Agenda
Agenda
Agenda 2024
08:15 – 09:00
Registration and networking
09:00 – 09:10
Welcome address
09:10 – 09:20
Kick off opening address
Michael Haigh is Managing Director and Global Head of Commodities Research for Société Générale and is based in NYC. For seven years in a row SG CIB has been voted by the industry as the Best Overall in Commodity Research in both Risk and Energy Risk, two highly respected publications dedicated to risk management, trading and regulation for the global commodity markets. Immediately prior to running the Global Commodities Research team, Haigh was Global Head of Commodities Research at Standard Chartered Bank, based in Singapore. Prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank, Haigh held the positions of Managing Director at K2 Advisors LLC, a Global Hedge Fund of Funds, where he focused on Commodity Research/Investing and also as Managing Director and US Head of Commodities Research and Strategy at Société Générale in NYC. Haigh also spent several years as the Associate Chief Economist at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Haigh began his career in academia and held a position as a tenured Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, US. Haigh has taught graduate (MBA) & undergraduate derivative courses at several universities including NYU Stern School of Business, Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and has supervised numerous Ph.D. dissertations on the commodity and financial markets. He has published numerous scholarly research papers on commodity and derivative markets in several leading journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Business, Journal of Futures Markets and the Journal of Applied Econometrics. Michael holds a PhD in Economics with a minor in statistics from North Carolina State University.
09:20 – 10:00
Global energy market outlook and associated risks
Panel discussion
- Global oil and gas outlook-assessing the market amid rising geopolitical tensions.
- Regulation - analysing the short- and long-term impact of key regulatory changes in Europe.
- Analysing changes in market risk and addressing volatility.
- Geopolitical risk- interpreting geopolitical shifts and their market impact.
Georges Panaghoulis is the head of price risk and hedging at Island Oil Holdings, a physical supplier of marine fuel headquartered in Cyprus.
He has been working in risk management since 2015 where he has had various roles and been involved in the set-up of hedging procedures & strategies, exposure reports, clearing accounts, implementation of ETRM’s as well as derivatives trading and live price evaluation.
Georges is an engineer specializing in Mechanics Energetics and started his career in 2011 as an area sales manager, and he was in charge of developing sales for a manufacturer of flexible heating elements across various industries and applications.
Latif heads the energy trading and strategy for industrial and commercial customers at Norther Gas and Power; overseeing 33TWh of energy undermanagement. He has over 10 years’ experience in energy trading and services, including the development of international carbon projects and integrating energy generation into supply contracts. He has previously worked for Orsted and Engie.
Elisa Scarpa is Deputy Director Market Strategy & Structuring at Edison, EDF Group.
Her activities concern the development of market strategies on power, oil, gas and LNG markets, the implementation of pricing models for structured energy products and the evaluation of the optionality in Edison portfolio. She has been working for Edison for the last 16 years. Previously Elisa has been involved for four years in several projects at Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei in the International Energy Market Unit. She holds a degree in Economics (DES) from Bocconi University and a master’s degree in Energy Finance and Trading from Politecnico of Milan. She is the author of papers on commodity finance and price forecasting. She conjugates the activity at Edison with lectures on Energy economics and Energy fundamentals and she is part of the steering committee of the European Energy Analyst meeting. She is the Leader of the Topic Energy & Utilities for Bocconi Alumni Community.
Michael Haigh is Managing Director and Global Head of Fixed Income and Commodities Research for Société Générale and is based in London. Previously, Michael was the Commodity Economist at PIMCO after leaving Société Générale as the Head of Commodities Research in early 2023. Haigh has also held the role of Global Head of Commodities Research at Standard Chartered Bank, based in Singapore and prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank, Haigh held the positions of Managing Director at K2 Advisors LLC, a Global Hedge Fund of Funds where he focused on Commodity Research/Investing. Haigh also spent several years as the Associate Chief Economist at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Haigh began his career in academia and held a position as a tenured Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, US. Haigh has taught graduate (MBA) and undergraduate derivative courses at several universities including NYU Stern School of Business, Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and supervised numerous Ph.D. dissertations on the commodity and financial markets. He has published numerous scholarly research papers on the commodity and derivative markets in several leading journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Business, Journal of Futures Markets and the Journal of Applied Econometrics. Michael holds a PhD in Economics with a minor in statistics from North Carolina State University.
10:00 – 10:40
Sharing insights: a 360 degree look at the risks and opportunities of the energy transition for energy firms, banks and investors
Panel discussion
- Contextualising the energy transition: has it slipped down corporate agendas following the EU elections and recent weak ESG fund performance relative to healthy energy stock returns?
- How will the results of key elections worldwide this year affect corporate energy transition policies?
