Environmental Banc & Exchange

Management team / staff

David Godley is Project Technician in the North Carolina office. Mr. Godley is responsible for maintenance and construction tasks at EBX project sites throughout North Carolina. Prior to joining EBX, Mr. Godley worked as an Extension Research Technician for the North Carolina State University Biological Agricultural Engineering Water Quality Group. While at NCSU, Mr. Godley surveyed and collected morphology data and conducted vegetation restorations for multiple stream and wetland restoration projects. Mr. Godley spent his early career as an aquaculture research assistant and biologic sciences aid. Mr. Godley holds a B.S. in Agricultural Business Management from North Carolina State University with a minor in Economics.

Steve Jennings, CFO, performs and supervises all accounting and financial functions for the company. Prior to joining EBX and Black Oak, Mr. Jennings served as a Group Controller for The Rouse Company, responsible for seven major regional shopping centers, including The Mall in Columbia, Harborplace, The Gallery, and South Street Seaport (New York). His duties included supervising on-site accounting personnel, financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting and deal analysis. Prior to joining The Rouse Company, Mr. Jennings was a Senior Accountant in the Real Estate and Construction Group at the regional public accounting firm of Walpert, Smullian and Blumenthal. In that position he worked with clients such as homebuilders, land developers, contractors, and shopping center and office building ownership entities. Mr. Jennings is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants. He received his MBA, with a concentration in Finance, from Loyola College in 1995, and is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

George Kelly, Director and Founder. Mr. Kelly is a cum laude JD and MSL graduate of the Vermont Law School. As founder of EBX, he has worked on resource mitigation projects and negotiated and implemented mitigation banking instruments with regulatory agencies in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, California, Florida, and Maryland as well as drafted and negotiated land deals with over 100 landowners for resource mitigation projects. Mr. Kelly is currently serving as President of the National Mitigation Banking Association. He also has been designated as the Chair of the Emerging Market Committee. Additionally, Mr. Kelly was appointed to serve on the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Nutrient Trading Task Force, the Maryland Mitigation Workgroup for the Climate Commission and the Maryland Non-Point Source Advisory Committee. Mr. Kelly also has served as Chair of the Section of Environmental Law for the Maryland State Bar Association and was asked to represent the business and legal communities in the drafting of the precedent-setting Brownfields environmental legislation. Mr. Kelly chaired the Piney Run Rural Legacy Program in Maryland involving the acquisition of over $14 million of environmental and agricultural easements. Prior to starting EBX in 1997, Mr. Kelly served as partner and member of the Environmental Law Group at the firm, Ober, Kaler, Grimes and Shriver.

Thomas Rinker, Chief Operating Officer After graduation in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Mr. Rinker worked first as a project manager and then as a business unit manager with several firms in the environmental industry. Over a fifteen year period at Environmental Elements Corporation, Mr. Rinker served as a Division Vice-President and started and managed a business unit that designed and constructed large-scale waste-to-energy facilities. During that period, Mr. Rinker became a Partner in the firm that purchased Environmental Elements Corporation from its parent company and took the company public. Mr. Rinker then became president and CEO of the North American subsidiary, an international energy and environmental technology company. During that period he arranged the sale of the subsidiary to an international engineering and construction firm, and stayed to manage the company during the transition. In 2000, Mr. Rinker joined EBX and assumed the responsibilities of Chief Operating Officer.

Norton Webster, Project Manager, works in the North Carolina office. Mr Webster works with project engineers, client representatives and regulatory officials during the concept, proposals, design, construction and monitoring phases of our projects throughout the Southeast. Before joining EBX, Norton served as an Environmental Scientist with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. Mr. Webster’s early career was spent as a Wetlands/Wastewater Consultant with Triangle Wetlands Consultants, a Research Assistant in the Department of Forestry at the North Carolina State University, and a Staff Scientist at ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller. While at Kimley-Horn and Associates, Mr. Webster managed natural resource investigations, ecological assessments, wetlands delineation, wetland mitigation feasibility studies and wetland mitigation searches. Mr. Webster holds a B.S. from Wake Forest University and a M.S. with a concentration in Forestry from North Carolina State University.

Randy Wilgis, President As President of EBX, Mr. Wilgis is responsible for the successful identification, implementation and fiscal viability of ecosystem mitigation projects throughout the Southeast. While maintaining the EBX position as a nationwide leader in the ecosystem mitigation and restoration industry, Mr. Wilgis is also leading the expansion of EBX’s business into species banking with the development of two conservation banks, one in West Virginia and another in the Carolinas, and was recently selected as member of the National Mitigation Banking Association’s Endangered Species Banking Committee. Prior to joining EBX, Mr. Wilgis had a 13 year track record of successful business development efforts with TESSCO Technologies, where he founded three service businesses with combined annual revenues of over $250 million in 2004. Mr. Wilgis received his BSE from the Duke University School of Engineering, and MBA from the University of Virginia-Darden School of Business. In his free time, Mr. Wilgis is the Founding Board Chair for the South Carolina Calvert Academy with the mission of establishing a top quality virtual education alternative for South Carolina residents.