Who We Are
Jeffrey Price
President and Founder
With over 40 years of hands-on experience as a deal-maker, Jeffrey P. Price offers interdisciplinary expertise in assessment of investment opportunities, setting of strategies, marketing plans, financings, and exits. Mr. Price has significant career experiences in transportation, telecoms & media, real estate, and oil & gas.
Since attending Wharton (M.B.A. – Finance 1972), Mr. Price has concentrated his career experiences in networked industries, commencing with railroads and airlines, then onward into financial institutions, and then finally by the late 1980s into telecommunications. Educated in finance and economics, his career has been centered around transactions-oriented projects. Indeed, he has voluminous experiences in a “mode” of raising capital for enterprises seeking to expand their horizons. Mr. Price was an accomplished deal-maker during those industries’ intense consolidation phases.
As a former CEO and investment banker, Mr. Price is a proven project-leader and manager. He is skilled in leading deal teams, acting as a “special advisor”, managing financial analyses, valuations, preparation of business plans and investment memoranda. He is well versed in marshaling requisite internal and external resources required to execute a project, especially start-ups, acquisitions and taking investment positions in strategic assets.
Through First Keystone Energy Group, Mr. Price has founded six partnerships with total equity capital of $25MM. Each Partnership amassed a portfolio of drilling prospects concentrated in West Texas and Central Oklahoma, but forays as far as Alaska and the Gulf Coast of Texas were included. The basic business proposition was to co-invest with trusted small entrepreneurial operators — a paradigm that worked exceptionally well when oil prices hovered in the $70s per barrel and above. That era ended in late ’14 and First Keystone’s days as an investor in upstream oil and gas plays went into a sunset. Currently, First Keystone manages one active limited partnership which is in the wind-down phase. (The older partnerships have been liquidated or merged and have paid distributions to their partners in excess of 60% to 225% of original invested capital.) Mr. Price’s areas of concentration in the Pecos Project are investor relations & financing, strategy, business development, tenant acquisition, planning and quality control.
Mr. Price, based in part on his prior career experiences as a registered securities principal and founder of successful entrepreneurial enterprises, believes strongly in rigorous reporting to his partners and investors, both qualitatively and quantitatively. He engages high-quality legal and accounting firms to work with his enterprises in transaction processing, establishment of the organization and ongoing reporting of results.
Mr. Price resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and maintains a second residence in Charlotte, Vermont. He is an “outdoor enthusiast” as well as a follower of both sports and the media. He travels frequently domestically to the Rockies Region and abroad (having visited 50 countries).
William Currier
In his 35 year career in the field of civil engineering/land development design, Mr. Currier has accrued a wealth of experience in design, permitting and construction administration in both public and private sector development. Upon graduation from Vermont Technical College (AAS – 1982), Mr. Currier relocated to Austin, TX to begin a 20+ year period of professional development, growth and experience in the executional components of Land Development and Environmental permitting. His capacity to understand, process and deliver development projects as a part of a consulting team, yielded numerous, successfully implemented municipal roadway and utility projects, along with a broad array of private sector projects, ranging from retail to single and multi-family developments.
His experience in Environmental permitting developed in a period of employment with a firm specializing in Industrial permitting throughout the state of Texas. Mr. Currier performed as a key team member in procuring permits to operate for Municipal and Hazardous Waste Facilities throughout the state, along with air quality permitting for many of the chip manufacturing facilities in Austin.
After a return to Vermont, and prior to joining First Keystone, Mr. Currier continued in the field of land development consulting and permitting for an additional 12 years, continuing to hone his skills, while enhancing his knowledge of local development permitting.
Mr Currier’s role at First Keystone is as Project Manager for the development of the First Keystone Pecos Industrial Park. He is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the project, including engineering, contractor relations, and local and federal permitting from design through construction. He is the First Keystone Team’s troubleshooter.
Mr. Currier enjoys the outdoors and being active. He has travelled extensively through the lower 48 National Park system, hiking and biking.
Nina Ritchie
Project Manager
With a proven record of delivering effective results across diverse corporate initiatives and business units, both on the strategic and tactical level, Nina Ritchie has a breadth of experience in several industries. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in finance at Tulane University (BSM ’05), with a minor in Art History, Ms. Ritchie worked in both B2B and back-office roles in the financial services industry. Since attending Vanderbilt University’s Owen graduate School of Management (M.B.A – Operations, Strategy, & Marketing, 2014), she worked in the food and beverage industry as Director of Strategic Initiatives in dynamic, matrix organizations wearing many hats and managing unique business units and/or profit centers.
Ms. Ritchie spearheads the administration of First Keystone’s financial affairs, especially forecasting, budget management, reporting, and banking matters.