- How are financial firms producing transition risk scores for sectors and individual firms? Is there much standardisation across the industry?
- What do financial firms need energy firms to do to improve transition risk disclosure and could this impact their transition risk scores?
Charlie is a strategist focusing on LGIM’s Climate Action Strategy, launched Q4 2023, where he works on thematic research, investment idea generation, fundamental analysis, and company engagement. Prior to the launch of this fund, he was responsible for integrating LGIM’s climate scenario insights into investment strategies through metrics and research. Charlie joined LGIM in 2021 having previously worked at Legal & General Retirement as an investment analyst. He began his career at Mercer specialising in insurance investment. Charlie graduated with a Masters in Earth Sciences from University of Oxford in 2015.
10:40 – 11:10
Networking Break
11:10 – 11:35
Integrating climate risk into credit risk frameworks
Presentation
- Progress made so far by the financial industry.
- How much communication is there between banks and energy firms around the impact of climate risk on counterparty risk?
- Applying IFRS9 to transition risk management.
Navin (Nav) is a senior executive holding 20+ years experience across Financial, Corporate, and Professional Services institutions. As a leader & practitioner, Nav operates in portfolio roles across a suite of companies, where he advises on Sustainability, Capital Markets, and Risk Management. His competencies are focused on strategy, governance, training, and implementation - driven by prudential & principled regulation across ESG, Climate Risk, Carbon Markets, Sustainable Financing, and Net Zero for financials and real economy sectors.
His corporate experience spans companies such as Tata Group, HSBC Group, Credit Suisse, and Commerzbank. Nav's Front Office, CRO, COO, and Programme Management experience assists in building diverse and international teams.
Externally, Nav sits on a number of government & private industry committees, developing & influencing public policy on Sustainability standards. He supports the financial markets community via mentoring of professionals and serving as the Co-Chair of the PRMIA ESG Working Group & PRMIA SteerCo.
Nav is a regular speaker and chair at conferences, as well as a frequent commentator & author to the media on financial market regulations, including a regular column on Sustainability for the financial press.
11:35 – 12:00
Harnessing the power: managing renewable short-term volatility and providing BESS fixed income solutions
Presentation
- Challenges for trading and balancing renewables.
- Complexities of CFDs and negative pricing.
- UK developing battery storage space; physical and virtual BESS revenue solutions.
Chris has been a professional in the energy industry since 1996. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with various companies at different growth stages, ranging from innovative start-ups to well-established multinational corporations. His efforts have significantly contributed to expanding their business operations and market share in the renewable energy sector.
Chris's roles have predominantly centred on the procurement of renewable power from new build or development assets. Recently, his focus has been on long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy and utility-scale battery storage solutions with the Engie Origination team.
12:00 – 12:40
Energy Risk Europe deep-dive discussions
Roundtables
A chance to dive into the detail with our topic expert.
- Harnessing the Power: Managing Renewable Short-Term Volatility and provide BESS Fixed income solutions - Della Newton, Originator, ENGIE UK & Chris Smith, Senior originator, ENGIE UK
- Mitigating enterprise risk and improving governance - Răzvan Tudor, Director Risk Management & KYC, Electrica
- Examine the complete spectrum: analysing the risks and opportunities of energy transition across all sectors - Navin Rauniar, Co-chair, ESG working group, and member, UK SteerCo, Professional Risk Managers' International Association
- The role of hydrogen in the future energy landscape - Emma Pearce, Head of events, Europe, Risk.net
Răzvan is a seasoned risk management professional, entrepreneur and also former journalist. But before all these, he has been, is and remains a communicator and a very inquisitive storyteller.
Răzvan has a vast experience in various industries as a risk management professional such as commodity exchanges, oil & gas, insurance and for the last 7 years only in energy. Most recent experiences are with Hidroelectrica (biggest hydro-power producer in Romania) and Electrica, double listed energy company (on LSE and BSE) acting in distribution, supply, production and services. During 2022 he was also a board member for the energy supply subsidiary of Electrica.
He is currently acting as a Risk management & KYC Director for the Electrica Group.
Over the last years, he presented over 100 dedicated trainings and discourses, in extremely varied fields such as: Financial Risk Management, Risk Management Fundamentals, Introduction to Risk Management, Trading of Derivatives (the options), Enterprise Risk Management, ISO 31000, ISO 27001.
Răzvan is also a member of the Technical committee of the ESG Exchange, an international initiative for how-to deliver decision-useful sustainability information, no matter the area of regulation.
Della Newton is an Originator at ENGIE UK Markets, specialising in structured products, green power sourcing, and battery optimisation. Integral to ENGIE's entry into the battery optimisation space, Della also played a key role in signing ENGIE's first third-party collocated PV and BESS offtake.
