Power
Significant talent moves
Talent search and competitive intelligence specialists
We start with the news that UK investment company, Low Carbon, has appointed Søren Kjær Petersen as its new Head of Power Sales. Søren entered the energy industry in 2009 when he joined NEAS Energy in Denmark and then moved to the UK in 2013 to set up NEAS’ UK business, building up an extensive renewable PPA portfolio. When the company was purchased by Centrica in 2016, he took a role leading UK and later European origination. Low Carbon’s investment model features solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, combined heat and power (CHP), battery storage, concentrated solar power (CSP) and anaerobic digestion (AD) technologies.
Aquila Capital Management continues to build up trading capabilities around their investment and asset management business. Latest senior hires for their Hamburg office include Arne Weber, joining from RWE as newly appointed Head of Trading & Origination, and Dean Morris, previously with Ampol Singapore, now heading up Aquila’s Risk & Operations function for the Trading & Origination department.
*Based on data gathered by Commodity Appointments’ Power team
*Based on data gathered by Commodity Appointments’ Power team
At the Aarhus HQ of InCommodities the latest appointees are Karsten Fyhn to be Senior Data Scientist, Rune Elgaard Mikkelsen as Structured Trader and Peter Nicks as Quant Weather Analyst. Karsten was an engineering specialist in vibration diagnostics on wind turbines for Siemens who switched to Grundfos in 2018 to become lead engineer in software development. Rune Elgaard comes from quant work with Neas Energy and then with new owner Centrica. He gained his PhD at Aarhus University and conducted research in nuclear physics in San Francisco and Paris. When at former employer Danske Commodities, Peter worked on the use of machine learning to analyse meteorology.
Over to Prague, for news that Czech-based energy trading group EP Commodities recruits Gaspare Campo for Senior Trader. Gaspare moves out of Italy after analysis and power trading roles with Gruppo Hera and being senior prop trader in power and gas for Ego of Genoa.
In making Klaus Reinisch its Group Chief Sales Officer, Met Group in Zug puts him at the forefront of plans to grow internationally and grow the group’s European portfolio in gas and electricity. The appointment brings Klaus from directing sales and trading for energy group D.Trading in Kiev. Previously in London, he was MD of global LNG business development for Trailstone and then CEO of energy asset specialist GEP Investments.
Nomi Ahmad heads to London from Singapore on becoming CFO of Highview Power. He had moved in the reverse direction while with Sembcorp as head of its UK energy operations and then SVP. Additional Singapore slots in his career have been with El Paso Energy, Wärtsilä Corp and Lanco Power International.
At the London office of investment management company Millennium, Sebastien Deshayes arrives as Portfolio Manager from three years as ECTP’s trading head for European gas and power. Among his past roles: trading European gas for RWE S&T, BP and Goldman Sachs.
Wim Vaasen leaves Centrica as Head-Optimisation Netherlands to be Structured Power Originator for Engie in Belgium. He worked in origination for Engie Global Markets until joining Axpo Benelux in 2012 and becoming MD of Axpo Netherlands in 2014.
Milan-based energy trading platform Enmacc hires Silvester Hetesi for Strategic Account Manager, Silvester has been an account manager for Bloomberg as well as an energy broker for Griffin Markets and sales manager at digital systems investment house FinScience.
Mehmet Kuyucuoglu is named Director-Asia to head MFT Asia, the new Singapore company started by MFT Energy of Aarhus to explore new Asian business opportunities. While with Neas Energy he re-located to start its Singapore office in 2016, staying in the role after Centrica acquired the company.
Jean-Benoȋt Ritz has been appointed the new CTO of EDF Trading. He has been with EDF for 20 years, from a Paris role heading R&D in energy efficiency to being the London-based director of EDF Energy’s Blue Lab innovation accelerator.
Mads Nipper is the next CEO and Group President of Ørsted, as of 1 February 2021. He was previously CEO and Group President at Grundfos. Until 2014 he was with Lego, most recently as CMO/EVP. In New York, Ørsted brings in James Giamarino to lead business development in U.S. onshore renewables. James arrives after 27 years with GE Energy Financial Services. A further Ørsted move in the U.S. is that Zachary Grammer joins the Chicago office as Trader, from managing day-ahead trading for Invenergy.
Citadel next, where Paul Vosper is the latest Trader covering the EMEA energy market from London. Once a trading analyst on the UK power desk of RWE S&T followed by an equivalent role with Shell Energy Europe, Paul most recently has been a European cross-commodity energy analyst and trader for TrailStone.
News from Geneva that Zhihao Ni is now a Structured Power Trader at Trafigura. Before this he was in Brussels as a senior originator in structured power for Engie Global Markets and in Paris as a senior power trader and structuring manager for the Dalkia arm of EDF. Also new at Trafigura: Daniel Katz, who comes to be a Power Trader in Houston from being a power trading associate with Citi.
At Engie, incoming in Berlin as Senior Originator-Renewables is Ralf Bernhard. A one-time consultant in renewable energy in El Salvador and Uganda for German international trade agency GIZ, Ralf later returned to the organisation to be BD manager for Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Lately he has been part of a team setting up a European power purchase agreement (PPA) business in renewables for BayWa r.e.
Aquila Capital makes news with senior hires...
Senior Power & Cross-Commodity Originator is the title that Jean-Louis Malon takes on joining Vattenfall. The ex-head of derivatives and energy at Tereos can look back 30 years to managing power operations for RTE-France and 25 years to working for EDF in power origination and structuring. Among more recent slots have been head of energy sales/marketing EMEA with Cargill and advising a company in Ghana about power generation.
