Meet the Team

Larry Thrall is the founder and managing director of Vireo Energy, a renewable energy financial services firm. Services at Vireo include capital placement for renewable energy funds, project finance for a variety of renewable energy technologies, venture capital placement, power purchase agreement negotiation, development consulting and other consulting services related to renewable energy. Through his strong industry knowledge and experience in renewable energy project finance, Larry’s accomplishments include securing first time project finance for a variety of new technologies including of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) and LED lighting technologies. Larry started his career in banking with the William E. Simon group, helping acquire five banks and Savings and Loans. He then started Rimpau Enterprises, a consulting firm that developed a strong presence in energy management and the ESCO market with clients including the Department of Defense, State of California, Marriott, Chevron Energy Solutions, Schneider Electric, Johnson Controls and many more. Larry holds a Bachelors degree in Business Finance from the University of Southern California. Larry lives in Malibu, CA with his wife and two children.

Kris Thabit has over 20 years of experience in all aspects of real estate, business operations and company startups. Kris has intimate experience with the challenges related to entitlements, construction, raising capital, working with government and growing and operating a business. He uses this experience and vast contacts to assist Vireo clients to evaluate and create successful projects.
Prior to joining Vireo Energy, Kris founded American Airports Corporation (the largest airport management company in the United States), Red Viking Insurance (a California admitted P&C insurance company), and Flavor 4 U (a consumer products company). In addition, he served as VP of American Golf Corporation (the largest golf course management company in the world).
Kris is also a founder and chairman of the finance committee of Oaks Christian, a school he helped develop from inception. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Harvard University.

Clifford C. Cheng has over 23 years of experience in project management, real estate development and property and asset management and possesses a diverse skill set and a lengthy list of industry achievements. Before joining the Vireo Energy team, Mr. Cheng was a real estate developer, investor and entrepreneur. Previously he held senior management positions at Grubb & Ellis Company, Washington Mutual Bank and American Savings Bank. While a newcomer to the renewable energy industry, Mr. Cheng relies on his vast real estate and banking experience in the structuring and development of large scale solar projects for commercial applications. He holds a Bachelors Degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley.

Scott Kitcher worked in the fields of investment banking, investment management and investor relations which total nearly 20 years in the financial services industry. Most recently, he held the position of V.P. at Liolios Group, Inc. where he led the build-out of the firm’s cleantech vertical. In this role, he was responsible for accessing cleantech investors, building relationships with cleantech companies and analyzing and monitoring the cleantech space and its constituents. Previously, he was V.P. of Eaton Vance Management where he led the Western U.S. institutional sales, marketing and client service and was the national representative for Hong Kong-based partner, Lloyd George Management. In these capacities, he was a lead participant in various investment management products, including domestic equity and debt, Asia equity and hedge funds. This experience afforded him the opportunity to speak on investing in Asia at several international investment conferences. Prior to EVM, he headed the Western U.S. investment banking group for Yamaichi International (America), Inc., where his duties included underwriting, buy and sell side analysis, consulting, investor relations, mergers and acquisitions and other business development for Japanese and U.S. clients. Scott received his BA from Stanford University.