The idea of formalizing a comprehensive presentation of project finance for new business development has its origins with experiences in projects I did as a business consulting economist. The quest for sound processes, critical analyses, objective evaluations, innovations and continuous productivity improvements have been an integral part of my professional life. I have learned a lot from projects and interactions with financing advisors and colleagues, but it is difficult to ascertain what I have learned from whom or what specific project experiences I benefited from the most.

I took my first steps in project finance under the support and guidance of a most intelligent and capable CFO, Mary Baughman, who placed her trust on my ability to create and manage a professional project finance organization for AT&T Submarine Systems. I owe her gratitude for that which got me into the field of project finance. My skills have been augmented by discussions and work with financing advisors and consultants, financiers, and relationships with official and private funding source managers who shared freely valuable knowledge. I also learned from experiences of other project finance organizations and benefited from interviews of different types of project finance participants and insights from an extensive benchmarking study.

In preparing this book I have had the privilege of benefitting from constructive reviews and seasoned experience inputs and knowledge of Jeffrey Morrison, John Costas, Robert Rieffel, and Julie Hill. I am thankful for their useful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of the manuscript. The help and guidance of the SAS and Wiley editorial staff are also acknowledged, but all errors and omissions are my own responsibility.

The encouragement and support of my wife during the research and preparation of the manuscript has been invaluable for it enabled me to focus on completing this task. In addition to Mary Baughman, I would like to thank my friend and former advisor Dr. Elizabeth C. Bogan for her guidance and help which shaped my professional life. Once again, I am thankful for and acknowledge the support of the late James Sotirhos; without it none of this would have been possible.