Avila Energy Corporation announced the appointment of Chris Valentine as director of the Corporation. The Corporation was able to do so pursuant to the resignation of Michel Jr. Lebeuf which thereby provided the availability of the director seat. Mr. Valentine is a Senior Managing Partner at Celeres Capital.

He is responsible for leading the firm's investment activities across asset-backed lending, structured finance, and whole loan principal finance. Mr. Valentine co-founded Celeres Capital, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2019 and has been in the industry for more than two decades. He has held a variety of roles across investment banking, private equity, and principal investing.

Prior to co-founding Celeres Capital, Mr. Valentine was a co-founder in two boutique financial advisory firms headquartered in New York City, offering strategic and advisory services for institutional clients with a focus on structured finance, financial services, real estate, and energy. Prior to founding these firms, he accumulated a decade of experience in structured finance, private equity, and M&A, including experience in emerging markets via founding a Dubai based consulting firm, as well as being a Director - Private Equity &Real Estate - at lstithmar World (a Dubai Sovereign Wealth Fund}. In his role at Istithmar World, he obtained significant investment experience as a result of co-managing a S3.8 billion portfolio of real estate/lodging investments in global financial services and a portfolio of $1.8 billion portfolio of real estate/lodging investments in Africa.

Prior to Istithmar World, Chris spent several years as a private equity investor at New York City-based Equifin Capital Partners. Mr. Valentine began his career in the Global M&A at JPMorgan before joining Goldman Sachs. where he split his time between the Principal Finance Group in Structured Products and the Financial institutions Group in Investment Banking.

Chris has accumulated extensive experience in corporate finance, mergers &acquisitions, private equity investment and direct portfolio management globally; as well as previously being a member of several boards of directors for companies internationally. Chris has a B.B.A. Finance (with an independent study in Actuarial Science) from Howard University in 2001. The Corporation is very pleased to have Chris join our board and our mission to become a unique company focused on making the world better.