Power
Significant talent moves
Talent search and competitive intelligence specialists
We begin our overview of highlighted power moves of recent months with the news that Stuart Lloyd-Evans is the new MD of Cielo Energy. In his 25 years in the UK energy sector, Stuart has worked for major utilities, financial institutions and also new entrants. Examples include structuring and trading power and gas contracts in the UK and Spain for TXU Europe, setting up a UK power trading operation for RWE, being a power trader for Standard Bank and acting as head of hedging for wholesale risk management at E.ON.
Solarcentury in London has appointed Enrico Ambrosini as its new Global Head of Origination. He remains in the capital, moving from TrailStone Group where he was Head of European Power Origination. Prior to this, Enrico worked in senior origination roles at Deutsche Bank, Freepoint Commodities, and Noble Group.
In another London move, Greg Kurantowicz joins Limejump as Head of Risk, after working at Hudson Energy for the last 7 years where he was, most recently, the European Supply and Trading Manager.
Mark Billsborough is SSE Renewables’ choice for Head of Renewable Sales and Trading. Mark makes the move from Co-op Energy where he held a similar role. Previous to this, he worked for E.on Climate & Renewables, starting as a risk manager and ending his time there as a senior investment manager looking after onshore wind and fossil generation in Europe.
Outside of the UK, Gabor Csanak becomes the new Sales Manager of Energy Marketing Europe for RWE Renewables in Germany. He remains in the Essen area, moving from E.ON Climate & Renewables where he was Sales Manager of Asset Commercialisation Energy Marketing.
*Based on moves tracked by Commodity Appointments in last 12 months.
*Based on moves tracked by Commodity Appointments in last 12 months.
At Spanish advisory firm Our New Energy --- founded in 2016 by former Danske Commodities employees --- Mikkel Kring joins from the Danish energy trading company as Partner. His former role as Director-Head of Origination for Danske Commodities is filled by Marco Verspuij, previously Lead Negotiator at DC’s owner, Equinor.
Mikkel during seven years with Danske Commodities managed a team responsible for negotiating a portfolio of +6 GW of renewables across Europe. In 2016, with Miguel Marroquin who is currently Managing Partner at ONE, he headed the closure of a 15-year power purchasing agreement (PPA) on 588 MW British off-shore park Beatrice.
ONE has established itself on the European market by advising on PPA transactions. It tells us it is currently representing a total of 5 GW of renewables investors around the world, with a large part of the business in Iberia and Italy. It has now signed +1,5GW of long term PPA for assets without subsidies and also recently agreed a PPA on 50% of the Beatrice output, so 294MW.
Engie North America brings in Mike Morrison from Mieco of Houston to be Senior Trader. His previous power trading positions have included with Glencore and Trafigura.
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg chooses David Beaton as its new Head of Prop Trading, based at the Karlsruhe head office. It involves a re-location from the UK to Germany for David, previously an independent trader and a portfolio manager for World Capital in London following a four-year stint with Noble Group in which he was its Head of Power, Gas, Financial Coal and Emissions Trading, Europe. The team in Karlsruhe has also welcomed Andreas Ewert, who’s looking at medium-term analysis for the company after being an SVP on quant methods at Uniper. Andreas had also occupied a director-level position on quant modelling and methodology while at E.ON Global Commodities. A further new appointment for the EnBW team is of Mads Miltersen, who becomes CEO of EnBW Sverige in Sweden as from October after leading Swedish wind power company Rabbalshedekraft.
New hire to build global energy trading and origination capabilities in Singapore for Sembcorp
In his online profile James Hinchcliffe says his new role is to build global energy trading and origination capabilities as a Senior Originator for Sembcorp Industries in Singapore. He’s relocated from London where he was seconded to work with Engie’s commercial team on asset optimisation at First Hydro after a 25% stake was sold to his then employer Brookfield Asset Management.
Martin Shaw moves from Scotland to Denmark to take up a Senior Trader appointment with Ørsted. Martin’s Scottish employer since 2007 had been SSE, where he handled its energy asset optimisation as a trader.
Ørsted also has appointed Erdal Dagyaran as a Senior Trader, bringing him in from trading for Lind Capital in Aarhus. Erdal formerly was a portfolio manager in energy derivatives for Danske Commodities.
Trading electricity and natural gas is a core activity for Italy’s Electrade, now home to Petra Johannson as she becomes the company’s new Senior Originator-Green Markets. For Petra it means remaining in Milan after being in power origination and prop trading for Enoi since 2014.
Calgary-based TransAlta’s choice for a role in real-time West power trading is Ermin Chow. He’s a product of a BP Canada graduate programme for developing professional skills in trading natural gas.
Steven Farag is originally from Australia but has been in Europe since becoming a trader in energy derivatives for Scrocca Option Trading of Amsterdam in 2009. Steven was trading in power derivatives for Cross Options International, again in the Netherlands, until he was made a senior trader in Oldenburg for German utility Ewe. His latest move keeps him in Germany, appointed Senior Trader by Trianel in derivatives for German, French and Italian power.
Originator with Statkraft in Düsseldorf is the new job of Oliver Guse. He has been with Steag in Germany since 2015 as an energy market analyst.
Lars Haavik has moved on from a lead originator position with Vattenfall to become Aquila’s Director of Power Markets for the Nordic area. Lars also has worked for Axpo in the past, as a senior originator. Aquila this year has acquired significant wind farms in both Norway and Finland. It calculates that it now manages wind energy assets in the Nordics with a combined capacity of close to 1.5 GW and says it is ‘seeking to further build its presence in the region’.
Congratulations to Wim Vaasen on becoming Head of Optimisation-Netherlands at Centrica Business Solutions. The Amsterdam-based post brings him from a senior Benelux role with Axpo in origination. Previously he was a gas and power originator for France with GDF Suez Trading/Engie Global Markets.
Christophe Balleux is the new Senior Long-Term Power Trader at EDF Trading in London, having made the switch from working for Engie in Brussels as Head of Proprietary Trading. Christophe had moved to Belgium from the UK after trading energy for Tibra Capital and for HETCO.
Also joining EDF Trading is Hugh Byrd as Desk Head Ercot/West Power Trading. Hugh joins EDF from Citi where he was the Managing Director, Ercot/West Power Trading. Hugh had been at Citi since 2013, and prior to this spent over six years at Deutsche Bank Energy as VP and then Director of Ercot Trading.
Finally, Jan Engelbert moves up from Head of Portfolio Germany to Director at Orsted Wind Power Germany GmbH. Jan will soon be entering into his fifth year with the company, which he joined from HSH Nordbank.
WE’RE RUNNING A SURVEY TO FIND POSSIBLE WAYS TO IMPROVE THE BASIS OF REMUNERATION FOR TRADING-TEAM ANALYSTS AND STRATEGISTS.
This is merely a snapshot of some of the recent people moves and associated trends observed by our Power research team at Commodity.
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