Our Management Team
Karie Elsasser- Founder/President-CEO
Ms. Elsasser has over 30 years of experience spanning banking, project development, and industrial operations, Karie brings a rare multidisciplinary command of finance, energy, and environmental systems. She has spent the last 17 years working within a global banking and development group, leading intake, transaction evaluation, and structured funding development for complex international projects. Her specialization includes non-depletion funding protocols, institutional risk frameworks, and capital structures designed to preserve principal while enabling large-scale project deployment.
Karie holds a Marine Biology education and brings 12 years of experience in biochemistry, providing a strong technical foundation for her work in chemical systems, environmental remediation, and industrial safety.
Throughout her career, Karie has worked with major world governments, Native American Sovereign Nations, First Nations in Canada, U.S. gold mine owners, and numerous international oil and gas refineries, drilling companies, construction and development firms, alternative energy providers, and advanced technology developers.
As CEO of Horizon Group International, Karie leads the company’s core investment focus on energy infrastructure redevelopment, restoring and modernizing underutilized assets. These projects prioritize emissions reduction, safety modernization, operational efficiency, and regulatory alignment — delivering accelerated timelines and superior capital efficiency compared to greenfield development.
Karie is widely recognized for aligning institutional investment discipline with real-world execution, delivering projects engineered to perform through market cycles while supporting a healthier, safer future for generations to come.
In recent years, her focus has expanded into safe natural products and advanced decontamination solutions, addressing the growing global demand for environmentally responsible operations. Her efforts center on the decontamination of businesses, farms, oilfields, and residential environments, significantly reducing Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S) risks.
Across every initiative, Karie is guided by a core principle:
People and Planet First keeping in mind that Capital should build sustainable assets — not dependency.
This philosophy shapes how Horizon Group International structures investments — prioritizing durability, transparency, operational accountability, and long-term value creation.
Josh Paap- Co-Founder Vice President
Josh holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation and minors in Global Studies and Admiralty Law. He is a diligent and self-driven Marine Operations professional, specializing in Maritime risk management and value enhancement within the Oil & Gas sector. His Oil and Gas career started in 2008 with Transocean, where he focused on engineering design, incident management, and integrated technology systems.
His breadth of experience includes shipyard operations, ship building and auditing, brokerage, and vessel safety operations. He has gained valuable senior leadership experience through marine offshore logistics coordination, vessel commissioning, repair of mechanical and electrical equipment, vessel dry docking operations, and reduction of operational risks for vessels engaged in offshore exploration and production activities.
Josh’s business acumen, technical expertise, strong work ethic and steadfast commitment to high performance make him a natural leader. He is adept at building and fostering business alliances, and continually seeks out networking opportunities for expansion. His project management strategies are consistently focused on safety and security, contingency planning, and efficient utilization of resources and labor. Josh’s contagious passion for a healthy environment drives him towards success daily, and inspires those around him to take action and understand their responsibility for Global Clean Up.
Benjamin Day- Director of Marine Operations
Ben holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation, is a Master of Oceans and has an LNG PIC. He is a USCG Licensed Master Mariner, with a passion for our planet and a drive to find solutions for everyday problems. In the course of his 16-year career at sea, he has Captained some of the largest ocean-going vessels in the world. Ben has acquired a vast range of maritime experience that includes day to day operations of nearly every type of ship (from Containerships to Traditional square-rigged sailing vessels), to working on every ocean and continent (including Antarctica).
Prior to his life at sea, he honed his skill in Winemaking. He learned from the industry’s best winemakers in Australia’s Hunter Valley and California’s Central Coast winemaking regions. His work ethic, project management skills, and tremendous ability to understand the art and finesse of winemaking, allowed him the privilege of working on over 20 individual wine labels- many of which were exclusive reserve wines.
Ben also, quite literally, knows how to build from the ground up. He has helped build multigenerational homes in some of the most challenging locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, around beautiful Lake Tahoe, where he calls home. His unique perspective and background bring an outside-the-box approach to problem solving. He is a well-balanced leader and creative thinker. Ben’s innovative ideas, combined with his global business expertise, offer hope for the future of a happy and healthy planet.
Homer "Xan" Carvan - Director of Investor Relations & New Business Development Authorized Representative
Xan is a senior capital and strategic development executive with more than four decades of experience spanning energy, capital formation, investor relations, and complex project execution.
As Principal Director of Investor Relations and New Business Development for Horizon Group International, he supports the firm’s global trade desk and our oilfield / refinery redevelopment initiatives.
Mr. Carvan specializes in aligning institutional and private capital with vetted energy and infrastructure transactions and facilitating disciplined introductions among qualified buyers, sellers, operators, and capital partners. His expertise includes crude oil and refined fuel markets, with a strong emphasis on compliance, transparency, and execution integrity.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Mr. Carvan brings a disciplined, relationship-driven approach focused on risk management, stakeholder alignment, and long-term value creation.
Michael Gutierrez - Director of Marketing and Communications
Michael is a Business development executive with 30 years of leadership across every sector of the oil and gas industry—upstream, midstream, and downstream. Focused on driving strategic growth, and raising capital to scale operations and fuel expansion. A proven C-level leader with deep expertise in navigating complex markets, building global partnerships, and delivering results in high-stakes environments.
Christian D Mendez - Director of South American Business Development
Cristian has an impressive background in business development within the financial industry, boasting 25 years of experience. Winning an award in the financial category at the Kiosk Show for direct sales and marketing demonstrates expertise and success in these areas.
Moreover, serving as the CEO and founder of XP Global Group LLC and XP Business Network Platform showcases leadership skills and entrepreneurial acumen. It suggests involvement in creating and managing businesses within the financial sector, potentially focusing on innovative solutions or networking platforms.
Overall, Cristian possesses a wealth of experience and achievements within business development, specifically in the financial industry, coupled with notable entrepreneurial endeavors. Being the owner of Ecotires, which specializes in elastomeric ecologic coatings made from recycled tires, suggests a commitment to sustainability and innovation. This type of venture not only contributes to environmental conservation by repurposing materials but also offers an eco-friendly product with potential applications in various industries.
The use of recycled tires for elastomeric coatings showcases an understanding of sustainable practices and the ability to transform waste into a valuable and marketable product. This initiative aligns with the growing global emphasis on eco-friendly solutions and could cater to environmentally conscious consumers and industries seeking sustainable alternatives.
His involvement in this business highlights an entrepreneurial spirit dedicated to both environmental responsibility and creating commercially viable products.
Our Strategic Partners
