Selected Speakers

A civil/structural engineer Adrian has over 20 years international experience in the energy sector involving offshore oil and gas, conventional thermal generation as well as marine renewables.  He has been involved in all parts of the value chain of capital projects, from inception, feasibility and delivery.

Throughout his tenure at Santander Alejandro has led the structuring, execution and negotiation of over 15 transactions across 7 different geographies including, amongst others, Santander’s participation in the refinancing of a 194 MW offshore wind portfolio in the UK, Acciona’s first concentrated solar power project in the U.S. (Nevada Solar One), the acquisition of EDF’s electricity distribution business in the UK by a consortium of industrial investors (Project Eclipse) and most recently a 100MW pathfinder deal in the solar PV market in the UK (Project Bright). Prior to joining Santander, Alejandro was a management consultant in the energy sector with DiamondCluster International (now Oliver Wyman).

This experience has also encompassed regulated, partially deregulated and merchant power markets.
Allan has worked at Société Générale for three years as Global Head of Power Project Finance, having previously worked at Credit Lyonnais for thirteen years in various project finance and management roles. In his current role Allan defines the bank’s strategy for structured finance in the power sector and co-ordinates the global project finance and advisory business for the power business. He is currently involved in the financing of a number of off-shore wind and solar projects, and is acting as financial advisor to two of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.  Allan has a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA, is a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and is a Chartered Engineer.

Prior to joining Emerald, Charles held the position of Vice President with ABB Equity Ventures. Previous to ABB, Charles led the business development activities of the cogeneration business of National Power PLC, a large UK electric utility, and has ten years of power utility experience, both engineering and commerce in the fields of renewable energy and thermal energy plants. He currently serves on the Boards of Emergya Wind Technologies, Senscient and River Basin Energy.. Charles graduated with a Bachelor degree with Honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Master of Business Administration.

Chris has held advisory posts with DEFRA and the NHS, is an advisor to Low Carbon Accelerator, an Aim-listed, specialist venture capital company, and is currently Chairman of Vigor Renewables, a developer and operator of renewable energy generation sites, primarily using small wind, or photovoltaic technologies.

He is also Chair of the Small Wind Strategy Group of RenewableUK, the leading renewable trade association.

Christine has over 10 years experience in the capital markets. Prior to joining Global Capital Finance in 2006, she was an advisor and portfolio manager to private clients at Citigroup Global Markets. Christine holds degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology and New York University.

Damian joined Nomura in 1993, following his graduation from the University of Manchester and L’Institut Superieur D’Electronique du Nord with a degree in Electronic Engineering Science (M.Eng), where he worked with Terra Firma’s forerunner, the Principal Finance Group. Following a sabbatical completing a Sloan Fellowship MSc at London Business School, he re-joined Terra Firma in 2005

He is a systems engineer with a BEng (Hons) from RNEC Manadon and an MSc from MIT. Prior to Ampair he was an officer in the Royal Navy, and an operations and project manager in Shell. He has lived and worked in many countries around the world including several years in Latin America.

Chris is now Managing Director of Transmission Capital which leads a consortium which has been appointed preferred bidder on four of the eight projects awarded to date to own and operate the grid connections from offshore wind farms to the onshore grid in the UK, the first of which – Robin Rigg - has now reached financial close.
Chris is a member of the DECC/Ofgem co-chaired industry bodies:Electricity Networks Strategy Group and
Offshore Transmission Co-ordination Group.

At SSE he has worked in a number of areas of the energy business and was also responsible for starting-up and running its telecoms business from 1997 to 2004.  Since 2004 he has been responsible for policy and public affairs. 
Outside SSE, he is a Director on the Board of the Scottish Renewables and is also Chairman of the Board at the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy (UKBCSE).
Keith was appointed in 2007 as a government advisor on renewable energy policy and was recently made an Honorary Fellow of Energy Policy at the University of Exeter.

From 1990 to 1996 she was employed as a lecturer in fluid dynamics at the University of Southampton, based in the world-renowned Southampton Oceanography Centre.
She has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Oceanography and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

He joined Good Energies in 2007 from McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients in the high technology, logistics and energy sectors. Etienne previously worked in a technology startup and for the UK government. He graduated from Imperial College London with an MEng in Information Systems Engineering.

Subsequently, Graham became one of the founding directors of Scotia Wind. As managing director from 2005-2008 he led the business, which developed a site through the planning consent process for an 8-turbine wind farm in Stirlingshire.

Until December 2010 Graham  was  Chairman of Burcote Consultancy, an environmental and energy consultancy providing services to the commercial property sector.

