Talen Energy Elevates John Chesser to Chief Financial Officer

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Nov. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Talen Energy Corporation ("Talen" or "the Company") today announced it has elevated John Chesser to the position of chief financial officer ("CFO"). Mr. Chesser's appointment follows the elevation of Alejandro "Alex" Hernandez from President and CFO to the role of Chief Executive Officer. 

In this position, Mr. Chesser will oversee the Company's finance, M&A, risk management, and treasury activities.

"Since Talen's take-private in 2016, John and I have worked closely together on a variety of initiatives including the Company's operational turnaround and its strategic repositioning for long-term value creation. He also has made meaningful contributions leading key financings and driving efforts around our growth initiatives, which most recently include the Nautilus Cryptomine joint venture with TeraWulf Inc. and our strategic capital partnership with Orion Energy Partners. His vast experience in finance and M&A and proven track record at Talen will help us continue to advance the Company's transformation and deliver on the significant opportunities we have to grow our enterprise value," said Alex Hernandez, Chief Executive Officer.

"It is a great privilege to serve as Talen's chief financial officer. I have worked closely with Alex for many years, both at TerraForm Power building a renewable power infrastructure company and at Talen driving our operating turnaround and developing our Cumulus digital infrastructure platforms as we transform for the future," said CFO John Chesser. "Talen's transformation must also address our balance sheet with capital to drive the long-term success of the Talen-Cumulus platform and our people. I look forward to continuing to work with Alex to strengthen our position and create long-term value for our stakeholders," Mr. Chesser continued.

Mr. Chesser has served as treasurer for multiple private and public companies and led financial and operational turnarounds for individual assets and companies. He also has led or supported mergers and acquisitions affecting more than $20 billion of assets, including post-acquisition integration and complex situations.

Mr. Chesser joined Talen in January 2017 and most recently served as senior vice president of Finance, treasurer and head of M&A, a role he has held since 2019. Prior to that, he was divisional CFO, overseeing six gigawatts of generating assets and played a key part in Talen's management team delivering more than $400MM of annual cash flow and operating improvements since the take-private transaction. He currently serves as the CFO of Nautilus Cryptomine, a 300MW bitcoin mining facility he helped form with TeraWulf Inc. in 2021. 

Before joining Talen, Mr. Chesser served as treasurer of TerraForm Power Inc. ("TerraForm"), a contracted renewable power infrastructure company. He played a key role in driving growth and the ultimate sale of TerraForm to Brookfield Energy Partners. TerraForm created an asset base of 3,000 MWs of contracted renewable power assets, generating significant cash flow, dividend growth and shareholder return, resulting in a $6.3 billion enterprise value at the time of the sale to Brookfield Infrastructure in 2017, and a $12.1 billion enterprise value at the time of its subsequent merger into Brookfield Energy Partners in 2020.TerraForm generated total shareholder returns of over 340% in its initial 2017 sale to Brookfield and over 890% by the time of its 2020 merger with Brookfield Energy Partners.

Prior to his tenure with TerraForm, Mr. Chesser worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for almost a decade advising private equity sponsors. He joined General Motors ("GM") during its 2008 financial crisis-driven restructuring and eventual IPO, performing various roles including the formation of General Motors Financial which today is GM's $100 billion auto finance platform.

A graduate of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Mr. Chesser holds a bachelor's degree in Accounting and a Master of Taxation degree. He also received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

About Talen Energy Corporation

Talen, through its subsidiary, Talen Energy Supply LLC ("TES"), is one of the largest competitive power generation and infrastructure companies in North America. TES owns and/or controls approximately 13,000 megawatts of generating capacity in wholesale U.S. power markets, principally in the Mid-Atlantic, Texas and Montana.

Through its subsidiary, Cumulus Growth, Talen is developing a large-scale portfolio of renewable energy, battery storage, and digital infrastructure assets across its expansive footprint. For more information, visit https://www.talenenergy.com/esg-focused-future/

About Cumulus Data

Cumulus Data, a subsidiary of Talen, is developing a 475-Megawatt hyperscale data center campus located outside Berwick, PA, with the potential to expand operations to other sites across the United States. The flagship Susquehanna campus will be powered by >1 Gigawatt of reliable, carbon-free, 24×7 nuclear power with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for cloud data center customers in the United States. Cumulus Data is also expected to offer customers the ability to supplement its carbon-free offering with 400 Megawatts of new solar generation capacity under development. Cumulus Data has broken ground on its digital campus and anticipates having its first data center available for lease in the second half of 2022.  For more information, visit: https://cumulusinfra.com/

About Cumulus Coin

Cumulus Coin, a subsidiary of Talen, is driving the convergence between blockchain applications and carbon-free electricity.  Cumulus Coin intends to create sustainable bitcoin at industrial scale by mining zero-carbon coins with the appropriate regulatory overlay in a secure location in the United States. The first two Cumulus Coin mining facilities, totaling 300 Megawatts, will be located at the flagship Susquehanna digital campus powered by >1 Gigawatt of reliable, carbon-free, 24×7 nuclear power. The first Cumulus Coin mining building is anticipated to commence operations in the second half of 2022.  For more information, visit: https://cumuluscoin.com

Investor Contact
Olivia Sigo
Director, Finance, Investor Relations & ESG
2810203-5387,  [email protected]

Media Contact
Taryne Williams
Director Corporate Communications
610-601-0327, [email protected]

SOURCE Talen Energy Corp.