Team

Andre Bhatia shares overall responsibilities for all management and investment activities of the firm. Andre founded the firm in 2024. Andre has over 20 years of private equity and merger and acquisition transactional experience having been involved in over 20 transactions. Prior to founding Symbiome Capital, Andre worked at ACON investments as managing partner investing in industrial, oil & gas, retail and telecom companies among others. Geographically his investing experience spans both the United States and Latin America. Prior to ACON, Andre worked at TPG/Newbridge private equity and before that worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch.

Andre received his BA Magna Cum Laude with a double major in Computer Science and Economics and an MA in Economics from Columbia University.

Andre served on the boards of Northern Tier Energy (gas stations, refinery, pipeline), Mariner Energy (exploration & production oil & gas), Cabo (fiber to the home), Signal International (offshore rig repair and construction), BSM (service provider to wind farm, road, port, and civil construction), Fiesta Supermarkets, Dori Alimentos (snack company), Sapore (food service), Fairway Media (outdoor advertising) among others.

Marcus Varotti is a partner at Symbiome Capital Partners. Marcus has over two decades of private equity and M&A experience in Latin America, United States and Europe. Most recently, Marcus was the Head of M&A for Grupo Conexão, one of the leading independent internet service providers in Brazil, where he led the initial acquisition of two ISPs backed by ACON Investments LLC, followed by 12 add-on acquisitions, five-fold growth in subscribers and a successful exit.

Prior to that, he was a Principal at ACON Investments, sourcing, evaluating and negotiating investments in Brazil across a variety of sectors. Before joining ACON Investments, Marcus was responsible for overseeing the portfolio of investments of Newbridge Latin America (TPG Capital affiliate).

Marcus also assisted Indigo Partners, a global transportation private equity fund, in its review of transportation investment opportunities. Prior to joining Newbridge in 2000, he was in the private equity and investment banking groups of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (now UBS) in New York and London.

Marcus serves and has served on the board of directors of Propasa (paper/packaging), Milano (clothing retailer), La Corona (chocolate company), Bristol Group (P&C insurer), Diveo (data center), Pluna (airline), Peter Piper Pizza (restaurant chain), Beyond Angels (angel investing network) and Fresh 52 (food producer).

Marcus is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish. He graduated summa cum laude from Cedarville University with a B.A. in Finance and Accounting.

Stephen Woerner is an operating partner responsible for identifying, conducting due diligence and participating on the board of the companies acquired. Stephen has over 30 years of experience in the electric and gas utility industry. Most recently Stephen was the President (Divisional CEO) of National Grid of New England. It is a British muti-national electric and gas investor-owned utility. The New England Division encompasses 1.4 million electric utility customers, 900,000 gas customers a multi-state transmission network, a fleet of liquified natural gas facilities and a Canadian transmission interconnection for hydro imports.

Prior to National Grid, Stephen served as President and COO for Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) with 1.3 million electric and 700,000 gas customers. He also held positions as Chief Information Officer and Chief Integration Officer for Constellation Energy and led its integration into Exelon.

His responsibilities included various executive, leadership and technical roles, encompassing responsibilities in engineering, customer service, operations, supply chain, information technology, emergency preparedness, construction management, corporate transformation, strategic planning, and mergers and acquisitions. He served on the Edison Electric Institute CEO Policy Committee for Reliability, Security and Business Continuity.

Stephen has an MBA from Loyola University of Maryland and his BA in Electrical Engineering Drexel University.

Kyle is an adviser to Symbiome Capital and has over 20 years of experience in the electric and gas utility and power generation industries, and 30 years of M&A experience. Most recently Kyle was the SVP of Corporate Finance and Development at Exelon (NASDAQ: EXC) where he was responsible for the Corporate Development, Corporate Financial Planning, Treasury, and Insurance functions. Previously, Kyle served as SVP and Chief Development Officer for Exelon, where he was responsible for all mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and strategic transactions for the company.

As the Chief Development Officer of Exelon, Kyle led the Corporate Development group in the origination, evaluation, approval process and execution of transactions for the company. Over the course of that time, the Corporate Development team led over 65 closed transactions with a total equity value of over $38 billion (including the acquisitions of Constellation Energy and Pepco Holdings, Inc., and the spin-off of Constellation (NASDAQ: CEG) from Exelon), growing Exelon from two to six utilities.

Prior to joining Exelon in 2003, Kyle worked in the global mergers and acquisitions practice at Lehman Brothers in New York.