Currently pursuing an MBA in Sustainable Energy Futures and a Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship, Della holds a Master's degree in Physics from Nottingham Trent University. With a background on ENGIE's UK shift trading desk, she has extensive experience in trading power and gas, and deep understanding of the UK wholesale markets
Chris has been a professional in the energy industry since 1996. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with various companies at different growth stages, ranging from innovative start-ups to well-established multinational corporations. His efforts have significantly contributed to expanding their business operations and market share in the renewable energy sector.
Chris's roles have predominantly centred on the procurement of renewable power from new build or development assets. Recently, his focus has been on long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy and utility-scale battery storage solutions with the Engie Origination team.
Navin Rauniar
Co-chair, ESG working group, and member & UK SteerCo member
Professional Risk Managers' International Association
With over a decade of experience spanning continents, Emma has transformed industry conferences into must-attend experiences. As the Head of Events, Europe at Risk.net, she orchestrates high-impact conferences that connect the brightest minds in risk management across the globe.
12:40 – 13:40
Lunch and networking
13:40 – 14:20
Mitigating market risk in renewables
Panel discussion
- How market risks are distributed and managed across different players in the energy market.
- The impact of market risks on the pricing and value forecasts of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
- Collaboration between energy companies and financial institutions to manage market risks.
- Wholesale market dynamics and their role in facilitating adoption of renewable energy.
- Challenges and solutions for ensuring liquidity in the wholesale market.
Nick leads the origination business for Trailstone Renewables in UK and Ireland, Nick has more 15 year’s experience working in diverse sectors as micro generation for domestic, to large coal and gas fired power stations. Currently working in a trading environment at Trailstone Nick is responsible for offering risk management solutions to generators, utilities and asset managers to protect against wholesale market exposures.
Franziska Danz is part of ION’s Industry Solutions Group and serves as Market Owner for ION’s commodity management solutions in EMEA. Since joining ION/Openlink in 2005, Franziska Danz has been involved in numerous European and international product implementations. Afterwards she served in sales support before she built up ION’s implementation standardisation program, eventually transitioning to product management responsibility.
After the ION acquisition of Openlink in 2018, she joined the Industry Solutions Group in the Product Management team. In this role, she oversees the strategy, positioning and roadmap development of ION’s Energy and Commodities product portfolio in EMEA.
Franziska Danz holds a Master of Science in Finance and International Business from Aarhus University and is a financial risk analyst by profession.
Domenico Franceschino is Head of Origination for West and East Europe and member of the Management Board of Axpo Solutions AG. He joined Axpo in 2009. Domenico previously worked in London for Enron and EDF Trading and in Italy for ENEL. He holds a degree in Business Economics and Finance from the LUISS University of Rome and a postgraduate degree in International Trade and Finance.
Arnaud joined BP Trading and Shipping in 2020 where he is heading the origination team for power and renewables. The team is originating PPAs and flexibility deals and supporting the group investments in offshore wind and solar as well as hydrogen. He joined from SG in NY where he was responsible for the commodities structuring activities in the Americas region and previously in Europe as co-head of gas, power and coal sales and trading.
Before that, Arnaud was with ENGIE (formerly GDF Suez) energy trading venture in Paris, first as Chief Operating Officer and then as Head of structuring, providing the Utility and its
14:20 – 15:00
Modelling transition risk for energy firms and financial firms – are we making progress?
Panel discussion
- Are energy firms and financial firms using the same models and techniques? Do they agree on pathways and outcomes?
- Which models are the most widely used? Are any particular models coming to prominence?
- How to model transition risk within the wider space of climate risk? What’s useful and what’s not?
Răzvan is a seasoned risk management professional, entrepreneur and also former journalist. But before all these, he has been, is and remains a communicator and a very inquisitive storyteller.
Răzvan has a vast experience in various industries as a risk management professional such as commodity exchanges, oil & gas, insurance and for the last 7 years only in energy. Most recent experiences are with Hidroelectrica (biggest hydro-power producer in Romania) and Electrica, double listed energy company (on LSE and BSE) acting in distribution, supply, production and services. During 2022 he was also a board member for the energy supply subsidiary of Electrica.
He is currently acting as a Risk management & KYC Director for the Electrica Group.
Over the last years, he presented over 100 dedicated trainings and discourses, in extremely varied fields such as: Financial Risk Management, Risk Management Fundamentals, Introduction to Risk Management, Trading of Derivatives (the options), Enterprise Risk Management, ISO 31000, ISO 27001.
Răzvan is also a member of the Technical committee of the ESG Exchange, an international initiative for how-to deliver decision-useful sustainability information, no matter the area of regulation.
