After completing his MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, Mr. Lea was recruited by Chevron for its MBA Management program. He worked in various departments at Chevron including CIOC (Chevron International Oil Company). Mr. Lea left Chevron for a Palo Alto software company to launch a program he designed for basket hedging of oil price risk. Within 2 years, he became that firm’s CEO and advanced it to acquisition by a global software company (now Misys).

Mr. Lea then joined Alier, a banking risk management integration software company as COO. Over the next 3 years, Mr. Lea led sales and operations, then negotiated its sale to publicly traded Active Software where he became a member of the executive staff. Six months later, Active sold to WebMethods, the leading supply chain B2B software company for $1.3 billion. With professors from Stanford and Caltech Economics Departments, Mr. Lea moved on to game theory based auctions. His electronic auction companies were responsible for groundbreaking state electricity purchasing and water rights allocations.

In 2015 and 2016, he launched Sierra Energy Capital and Sierra Advisors along with other business and legal professionals to provide licensed Investment Banking and business advisory services to energy, technology, and consumer products companies. Mr. Lea holds Finra series 79, 63 and 82 Investment Banking registrations with Growth Capital Services, a broker/dealer in San Francisco. LinkedIn