CAPPA - Capitol Project Partners, LLC

Capitol Project Partners, LLC
Phone: 202.517.0155
Fax: 202.478.5111
Email: info@cappa.us

Washington, D.C.
975 F Street, NW
Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20004

Lew Cramer
Managing Director (Currently Managing the World Trade Center, UT)

Mr. Cramer has worked extensively in the global markets in the aviation, telecommunications and broadband sectors. He was Vice President for MediaOne International and U S WEST, responsible for their international government and multilateral financial institution relations, and public policy for numerous wireless and broadband investments in over thirty countries worldwide. From an initial capital investment of approximately $2 billion, these international investments were valued at over $15 billion when merged into AT&T in 2000.

Previously, Mr. Cramer served as the Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, leading the U.S. Government’s commercial staff of 1400 employees at over 120 embassies overseas and in 65 offices throughout the United States. His government service in the Reagan and Bush I Administrations also included Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science and Electronics; and White House Fellow with the U.S. Trade Representative.

He is Chair of the Global Affairs Council of the American Management Association, member of the U.S. Department of State’s International Communications and Information Policy Advisory Board, special advisor to the President of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, former Board Member of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute and teaches international business at Georgetown University.

Previously, he practiced corporate law in Los Angeles, California, and taught at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Mark A. Dickson
Managing Director

Mr. Dickson is a Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder. He currently practices as a CPA and investment advisor. For 19 years he managed corporate finance in the U.S. for TAG Group (Holdings) S.A. a diversified international company. As chief U.S. financial officer, Mr. Dickson directed significant asset liquidation and acquisition transactions.

Mr. Dickson served for three years as the finance director of TAG Aviation's (a TAG Group affiliate) development of the Farnborough Airfield near London. He was also the chief financial officer of a large soybean farming operation in Paraguay for five years.

Mr. Dickson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University. He began his accounting career at M.B. Hariton & Co. He was there for four years before moving to Ernst & Young's tax practice. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Greater Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants, the CFA Institute, and the Washington Society of Investment Analysts.

Steve R. Richards
Managing Director

Mr. Richards founded CAPPA following three years of public service as a member of President George W. Bush’s Administration where he was the Director of International Energy Market Development at the United States Department of Energy. Mr. Richards was responsible for developing policy and initiatives to deploy clean energy technology worldwide.

Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Mr. Richards was Managing Director of Embassy Research, LLC, President of Commerce Development International and Vice President of Commerce Consultants International. These closely held, Washington, DC based firms specialized in international market development and government representation for a variety of entities including Pratt & Whitney, American Electric Power, and the Government of Thailand, among others.

Jozsef Szamosfalvi
Managing Director

Mr. Szamosfalvi has provided fair market value analysis for mergers and acquisition projects, has specialized in emerging market project and structured finance and loan underwriting with a focus on Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. He currently manages the CAPPA private equity funds, and he is actively involved in consulting alternative energy technology companies. Previously, Mr. Szamosfalvi worked for the United Nations (IAEA) in Vienna, developing an automated efficiency analysis system (TC-DADABA) to improve DDG decision-making processes for the Division of Planning, Co-ordination and Evaluation. A graduate of Brigham Young University (magna cum laude) with a double major in Economics and International Politics, Mr. Szamosfalvi worked as a research assistant for the Department of Economics at BYU researching trend-cycle decomposition methods and time-series modeling tools. Mr. Szamosfalvi has been an adjunct instructor at Georgetown University School of Business, has been actively involved in the recent launch of the World Trade Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, has supported the work of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the United States Commerce Department's DFI initiative. Mr. Szamosfalvi is a CFA candidate (Level II), a member the New York Society of Security Analists and the National Association of Business Economics. He contributed to several business publications, including Beard & Thomas' Trade Finance Handbook (Thomson 2006), and The U.S. Department of Energy's Selling Clean Energy Technology to the World (not yet published).

Mark J. Cummings

Mr. Cummings established MJC Holdings, LLC in December of 2005, to exclusively manage investment and lending opportunities with CAPPA Funds as the Managing Director of CAPPA Fund I, LLC. Mr. Cummings has managed bridge lending opportunities for the last decade as the sole member and manager of SCI Investments, LLC (SCI), a Utah based real estate development and private lending firm. SCI has been actively serving the North American market (Mexico, USA, and Canada) with bridge funding and in the process has placed investments exceeding $100 million USD. Projects have included land development, commercial buildings and multi-unit housing financing.

