority, as well as government agencies abroad.

Keith has expertise in designing and orchestrating public policy initiatives, economic development projects and incentive programs. Additionally, he is skilled at managing complex public-private projects, as well as portfolio administration.

Keith is a Certified Economic Development Finance Professional through the National Development Council. He attended the Japanese Language Institute of Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, and earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio University.

Ralph E. Griffith Senior Vice President - USA Energy Advisors, LLC and Value Recovery Group, Inc.

Mr. Griffith has extensive experience in investment banking, corporate lending, and investment management. Through his work with the Export-Import Bank of The United States, he has recovered assets, restructured loans and prepared loan guarantees. For 20 years, he served in senior corporate lending roles at Ameritrust, Bank One and Huntington Bank, where he performed marketing and strategic planning for commercial mortgage securities. He also served as a Managing Director at Helston Capital, an investment bank specializing in corporate finance advisory, debt and equity financing and restructuring for privately held companies. Mr. Griffith was also a Principal in OhioAngels.com, introducing early stage technology companies to pre-qualified private investors and professional firms, and assisting these early stage companies with planning and access to capital.

Ralph has extensive expertise in complex financial transactions, fund administration and asset recovery. He is also skilled at restructuring and turnaround management and has served as a receiver in Ohio.

He earned his MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management, and a bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Richard Rastetter, Jr. Financial Analyst - USA Energy Advisors, LLC

Richard Rastetter brings 30 years of experience in commercial banking and management consulting. At Huntington National Bank, he led a commercial lending division and a credit administration department, served as the Chief Credit Policy Officer and founded the investment banking. His consulting experience through Andersen Consulting, Fidelity Information Services, and Crowe Horvath focused exclusively on financial institutions. He currently serves as the quality assurance officer for the State of Ohio Advanced Energy Jobs Stimulus Loan Program.

Richard has extensive expertise in financial transactions and in dealing with financial institutions, including commercial lending, credit administration, program design and process improvement.

Richard holds an MBA and bachelor's in International Finance from Northwestern University, a JD from Drake University.

Tom Hoffman, PMP Certified Project Management Professional

Tom Hoffman has over 25 years of experience as a project management professional. He spent 20 years at Citi and Mastercard managing IT development projects for financial data management and reporting systems. At Citicorp Mortgage, Tom oversaw data processing reporting and analysis efforts, automating internal procedures to deliver mortgage risk data to multiple departments. He tracked and reported mortgage portfolio statistics and trends from loan origination to delinquency to foreclosure and disposal while helping to select mortgages of various credit qualities to develop portfolios for sale.

Tom is an expert in both the full project management life-cycle and software development life-cycle to ensure delivery of mission critical credit data management systems. He specializes in production problem resolution, cross-functional technical and business issues, and project changes that impact resources.

Tom is a Certified Project Management Professional. He earned an MBA from St. Louis University and a bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Missouri - Columbia.