Jason LaBrooy has moved from his role as Head of European Clearing Sales at Macquarie Bank to Axpo UK where he has taken on a Director role in the origination team. Jason will focus his origination activities on the institutional client base and take responsibility for the build out of Axpo’s European power and gas direct market access services. During nearly eight years with Macquarie, Jason rose to MD-Energy Futures.
Axpo also names Janosch Abegg as Senior Originator in Düsseldorf. Janosch spent over 15 years with Statkraft, ultimately as Head-Market Access & Integration of Renewables. He’s also been head of origination for Quadra Power International in Bremen.
Darren Potter takes the reins as MD-Energy at the Volcap Trading business of Louis Capital Markets UK. Until the move he was a senior cross-commodity options broker in power and gas for Griffin Markets in London, having handled crude oil options in the past for Tavira Monaco and Marex Spectron.
RWE Supply & Trading Japan was established in Tokyo as recently as July 2020. Among early staffers is Kazuto Arai, appointed Power Trader after arriving from the trading desk of F-Power. Shinichi Kato, President/Country Manager of RWE’s renewables business in Japan, has already been named a representative director of the new subsidiary.
From trading Nordic and German power at Alpiq for two years from 2010, Alan Thompson progressed to senior-trader and trading strategist roles with Danske Commodities before taking a structuring/origination position at Axpo Brussels. The last three years have found him first with EWE Trading in Bremen as head of power portfolio management and trading, now with Statkraft in Düsseldorf as Head of Portfolio Management-Southern Europe.
Mark Kruzel joins the U.S. power team at Freepoint Commodities as VP-West Power Trading. He was a senior West energy trader for both TransAlta and Constellation until Denver trading roles with Guzman Energy and Xcel Energy.
Artic Securities of Oslo recruits Justin FitzHugh for its renewables corporate finance activities, re-locating him from London where he’s been a Partner at Augusta & Co dealing with transactions in renewable energy. Previously Justin was a VP with UK-based environmental investment management and advisory company Climate Change Capital.
A double entry for Gunvor this time, involving Chris Miller and Paul Haythornthwaite. Chris is newly at the Geneva office as Trader in energy derivatives. His background includes heading EMEA linear trading in oil/refined products for Barclays Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley. He moves to Gunvor following Millennium portfolio management in crude oil and refined products trading. Paul at the London office is named Head of Risk for energy in the EMEA region. His switch is from being responsible for risk management at Petronas Energy Trading, having also worked for RWE S&T, Gazprom M&T and Petroineos.
WATCH OUR RECENT LINKEDIN LIVE SESSION WITH AXPO’S LATEST MD HIRE, SOPHIE DUCOLONER AS SHE SHARES HER VISION FOR THE BUSINESS IN SINGAPORE.
As the new Director-Origination & Energy Strategy at Repsol, Maria Paz Garcia Alajarin stays in Madrid after being with EDP Renewables in the Spanish capital as manager and then director of their energy management department covering the European Union and Brazil. She’s a former research engineer with EDF and has also worked in the audit and risk departments of Spanish utility Endesa.
Simon Gadd has been a senior power trader with Citiworks and Sempra Energy Europe as well as director of cross-commodity optimisation for CF Partners, senior trader for Leap Energy and director of energy products for CME Group. But now Simon switches from London to Zug, for his appointment by Ezpada as Head-Trading Development & Operations.
And finally in Brussels, Gaspar d’Ursel joins the team at Ether Energy where he becomes BD Manager. His resume shows time spent with Mercuria Energy Trading in London and Geneva before moving back to Belgium for PwC.
Dr. Fabio Gabrieli is newly with Statkraft as Head-Dry Bulk Trading Strategy. It keeps him in Geneva, where he was director of dry bulk analysis and strategy at Mercuria Energy Trading for more than eight years.
Centrica Energy Trading in Aalborg advances Michael Mou Nielsen to Head of X-Commodity Quant Trading as well as heading capacity power trading. Michael previously at Centrica was manager of analytics and data science and then senior manager for cross-border capacities. Earlier power trading positions had been with Energi Danmark and Neas Energy.
Nicolas Malcorps is the new Head-Origination & Structuring for Engie Global Energy Management Iberia in Madrid. His initial position when joining Engie’s Brussels office in 2011 was as a portfolio optimiser. After almost four years that led to a promotion heading optimisation and hedging in relation to bulk trading. But his most recent posting with the group was in Houston, as commercial director for power in the global energy management team covering the Americas.
News from South Dakota that Guzman Energy appoints Andrew Heinle its MD-Origination. Andrew moves from being EVP-Origination for Arevon Energy Management in Arizona. In earlier times he held originator roles in Texas, at Tenaska Power Services.
Frédéric Seguy becomes the first Director/Trader at newly established company Matexis Ltd in London. For the past two years he had been Head of Continental power trading for Shell International T&S. A stint at the head of the power trading team for Gunvor in Geneva between 2016 and 2018 had followed a London placement for EDF as senior energy trader.
Boston Energy Trading & Marketing chooses Adam Amann for Portfolio Manager in renewable energy and emissions, hiring him from origination work with Boston-based Capital Power. Adam’s an ex-Trader of renewables at Noble in Connecticut, which he had joined as an analyst, and he also handled analysis while with the U.S. coal team at Trafigura.
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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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