Kyle earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Ingrid Chou is a Vice President at Symbiome Capital Partners, bringing nearly a decade of private investment transaction experience in companies focused on energy transition and climate strategies.

Prior to joining Symbiome Capital, she was a vice president at SEAF, a fund manager that provides growth-oriented capital and operational support to SMEs across developing markets globally. At SEAF, Ingrid played a key role in fund formation, deal evaluation and execution, and the management of credit funds. She also worked closely with the executive team to develop the firm’s climate investment strategy, focusing on energy transition and nature-based solutions. Prior to joining SEAF, Ingrid was an associate at the Global Environment Fund (GEF), primarily focusing on fund formation and deal execution in the environmental and clean energy sectors.

Ingrid holds an MBA from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and a B.A. from National Taipei University.

Eileen is an adviser to Symbiome Capital. She is also a Managing Director for Private Equity Sustainable Infrastructure at Ecofin, a publicly traded trust investing in a diversified portfolio of primarily solar and wind renewable energy assets primarily in the United States. Previously, she was head of investments at an independent developer, owner, operator of energy generation assets and a utility that grew from 400 MW to 2.2 GW during her involvement. Over her career she worked as a Managing Director with GE Capital Markets, GE Energy Financial Services (GEEFS) and GE Structured Finance Group (GESFG). She oversaw GEEFS’s $500 million investment in Global Infrastructure Partners, LP (GIP I, 2008) a $5.6 billion fund co-sponsored by GE and Credit Suisse, formed to invest in the energy, transport and water sectors among others. More recently, she was Co-Head of the $1.0 billion IFC African, Latin America and Caribbean Fund LP (ALAC Fund, 2010) with responsibility for fundraising, investing and portfolio management.

She has a BA from Hamilton College and an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

She previously served on the Boards of One Energy, InterEnergy Holdings, Hoteles City Express (hotel chain) and of SURA Asset Management (pension management). She is a panelist on topics related to energy investing and emerging markets and served as chairwoman of the 2016 Private Equity International (PEI) Women in PE conference in London.

Stephen Pang is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Montana Technologies (NASDAQ: AIRJ), a portfolio company of Transition Equity Partners, which went public in March 2024. Mr. Pang previously served as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at TortoiseEcofin Investments (“TortoiseEcofin”) and was responsible for TortoiseEcofin’s public and private direct investments across its energy transition and infrastructure strategies.

At TortoiseEcofin, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Tortoise Acquisition Corp., which merged with Hyliion Inc. (NYSE: HYLN) in October 2020. After the business combination, he continued to serve as a director and was a member of its Audit Committee until February 2024. Mr. Pang also served as Chief Financial Officer and a Director of Tortoise Acquisition Corp. II until the completion of its business combination in August 2021 with Volta Industries, Inc. (“Volta”). Volta was subsequently acquired by Shell USA in March 2023.

Prior to joining Montana, he also served as President and Chief Financial Officer of TortoiseEcofin Acquisition Corp. III (NYSE: TRTL), which announced a business combination with One Energy Enterprises Inc. in August 2023. Before joining Tortoise Capital Advisors in 2014, Mr. Pang was a director in Credit Suisse’s Equity Capital Markets Group. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2012, he spent eight years in Citigroup Global Market’s Investment Banking Division, where he focused on equity underwriting and corporate finance in the energy sector. Mr. Pang earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Richmond and is a CFA charterholder.

Chris Harlan is an Adviser at Symbiome Capital, bringing over two decades of strategy and operational expertise across a variety of industries.

Prior to joining Symbiome, Chris was Value Creation Director for Littlejohn & Co., a private equity firm investing in middle market companies across the capital structure. He was responsible for working directly with the CEO, C-suite, and deal team sponsors to develop and execute value creation initiatives within the portfolio alongside company executives.

Before that, Chris was VP, Strategy & Transformation at FTI Consulting, hired by the CEO to build and lead an in-house consulting team. During this time, Chris led numerous core initiatives, working closely with the C-suite and firm leaders on efforts ranging from new business builds, business unit and functional turnarounds, SG&A / cost reduction, go-to-market strategies, and competitive / market assessments.

Chris began his career at The Boston Consulting Group, spending well over a decade advising corporations on their most pressing strategic and operational challenges and leading teams of all sizes. During this time Chris advised several large utility companies, as well as gaining experience across many other industries from technology to consumer to healthcare.

Chris holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and B.B.A. and B.A. degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.