Kenneth Ficken Jr. serves Power Gateway as director of sales and is a founding partner.
Ken has more than 20+ years of experience in the commercial real estate field, ranging from tenant representation to sale / leaseback transactions. He has worked with both tenants and owners for the purchase and leasing of commercial properties throughout the Southeast.
Over his 20+ years in commercial real estate, he has sourced transactions exceeding $100 million, and has developed a client base that includes: American Tower, 401-K Company, North Highland Company, SpeedFam – IPEC, Industrial Acoustics Company Inc., and Quantum Corp.
Ken's experience in the alternative energy develpoment field enables him to evaluate a particular project's development process and determine next steps in addressing issues arising in high-volume power consumers' energy issues.
Ken also has a proven track record in evaluating business opportunities, sourcing business and managing client relationships across a number of industries. He has held executive positions at major corporations including C&S National Bank and General Electric Corp.
Ken attended The University of Tennessee majoring in History with a minor in Economics. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
Ken lives with his wife Allison in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Keith McCarty - Managing Partner, Carolinas & Legal Affairs
Keith McCarty serves Power Gateway as director of legal affairs and is a founding partner of Power Gateway.
Keith is an experienced trial attorney with more that twenty-five years of experience in a wide variety of legal fields. After ten years as a senior partner in a Charleston law firm, Keith recently formed his own practice with areas of concentration in construction law, business litigation, land use and real estate development and criminal defense.
Keith appears in both criminal and federal courts and is licensed in South Carolina and Tennessee. During his years of practice, he has represented most major insurance companies including State farm, Allstate, Nationwide, Generali, and Zurich, to name but a few. Keith counts among his clients, major real estate developers and CEOs and senior officers of Fortune 500 companies.
His recent practices placed him in frequent contact with local municipalities and regulatory commissions on both the state and local levels. Representing clients who own or have an interest in properties ranging from high-end vacation homes to high-rise condominiums and commercial buildings has given Keith a unique perspective on the energy and efficiency needs of large physical plants.
His current interest in alternative energy solutions stems from his exposure to attempts of the last decade to effectively deregulate natural gas. Seeing increased government involvement in the fossil fuels industry coupled with the public’s growing interest in finding an alternative to foreign oil and domestic coal, led Keith to begin discussing with Ken the need to more effectively couple business and municipalities with currently available, efficient and cleaner energy sources.
Keith completed law school in 1986 and served in the U. S. Navy as a Judge Advocate General. After leaving the Navy, he served as an Assistant Solicitor for Charleston County before entering private practice. Keith is currently serving his second term as a councilman for the Town of Meggett, South Carolina and is the Mayor Pro Tem.
Keith and his wife Lea Ann live in Meggett, South Carolina with their three children.
Brad Keebler - Director, Project Finance Structuring
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Bradley Keebler serves Power Gateway as director of financing.
Brad has more than 35 years of experience in the commercial real estate field, specializing in loan and equity origination and underwriting for life insurance companies, pension funds, commercial banks, savings and loans, and private investors.
Loan sizes have ranged from $1MM to $140MM and consist of construction, bridge, permanent, and mezzanine financing throughout the United States. He has also worked as asset and portfolio manager for major worldwide institutions including Lehman Brothers and Sumitomo Bank. Portfolios have included all types of commercial real estate property.
Brad has a proven track record in evaluating large loan and equity opportunities for a variety of lending sources, analyzing and managing the risks associated with construction and permanent lending. Throughout his career, he has placed loans with major lenders including State Farm, Nationwide, Phoenix Mutual, pension funds, and money center banks.
Brad received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from Eastern Michigan University with a major in Marketing.
Brad lives with his wife Lynda in Woodstock, Georgia.
Matt Ficken -Managing Partner, New Business Development
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Matthew McKinley Ficken serves Power Gateway as a director of new business development.
He has a background in public relations as an account executive, where he managed accounts in the areas of strategic analysis, trend analysis, media relations and media monitoring, as well as content development and distribution.
As a top-tier analyst and marketer for Costar Group, the world's technology leader specializing in commercial real estate research, information, and analysis, he managed one of the Atlanta market's highest-level portfolios and provided vital analysis into the current state of the area's industrial sub-markets on a quarterly basis.
In addition to his analytical work, Matt published over 15 articles via Costar Group's national and regional newsletter, The Advisor.
Matt also worked as an account coordinator in public affairs for the Atlanta office of Allison & Partners, where he managed accounts for Edison Learning, PFCD, Partnership for Prescription Assistance, and Pharma.
Matt's expertise in energy consultation has been tested over the lifespan of Power Gateway through internaional retailors, porftoflios of manufactuting facilities and small municipalities.
Matt graduated with a B.S. in public relations and German studies from the University of Alabama.
At Alabama, Matt also served his fraternity as a Chaplain and president of the Delta Theta chapter of Beta Theta Pi.
He currently resides in the Buckhead community of Atlanta.
Shannon Praete - Director, Grant Writing & Policy Research
Shannon Praete serves Power Gateway as the director of local, state, and federal government grant writing and policy research.
Shannon has over 15 years of experience as a grant writer in the Charleston-area including over 10 years as the chief grant administrator for the city of North Charleston.
Some of the projects that Shannon has worked on in the past include administering all grants for South Carolina’s 3rd largest city, including all aspects of municipal government, as well as contracting for various public and private entities. Her responsibilities include researching, developing, writing and implementing, as well as ensuring that all grants are in compliance with the regulations that are attached.
In 2009, Shannon saw over $9,000,000 worth of grants awarded.
Shannon has experience with grants from all levels including federal, state, and local governments, as well as private foundations. She has also assisted both public and private organizations in obtaining alternative sources of funding. In addition to this Shannon also has experience with both design and implementation of various community-based programs and special research projects.
Shannon also serves Power Gateway in the development of various “Request for Proposals and Qualifications” and analyzing submissions.
Shannon received her B.A. in International Studies from the University of South Carolina in 1992 and her Masters in Public Administration from USC in 1994. She has also completed programs in Economic Development from USC and Georgia Tech as recently as 1999.
Shannon lives with her husband and family on Daniel Island, South Carolina
