Gas & LNG
Significant talent moves
Talent search and competitive intelligence specialists
We start out Gas & LNG highlights in Singapore and the news that Sophie Ducoloner has become MD of Axpo’s new Singapore subsidiary, with the group establishing a branch office by the end of 2020 to strengthen its presence in Asia’s LNG market. She joins from leading LNG origination at Jera Global Markets. Initially when she moved to Singapore in 2010 it was as Head of Clean Energy Asia and later Head of LNG Origination Asia-Pacific for Gazprom M&T. After that came GM-LNG Origination for EDF Trading in 2016 which merged its LNG trading and optimisation activities with Jera in 2019.
After five years as Lead Oil Analyst for Engie, Antoine Schneider has moved into a role for the same company as Portfolio Manager, joining the team that manages Engie's physical gas assets in Eastern Europe. Before her most recent time in Paris, Antoine was based in London in analyst roles for Vitol and EDF Trading.
Twenty-five years in Europe’s energy commodity markets has culminated for Paul Coode in being named Head-European Gas Trading by Statkraft. Paul is ex-Merrill Lynch (director of commodities gas trading) and a former Alpiq trading team leader in natural gas, coal and oil, as well as holding a number of gas trading positions latterly with Engie.
*Based on data gathered by Commodity Appointments’ Gas & LNG team
*Based on data gathered by Commodity Appointments’ Gas & LNG team
New names in gas trading to note for Glencore. Enrico Antonini becomes Natural Gas Trader in London, having performed the same role for BP since 2016. Enrico also can point to having traded natural gas for Enoi in Switzerland and Shell in Milan. Joining the LNG trading/origination team is originator Miguel Llanos, who moves from Copenhagen with Glencore’s acquisition of Ørsted’s LNG business. Other previous slots in gas have been at BP and Alpiq.
We see Gregory Andre ends over 13 years with EDF to accept a Senior Gas Trader title at Gazprom M&T in London. Initially at EDF he’d been in risk analysis for commercial gas, then in quant analysis for energy markets. Trader spells in continental gas and power followed at EDF Trading.
Alpiq Energy chooses Surya Kanegaonkar for Prop Trader on global natural gas and associated energy products in the company’s merchant trading business. Coal has figured largely in Surya’s career background to date, from trading at Peabody Energy in London and Statkraft in Düsseldorf to senior analyst with the coal research team at S&P Global Platts. His most recent location was in Zug for Ezpada, as a cross-commodity trader.
Sybren Hettinga moves to EnBW to be Cross-Commodity Originator in Geneva after being an Ørsted lead originator and structured trader in natural gas. For five years to 2014, Sybran headed structured trading and portfolio management in European gas, LNG and power for Cargill.
Over to Switzerland, where James O’Brien moves the short distance from AOT Energy’s Steinhausen office to be Head-LNG Trading for EP Resources in nearby Baar/Zug. When at AOT he was head of the LNG desk. James had been in London developing business for Mitsui OSK Line's LNG carrier division and handling LNG brokerage for E.A. Gibson Shipbrokers before his original move to Zürich to manage LNG trading, origination and shipping on behalf of Axpo.
In Aalborg as Centrica Energy Trading’s newest Gas Trader is Michal Tomaszewski, who comes from Uniper in Düsseldorf and London. During two years with Uniper his roles included gas portfolio trading and origination.
Team building at the Dubai HQ of new natural gas and power trading company EnergeTech Trading nets Sinan Ozdemir for Head of Trading, recruiting him from Priogen in Amsterdam where he headed trading in gas and power. Sinan had been both a structured gas trader and an LNG analyst back when based in Den Haag with Shell Energy Trading. Between that and Priogen there were more than six years located in London for structured trading and origination with Centrica.
At the top of Nitor Energy in Aarhus, Simon Birch Hansen is appointed CEO and Martin Busekist Kjerkegaard as CFO. Christian Harr also joins, becoming CBDO. All three previously were with Energi Denmark, Simon in the head-of-gas role while both Martin and Christian were senior gas traders. The trio additionally share a former connection to Danske Commodities: Simon as director/head of gas, Martin heading gas portfolio trading and Christian being senior portfolio manager.
German public utility company Trianel of Aachen makes Emmanuel Ngo its new Senior Gas Trader and names Alexander Land to head its department for communications and energy policy. An early spell in New York being a trading assistant with Société Générale CIB was followed for Emmanuel by 10 years in Paris as a natural gas trader for GDF Suez Trading/Engie. Alexander has worked at E.on Energie in Munich, at E-wie-einfach Strom & Gas in Cologne and at E.on Gastransport/Open Grid Europe in Essen.