At PowerGen Guy worked initially in the UK core business before transferring to be part of the International expansion of developing conventional power stations in Portugal, Germany and Eastern Europe. Moving to RWE Npower in 2001, Guy developed a number of conventional power plant deals before becoming Head of Development for RWE Npower Renewables. Whilst in this post Guy oversaw the rapid expansion of the business including Round 1 and Round 2 offshore. Guy is now the UK Director for Eneco, the sustainable Dutch utility, and is expanding the business as the company seeks to be influential in neighbouring markets of which the UK is a priority. Eneco has invested over £100m into the UK market and has also won the rights to develop the West of Wight Round 3 zone.

James began focusing on the power sector five years ago and prior to that he worked in Investec’s infrastructure advisory team on a large number of PFI transactions predominantly in the hospital sector. He originally trained as a chartered accountant at Robson Rhodes from 1994 to 1997.

Jamie has been focusing on renewables since 2004 and has financed a number of projects in that time including the Earlsburn, Millennium and Kilbraur onshore windfarms sponsored by Falck Renewables, the 200MW Astraeus European wind portfolio sponsored by RES and the Trinacria windfarm in Italy sponsored by IVPC.  Jamie has also played key roles in the Q7 offshore windfarm in the Dutch North Sea and the Thanet offshore windfarm in the UK.

Transactions Jamie has financed outside the renewable energy space include the acquisition of Edison Mission Energy’s global independent power generation portfolio by International Power and Mitsui, the acquisition of the Intergen portfolio by AIG and OTPP and the financing of the 840MW Marchwood CCGT project sponsored by SSE and ESB.

Jamie has recently led the club financing of the 170MW windfarm portfolio sponsored by Viridian in Ireland.  The transaction’s initial portfolio of assets reached financial close in September 2009 and has seen two assets added subsequently.  He has also recently closed the Millennium windfarm expansion financing utilising the EIB Intermediated Loan Scheme and is currently leading the team arranging the financing of a second onshore windfarm in Scotland utilising the EIB scheme.

Jamie has advised on a bid for the equity stake in a UK offshore windfarm and is leading the RBS team on the financing of a UK offshore windfarm that will be the world’s largest when completed.

He has also worked as a non-executive director on the Board of Forth Dimension Displays the world’s leading high–resolution microdisplay supplier and is an active observer on the boards of a number of other Amadeus companies including; Edgeware. Jason's work with Liquavista and ForthDD culminated in successful exits of these business in late 2010 and early 2011 respectively.

Prior to joining Amadeus, Jason held roles as a technology and product developer most recently at E Ink Corp in Cambridge Massachusetts where he worked on commercialisation of the world’s first electronic ink display.  The technology has been widely deployed in a range of consumer products most notably Amazon's Kindle electronic book.

Jason holds a number of technical degrees including a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a BS in Materials Science from MIT.

He brings 13 years of automotive experience with Renault in alliance negotiations (such as Nissan), investor relations, and car program & performance management. Jay also has 10 years of New York and Paris investment banking experience in structured financings.  He is a graduate of Wharton.

In September 2006, Johnnie became the leading investor in Danish small wind turbine manufacturers Gaia-Wind and moved the company headquarters to Scotland. As Managing Director Johnnie has led the international expansion of the business and the drive for innovative research and development that have propelled Gaia Wind to a world leading position in the small wind industry.

Jose Carlos received a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Porto and Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, and executive studies at the IESE Business School in Madrid.

He then spent four years in the US creating the first Independent Transmission Company to manage the transmission network for three US utilities. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and a Fellow member of the IET and is currently based in Warwick, UK.

Since its inception in early 2008, RWE Innogy has completed more than 20 M&A transactions. Key acquisitions were in Offshore Wind in Germabny, the UK and Belgium, Onshore Wind in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland and Romania and biomass projects in the UK and Germany. Markus has over 15 years of experience in corporate finance and M&A. Prior to joining RWE Innogy, Markus worked for HSBC and Bank of America in London and Frankfurt. Markus studied Business Administration in Marburg, Germany and Virginia, USA.

Previously Matthew was Operations Manager and established a team to design and build onshore grid substations.
Matthew is a member of the DECC Renewables Advisory Board grid group and the BWEA's offshore grid and offshore strategy groups.  He is also Chair of the IET’s Power Systems and Equipment Technical and Professional Network.
Matthew lives in the New Forest with his wife Sharon and their five children.

From 2002 to 2007 he worked on a number of EIB project finance transactions in various sectors in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific region. Prior to EIB he worked for the IFC in the renewable energy sector. He has degrees in Economics/Management from the University of Vienna and International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University.

