Mark brings nearly 35 years of public company leadership, finance and capital markets experience to the table. Prior to being appointed Chief Executive Officer of Aero Velocity Inc., Mr. Hastings served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary to the Board of Directors of Phoenix Motor Inc. Mr. Hastings led the deal team that saw Phoenix successfully acquire the assets of Proterra’s Transit business through a bankruptcy dissolution process, increasing Phoenix’s business scale 5-fold.
In addition, Mr. Hastings is Founder and Managing Member of Hastings E Ventures, LLC, a capital markets advisory firm serving emerging energy and related companies. Mark previously served as Vice President of Finance and Insurance at Rodo Inc., the online auto leasing company where, as a Leadership Team Member, he headed its online fintech department and founded and served as head of Rodo Insurance Agency. He also contributed to the firm’s Blockchain Title initiative in its infancy.
Before moving to the automotive/fintech industry in 2020, Mark had a 30-year career on Wall Street where he focused on both the old and new energy sectors on the buy side and sell side. He served as Principal, Portfolio Manager and Head of Investor Relations at Geosphere Capital Management in New York, NY. Mr. Hastings also served as Portfolio Manager and Trader at Saugatuck Energy in Southport, CT. Prior to that, Mark was a Research Analyst working on the founder’s account at Steve Cohen’s firm, S.A.C. Capital Advisors (now Point72 Asset Management), in Stamford, CT.
Before moving to the buy side in 2003, Mark was Director of Global Energy Sell Side Equity Research at Deutsche Bank in New York, NY and from 1994 to 1999, he was Vice President of Sell Side Energy Research at Merrill Lynch & Co, also in New York, covering the major oil companies.
After earning his MBA, Mark began his career in the Controllers Department at Exxon Corporation as Senior Auditor at the Company’s former Bayway Refinery in New Jersey and then at the Company’s U.S. headquarters in Houston, TX.
Mr. Hastings was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Virginia and a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Tennessee, where he earned the James M. Gower Outstanding MBA Achievement Award.
