Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc. has announced that John J. Underwood has been promoted to Director in the Energy & Multi-Site Retail Industry Group. Underwood joined the firm in April, 2011 after a successful career at BP. At Matrix, he has originated and managed a number of successful transaction mandates, including the sale of the assets of Florida Oil Holdings to Circle K, Inc. and the sale of Atlas Oil Company’s Chicago area BP assets to Lehigh Gas Partners LP and Parent Petroleum, Inc.

Mr. Underwood has over 30 years of major integrated oil company experience. Prior to joining Matrix, John was the Retail Portfolio Manager for BP and was responsible for managing BP’s retail station divestment program in the United States east of the Rockies.  John oversaw over 50 transactions in a six year period totaling over $1 billion and managed the transition of BP’s retail assets from direct supply to jobber supply.  Mr. Underwood has worked in virtually all facets of retail marketing, and has substantial experience in product distribution, logistics, product supply and supply planning.  In addition to his U.S. experience, John has worked in overseas downstream operations in Romania, Poland and England. Mr. Underwood will continue to be responsible for new client development and managing all aspects of client transactions including total company sales, asset divestitures, acquisitions, recapitalizations, valuations and strategic planning.

Tom Kelso, Managing Director and head of the Energy and Multi-Site Retail Group at Matrix said “John continues our tradition of doing great work for our clients and we congratulate him on his well-deserved promotion. Because of his background, he brings a unique perspective to the work we do. We also appreciate his willingness to mentor our younger team members and to share his enormous wealth of industry experience with them.”

Matrix’s Energy and Multi-Site Retail Group is recognized as a national leader in providing transactional advisory services to companies in the downstream energy and multi-site retail sectors including convenience store chains, petroleum marketers, fuels distributors, retail propane distributors, heating oil distributors, lubes retailers and distributors, terminal operators, fuels transportation companies, hospitality companies, and other specialty retail chains. Team members are dedicated to these sectors and draw upon complementary experiences to provide advisory services to complete sophisticated merger and acquisition transactions, debt and equity capital raises, corporate restructurings, corporate valuations, and strategic planning engagements. Since its inception in 1997, this dedicated group has successfully advised on nearly 140 engagements in these sectors with a total transaction value in excess of $4.8 billion. For additional information, please visit  www.matrixenergyandretail.com.