Wayne has over 30 years of market-making, option trading and asset management experience in the energy industry. Mr. Penello began his career on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he was a market maker and served as Ring Chairman of options trading.
In 2001, Wayne founded R^2 and developed financial solutions for corporations and private equity firms to enter, optimize or exit the energy trading/marketing arena. In 2010, Mr. Penello was awarded a patent for R^2's methodology for quantifying risk (US Patent # 7,822,670 B2). Mr. Penello served as President of R^2 until the acquisition in December 2020.
Prior to R^2, he held positions managing globally distributed energy assets for Vitol S.A., Vitol U.S.A., Tenneco Gas Marketing and Torch Energy. Mr. Penello was formerly a research scientist. He holds a master's degree in Marine Sciences from Stony Brook University and an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology from Southampton College.