About Us
Our History and Commitment
For over a decade, Braven has been developing, testing and perfecting our waste plastics processing with our Braven Reactor Train™, and building the early support needed to prove our solution at commercial scale. We studied the waste-to-energy companies that came before us, and we understand why they’ve struggled. As a result, we now know that we can deliver strong financial returns that yield long-term, triple-bottom-line success for our partners, customers, investors and most importantly—for the generations that will inherit our earth. That success is a result of applying an entrepreneurial mindset to solving a global problem.
We are now able to develop facilities with our BRT™ quickly and efficiently across the globe because our business model is as focused, efficient and sound as our solution to waste plastics. We are building a legacy company designed to create lasting change, and we believe that the people behind the technology are an invaluable part of our success. We are inspired by their steadfast dedication to the mission, commitment to a strong and inspiring culture, and willingness to show up everyday to play their part in changing the world.
Let us introduce you to the Braven Team.
Our Team
Nicholas Canosa
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Nicholas Canosa
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder
Prior to founding Braven (formerly known as Golden Renewable Energy, LLC), Mr. Canosa founded Lion Fuels International, LLC (“LFI”). LFI manages a 2,500 acre jatropha farm in Honduras, Central America. Nicholas also founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Global Financial Credit, LLC (“Global”), one of the first companies to advance funds to people/plaintiffs involved in a lawsuit awaiting settlement. Prior to USAG, Inc., Nicholas founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Affordable Diagnostics, Inc. an operator of freestanding independent multi-diagnostic centers that include MRI, CT-Scan and X-Ray equipment. Prior to Affordable Diagnostic, Inc., he founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Northeast Physical Therapy Centers (“Northeast”) which later merged with ProSports Care, Inc., which he took public in 1994 (NASDAQ: PSCM).
Nicholas' extensive experience founding and developing successful companies in a wide range of industries led to the founding of Braven when he recognized that waste management did not include the technology necessary to deal with our nations waste. With Braven’s technology, he sees bridging waste management with the PetroChem industry to better and more efficiently manage our planets waste. After spending over a decade developing the technology to process plastics via a low-carbon impact cycle, he now leads the company's global growth as the only proven, modular and ready to implement solution to the world's plastics problem.
Nicholas received a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Business Administration from New York University and received a juris doctor degree from Yeshiva University Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He has been a member of the Westchester County and New York State Bar Association; however, is not currently engaged in the practice of law. In his free time, Nick enjoys traveling with his wife and three children.
Michael Moreno
Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder
Michael Moreno
Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder
After a long and successful career in asset management, Mr. Moreno was driven to co-found Braven by a deep desire to be involved in a company that could contribute to the betterment of the planet and deliver attractive financial results.
Prior to co-founding Braven (formerly known as Golden Renewable Energy, LLC), in 2014, Michael was a Principal and one of the four owners of Black Diamond Capital Management, LLC (“BDCM”), an approximately $9.0 billion alternative asset management firm specializing in amongst other things, the acquisition, stabilization, growth and sale of distressed companies in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to joining BDCM, Michael was a Principal at Atlantic Pacific Capital, a placement agent specializing in raising institutional capital for alternative investment managers. Michael began raising alternative investment capital in 1996 for ING Asset Management.
Michael started his career at Chemical Bank, in the Loan Syndications, Structured Finance and Private Placements Group, worked at ING in Emerging Markets investment banking and co-headed emerging markets loan syndications for BankBoston.
Michael received his B.A. in Political Science from Tulane University.
Michael spends his free time traveling, cooking and surfing, which fuels his desire to keep our oceans plastic free.
Jeffrey Neumann
Chief Administrative Officer and Treasurer
Jeffrey Neumann
Chief Administrative Officer and Treasurer
At Braven, Mr. Neumann oversees the strategy and plans for scaling the business. This entails managing site locations and the general corporate functions including all transactions. Mr. Neumann was drawn to Braven by the opportunity to join a company with great purpose and tremendous value proposition.
Prior to joining Braven (formerly known as Golden Renewable Energy, LLC), Mr. Neumann was the founder and CEO of RMH Franchise Holdings, one of the largest independently owned restaurant franchise operators in the country. Previously, Mr. Neumann co-founded private equity firm Coda Capital Partners in 2002. Prior to joining Coda, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of FrontLine Capital Group, a publicly traded investment vehicle. At both Coda and FrontLine, Mr. Neumann held senior leadership positions at several portfolio companies across a range of industries. Before joining FrontLine in 1998, he was a Vice President in GE Capital's private equity investment subsidiary. Previously, Mr. Neumann was the President of CompuTower Technologies, a manufacturing company, and of Modern Healthcare Services, a healthcare company.
Jeff started his career with the investment banking firm of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York. Jeff holds an MBA in Finance from the New York University Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Ithaca College.
He spends his time out of the office with his wife, three kids and two dogs.
Jesse Goellner
Chief Technology Officer
Jesse Goellner
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Goellner brings to Braven Environmental over two decades of experience converting concepts into impactful solutions for the energy, chemicals, and defense markets. At Braven, Jesse leads our efforts to solidify the technicaly basis of the platform technology and expand its ability to address critical market problems. He oversees quality engineering support for future projects and current operations as well as fostering partnerships to accelerate the impact of Braven's technology innovations. Jesse was compelled to join the Braven mission because he believes strongly in the potential to bring pragmatic solutions to the market in a timeline that can have a serious impact on the waste plastic problem.
Before joining the Braven team, Jesse practiced advanced theory and laboratory experimentation to advance the fundamental understanding of heterogenous catalysis while earning his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis and his concurrent visiting scholar appointments at the Technical University of Munich and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Subsequently, he joined ExxonMobil Chemical driving their research assets to application through the development, scale-up, demonstration, and commercialization of a novel catalysis-based technology for converting natural gas to olefins.
Jesse earned his M.B.A. as a James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business focused on bringing technology to the marketplace. He leveraged his technical and business expertise in driving the growth of Powercast (provider of wireless power and sensor solutions) and Capital Technologies International (renewable and fossil energy technology developer). He recently provided leadership to Booz Allen Hamilton’s energy practice leading resiliency, infrastructure, industrial control systems, advanced energy technology, and energy systems analysis support to the Department of Defense, civil agencies, and commercial clients.
When he isn't driving the Braven technology forward, Jesse is focused on his most important role as a father, youth sports coach and making an impact as a mentor in the community.
Alex Gonzalez
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Alexander (Alex) Gonzalez
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Mr. Gonzalez joined Braven in June 2021. He previously served as Assistant General Counsel of New Jersey Resources Corporation (NYSE: NJR), a diversified energy holding company, from April 2016 to June 2021. Prior to his role at NJR, Alex worked in private practice at Pepper Hamilton LLP and Dechert LLP, clerked for the Honorable Eduardo C. Robreno of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and externed for the Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Alex has global experience representing enterprises across numerous industries over their entire lifecycles. His areas of expertise include: securities, treasury, finance, complex transactions, mergers and acquisitions, environmental, social and governance (ESG) and compliance. Alex’s articles on contracts and vendor management, public company securities laws and ESG from an in-house counsel perspective were recently published by the Association of Corporate Counsel.
Alex received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law at Camden and his B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Outside of work, Alex enjoys spending time with his family and mentoring others.
Our Triple Bottom
Line Promise
With every new facility established by Braven, we create job growth and support local initiatives to better care for the communities. We are committed to using a localized workforce to fill positions across the spectrum, especially pulling from local trade schools, colleges and universities. We are further dedicated to create a fair, safe and prosperous work environment, driven by strong family ties within the company itself.
