J Kyle DerhamChief Executive Officer at RAC III, Director at RAC III, Partner at Rice Investment Group
J. Kyle Derham is our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board, positions he has held since June 2025. Mr. Derham is a Partner at Rice Investment Group, where he has served since January 2018. Mr. Derham served as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Rice II (NYSE: RONI), a special purpose acquisition company, from February 2022 until Rice II completed its initial business combination with Net Power in June 2023. Mr. Derham has continued to serve as a member of the board of directors of Net Power (NYSE: NPWR) since June 2023. Mr. Derham served as the Chief Financial Officer and a member of the board of directors of Rice I (NYSE: RICE), a special purpose acquisition company, from October 2020 until September 2021 when Rice I completed its initial business combination with Archaea, a renewable natural gas operator. Mr. Derham served as a member of the board of directors of Archaea Energy Inc. (NYSE: LFG) from September 2021 through December 2022, when Archaea Energy Inc. was acquired by BP Products North America Inc for $4.1 billion.
Mr. Derham, as part of the Rice Team (as defined below), led the shareholder campaign in 2019 to revamp the strategic direction of EQT Corporation (“EQT”) and successfully elect a majority slate of director candidates to the board of EQT, the largest operator of natural gas production in the United States. Following the campaign, from July 2019 through December 2021, Mr. Derham served as interim Chief Financial Officer of EQT and subsequently served as a strategic advisor to EQT. Mr. Derham previously served as Vice President, Corporate Development and Finance of Rice Energy Inc. (“Rice Energy”) and Rice Midstream Partners LP (“Rice Midstream”) from January 2014 through November 2017. Through his various roles working alongside the Rice family, Mr. Derham has focused on evaluating, structuring and negotiating key acquisitions and execution of critical strategic initiatives to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for investors. Mr. Derham also has experience as a private equity investor, working as an associate at First Reserve and as an investment banker at Barclays. Mr. Derham earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.