HamiltonClark |About|Team|John J. McKenna

John J. McKenna

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director

Washington, DC

John is a career energy and sustainable technologies commercial and investment banker. He co-founded the predecessor to HamiltonClark in 1989.

Prior to starting the firm, he spent 24 years in corporate banking and also spent three years managing a venture-financed start-up. Prior experience includes:

  • CFO of STM Power, Inc., an energy technologies and methane destruction company based in Ann Arbor, MI
  • Managing Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities where he managed the U.S. Energy Investment Banking Group in Houston, and the U.S Project Finance and Privatization Group in Washington, DC
  • Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, where he managed the Corporate Finance office in Houston
  • Managing Director at Dean Witter Reynolds (now Morgan Stanley) where he managed the Energy Group in Houston
  • Vice President at Citibank in New York where he managed a team in the Petroleum Department. He had primary responsibility for the Bank’s relationship with Exxon, Shell Oil Company, Atlantic Richfield, Amoco, Occidental Petroleum, Schlumberger, Fluor Corporation, Koch Industries, and Petrobras.

Corporate Boards, Non-Profits, and Professional Associations

Previously a member of the Boards of:

  • Equus Corporation, a business development company (now NYSE: EQS)
  • Proler International Corp., which at the time of its acquisition was the world’s largest scrap steel recycling company (formerly NYSE: PS)
  • STM Power, Inc. a venture-financed, energy technology company that commercialized the world’s leading kinematic Stirling engine
  • Technical Advisory Committee of the joint U.S. DOE/USDA Biomass Research and Development Initiative
  • The Alley Theatre, Houston
  • Houston Grand Opera
  • University of St. Thomas (Houston)

Education, Teaching, Securities Licenses

  • Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University
  • Adjunct Professor at the McDonough Graduate School of Business at Georgetown University where he taught the course titled Project Finance.
  • General Securities Principal and holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 licenses.
  • Lives in Washington, DC