John Shepherd and Michele Martin join Ankura's restructuring practice
Energy sector experts John Shepherd and Michele Martin have joined the turnaround and restructuring practice of Ankura, a global management consulting firm, as senior managing directors. Shepherd will be based in Houston and Martin will be based in Dallas.
Shepherd brings more than 27 years of experience in energy private equity, corporate finance, and M&A advisory – with deep expertise across upstream, midstream, oilfield services, and power.
He previously co-founded and served as managing partner of Strata Energy Investments for five years. The firm was backed by Reservoir Capital and focused on investing equity and preferred capital into midstream energy businesses and projects.
Before that Shepherd spent ten years at GE Capital, where he was a managing director co-managing equity investing in energy infrastructure in North America. Before that, he spent 11 years at Morgan Stanley as an investment banker and led the midstream practice.
Shepherd has an MBA and bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
Martin brings over 20 years of experience in consulting, investing, portfolio management, and business development in the energy industry.
She joins Ankura from Auburn Energy Management, a Fort Worth-based contract operating and technical advisory firm, where she was managing director and business development leader. In her three-and-a-half years at Auburn, Martin built the business from a startup into a $13-million revenue company.
Before that, she spent nearly 20 years at GE, including 14 years at GE Financial Services. Martin latterly served as SVP of oil and gas portfolio management/origination, responsible for meeting financial objectives and managing client relationships for over $550 million in assets under management, including troubled equity investments.
Before that Martin was SVP of oil and gas equity underwriting at GE Financial Services, screening over $6 billion of new investment opportunities.
She holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BS in chemical engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
"Ankura is extremely pleased to welcome Michele and John to our team," said Scott Pinsonnault, senior managing director. "As we continue to bolster our energy offerings, we look forward to the valuable expertise and perspective John and Michele bring to our firm and to our clients.”
Ankura has more than 1,500 employees in 30+ global offices. The firm focuses on corporate performance and risk management – providing consulting services across compliance, investigations, forensics, technology, turnaround and restructuring, and corporate strategy.
