Hecate Energy names ex-EVgo lawyer Garofola as General Counsel
Hecate Energy has appointed Michael J. Garofola as General Counsel, effective 21 September 2026. The Chicago-headquartered utility-scale energy developer said the hire is intended to strengthen its legal and governance capabilities ahead of a planned Nasdaq listing expected to close in early 2027.
Garofola brings more than two decades of public-company legal experience. His most recent role was Managing Partner of the New York office of FROST LLP. Before that, he served as Senior Director of Compliance and Litigation at EV-charging operator EVgo, Inc., supporting its legal and compliance function during a period of rapid growth. Earlier roles included Senior Vice President and Head of Litigation at cannabis holding company Acreage Holdings, General Counsel of an international trade and export firm, an Assistant US Attorney at the Department of Justice, and private practice stints at Davis Polk & Wardwell and Kobre & Kim.
In his new role, Garofola will oversee corporate governance, regulatory compliance, risk management and strategic transactions as Hecate moves through the final stages of its SPAC combination.
The SPAC transaction
Hecate announced a business combination agreement with EGH Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: EGHAU) in January 2026, at a pre-money enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. Completion of the deal, which would see Hecate list on Nasdaq under the ticker "HCTE", remains subject to EGH shareholder approval and customary closing conditions, with a target close in early 2027.
Chief executive Chris Bullinger cited Garofola's experience "advising public companies, managing complex legal and compliance matters, and helping leadership teams navigate a wide range of special situations" as central to the appointment. Garofola, for his part, described Hecate as having "built a compelling power-development platform with meaningful scale" and said he looked forward to strengthening its governance foundation ahead of the public-markets transition.
Market context
Hecate operates in a utility-scale renewables development market that is attracting significant capital as data centre operators, hyperscalers and industrial customers compete for long-term power purchase agreements. The company says it has developed more than five GW of projects to construction or operations, sold over 12 GW of power plant and storage capacity, and holds an active development pipeline exceeding 47 GW across solar, battery storage, wind and thermal generation.
The SPAC route to public markets has become less fashionable since the peak of 2020 to 2021, with many blank-cheque vehicles experiencing high shareholder redemptions and post-merger share-price underperformance. However, energy-transition and power-infrastructure businesses have fared better than some other SPAC categories, partly because institutional demand for grid-scale generation assets has remained strong. A General Counsel with prior public-company experience, including SEC reporting obligations and complex litigation exposure, is a standard governance expectation for any company approaching a listing event.
The appointment also reflects growing pressure on energy developers from regulators and large offtake customers to demonstrate robust compliance frameworks, particularly as projects intersect with federal permitting, grid interconnection queues, and increasingly scrutinised power purchase agreement structures.
Hecate was founded in 2012 and says it has entered more than 50 PPAs and similar offtake contracts covering over 6 GW of capacity with 24 counterparties. The completion of the EGH business combination remains the company's next significant milestone, with the formal registration statement yet to be declared effective by the SEC at the time of publication.