Our Team

Justin Rathke

President

Justin is an entrepreneurial business leader and an experienced dealmaker with deep energy expertise gained through leadership roles in complex sales, project development, executive management, and government policy over the past fifteen years. He founded Vergent Power Solutions in 2014 to be a pre-eminent provider of microturbine technology by developing best-in-class combined heat and power (CHP) projects from the ground up.

As a distributor of microturbine energy systems, Vergent has developed, designed, and commissioned dozens of plants across North America, with more than $600 million in project value currently under development. Vergent brought the first “S” generation of Capstone Microturbines to market for a high-profile data center client in Minnesota. Since the company’s inception, it has added over one hundred microturbines to its service fleet in the United States and Canada.

Prior to starting Vergent, Justin served in leadership roles at Capstone Turbine Corporation, most recently as Vice President of Sales for the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, managing over thirty distribution partners and expanding into new international markets. He helped launch, and then directed, Capstone’s global government affairs practice from Washington, D.C. Justin has served on numerous industry association boards, including the U.S. Combined Heat and Power Association, the Power Gen International Steering Committee, the Midwest Cogeneration Association and the Gas Turbine Association.

Justin holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.A. from The George Washington University. He was a Presidential Management Fellow, working on energy trade and investment matters at the U.S. International Trade Administration and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. During his government service, he helped bring the first American clean energy trade mission to China and India.

Sumner Bachman II

VP of Technical Services

Sumner has twenty years of CHP and energy resilience experience developing projects to meet or exceed our customers expectations. Prior to joining Vergent Power, Sumner worked directly for Capstone Turbine Corporation as a field service engineer, application engineer and regional sales director. As a field service engineer, he gained the knowledge of working with customers with long term service, system upgrades and changing energy needs. The transition to applications engineering allowed him to develop projects from the ground up and ensure proper installations that meet factory requirements, local codes and customer needs. His time in sales allowed him to use his technical knowledge to grow his assigned territory to record sales levels.

As part of Vergent Power he has used his extensive knowledge to develop customer-focused solutions. Sumner lead the Vergent technical team to install the very first C1000S-series Capstone system in the world. Sumner has grown the technical team at Vergent to encompass support for customers from pre-sales engineering, commissioning and long-term service. Under Sumner’s leadership the technical team has worked to develop custom solutions to solve customers unique requirements for CHP and energy resilience.

Sumner is a U.S Navy veteran who served for a total of nine years. He graduated from Penn State University Magna Cum Laude with a BS EET. Shortly after graduation he joined Capstone and worked as a field service engineer before transitioning to applications engineer. As an applications engineer he was the lead for Capstone’s HEV development.

Jessie Gillis, P.Eng

Director of Projects

Jessie is a passionate engineer with the expertise to design, manage and install complex energy projects on-time and on-budget. He acts as technical liaison with clients and engineers helping them apply advanced microturbine technology that can add reliability to their processes while saving them money and benefiting the environment. Jessie manages Vergent Power’s Canadian operations.

Jessie’s background is in electrical engineering applications related to data analytics and modern smart grid initiates like Combined Heat and Power (CHP). Jessie joined Vergent Power Solutions after building several Capstone CHP installations in Ontario as a Project Manager with a local EPC firm managing the projects from initial design to final commissioning. Jessie is a factory-certified Capstone Authorized Service Provider, allowing him to use field experience in service to design world-class CHP projects.

Jessie holds a Masters of Applied Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. During that time he taught engineering courses to undergraduate students and published five peer-reviewed publications including three IEEE Journal papers as the first author. Jessie is currently a practicing Professional Engineer in Ontario with a license from the Professional Engineers of Ontario.

Michael Savage

VP of Business Development

Mike is a creative, hands-on, solutions-oriented sales executive with over seven years of energy project development and fifteen years of M&A business development and deal execution experience. He handles business development for the New England territory, interfacing directly with end users, channel partners and utilities. He is comfortable dealing with all facets of CHP project development, including project origination, feasibility/energy modeling, conceptual engineering, equipment specification and financing. Mike supports Vergent Power as the representative member of various CHP and end user organizations including NECHPI, NEHES and the BIA of NH.

Prior his role with Vergent Power, Mike served as Director of M&A for a renewable energy private equity fund. He took an active role in assessing and developing new energy projects as well as getting involved in existing portfolio improvement initiatives and financings. Prior to that, Mike worked for international consulting firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and FTI Consulting.

Mike holds a B.S. in Finance from Clarkson University where he was a Presidential Scholar and played four years of NCAA Lacrosse. He earned an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in Strategy, Finance and Accounting.