Cully Cavness
Cully Cavness is the Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer of Crusoe Energy, a pioneering company at the forefront of sustainable AI compute infrastructure. As a leader of the industry’s first vertically integrated, purpose-built AI cloud and energy-driven computing platform, Cavness oversees operations that span hundreds of megawatts of power generation, large-scale data center deployment, and high-performance cloud computing. His contributions include multiple issued patents, and he has received awards recognizing his leadership and impact in environmental innovation, energy technology, and sustainable infrastructure. Before co-founding Crusoe, Cavness held leadership and management roles across the upstream oil and gas sector, geothermal energy development, and energy investment banking. He previously served as Vice President of Finance at Highlands Natural Resources, a private-equity-backed exploration and production company operating in Colorado and Montana.
Cully Cavness Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Co-Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer
Academic History
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M.B.A., Highest Honors
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B.A., Geology
Cully Cavness plays a central role in shaping Crusoe Energy’s operational strategy and large-scale execution, overseeing everything from energy production and data center deployment to cloud infrastructure development across the company’s expanding AI compute footprint.
He spearheaded the creation of Digital Flare Mitigation®, a breakthrough energy and environmental service that transforms wasted or flared natural gas into high-performance computing power by deploying modular, mobile data centers directly in oilfields—an innovation that reduces flaring by millions of cubic feet per day while enabling sustainable computing.
Cavness’s expertise is frequently showcased in industry seminars, conferences, and media discussions focused on AI infrastructure scaling, sustainable computing, and the energy transition, reinforcing Crusoe’s position as a leader in climate-aligned AI compute solutions.
Under his leadership, Crusoe has expanded into large-scale AI data center development and clean cloud services, securing major funding and strategic partnerships to build next-generation, environmentally aligned computing infrastructure.
EARLY CAREER
Before co-founding Crusoe, Cavness served as Vice President of Finance at Highlands Natural Resources, where he managed commodities sales and marketing—a role that exposed him firsthand to the industry’s flaring challenges and ultimately inspired Crusoe’s clean-energy approach.
Prior to Highlands, he worked in energy investment banking at Petrie Partners, advising on transactions across the oil and gas sector, and served as Business Development Manager at Global Geothermal, a renewable power plant developer.
Earlier in his career, he was awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, conducting global research on energy technology, project finance, and power infrastructure across Iceland, China, Spain, and Argentina.
RECOGNITIONS
2021 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
2020 Hart Energy Special Meritorious Awards for Engineering Innovation Winner