Geneva Trading of Chicago also steps into our lens this time, because its desk for trading natural gas is joined by Todd FitzGerald. Over the past 10 years he’s been a natural-gas trader or portfolio manager with Nico Trading and Tibra Trading Americas as well as in his most recent position at Uniper.
Newly the Head of LNG for Litasco in Geneva – that’s Paul O’Sullivan. Having been principal trader on imports of LNG into a floating storage regasification unit of the Dubai Supply Authority for almost five years, Paul since 2015 has been at RWE S&T in London initially managing origination and latterly being responsible for physical trading in LNG.
Aleksandra Grigoreva, now LNG Structured Trader at Pavilion Energy’s European operation, moves to its Madrid office after working for Edison in Milan since 2014. The first half of her time with the Italian group had been in accounting and cost analysis before a promotion to LNG origination.
A move to Trafigura means that Greg Fulkerson stays in California. The UCLA and San Diego State graduate swaps trading and wholesale marketing of natural gas, power and renewables with Shell Energy North America for his Trafigura appointment as West Natural Gas Trader.
Meanwhile Trafigura Geneva hires Mickael Butikofer as Derivatives Analyst and now also Head of Oil Analytics Europe. Although Michael can look back to consulting on gas in Paris and Kuala Lumpur for ERM, more recent slots at BP and Litasco were in oil market analysis.
Further promotion at Equinor to report for Redwan Zeroual --- now up to Chief Gas Originator in sales and structured products at the Brussels office. Redwan first joined European natural gas sales and asset origination at the same location in 2011 before moving to an originator role with the London-based trading team. For the past three years it’s been Stavanger, as head of digital transformation for Equinor's global midstream and trading business.
Two analysts are appointed by Engie. In Paris, François-Yves Ducouret is Market Analyst-Gas/LNG for Engie Global Markets after modelling power and gas within FTI Consulting subsidiary Compass Lexecon Energy. It marks his return to the group where he previously worked with the European/global oil and gas team on strategy, energy economics and risk. Marco Caruso comes to Engie Italia in Milan as Data Analyst-Power & Gas, from being Energy & Portfolio Manager for Geko in Rome. He’s also a past strategist on wind farms with Enel Green Power.
WATCH OUR RECENT LINKEDIN LIVE SESSION WITH AXPO’S LATEST MD HIRE, SOPHIE DUCOLONER AS SHE SHARES HER VISION FOR THE BUSINESS IN SINGAPORE.
When Jan Schulte left Point Carbon in Oslo to conduct natural gas analysis for Thomson Reuters it marked the start of seven years with the company in New York and London. Since 2018 the director of gas/LNG modelling for Refinitiv, Jan switches in 2020 to EDF Trading as Senior Analyst-Global Gas.
Well done to Tetsuro Toyoda in Singapore, for securing the title of VP-LNG Trading at KE Fuel Trading Singapore. It’s his latest move in a long career dating back to Caltex in Tokyo in 1980. He’s also worked for Total, but his time between 2001 and 2020 has been spent with BP, in Japan, Indonesia and Singapore. Tetsuro (more often called Ted) leaves BP Singapore where he was senior LNG originator.
Chevron in Houston? That’s the new base for Christopher Duggins following his appointment there to be Natural Gas Trader. Chris at one time was a VP on the U.S. West desk of Deutsche Bank Energy Trading, subsequently supervisor of a team of NGL/naphtha risk analysts for Enbridge Energy and managing the gas/oil/NGL portfolio at Anadarko Petroleum. Since 2018 he’s been manager of commodity risk for Noble Energy.
Still with Chevron’s Houston office, Chris Fowler joins from Noble Energy to be Wet Gas Originator. His back story runs from scheduling (High Mount Exploration & Production) to maintaining the gas balance in pipeline and storage assets (Enterprise Products) and marketing analysis (Linn Energy).
Mahir Al Zidjaly is new to Mercuria Energy Trading as VP-LNG Trading, having arrived from global LNG duties at Oman Trading International in Muscat. Go back almost 10 years and Mahir held GM positions at Oman LNG and also at Koman Energy in Dubai until heading for Koch Industries in 2013 to be head of Middle East LNG.
We note the arrival at CF Partners in London of Pierluigi Frison, named its Director-Gas & Power Trading. Once a senior commercial negotiator for ExxonMobil, Pierluigi had energy trading roles with Baringa Partners and Green Network UK and most recently traded energy for Vega Insight.
Yiwei Zhi provides the final gas move of this section this time, by moving within Singapore from ExxonMobil to Novatek. In over three years with ExxonMobil he was both an LNG trading analyst and a charterer in the group’s marine transport organisation. Novatek has recruited him as Junior LNG Charterer.
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This is merely a snapshot of some of the recent people moves and associated trends observed by our Gas & LNG research team at Commodity.
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