Charlie Spies
Former CEO (retired), CEI Capital Management
About Charlie
Charlie Spies is Managing Director of CEI-Boulos Capital Management, LLC, where he focuses on capital raising. He is also a member of the company’s board of directors.
Charlie recently retired as CEO of CEI Capital, where he oversaw all aspects of the organization’s operations including: capital sourcing and deployment; project sourcing and underwriting; investment recommendations; accounting; compliance; asset management; and public relations. Under his leadership, CCML raised and deployed $1.02 billion in federal and state New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation in more than 95 projects across the U.S. without a single year of financial loss, making CCML one of the nation’s leading allocatees of federal NMTCs. Like CEI, CCML’s focus on projects located in underinvested rural communities has helped to create and preserve 8,849 jobs and the firm has entered into Community Benefit Agreements that directed over $12.5 million in additional investments into programs that support people and communities with low incomes.
Prior to joining CEI Capital in 2006, Charlie served as chief operating officer for the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System. Through creative and strategic management, he successfully led the organization through a 73% cut in federal funding by diversifying revenue sources. He grew an individual membership program and secured direct funding from the State of Maine, including a $500,000 emergency appropriation. He has also served as CEO for the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) and president and CEO of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds. As one example of his capital raising experience, Charlie established and secured funding at FAME for a $150 MM secondary market for student loans. While managing the Small Enterprise Growth Fund at FAME he also raised and invested over $9M in funds for seed-stage venture capital investments from both public and private sources. Until he exited CEI Capital Management in September 2020, Charlie served for ten years on the executive committee of the board of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition.
He received a B.S. in forest utilization and an M.S. in forest entomology from the University of Maine, and an M.B.A. from Southern New Hampshire University.