Our Partners

Ellis Sullivan is a visionary leader and seasoned entrepreneur with a robust background in mineral processing, refining, and sustainable supply chain solutions for the climate economy.  Previously, Ellis served as CEO and President of Great Lakes Minerals, one of North America’s largest suppliers of processed brown fused alumina and calcined bauxite. There, he managed sizeable annual revenues, optimized operational frameworks, and expanded market capitalization through strategic product development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he effectively navigated the company through global disruptions without compromising performance.

His board experience includes advisory roles with ElementUSA, where he focuses on recycling industrial waste, and Climate Commodities International, where he served as an Independent Director overseeing climate-focused operations. He has also advised companies like Graphcoa, facilitating major financial closings, and Limetec, a mining company specializing in limestone and calcium carbonate. Ellis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Kentucky and has been an active member of prestigious organizations, including the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and the International Order of Saint Hubertus (IOSH). His commitment to innovation and sustainability continues to drive impactful change across the minerals and climate economy sectors.

Rick Tallman is a veteran entrepreneur, investment manager and philanthropist that leads TallmanPacific, an independent investment firm and strategic consultancy serving investors and companies in the energy transition.   In 2007, he founded Renova Capital, a leading private equity firm specializing in bringing new sustainable technologies to full commercialization while investing in, developing, managing, and selling over $1B of clean energy assets.  He was a founder, CEO & Chairman of Main Street Power Company (now AES Clean Energy), a pioneering solar company that developed thousands of distributed solar arrays while launching the industry’s first residential solar leasing fund.  Earlier in his career, Rick established a reputation as a successful entrepreneur by founding and leading a variety of early-stage companies through initial public offering or acquisition.  This included a leading superfund remediation firm, a pioneer of municipal water utility privatization, and one of the very first internet photo community sites.  

Rick served as a Company Commander in the US Army during the Persian Gulf War, and frequently writes and lectures on subjects of entrepreneurship and a sustainable future.  He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Geologic and Hydrologic Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, where he serves on the Board of Governors and leads the Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty Initiative.

John Rice has over a 20 year track record in the renewables and environmental industries, with a focus on green infrastructure financing and development.  Prior to his involvement with ROC Minerals, John was a Principal at Renova Capital Partners. Renova was a Denver-based investment firm founded to develop, own and aggregate clean energy infrastructure assets across a variety of sectors including biomass-to-power, geothermal, solar/distributed generation, energy storage, biofuels, waste-to-energy, and the energy efficient built environment.  John’s primary job functions included leading strategic opportunity and market assessment, financial modeling capacity, initial due diligence and project underwriting, credit and debt capacity analysis, development of debt and equity investment packages, and transaction support and execution, and project development across all project elements.  John holds a joint B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, an MBA and MS in Sustainable Systems from the University of Michigan.