Latif heads the energy trading and strategy for industrial and commercial customers at Norther Gas and Power; overseeing 33TWh of energy undermanagement. He has over 10 years’ experience in energy trading and services, including the development of international carbon projects and integrating energy generation into supply contracts. He has previously worked for Orsted and Engie.
Dr Maria Carvalho has over 14 years of research and advisory experience for international institutions, governments and the private sector to set policies and plans to decarbonise the economy, with a strong focus on achieving net-zero goals. Maria previously worked as the Head of Public Affairs at South Pole, and as an analyst for the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and at New Energy Finance. She has a PhD and Master’s in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Bachelor’s in Economics and International Development at Queen’s University, Canada.
15:00 – 15:30
Afternoon networking and refreshments
15:30 – 16:00
Impactful AI or AI overhyped?
Panel discussion
- Current applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in energy risk management and commodity trading today. Where do the real advantages lie, and where is it just hype?
- How AI is utilised in the energy industry and will improve efficiency and enhance profit.
- How can firms effectively transition from legacy systems to modern architectures? Any hidden cost associated?
- Can ML or GenAI genuinely boost business efficiency, or does it risk creating confusion and wasted investment?
Mario Dell’Era holds a MSc. in Theoretical Physics and PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Pisa, visiting PhD at Finance Institute of Lugano and also a Master in Data Science &Artificial Intelligence at Cambridge Spark UK, and he is actively involved in researches within Neuroscience and Generative AI field. Presently, he occupies the position of Head of Quant Risk front Office at Petroineos Ltd, London UK. He taught Quantitative Finance and Stochastic Processes at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, for PhD students and International Corporate Finance at Pisa University, where he was an External Professor and webinars on AI applications in Finance at Ca' Foscari in Venice. His research spans PDEs methods in Finance, Stochastic Calculus and AI.
16:00 – 16:30
Empowering traders and building resilient commodity trading systems
Panel discussion
- Are C/ETRM systems meeting the evolving needs and expectations of traders in today's dynamic markets?
- Key components of a resilient ETRM program, especially considering the intricacies of modern markets.
- Strategies to ensure robust data protection and security requirements.
- How organisations can utilise analytics within C/ETRM systems to derive meaningful insights for informed decision-making in risk management.
Mr. Jäger currently serves as Head of Industry Solutions Group responsible for ION’s Commodity Management Solutions. In addition to his Product Management responsibilities, he heads up ION’s Berlin office.
Since joining ION/Openlink in 2004, Mr. Jäger has been involved in numerous European and international product implementations, eventually transitioning from consultant to sales support to product management responsibility.
After the ION acquisition of Openlink in 2018, Mr. Jäger took over the role as Head of Industry Solutions Group in the Product Management Team, where he leads a global team of market SMEs overseeing ION’s Energy and Commodities product portfolio.
Mr. Jäger holds a Master of Science in Management from Stevens Institute of Technology and Diplom-Ingenieur (Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen) degree from the Technische Universität Berlin.
Gaurav Garg is a Managing Partner based in Germany and holds a degree in Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science. Gaurav brings 23+ years of experience specialising in energy and commodity trading technology industry.
At capSpire, he is responsible for build-up & operations of capSpire’s entity in India and is a Global lead for Operations & Support services.
Gaurav has proven history of leading several international teams, establishing global delivery capabilities for large transformation programs, defining and implementing trading technology & business landscapes, improving quality & operational effectiveness for leading Global investment bank & European utilities organisation.
Prior to joining capSpire in 2022, he was holding an executive management position with the responsibility for managing their Power, Gas & Emissions Trading (ETRM) technology landscape, forging business partnerships across various stakeholder groups at all levels.
16:30 – 16:50
Catalyzing capital: a round-up of the latest initiatives to channel capital towards Carbon projects
Fireside chat
What are the key challenges of channelling financing towards carbon projects?
What role do you see a bank could play within the VCM?
Are there any specific example of innovative solutions that has been developed to help scale financing for carbon projects?
Sonia Battikh joined Citi in September 2021 as the Global Head of Carbon Offsets Trading. She has 20 years of trading experience across equities and commodities derivatives within Banks and Trading houses. Sonia started her career in 2003 as a Vanilla Equity derivative trader on European Indices in Commerzbank. In 2007, she joined the Exotic Commodity trading desk where she focused on oil (crude and distillates). During her career she gained expertise in other commodities via trading Precious metals, Base metals, Agricultural commodities, Emissions (EUA) and Carbon Offsets. Prior joining Citi, she was with Shell for close to 6 years, where she initiated the Carbon Offsets business. Sonia holds a Masters in Financial Markets, Commodities and Risk Management from Paris Dauphine University.
16:50 – 17:00