MIKE STRUGAR
Attorney at Law
Director, Blue Planet Credits
Mr. Strugar is an attorney specializing in real estate law and the transfer of tax credits. He has a law degree, as well as a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management, both from the University of Michigan. Mr. Strugar practiced real estate law for ten years as a partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, a national law firm. In 1993, he established the Conservation Resource Center (CRC), a nonprofit organization focused on land conservation and tax credit transfers.
Within the tax credit arena, Mr. Strugar:
• Assisted with the organic statute and regulations establishing the first in the US directly transferable tax credits in 2000.
• Worked with the IRS in creating the initial guidance for transferable tax credits, which guidance has been the basis for transfers of more than $20 Billion of tax credits.
• Established the first marketplace for the transfer of tax credits, and has been directly involved with the transfer of over $250 Million of tax credits, and over 1,000 tax credit transfer transactions.
He has served as an adjunct Professor of Law at University of Denver Law School, and as an expert witness in cases involving the transfer of tax credits.
DEBRA PENTZ
Attorney at Law
Director, Blue Planet Credits
Ms. Pentz is an attorney specializing in tax credit transfer and private land conservation. She received her JD from the University of Colorado School of Law and her BA in political science with an economics concentration from Dickinson College. She serves as Co-founder and Director at both Blue Planet Credits (BPC) and the nonprofit Conservation Resource Center (CRC).
Instrumental in the development of the Tax Credit Exchange, the nation’s first credit transfer market, Ms. Pentz also authored State Conservation Credits: Impact and Analysis (2007), assessing the early effectiveness of state conservation tax credit incentives guiding other states contemplating enactment.
In addition to her work at BPC and the nonprofit CRC, Ms. Pentz has served as:
• Adjunct Professor of Environmental Policy at Fort Lewis College
• Program Manager at Great Outdoors Colorado
• Program Manager for the City of Boulder Office of Environmental Affairs
• President of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts (now, Keep it Colorado)