Previously, Mr. Cummings established and managed AMER, Inc., a micro lending enterprise (with collateralized loans up to $50,000 USD) with five locations throughout Utah. The gross amount of loans placed with AMER, Inc exceeded $40 million USD. Mr. Cummings graduated with a BS in Political Science and Spanish from Weber State University.

Armen Agasarjan
Deputy Director, CAPPA Fund III

Mr. Agasarjan received a BA in Economics from the University of Westminster in London and a Masters of Science in International Finance with a Distinction. Mr. Agasarjan's research thesis on financial intermediation received high acclaim and was subsequently published in the academic journal of Finance, Money and Investments. After completing his studies Mr. Agasarjan has been actively involved in sovereign debt workouts and was part of a team that completed sovereign debt workouts with a total face value of 300 million USD, also has been involved in high profile corporate distressed debt workouts - completing transactions with a total face value of 50 million USD. He is currently Director at Clean Energy Alliance Limited, an affiliate of CAPPA Fund III.

Barton W. Marcois
Senior Advisor, Public Relations

Bart Marcois is a Senior Advisor at CAPPA, responsible for Public Relations. Until early 2008 he served as Executive Vice President of RJI Capital Corporation, a Washington, D.C.-based investment banking firm. He was the Bush Administration's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, at the U.S. Department of Energy. As a Presidential appointee to the U.S. Department of Energy, Mr. Marcois served as international policy advisor to Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, and was Chief Operating Officer of a 110-person staff of senior policy analysts focused on domestic policy formulation and the international energy security of the United States. During his tenure he also managed the creation of the new Office of National Energy Policy within the Department of Energy.

Before joining the Administration, Mr. Marcois was the public affairs advisor to the Government of Kuwait in Washington, DC, where he created and implemented a public diplomacy campaign focusing attention on the strength and importance of the U.S.-Kuwaiti alliance. The campaign combined a strategically targeted national grassroots communications program, advertising, and earned media with a robust presence in Washington, DC policy circles. Prominent among his projects were the February and September 2001 "Kuwait Thanks America" public affairs campaigns, reassuring Americans of Kuwait's friendship and support. Prior to his position with the Department of Energy, Mr. Marcois served in the United States diplomatic corps at the U.S. Embassies in Jordan, Tunisia, Yemen and Kuwait. His Foreign Service tenure focused on managing public diplomacy programs and directing political analysis in the Middle East and Washington, DC. He was particularly engaged in encouraging the development of civil society, the rule of law, and democratic institutions in the context of Islamic societies.

Mr. Marcois has been instrumental over the past several years in voter turnout operations for campaigns in key battleground states. He works closely with the Republican National Committee, providing guidance to Chairman Mehlman and Chairman Duncan on strategic campaign issues.

Phil J. Pollan
Legal Advisor

Phil J Pollan is a Legal Advisor for CAPPA. Mr. Pollan is a former District Attorney of the 83rd Judicial District of Texas. With an experience of 32+ years, he practices law in Texas focusing on oil and gas, probate and distressed asset recovery projects.

Mr. Pollan began Private Practice in 1974 in Houston and then moved to Fort Stockton, Texas in 1975 to set up own general practice. He was elected District Attorney of the 83rd Judicial District, 1984-1988, Fort Stockton, Texas. His Judicial District covered six counties in the Big Bend area of Texas and was the largest district in Texas in land area. He initiated a large, coordinated drug interdiction effort that involved local, state and federal agencies. Tried 24 major murder and drug cases.

Following his appointment as the District Attorney, Mr. Pollan worked for Graham, Bright and Smith, 1989-1990, in Dallas, Texas, mainly as a litigation attorney advising on white collar criminal defense.

Following that he returned to solo private practice in 1990 with emphasis in estate planning and trusts; also representing entities and doing oil and gas work, including drafting and negotiating contracts and acting as general counsel for companies and collection work.

Eduction: University of North Texas, Denton, Texas; 1971 BBA, degree in Banking and Finance South Texas College of Law, Houston, Texas; 1974 Juris Doctor