CFTC reveals members of rebooted energy committee

Other commodities moves at BTG Pactual, Koch S&T, Mercuria & Trafigura

CFTC reveals Eemac members

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) named the members of its reconstituted Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (Eemac) on January 26.

Eemac is designed to provide the agency with input from energy companies and industry associations. CFTC chairman Timothy Massad appointed commissioner Chris Giancarlo as the committee's sponsor in September last year. Speaking to Energy Risk in October, Giancarlo (pictured right) said Eemac will focus on the impact of the US Dodd-Frank Act on energy companies as they grapple with the agency's new rules on over-the-counter derivatives.

"Our concern will be to understand the impact of CFTC rule-making on the US energy sector and how that impact may trickle down to America's manufacturers, farmers, producers and ultimately its consumers," Giancarlo said. The committee would help ensure that the energy industry's voice was heard by the CFTC, he added.

The committee comprises nine members and 17 associate members, drawn from energy companies, exchanges and industry associations. The members are: James Allison, manager for corporate studies and initiatives at US oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips; Michael Cosgrove, a partner at New York-based proprietary trading firm Vectra Capital; Bryan Durkin, chief commercial officer of Chicago-based CME Group; Benjamin Jackson, chief operating officer at Ice Futures US; William McCoy, a member of the executive committee at the Washington, DC-based Futures Industry Association; Mac McFarland, chief executive of Texas-based electric utility Luminant; Lopa Parikh, director at the Edison Electric Institute; Tyson Slocum, a director at consumer rights group Public Citizen; and Dena Wiggins, president of the Washington, DC-based Natural Gas Supply Association.

Koch eyes global expansion

Koch Supply & Trading, a unit of Kansas-based Koch Industries, has made several staffing changes aimed at building its business outside of North America.

They include two new hires to support its entry into European power trading, scheduled for the second quarter of 2015. Julie Noller, who previously worked for Kansas-based commodities merchant Lansing Trade Group, has been appointed as a power portfolio manager, while Pierre Perez has joined as a power trader from Switzerland-based commodity trading house Vitol. At Koch, they will both be based in Geneva and report to Stephen Cornish, managing director of Koch Supply & Trading's global gas business.

Meanwhile, the firm's US emissions trading arm has been integrated into its global gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) business in an effort to broaden its reach. The global renewables business is led by Colin Moore, Houston-based senior vice-president for global renewables and natural gas trading, who joined Koch Supply & Trading in November 2005.

Separately, Siddharth Roy, London-based corporate development director for global gas, has been appointed as head of the global LNG portfolio development team in Singapore. Roy originally joined the firm in 2012 from BNP Paribas, where served as global head of LNG. In his new role, he will report to Cornish.

The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

Mercuria names Good CFO

Switzerland-based commodity trading house Mercuria has named Andrew Good as chief financial officer (CFO) for North America.

Good (pictured right) joins Mercuria from Laureate International Universities, where he was senior vice-president of finance strategy. Previously, he served as CFO of the commodities business at Baltimore-based utility Constellation Energy. After Constellation merged with Chicago-based Exelon in 2012, he became CFO of Exelon Generation.

At Mercuria, Good will be based in Houston, where he will report to Geneva-based group CFO Guillaume Vermersch, a spokesperson says.

The move follows a wave of senior hires after Mercuria completed its acquisition of JP Morgan's physical commodities business in October last year.

BTG Pactual suffers departures

Phil Beatty, who previously worked at BTG Pactual as part of a team managing the Brazilian bank's energy funds, is one of at least four London-based commodities staff said to have left the company.

Beatty has been appointed by Switzerland-based commodity trading house Gunvor. A spokesperson confirmed he had joined the firm but declined to comment further.
Prior to joining BTG, Beatty worked for New York-based hedge fund Millennium Management as head of the energy commodities trading business. Before that, he ran the European power and natural gas desk of Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 10 years.

James Gutman, Nima Neelakandan and Maxim Zaitsev have also left BTG. Gutman was hired by the bank in November 2013 to trade industrial metals, having previously worked at London-based hedge fund Armajaro Asset Management.

Neelakandan joined the Brazilian bank in November 2013 as a London-based portfolio manager responsible for trading energy commodities. Prior to joining BTG, he served as head of emissions trading for Barclays.

Meanwhile, Zaitsev joined BTG in December 2013, having previously worked at EDF Trading, the trading arm of French utility EDF, as a power trader.
A London-based source at BTG Pactual confirmed the departures, although a spokesperson for the bank declined to comment further.

Trafigura hires CFO in Houston

Rodney Malcolm, the former head of energy origination for North America at Citi, has been appointed as North American chief financial officer (CFO) at Netherlands-based commodity trading house Trafigura.

Malcolm (pictured right) worked for Citi from 2006 to 2013, having originally joined the US bank as managing director and global head of commodities capital markets. Before moving to the US bank, he worked as chief financial officer and interim executive vice-president at Texas-based energy firm Calpine.

In his new role, Malcolm will continue to be based in Houston. He replaces Bryan Keogh, who is understood to have left the trading house in January.

Quantum CEO moves on

Larry Kellerman stepped down as chief executive of Quantum Utility Generation, a Houston-based power generator, on January 15.

Kellerman is now serving as president and chief executive of Twenty-First Century Utilities, a Houston-based investment firm seeking to acquire electric utilities in the US and elsewhere. The firm hopes to raise $3 billion-4 billion from pension funds, asset managers and infrastructure-oriented private equity firms seeking to invest in the utility sector, Kellerman says.

Before joining Quantum in 2010, Kellerman worked at Goldman Sachs. He remains a member of the board of Quantum, which is yet to announce his replacement.

Birol picked for top IEA job

Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), will replace Maria van der Hoeven as executive director of the Paris-based intergovernmental organisation in August.

Birol (pictured left) worked at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna before joining the IEA in 1995, and has held his current position for the past nine years. In the role, he oversees the group's influential World Energy Outlook publication. During his time at the IEA he founded the IEA Energy Business Council, a forum created to enhance co-operation between energy business leaders and policy-makers.

Birol, a Turkish citizen, will be the IEA's first executive director to be elected with the support of all 29 member states, according to the Turkish government.

Petronas risk head joins Olam

Andrew Romanis, the former London-based head of risk at Petronas Energy Trading, has joined commodity trader Olam as vice-president of risk.

In the newly created role, based at Olam's headquarters in Singapore, Romanis is responsible for risk control for derivatives products. He assumed the position on February 9 and reports to Jagdish Parihar, Olam's managing director for risk and compliance, who is also based in Singapore.

Prior to working at Petronas, Romanis served in commodities risk management roles at Barclays and Jefferies Bache. He started his career in energy at German utility RWE.

Meanwhile, Siddharth Jain has been promoted to Romanis's former role at Petronas in London. Jain joined the Malaysian state-owned oil and gas firm in July 2013 as an analyst from German gas supplier Wingas.

Ice recruits Spectron veteran

Gordon Bennett, the former managing director and global head of energy at London-based commodity broker Marex Spectron, has joined Ice Futures Europe.

In his new position, which is based in London, Bennett will serve as managing director of utility markets.

Bennett is a 12-year veteran of Spectron, the over-the-counter energy broking arm of Oslo-based Imarex. Spectron merged with London-based commodity broker Marex to create Marex Spectron in 2011. After Bennett's departure from the firm last year, he was replaced by two co-heads, Jeremy Elliott, London-based chief operating officer of energy, and Hunter Baldwin, New York-based managing director of North American operations.

Ice declined to comment.