Pilko & Associates | Jon Powell

"An uncanny ability to see and articulate
many sides of complex transaction
and litigation issues"

Jon Powell

Position: Senior Advisor
Office: Houston, TX
Email: jon@pilko.com
Phone: 281-335-5381
Fax: 281-335-7402

Biography
"What I really enjoy are the global chemical deals," says Jon Powell. "I like to travel, see what people are doing in other industries and other cultures. I’ve developed a knack for going in and sizing up a situation fairly quickly and being able to articulate it. That’s the essence of the transaction business – seeing the buyer’s perspective, the seller’s perspective, the financing institution’s perspective, and being able to explain a very technical situation to decision-makers so they can make an informed commercial decision."

With Pilko since 1989, Jon has had plenty of experience seeing all sides on both large transactions and major litigation. In one litigation effort involving a chemical warehouse that had burned to the ground, Jon was initially called in to figure out which way the wind was blowing and who was damaged by the fumes – but instead he helped refocus the investigation to the cause of the fire, discovering that the bulk of the blame lay with one of the depositors. This non-testifying work – directing the investigation and advising the lawyers – had a much more profound effect on the outcome than testifying on a narrow technical subject. As Jon says, "This reinforces to me why it’s important for clients to look for a generalist to advise on strategy, not a specialist."

In transaction work, Jon has been instrumental in helping both buyers and sellers. He has directed environmental data gathering efforts and made creative use of data to craft effective strategies for indemnities, transaction structure, and long-term management of residual liabilities.

In his spare time, Jon serves as a city councilman in Taylor Lake Village and as a member of the Bayport Community Advisory Panel. He’s also a wine collector and gourmet cook – and his wife and two teenage boys enjoy the home-baked results of his 15-year-old sourdough culture.

Pilko Projects

Transactions

Cognis divestiture: Co-led the divestiture of Cognis by Henkel’s Chemicals Division. This project involved 40 facilities on five continents.
Purchase of cable-manufacturing company: Helped a major US cable and wire manufacturing company acquire facilities in East and West Berlin.
Purchase of a chromium chemicals business: Led due diligence effort and helped the buyer structure a solid indemnification plan to cover a site with serious groundwater contamination issues.
Sale of electric power generation plants: Helped both New York State Electric & Gas and Montana Power sell their large fleets of generating assets during initial deregulation of the electric power industry. These trail-blazing projects dealt with public-utility-owned assets had never before been through a due-diligence process.

Litigation support

Fire liabilities and insurance issues: Carried out investigations and helped refocus efforts centered on a chemical warehouse fire, which relieved the warehouse owner of primary responsibility. In this case, one of the depositors had negligently stored auto-ignitable material.
Ore-processing cleanup: Worked for the prior owner of a New Mexico ore-processing facility being sued under indemnification provisions for cleanup work carried out by the new owner. Jon was able to demonstrate that the new owner had conducted the clean-up in an inappropriate and overly costly way, saving our client several million dollars.
Consultant to a taxing authority: Currently working for a taxing authority being petitioned by a large chemical company to reduce the tax value of its purportedly contaminated land.

Publications

Regulatory review of approaches to due diligence, Electric Perspectives Magazine, a publication of Edison Electric Institute, Jan/Feb 1999.
Viewpoint: Environmental due diligence, Power Finance & Risk, a publication Institutional Investor Magazine, June 99.
A business-oriented approach to due diligence transactions in electric utility transactions, Pilko Grey Paper, November, 1998.
How to avoid being laid waste in environmental litigation, Pilko Grey Paper, February 1998.

Frequent guest presenter at EXNET-sponsored symposiums on environmental issues in electric power generation.

Education and Certifications

A.B. in geology from Colgate University
Sc.M. in geological sciences from Brown University.