About Our Team

Prior to Nine Point Energy, Mr. Taron worked in various finance roles for Nine Point’s predecessor company, Triangle USA Petroleum Corporation, and Caliber Midstream, Triangle USA’s sister company and largest midstream services provider. Prior to joining Triangle, Mr. Taron worked for Standard Chartered Bank in London and in Houston where he focused on acquisition and divestiture advisory for upstream oil and gas companies in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Taron began his career at Seven Hills Partners, a boutique investment bank in San Francisco focused on growth stage technology companies. Mr. Taron earned his BA in International Relations from Stanford University in 2006 and MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business in 2014. He is a CFA charterholder. 

Daniel Lockley currently serves as the Subsurface Manager at Nine Point Energy.  Previously, Mr. Lockley served as Reservoir Manager since January 2016 for Nine Point’s predecessor company, Triangle USA Petroleum.  Since joining Triangle USA Petroleum in February of 2014, Mr. Lockley has served in a variety of roles including Production Engineer, Reservoir Engineer, and Reservoir Manager.  Prior to joining Triangle USA Petroleum, he worked for Forest Oil Corporation as an Asset/Team Lead and Production/Completions Engineer.  Mr. Lockley earned a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Mr. Kettler is a Partner of Chambers Energy Management and also serves on the firm’s investment committee. In addition to these roles, Mr. Kettler participates in deal sourcing, due diligence, structuring, negotiations and ongoing monitoring of investments.

Mr. Kettler has substantial energy finance experience and has invested in a wide range of energy companies including exploration and production, oilfield services, midstream and pipeline, refining, power generation and electric and gas utility companies. His investment experiences have primarily been in the form of originated loans, high yield bonds, leveraged loans, distressed debt and private and public equities. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Kettler was a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers working for the Lehman Energy Fund as Investment Manager and Head Trader. Prior to his time with the Lehman Energy Fund, Mr. Kettler was with Kenmont Investments, focusing on energy investments for its credit opportunities fund. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Kettler was involved in the restructuring of $6.5 billion of Dynegy, Inc.’s debt, preferred stock and corporate obligations as a Senior Director and Assistant Treasurer for Dynegy.

Mr. Kettler’s other work experiences include positions as a Manager in Enron’s Principal Investments Group from 1998 to 2001, and prior thereto, experience as an investment banking analyst for Kemper Securities and as an accountant with KPMG.

Mr. Kettler holds a B.B.A. in Accounting and M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Sord Scholar and won the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence. He holds the Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst designations.

Prior to Nine Point Energy, Dominic Spencer served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Nine Point’s predecessor company, Triangle USA Petroleum Corporation. Prior to becoming Triangle USA’s President and COO in 2015, Mr. Spencer served as its Executive Vice President of Operations from 2014-2015 and in various drilling and operational roles since joining the Company in July 2011. Mr. Spencer’s efforts and expertise significantly aided Triangle USA’s successful transition from a non-op business to a full-scale Williston Basin operator. Before joining Triangle USA, he worked for eight years with Bill Barrett Corporation as Operations Manager and in various other roles on numerous assets. Mr. Spencer graduated from Colorado School of Mines in 2003 with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering.

Frederic F. (Jake) Brace has over 30 years of experience in strategy, finance, restructuring and transformation for numerous industries including airlines, health care, retail, E&P, electrical production, hospitality and real estate. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of Sangfroid Advisors. He was formerly the President and CEO of Laser Spine Institute and, before that, Midstates Petroleum, a Tulsa-based E&P company. Previous to those positions, he was the President of Niko Resources, a Canadian E&P company. He also led the restructuring and recapitalization of The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. (A&P grocery stores) as the firm’s Chief Administrative Officer. Mr. Brace is the retired Chief Financial Officer of UAL Corporation, where he led the company’s Chapter 11 restructuring and recapitalization process, as well the general strategic planning process including the evaluation, design and separation of the Mileage Plus program. Mr. Brace currently sits on the boards Red Lion Hotels, Niko Resources and a private company. He was previously on the boards various public and private companies including Anixter International, iHeart Media, Sequa, Standard Register, Edison Mission Energy, Bally Total Fitness, Neff Rental, Sirva, Galileo International and Bearing Point among others. Mr. Brace holds a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan. 

Gary D. Begeman has over 30 years of experience managing the legal support for a broad range of strategic, financing and commercial transactions for public and private companies. He has served as an independent director on boards of directors of private and publicly held companies including Intelsat Jackson Holdings S.A., a subsidiary of Intelsat SA (since March 2020), Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (since September 2019) and SolAeroTechnologies Corp. (since November 2018). He is also the Chair and a director of the University of South Dakota Foundation.  

He was previously Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of NII Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded wireless telecommunications company operating in Latin America, from November 2006 to October 2015. Prior to this, Mr. Begeman served as the Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications. Mr. Begeman began his career in private practice at Jones Day, focusing on capital formation and mergers and acquisitions. 

 Mr. Begeman holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music education from the University of South Dakota and a Juris Doctor degree from The Ohio State University School of Law.