2018 Speakers

Speakers

May 11th

Virtual

May 12th

In person

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Rostin Behnam

Commissioner

The U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Rostin Behnam was nominated by President Trump as a Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on July 13, 2017, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 3, 2017, and was sworn in to serve as a Commissioner on September 6, 2017 for term expiring in June 2021.

Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Behnam served as senior counsel to U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Mr. Behnam served as counsel to Senator Stabenow since 2011, focusing on policy and legislation related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Agriculture.
Prior to serving Senator Stabenow, Mr. Behnam practiced law in New York City and worked at the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Mr. Behnam is a graduate of Georgetown University and earned a J.D. from the Syracuse University College of Law.

 

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Michael Haigh

Executive vice president, commodity economist

PIMCO

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Liza Abad

Enterprise Risk Manager

HESS CORPORATION

Liza Abad, Enterprise Risk Manager, HESS CORPORATION

Liza Abad is Enterprise Risk Manager at Hess Corporation, a Fortune 100 E&P company, with portfolio responsibilities overseeing North America onshore, Asia Pacific and Australia regions. In Asia, Liza was responsible for the roll-out of Enterprise Risk program. Liza also served in a research advisory capacity in Hess' Strategy group; shepherding the country risk program and methodology development. Prior to joining Hess, Liza was at Mirant Corporation and Bank of America. Liza has been actively involved in the risk professional and strategy community, furthering risk management best practices and educational needs of energy professionals. At Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA), she has served various global roles (Global Speaker Coordination Leader, SME and advisory roles) and chapter level roles (Houston and New York Steering Committees). In 2016, Liza was elected Co-Regional Director of PRMIA's Houston chapter. Liza has served as chairperson on the International Energy Credit Association (IECA) Crude and Refined Products committee and on projects for Association for Strategic Planning. Liza has also been an active speaker in the risk community (Columbia University' Energy Symposium, McDermott Will & Emery Energy Conference, LEAP, IECA and PRMIA). Liza holds a MBA from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

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Bob Anderson

Executive Director

CCRO

Bob Anderson, Executive Director, CCRO

BOB ANDERSON is Executive Director of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers. In this role‚ he is the Committee's principal spokesperson‚ lead strategist and chief administrator. He represents the Committee before the FERC‚ CFTC‚ Congress‚ and major industry conferences. Bob is also President and founder of the Energy Data Hub company which promises to bring much needed gains in market transparency and robustness in price formation. Before agreeing to lead the CCRO‚ Bob was a Corporate Vice President and the Chief Risk Officer for El Paso Corporation in Houston. From 1999 through early 2003‚ Anderson's group introduced a new risk-capital based framework to controls‚ capital allocation‚ and performance measurement. During this time‚ Bob was a major contributor to the CCRO white paper on assessing capital adequacy. Prior to El Paso‚ Bob was a consultant with McKinsey & Company‚ at their Houston office. There he focused on helping energy industry clients to address their organizational‚ risk management‚ and asset valuation issues. Prior to McKinsey‚ Bob founded his own software development firm‚ providing data management tools for diesel price analytics. Just after graduate school at Duke‚ Bob joined BP Oil Company where his seven years of experience included strategic planning‚ trading‚ and serving as head of energy derivatives marketing. Bob has received much public acknowledgement for his involvement in advancing energy risk management‚ including the 'Famous Fifty' hall of fame award from Energy Risk Magazine‚ for contribution to energy markets over the last ten years. Bob's educational background includes an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business and a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University

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Ray Asif

Director, Product Management

OPENLINK

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Erika Bierschbach

Interim Director, Energy & Market Operations

AUSTIN ENERGY

Erika Bierschbach, Interim Director, Energy & Market Operations, AUSTIN ENERGY

Erika Bierschbach has over 23 years of experience in the energy market industry. Bierschbach's experience includes positions in energy risk management and trading at Duke Energy Trading and Marketing as well as Enron Capital and Trade. Bierschbach's current position is interim Director of Energy & Market Operations at Austin Energy, where she manages the wholesale market activities for the utility.

Bierschbach joined Austin Energy to develop and implement the energy hedging program for the utility. Among her achievements are the establishment of Austin's financial energy portfolio, its Risk Oversight Committee, and the establishment of Risk Policy guidelines ensuring the proper oversight and separation of duties required for best practices in energy trading and risk management. Bierschbach and her origination team are responsible for acquiring over 1,200MWs of wind generation and 600 MWs of solar generation to Austin Energy's renewable portfolio to meet the renewable energy goals established by Austin's City Council.

Bierschbach has a degree in Economics from Texas A&M University and is fluent in English, Spanish and French.

 

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Michael Brosius

Managing Partner

ROFAN COMPLIANCE ADVISORS

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Freddy Cardozo

Chief supply & risk officer

Gas South

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Joe Cipolla

MACQUARIE GROUP

Joe Cipolla, MACQUARIE GROUP

Paul Cusenza

Chairman and chief executive

Nodal Exchange and Nodal Clear

Nodal Exchange is a commodities exchange providing participants the ability to trade and central counterparty clear hub, zone and nodal power futures and options contracts in North America achieving over $35 Billion in notional value open interest and 45% market share in monthly futures open interest. The company also offers natural gas, environmental and trucking freight contracts.  Nodal Clear, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nodal Exchange, is registered as a derivatives clearing organization and acts as the central counterparty clearing house for Nodal Exchange contracts.  Nodal Exchange became part of the EEX Group in May 2017.  Mr. Cusenza led Nodal Exchange to its commencement of trading in April of 2009 and the market has seen great growth since its launch. 

Mr. Cusenza has over thirty years of experience in building and managing businesses. He was co-Founder and co-President of 23andMe, a personal genetics company which Time Magazine identified as “The Best Invention of the Year” and which has now achieved “unicorn” status.  He was also the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Alliance Management at Perlegen Sciences. He was part of the Senior Management Team of Capital One Financial during a period of great growth in the 1990s. Prior to Capital One Financial, he was a Vice President and Partner at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman) for nearly a decade focusing on financial services. He also worked for IBM early in his career. Mr. Cusenza holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School and a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

  

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Nicholas Coughlin

Branch Chief, Office of Enforcement

FERC

Nicholas Coughlin, Branch Chief, Office of Enforcement, Division of Audits and Accounting, FERC

Mr. Coughlin has been at FERC for 15 years, during which time, he has participated in, led, and managed numerous audits of FERC jurisdictional companies. These audits have included financial and operational audits of electric, natural gas, and oil pipeline companies. Currently, he is a Branch Chief in the Division of Audits and Accounting where he manages audits covering a diverse range of topics including utility operations, accounting and financial reporting matters, rates, recovery mechanisms, affiliate transactions, tariff matters, and compliance with various other FERC rules and regulations.

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John Doran

Global director, trade monitoring & analysis

Conocophillips

John L. Doran, Global Director, Trade Monitoring & Analysis with ConocoPhillips, brings more than 20 years of experience providing advisory services and analytical modeling methods to his clients in the energy industry. Mr. Doran is the designer of multiple commodity trade surveillance methods used to detect targeted trading patterns. He has worked with integrated oil companies, investment banks, hedge funds and Department of Justice sponsored monitors providing customized trade surveillance solutions and independent reviews. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Mr. Doran spent a significant part of his career with Ernst & Young and SunGard Global Services focusing within the energy industry. John graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

 

 

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Michael Enger

Energy market manager

Austin Energy

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Jennifer Fordham

Senior Vice President, Government Affairs

NATURAL GAS SUPPLY ASSOCIATION

Jennifer Fordham, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, NATURAL GAS SUPPLY ASSOCIATION

Jenny Fordham is senior vice president, government affairs for the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA). She joined NGSA in 2005.

Jenny is responsible for the association's legislative and policy advocacy on issues relating to the competitive natural gas market. She represents the association at senior level meetings with the administration, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), U.S. Congress, media, industry and the public, serving as a spokeswoman for the association on a multitude of natural gas market issues.

Jenny's diverse 25-year energy career helps provide the commercial relevance that is characteristic of NGSA advocacy. Fordham's regulatory affairs and fuel supply planning experience is further augmented by her investor relations and financial planning experience for Columbia Energy Group.

Jenny specializes creating long term strategic advocacy partnerships that broaden policymaker support for commercially relevant positions. Fordham created the first "agriculture and energy" partnership, NGSA and the National Corn Growers Association, credited with securing the end user protections in the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. Jenny's work helped establish NGSA as an industry leader on CFTC Dodd-Frank implementation advocacy.

Jenny Fordham graduated cum laude from Shepherd University receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and political science.

 

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Bill Fraser

Advocate Member

CCRO

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Ike Gibbs

Chief Compliance Officer, Commodities

CITADEL

Ike Gibbs, Chief Compliance Officer, Commodities, CITADEL

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Vlady Gorny

Vice President, Risk Management

EXELON

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Josh Gray

Chief Scientist

ALLEGRO DEVELOPMENT

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Lyon Hardgrave

Director, Market Risk

GLENCORE

Lyon Hardgrave, Director, Market Risk, GLENCORE

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Frank Hayden

Vice President, Trading Compliance

CALPINE

Frank Hayden, Vice President, Trading Compliance, CALPINE

Frank Hayden has been in the industry since 1987 and currently serves as Vice President of Trading Compliance for Calpine. Mr. Hayden is charged with developing a trading compliance control framework and market monitoring program. He directs overall corporate strategy regarding commercial compliance. His deep experience includes energy trading, assurance risk assessments, risk management, utility asset management, banking and energy trading compliance. During his career, Frank remains focused on enabling organizations with a transparent decision-making framework increasing the effectiveness of compliance programs, risk management and overall efficiency of capital allocation. Mr. Hayden is a co-founder of the Professional Risk Manager's International Association.

 

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Paul Hughes

Manager, Risk Control

SOUTHERN COMPANY

Paul Hughes, Manager, Risk Control, SOUTHERN COMPANY

 

 

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Sid Jacobson

Managing Partner

PIVOTAL RISK ADVISORS

Sid Jacobson, Managing Partner,  PIVOTAL RISK ADVISORS

Sid is a management consultant with over 25 years of experience driving change and growth for companies engaged in energy and related derivatives markets. Sid is known for strategic visioning complemented with a successful track record implementing improved commodity strategies, commercial operations, risk management and regulatory compliance.

Prior to consulting, Sid had successful career as an options market-maker with a seat on the AMEX and NYMEX. After trading, Sid was the first risk manager for a global hedge fund and for a PJM utility/energy marketer. Sid also developed derivatives marketing programs to launch new products for NYMEX.

Sid often engages in industry committees focused on developing practices; currently as a Steering Committee Member for the Houston Chapter of PRMIA, a Committee of Chief Risk Officers Advocate and as a conference moderator for Energy Risk USA. Sid graduated Syracuse University with a B.S. degree in Finance with a focus on Managerial Statistics.

 

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Rich Jefferson

Chief Operating Officer, Commodities

BEACON PLATFORM

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Saji John

Global Head of Commodity Market Risk

CITIGROUP

Saji John, Global Head of Commodity Market Risk, CITIGROUP

Saji K. John is the Global Head of Market Risk Management for the Global Commodities group at Citigroup. As the global head of market risk management, Saji's team monitors and provides global oversight for Citigroup's commodity market risk. He is also the Chief Risk Officer for Citigroup's US swap dealer for commodities. He has been with Citi since 2007. Prior to Citigroup, he worked at BP for 5yrs as the Market Risk Manager for BP's energy trading desks in Houston. He started his career in energy commodities as a structurer for the Natural Gas and Power desk with Enron Corp in their energy trading group. He was with Enron for 5 years. Prior to Enron, he worked for various engineering companies as an Electrical Engineer in the Middle East and India. Saji graduated with an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, India. He holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst from the CFA institute.

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Krystal Joscelyne

Senior Risk Manager

PDC ENERGY

Krystal Joscelyne, Senior Risk Manager, PDC ENERGY

Krystal Joscelyne oversees the Risk Management department for PDC Energy, an upstream oil and natural gas company. Previously, Ms. Joscelyne was the Director of Finance and Accounting for Aurora Building Company, a boutique construction firm. Prior to that role, she was an independent consultant helping business leaders increase their ability to foresee and navigate risks. Additionally, Ms. Joscelyne worked within various business units of Sempra Energy, a Fortune 250 gas and electric energy company. Within this role, she consolidated their financial plan, quantified financial variability and strategic implications of investment decisions and macroeconomic risks, performed project analysis and prepared expert witness testimony. Ms. Joscelyne also worked on the trading floors of Progress Energy as a quantitative analyst valuing deals and building pricing models.

Ms. Joscelyne has proudly served as the Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Just in Time for Foster Youth and The Grey Muzzle Organization. She currently volunteers in various capacities as a member of the Junior League of Denver.

Ms. Joscelyne holds a Master's of Financial Mathematics, a Master's of Economics, and a Bachelor's of Arts of Economics from North Carolina State University. She is a Certified Professional Risk Manager and an Advisory Board member of NC State's Enterprise Risk Management Initiative.

 

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Vince Kaminski

Professor

Rice University's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management

Mr. Vincent Kaminski has spent 14 years working in different positions related to quantitative analysis and risk management in the merchant energy industry. The companies he worked for include Citigroup, Sempra Energy Trading, Reliant Energy, Citadel Investment Group, and Enron (from 1992 to 2002) where he was the head of the quantitative modeling group. Prior to starting a career in the energy industry, Mr. Kaminski was a Vice-President in the Research Department, Bond Portfolio Analysis Group, of Salomon Brothers in New York (from 1986 to 1992).
As of September 15, 2006, Mr. Kaminski has accepted an academic position with Rice University in Houston (Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business) where he is teaching MBA level classes on energy markets, energy risk management and valuation of energy derivatives. Mr. Kaminski is also teaching classes in the executive education program at the Jones school.

Mr. Kaminski holds an M.S. degree in international economics, a Ph.D. degree in theoretical economics from the Main School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw, Poland, and an MBA from Fordham University in New York. He is a recipient of the 1999 James H. McGraw award for Energy Risk Management (Energy Risk Manager of the Year). Mr. Kaminski published a number of papers, and contributed to several books, on energy markets. His recent publications in the risk management and commodity options pricing areas include: Managing Energy Price Risk, Risk Books, London 1999, all three subsequent editions, editor and coauthor; The Challenge of Pricing and Risk Managing Electricity Derivatives, in: The US Power Market, Risk Publications, London 1997, author; and Energy Modeling. Advances in the Management of Uncertainty, London 2005, editor and coauthor.

 

 

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David Kayserman

Managing Director, Trading & Commercial

ACCENTURE

Novera Khan

Chief Risk Officer

Uniper

Uniper Chief Risk Officer since February 2016. Before, Novera has been leading the Market Risk department of Uniper Global Commodities since April 2014 and before that led the Gas, Oil & LNG Risk team. Novera has 20 years of extensive energy market experience in the energy industry and has held various Senior Risk Management positions across multiple markets and companies in the US, UK and Germany.

Qualifications

  • MBA Finance, University of Houston and 
  • Energy Risk Management, Rice University
Stuart Krohn

Head global market risk Gas, power & energy trading

Shell Trading & Supply

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Kevin Kindall

Senior data scientist

Hartree Partners

Kevin Kindall is a Senior Data Scientist at Hartree Partners. Prior to joining Hartree, he held front and middle office positions at ConocoPhillips, Enron, and EDF Trading. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Clemson University, and a Masters in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University, and serves on the Alumni Relations Board for the Tepper School of Business.

 

 

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Chair: Glenn Labhart

Senior partner

Labhart Risk Advisors

Glenn Labhart has more than 25 years of experience in the design and implementation of

risk management processes and policies and has been a leader in helping the industry define today’s risk environment and plan for the uncertainties of the future.

He is the first energy-industry chief risk officer to receive the Financial Risk Manager of the Year Award from the Global Association of Risk Professionals (“GARP”). Glenn now serves as the Chairman of the Energy Risk Diploma program for GARP.  

In March 2004 Glenn Labhart formed Labhart Risk Advisors Inc., providing expertise in risk management that provides a diverse approach for clients requiring expertise in energy, complex modeling and independent valuation.

Glenn is a frequent lecturer and speaker utilizing his subject matter expertise on a variety of legal matters from his direct experience to provide of industry practices to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, business clients and Dynegy.

From August 1997 to March 2004, Glenn was senior vice president and chief risk officer for Dynegy Inc. During the period at Dynegy, Glenn led the independent valuation of due diligence for all mergers and acquisitions that included European, Australian, Latin American and US based transactions; serving as a Board member for subsidiary companies from Dynegy acquisitions.

Glenn’ s career is supported by a BBA from Abilene Christian University, and the Rice University Executive Management Program, Professional memberships include the United State Energy Economics Association, the International Energy Economics Association, and serves on the Advisory Council for the Master of Energy Business program/University of Tulsa.

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Tom Lord

President

DYNAMIC COMMODITY MANAGEMENT

Tom Lord, President, DYNAMIC COMMODITY MANAGEMENT

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David Louw

Division Director, Risk Management Group, Compliance

MACQUARIE GROUP

David Louw, Division Director, Risk Management Group, Compliance, MACQUARIE GROUP

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Glen Mackey

Chief risk officer

NRG Energy

Glen E. Mackey is Chief Risk Officer of NRG Energy. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s governance, risk management, trade compliance, cash management, insurance, retail costing and structuring.

Mr. Mackey also serves as a an adjunct professor in Applied Mathematics at Rutgers University, a member of the CFTC's Market Risk Advisory Committee, and board or advisory member for related energy firms.

Mr. Mackey holds undergraduate diplomas in accounting and finance respectively. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration, all through western schools.

Prior to joining NRG in 2011, Mackey held senior commercial and commodity management positions, in agriculture, energy and financial services sectors with KPMG, Nexen, EnCana, Duke Energy Marketing, Koch Energy Trading, Engage Energy, NGX, and TD Bank.

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Rodney Malcolm

Chief Financial Officer, North America

TRAFIGURA

Rodney Malcolm, Chief Financial Officer, North America, TRAFIGURA

Rodney Malcolm currently serves as the North American Chief Financial Officer for Trafigura. He joined Trafigura Trading LLC in 2015 and is based in Houston, TX. Rodney has over 20 years of experience in the energy finance and trading industry. Prior to joining Trafigura, Rodney spent over 6 years at CITIGROUP as the Head of Americas Origination. While at Citi he was responsible for building the commodity origination group and integrating it with Citi's capital markets. Before that, Rodney was the Chief Financial Officer at Calpine Energy Services where he raised over $5 billion in, highly structured, high yield and mezzanine capital market transactions. Before that, Rodney spent 8 years at Enron working in their Treasury & Risk Management, Industrial Markets, and Power & Gas Origination departments. Rodney was a Managing Director at Enron when he left the firm. Rodney received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Queen's University in Ontario, and his MBA from the University of British Columbia.

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Spyros Maragos

Manager, market risk analytics

ExxonMobil

Spyros Maragos has more than eighteen years' worth of experience as an energy executive.  He has held quantitative, structuring, risk management and fundamental analysis positions.  He worked in energy marketing, consulting, for an oil major as well as energy hedge funds.  Currently, he is Manager, Market Risk Analytics at ExxonMobil.

Spyros has a Ph.D. from M.I.T. where he studied Management, Operations Research and Finance.

 

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Thomas McAndrew

Founding Partner, President and Chief Executive Officer

ENCHANTED ROCK

Thomas McAndrew, Founding Partner, President and Chief Executive Officer, ENCHANTED ROCK

Thomas McAndrew founded Enchanted Rock (ERock) in 2006 and is currently its President and CEO. Mr. McAndrew brings over 30 years of experience in energy asset management ranging from large, complex nuclear plants to small distributed generation.

ERock is responsible for the design, installation and commissioning of 235MW of reliability microgrids and distributed generation (DG) assets, consisting of over 30 locations including 75MW of Reliability Service in Texas for commercial and governmental entities. Currently, ERock has contracted for and started construction on 103 stores totaling 113MW reliability microgrids for HEB, a major grocery store chain, and 10 stores totaling 11MW a microgrids for Buc-ee's, a Texas tradition. We currently operate over 175MW of distributed generation across the state of Texas.

Mr. McAndrew's introduction to energy was in engineering and operations on two US Navy nuclear power surface ships, the USS Eisenhower and USS South Carolina. He spent six years operating and maintaining nuclear propulsion plants and qualified as a Naval Nuclear Chief Engineer for the Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. After his time in the US Navy, McAndrew worked as a maintenance support engineer for the Southern Company at their Plant Farley nuclear power station. His grounding in reliability systems came from this time in the nuclear business, where the cost of loss of electricity to critical loads is extremely high. He then shifted to the financial side of energy, helping several energy merchants build highly profitable trade floors. At his last merchant energy company, Calpine, Mr. McAndrew also supervised the commercial startup of many new natural gas combined cycle power plants.

Mr. McAndrew received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M, Masters Equivalent in Nuclear Power Operations from the US Navy and Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

 

 

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Sarah McDowell

Head of Commodity Risk for Natural Gas, Valuations

BP ENERGY COMPANY

Sarah McDowell, Head of Commodity Risk for Natural Gas, Valuations, NAGP, BP ENERGY COMPANY

Originally from Chicago, Sarah McDowell began her career in Internal Audit in the financial services sector before joining BP in 1999 where she helped establish an exposure model and hedging program for the Oil Supply business. Since then, Sarah has held a number of Commodity Risk leadership roles within the trading organization with a career spanning multiple commodities as well several geographies including London, UK and Calgary, AB. Sarah moved to Houston with her family in 2012 and is currently the Head of Commodity Risk for the North American natural gas trading business. Through the course of her tenure with BP, Sarah has worked with several ETRM systems and has been actively involved in a number of system transformation and implementation initiatives. Sarah holds a Bachelor's of Science in Finance from DePaul University and also holds her Certified Internal Auditor designation.

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Jay Matson

Branch Chief, Office of Enforcement

FERC

Jay Matson, Branch Chief, Office of Enforcement, FERC

Jay Matson is a Branch Chief in the Office of Enforcement, Division of Investigations at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, managing a team of approximately ten individuals that investigate alleged instances of non-compliance with FERC-related laws, regulations, and tariffs. Previously, he served as the lead OE-DOI attorney in similar investigations. Prior to joining FERC, as an attorney at various firms, he represented investor-owned utilities, project developers, public power entities, state commissions, regional organizations, and others on a broad array of issues arising throughout the United States related to the regulation of electric utilities, natural gas pipelines, and hydroelectric projects, as well as the development of wind and nuclear projects.

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Tim McKone

Chief Compliance Officer

CITIGROUP ENERGY

Tim McKone, Chief Compliance Officer, CITIGROUP ENERGY

Tim McKone has 25 years of commodity market experience in Front, Mid and Back Office roles with wholesale traders, merchant generators, banks and majors. Tim started his career in Compliance in 2003 and was one of the first regulatory compliance officers in the U.S. wholesale trading marketplace. Tim combines a detailed understanding of the underlying mechanics of physical and financial commodity transactions with in-depth knowledge of the letter and intent of the rules that govern these transactions to help mitigate the risk of non-compliance. He is currently Chief Compliance Officer for Citigroup Energy Inc. Tim has a BA in History from Williams College and a Masters in Accounting and Masters in Taxation from Northeastern University. Tim is a member of New England Patriots Nation, but does not publicize this for obvious reasons.

Marc Merrill

President & CEO

Uniper North America

Marc Merrill is President & CEO of Uniper North America where he has overall responsibility for the Uniper Group’s activities in North America.  Marc previously has held numerous leadership and board positions within the Uniper Group and has particular experience building, leading and restructuring global teams. 

Prior to joining Uniper, Marc was in private legal practice in Munich, Germany and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He received his Juris Doctorate and Bachelor of Civil Law degrees from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University and his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas-Austin. He also studied law in Germany and France. He is fluent in German.

 

Caroline Pham

Commissioner

CFTC

Caroline D. Pham was sworn in as a CFTC Commissioner on April 14, 2022, after being nominated by President Biden and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Commissioner Pham is a recognized leader in financial services compliance and regulatory strategy and policy, with deep expertise in derivatives and capital markets and emerging issues such as digital innovation. Her substantial experience spans key international issues such as prudential regulation and systemic risk, financial markets including currencies and commodities, fintech and digital assets, ESG, and the impact of major disruptions like the savings and loan crisis, the 2008 financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Pham advised boards of directors, executive and senior management, policymakers and regulators, and industry leaders on changes to the regulatory landscape and implications and risks of emerging issues, trends, and economic and market developments to the global financial system, markets, and banking. Her past engagement includes international standard setters such as the Financial Stability Board, IOSCO, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Bank for International Settlements, and Committee on Payment and Settlements Systems, as well as central banks, government ministries, regulators, and other stakeholders across North America, Latin America, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Commissioner Pham was previously a managing director at a large global financial institution where she held various senior roles in compliance, legal, the chief administrative office, and the institutional clients group, including as a global head of swap dealer and Volcker compliance; deputy head of global regulatory affairs; head of capital markets regulatory strategy and engagement; and head of market structure for strategic initiatives, working closely with innovation, strategic investment, and business and product development teams on digital assets and other opportunities. She has built global programs and teams and led initiatives for implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act and other global regulatory reforms, including the design of compliance risk management, governance, and oversight frameworks and policies and procedures across all institutional and retail businesses. She also had oversight of U.S. regulatory change management for markets, including rates and currencies, credit, securitized markets, commodities, municipal securities, and financial market infrastuctures.

Commissioner Pham’s past experience in the private and public sectors includes serving as Special Counsel and Policy Advisor to former CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia; and in enforcement at the CFTC, SEC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and for the former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims while in law school. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Law, Economics, and Finance and most recently served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Business and Finance Law Program.

Commissioner Pham is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Her former leadership roles with the American Bar Association include member of the Council of the Business Law Section and the Executive Committee of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Board; Vice Chair of the Banking Law Committee; and Co-Chair of the Securities, Capital Markets, and Derivatives Subcommittee. She is a former Co-Chair of the Business Law Fellows Committee, a program to develop future diverse leaders, and also a former Fellow herself. In addition, Commissioner Pham has served on a multitude of industry forums, including on the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

Commissioner Pham has a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, and was a recipient of the Manatt-Phelps Scholarship for excellence in banking law and the Vietnamese American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area Scholarship. She is from California’s Central Valley, the “food basket of the world.”

 

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Tuncay Pekin

Head of Risk Management

MN8 Energy

Dr. Tuncay Pekin is the Head of Risk Management at MN8 Energy. Dr. Pekin pioneered the application of portfolio risk management in the energy sector during the transition into greener energy. He has around 30 years of international experience in executive leadership, risk and commercial management in multinational corporations including Fortune 100 companies. During this time, he served in risk management committees and managed reporting of company risk profiles to management and the board of directors. He successfully established multiple company-wide risk management frameworks and built risk management teams for both public and private companies in the United States.

Before joining MN8 Energy, Dr. Pekin held positions in companies including Duke Energy, Shell, Dow Chemical and the AES Corporation. His experience covers commodities, power, foreign exchange, interest rates and credit. His areas of expertise include enterprise risk assessment, portfolio risk management and analytics, risk quantification and risk metrics, risk strategy, hedge optimization, large-scale Monte Carlo simulation systems, machine learning and risk management policies.

Dr. Pekin earned his Ph.D. in Management Engineering with a concentration in Mathematical Finance from the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. He graduated from Bogazici University in Istanbul with a M.A. in Economics and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering.

 

 

Nigeria (Poole) Bloczynski

Energy executive

Nigeria Bloczynski, Founder and Principal of Prism Risk Management & Consulting, is an expert and proven leader with comprehensive experience in strategic, corporate, credit, market, and commodity risk management in the energy and financial spaces. A master facilitator, she proactively utilizes business savvy, industry knowledge, and best practices to challenge status quo, drive enterprise risk mitigation, and navigate regulatory and organizational boundaries to achieve strategic goals. Nigeria is recognized as a credible and trusted business partner and advisor, influencing, and fostering relationships with key stakeholders, developing, and executing sweeping changes while consistently delivering impactful solutions. Her career has spanned multiple industries, working for an engineering company in the steel space, electric and gas trading companies, financial services corporations to the largest US regional transmission organization. With over 20 years in the energy industry, Nigeria has had a front seat at the table while the energy industry has continued its explosive transformation. She has worn her risk management “hat” in many ways, developing tools to ensure compliance within identified risk parameters, as well as being a business partner to identify innovative ways of optimizing risks as a competitive advantage. She has specific expertise in complex market and credit risk assessments, energy trading risk management, regulatory compliance, policy development, commercial transactions, and advising on Board level matters, enabling her to bring various points of view to the table when developing a solution. Her attention to detail and effectiveness at understanding the unique underlying challenges of each client, results in scalable solutions that resolve issues relatively quickly, ultimately reducing costs and avoiding negative publicity. Nigeria’s professional experience includes 14 years as Chief Risk Officer and senior management team member with energy companies in the natural gas, renewable and electricity space, most recently with PJM Interconnection, North America’s largest US regional transmission organization. Prior responsibilities include working in various risk management roles at financial institutions. merchant generation and energy trading companies. In addition to her career, Nigeria has served on the Board of an independent non-profit corporation, as an Advisory Board member for an energy risk publication, and an advisory committee member for a joint natural gas and electricity enterprise risk management professional committee. Nigeria is also a frequent speaker on various topics of energy risk and volunteer mentor to many students and young professionals. . Nigeria holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Mathematics from Morgan State University.

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Malinda Prudencio

Vice President Risk Control, Chief Risk Officer

THE ENERGY AUTHORITY

Malinda Prudencio, Vice President Risk Control, Chief Risk Officer, THE ENERGY AUTHORITY

As The Energy Authority's vice president of risk control and chief risk officer, Malinda Prudencio is responsible for monitoring all commercial business risk and managing the Credit and Risk Control, Compliance, Analytics, and Power Supply Planning Departments. She and her team oversee the administration of TEA's compliance procedures and perform ongoing maintenance of TEA's Risk Management Policy.
Ms. Prudencio originally joined TEA's front office in 1998. In 2001, she transitioned to the credit and risk management teams where she progressed through a variety of middle office positions. She helped develop the first regulatory compliance program at TEA and continues to play an integral role in the implementation of strategies and policy to monitor market, credit, and operational risk for TEA and its clients.

Ms. Prudencio earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of North Florida and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Florida. She is a board member of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers and has been featured as an industry presenter on risk control best practices and training.

 

 

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Karthik Rajan

Head of products, growth and marketing

Just Energy

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Adam Raphaely

Head of Emissions and Renewable Energy

MERCURIA

Adam Raphaely, Head of Emissions and Renewable Energy, MERCURIA

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Jonathan Regenstein

Director of Financial Services

RStudio, Inc.

Jonathan is the Director of Financial Services practice at RStudio and the author of Reproducible Finance with R: Code Flows and Shiny Apps for Portfolio Management (CRC Press). He writes the Reproducible Finance blog series for RStudio and his code/apps can be seen at reproduciblefinance.com. Prior to joining RStudio, he worked at JP Morgan. He studied international relations at Harvard University and did graduate work in political economy at Emory University

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Irina Reitgruber

Global Head of Product Management

FIS

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Jay Reynolds

Managing Director, Head of IT

CASTLETON COMMODITIES INTERNATIONAL

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William Rust

Director, Energy Marketing Compliance

THE ENERGY AUTHORITY

William Rust, Director, Energy Marketing Compliance, THE ENERGY AUTHORITY

William Rust works as the Compliance Director for The Energy Authority, a Public Power marketing and trading company that transacts power, natural gas and other energy commodities throughout the United States. As Compliance Director, Mr. Rust is responsible for overseeing The Energy Authority's compliance with FERC and CFTC regulations as well as the management of the internal compliance program which includes regular interface with both state and federal regulatory bodies.

Mr. Rust has held engineering and wholesale marketing positions at one of the largest public power utilities in the United States. Mr. Rust has also held positions at two international energy marketing organizations in various trading, operations, and regulatory roles. Mr. Rust has been involved in wholesale energy marketing and trading since the advent of market-based wholesale power transactions with the issuance of FERC Order 888/889 in 1996.

Mr. Rust holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and an MBA, both from the University of South Carolina.

 

 

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Aftab Saleem

Principal

AIGLE

Aftab Saleem, Principal, AIGLE

Aftab is an accomplished Senior Executive with demonstrated success across the oil and gas and technology industries. Leveraging extensive experience in risk management, product development and analytics for oil and energy companies, he is a valuable asset for energy, alternative energy, and technology companies of all sizes. Throughout his executive career, Aftab has held leadership positions with World Fuel Services, Allegro Development, and Deloitte Consulting.

In his most recent role as Business Intelligence Officer and Transformation Specialist of Supply and Trading with World Fuel Services, he proved instrumental in deployment of global supply and trading ETRM product roadmap strategy, and straight through processing platform for the company to enable profitability and growth.

In a prior role as Vice President of Enterprise and Derivative Risk with World
Fuel Services, he managed development of a scalable risk framework to accommodate expanded supply and trading activity. He presented risk control metrics to the company board and defined the policies to govern the company's market, credit, and cash risk as well as regulatory compliance and financial reporting.

Aftab holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, as well as a MBA, both from the
University of Texas at Austin.

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Markus Seiser

Chief Operating Officer, Energy

FIS

Markus Seiser, Chief Operating Officer, Energy, FIS

Dr. Markus Seiser is chief operating officer for the energy business in our Global Financial Services business at FIS. Based in Vienna, Markus is responsible for helping clients streamline and digitalize their trading and operations in the energy and commodities markets.

Markus previously worked for Landis&Gyr, a large Swiss company that is now owned by Siemens, in the area of network management and optimization as a project engineer and project manager. He was founder and later CEO of European energy solution provider IRM (Integriertes Ressourcen Management), where he was responsible for establishing the product and project management teams, focusing on physical trade and risk management; defining the product strategy; and developing the IRM trading software. In 2007, IRM was acquired by OpenLink, and Markus became managing director of OpenLink's EMEA region in addition to his ongoing responsibilities as CEO of the IRM subsidiary.

Markus majored in electrical engineering at the Graz University of Technology in Graz, Austria and holds a Ph.D. from the Technical University in Vienna as well as two post-graduate degrees in economics and social science.

 

 

 

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Akshay Singh

Quantitative Analytics Manager

WGL ENERGY

Akshay Singh is a seasoned Energy Risk professional. He has been associated with strategy, corporate development and risk management across the value chain in the energy industry – traditional and renewables - for 20 years at energy producers, converters, transporters, utilities, project finance, marketing, trading and analytics services firms in the USA and UK.

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Matt Smith

Director of Commodity Research

CLIPPERDATA

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Arnaud Stevens

Managing director, co-head of energy & natural resources Americas

Natixis

Managing Director and Head of Global Energy & Commodities, Trade & Structured Finance - Americas at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking. Enthusiast for tech all things Fintech and Blockchain related.

Mr. Stevens joined Natixis in New York in August 2011. He specializes in Commodity Trade and Structured Finance and leads a commodity bankers team comprised of industry veterans. The team covers a wide range of sectors in the Americas, including Energy (Oil, Gas & Power), Metals (base and precious metals) and Agricultural products. The group has developed a strong expertise in physical commodity merchant finance and does focus on structured commodity finance solutions (syndicated Borrowing Base facilities, Structured Inventory/Repo financings, pre-export financings and Mining finance).

He has more than 20 years of experience in Corporate and Investment banking with a demonstrated track record in trade and structured commodity finance, debt & equity capital markets and asset-based financings. He has spent the majority of his career at Natixis and its legacy companies, and has held a number of senior management positions in the Natixis Group.

Arnaud graduated from Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) Paris and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

 

Haibin Sun

Director, transmission strategy analysis

Exelon

Haibin Sun is the Director of Exelon Corporation’s Transmission Strategy Analytics team. He oversees economic studies, technical modeling and reliability planning for Exelon’s transmission investment business and related policy advocacy initiatives.  

Prior to his current role, Haibin was the Director & Chief of Staff of Exelon’s Commercial & Industry Power business and, prior to that, the Director of the Quantitative Modeling & Deal Review for company’s commodities business, corporate capital projects and risk management initiatives.  Before joining Exelon, Haibin was VP & Head of Constellation’s Risk Analytics team. 

Haibin holds a PhD in Industrial & Systems Engineering specialized in Economic Decision Analysis and a MS in Financial Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, a MEng and a BEng in Electrical Engineering from Southeast University in China.

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Gary Taylor

Global head of energy market risk

Shell

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Sidney Vidaver

Director, Compliance, FX, Commodities & Regulatory Change

TD SECURITIES

Sidney Vidaver, Director, Compliance, FX, Commodities & Regulatory Change, TD SECURITIES

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Jie Zhou

Director, risk analytics

Exelon

Jie Zhou is a director of risk analytics at Exelon. In this role, he’s responsible for promoting evidence-based analytical-driven approaches to analysing enterprise level risks, optimizing business portfolios and evaluating strategic options.

Prior to moving to the enterprise risk management organization, Jie managed a quant team at Constellation (the commercial subsidiary of Exelon) that supports various hedging, trading and risk management activities.

Jie received his PhD in Statistics from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2007.

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Alex Zhukovsky

Director, energy portfolio risk management

National Grid

Dr. Zhukovsky has worked as a "quant", a manager, and a director of Energy Portfolio Risk Management at National Grid for more than ten years. He also has been serving as a chair of Commodity Management Committee and a Director of Quantitative Risk and Financial Reporting. Dr. Zhukovsky specializes in applying advanced mathematical and computational techniques to the real-world energy risk problems, developing risk reporting, advanced risk metrics, and valuation models. He played a key role in three Energy Risk Management and two Data Management System implementations. Before joining National Grid, he worked as an adjunct professor at SUNY at Stony Brook and an analyst/software developer for firms specialized in scheduling, dispatching, and supply chain optimization. He holds advanced degrees in Applied Mathematics and Management and Policy.

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