These technical services integrate with and complement Natural Power’s full project lifecycle management and consultancy provision, both onshore and offshore. Natural Power deliver technical services internationally from offices located in the UK, France, North America, Chile and Turkey. Neil’s specialist knowledge covers wind farm design and resource assessment, due diligence for project financing and acquisition, complex flow risk analysis for wind farms, offshore wind and marine energy resource modelling.

Neil holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Glasgow Caledonian University, and a post-graduate Masters degree in Energy Systems from the University of Strathclyde. He is a member of the TP Wind European Wind Energy Technology Platform, EWEC Technical Selection Committee, and the renewable UK Wind Resource Group.

Prior to joining Doughty Hanson, Mr. Grierson was the Group Director for Intel Capital Europe, managing a team responsible for making strategic equity investments, acquisitions and developing new business opportunities for Intel throughout Europe. He and the team together originated and invested in over 35 technology start-up companies, many of which became substantial public companies.

During his 15 year career at Intel he also held the positions of: European Divisional Director for Networking Products with responsibility for sales marketing and product development; European Marketing Director; and Group Systems Engineering Manager. Previously to Intel he worked at AT&T in the Communications Product Division leading a team developing high performance silicon processors, and at Schneider developing industrial process control systems

Mr Grierson graduated with qualifications in telecommunication engineering and electrical engineering. He is an alumnus of Insead Fontainbleau. He lectures on various subjects for the EVCA including Board of Directors, Advance Investment, Intermediate Investment and Policy Development.

Paul has managed Consultancy projects for several offshore projects including North Hoyle, Kentish Flats, Barrow, Robin Rigg, Sheringham Shoal and London Array. Paul has managed the design process of more than 100 windfarms.  He is currently leading a major project for the Carbon Trust – the “Higher Voltage Engineering Design Study” which is investigating the potential benefits of operating offshore inter-array networks at higher voltages.  This is a project of significant strategic importance to Round Three.

The fund, Impax New Energy Investors, is one of the few Pan-European private equity/infrastructure renewable energy funds in the market.  European markets offer the combination of existing renewable energy legislation and fragmented markets, which create attractive investment opportunities. The Fund has an excellent track record, investing in commercially proven wind and solar projects entering construction phase that can go cash-flow positive within a year of investment.

Peter, who heads the private equity/infrastructure team, joined Impax in 2003 having been involved in the financing of energy projects since 1983.

He has a BA from Harvard College and a Master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he studied utility regulation/finance.

During previous roles at GE he was responsible as Sales Leader and General Manager for GE Environmental Services in Europe, following the acquisition of BHA Group Holdings, Inc. He served as General Manager – Europe and member of the executive team since 1994 following the successful sale of his personal business, SF Air Filtration AG a leading supplier of filtration parts and components, to BHA Group. Mr. Oussoren has a mechanical engineering degree from MTS in the Netherlands, holds various international patents and completed coursework in strategic marketing and management.

In 1986, he founded Coastal Seafood Limited and by 1989 the group had 27 vessels, 450 employees, a processing facility in Natal, Brazil and a distribution centre in New Orleans. When sold, the company was the third largest fresh tuna importer in the US with a $14 million annual turnover. In 1988, Robert established the Monterrey Shipping Company, which expanded to encompass a fleet of 25 vessels within 5 years, with 800 employees and turnover of $30 million. In 2000, Robert founded Atlantic Oil & Gas PLC to own and operate oil and gas assets in the North Sea and internationally. He secured onshore leases in Cuba and provided expertise for the Government of Sao Tome & Principe (STP) to establish their production sharing agreements and tax regime with the Nigerian Government over The Joint Development Zone. Atlantic Oil & Gas assisted in negotiating the return of STP’s oil rights from Exxon Mobil.

His focus is on developing and promoting innovative solutions based on new technologies and capabilities. His main area of responsibility in the Met office is the Renewable Energy sector where he works closely with major utilities organisations, smaller renewables developers and operators, major investment banks and fund managers, significant industry bodies and environmental consultancies in the UK and Europe. The aim is to offer them new and innovative solutions based on key advances in science and technology. Stephen holds a degree in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Southampton.

Previously Tim spent 5 years at SmartestEnergy where he was responsible for all power purchase activities within the United Kingdom and over 4 years at British Energy. Tim joined British Energy in 2000, having previously established a small-scale CHP business at BG Group.
Tim has a BEng, MSc and a PhD in "The Catalytic Combustion of Natural Gas" from the University of Leeds