Our Team

Tirelessly Committed To Our Company, Our Investors, And Our Community

C. John Wilder

Executive Chairman

C. John Wilder has served as the Executive Chairperson, Non-Independent Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Bluescape Opportunities Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: BOAC) since July 2020.

Wilder is the Executive Chairman of Bluescape, founded in 2007 as an alternative investment firm that leverages its private capital, global network, and deep domain expertise to deliver differentiated long-term investment performance in the energy and utility sectors.

Bluescape employs a unique approach and long-term perspective, helping position companies for growth and value creation by providing capital and strategic oversight with its multi-disciplined team of executive-level managers, operators, and strategic consultants. The Bluescape team aspires to uncover investments exhibiting high-performance potential and to then build lasting partnerships. Creating positive impacts for all of its stakeholders through its capital, operational capabilities, and long-term ownership model is of vital importance to Bluescape. During 14 years as a private investor, Wilder has executed 36 major investments totaling almost $3.0 billion with investment returns far superior to peer performance. Wilder serves on the boards of directors of several private portfolio companies.

Wilder has acted as lead or named investor in many multi-billion dollar transactions, including Evergy, CenterPoint Energy, Sempra Energy, FirstEnergy Corp., FirstEnergy Solutions, NRG Corp., Clean Line, and Edison Mission Energy. He has served on the boards of many private and public companies, including Evergy, NRG and TXU Corp., and in executive officer roles at TXU Corp., Entergy Corp., and Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Wilder has a long-term record of investing and operating achievement in U.S. and global markets, broad and deep domain expertise in all segments of the energy value chain, an investment track record characterized by strong returns, a history of transforming underperforming companies into high-performance businesses, and a commitment to corporate social responsibility. He is known for his success in spawning new businesses, building accountability and transparency into corporate governance, improving the quality of boards of directors, and executing complex, structured transactions to produce billions of dollars in economic value. Wilder is connected with a network of critical contacts both inside and outside the energy industry, and he also brings a thorough knowledge of international energy markets.

Wilder started in the energy business in Texas over 40 years ago with the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, where he rose to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Shell Capital in London. Wilder’s vision and execution spearheaded the industry’s three most successful financial and operational turnarounds at NRG, TXU, and Entergy, moving struggling companies from the bottom quartile to the top quartile across a variety of performance dimensions. For his achievements at TXU, the Harvard Business Review named Wilder twice as one of the Best-Performing CEOs in the World, ranking 24th among 2,000 CEOs from publicly traded companies in 33 countries in 2010, and 74th among 3,143 CEOs from publicly traded companies in 50+ countries in 2013. No other United States power company executive was honored in either of these rankings. During Wilder’s leadership, TXU delivered 65% annualized returns to shareholders and ranked 5th best among the S&P 500. In addition, Wilder was named to Ten Best CEOs in America by Institutional Investor in 2004 and was named Best CEO and CFO in the Electric Power Sector in multiple years by Institutional Investor.

Wilder is on the advisory boards of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. He is a former advisory board member of the Global Energy Management Institute, University of Houston, and the Energy Management and Innovation Center, University of Texas. Wilder is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Texas Health Resources and is a past member of the National Petroleum Council, a U.S. Secretary of Energy appointment.

Wilder graduated magna cum laude from Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and he has received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas.