Trading positions - September 2011

Energy Risk catches up with the latest appointments, promotions and departures in global commodity markets

UniCredit appoints head of commodities

Italian bank UniCredit has appointed Ferdinando Samaria as global head of commodities, based in their London office. 

Samaria has been UniCredit’s head of market risk at group level for the past four years, and before that was head of trading and co-head of markets at UniCredit Banca Mobiliare.

BP hires options head

BP has appointed a global head of options to focus on building a global energy derivatives marketing business. Nicolas Tjandramaga, previously managing director of commodities structuring and risk management at Barclays Capital, will join the oil major later this summer.

New sungard energy & commodities head

Software firm SunGard has promoted Leslie Barbagallo (below) to the role of chief operating officer for its energy and commodities business, overseeing SunGard’s energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software, data management and some compliance and consulting functions. Based in Houston, Barbagallo has been with SunGard for seven years, as executive vice-president for the trading segment, focused on equity, options, compliance software and brokerage services, and senior vice-president for SunGard’s Kiodex. Before SunGard, she was director of sales at OpenLink Financial.

BarCap picks new head of gas trading

Patrick Barouki is set to start at Barclays Capital in September as head of European, Middle Eastern and Asian gas trading and global LNG, based in London. Barouki was previously Morgan Stanley’s head of European gas trading, but resigned earlier this year. Prior to Morgan Stanley, he traded gas for Shell and Enron. Elsewhere at BarCap, power trader Blas Hernandez is joining from Société Générale. He has worked at the French bank since it acquired part of RBS Sempra Commodities, which he joined in 2009. Peter Ying, a managing director in the power mergers and acquisitions group in New York, is moving to the bank’s Hong Kong office. In the new role he will improve Barclays Capital’s coverage of the chemicals sector in Asia, and support existing coverage for power and commodities. Also in Asia, commodity analyst Yingxi Yu has left Barclays Capital’s research team in Singapore.

New VP at BHP

Mining giant BHP Billiton has appointed Rashpal Bhatti as vice-president group supply – strategic supply, effective from September 26. He moves internally from energy coal marketing, where as book owner he led the consolidation of the energy coal books into a single book. Before this Bhatti oversaw substantial growth of the India book. Prior to his 10 years at BHP Billiton, Bhatti was at Enron, first in liquids and coal finance and then as project manager in London, from 1998 to 2001.

Ex-BarCap duo join Banca IMI

Banca IMI, investment banking arm of Intesa SanPaolo, has appointed Nicola Baiocchi Di Silvestri and Nicola Giaretta to drive its expansion in corporate foreign exchange, interest rates and commodities. Di Silvestri becomes head of foreign exchange, commodities, rates and equities sales, while Giaretta joins as head of corporate risk solutions in rates and equities, both based in Milan. They join from Barclays Capital, where they sold forex and interest rates products to large and mid-cap Italian corporates and public authorities. They resigned from Barclays Capital earlier this year having joined in June 2006. Before that, they worked together at Citi in Milan from 1997, also focusing on forex sales to Italian corporates and financial institutions. Giaretta now reports to Di Silvestri, who in turn reports to Federico Schlesinger, global head of institutional and corporate sales in Milan.

New resources head at Deloitte consulting

Sampat Prakash (below) has been promoted to national managing director for energy and resources at Deloitte Consulting, specialising in upstream oil and gas. Prakash has over two decades of experience, leading more than 200 Deloitte Consulting engagements around the world, and oversaw multi-year merger and integration projects at two supermajors. He previously led Deloitte’s US oil and gas sector team. 

CME appoints new associate director

Louise Croucher has joined CME Group as associate director, energy products in London. She will focus initially on our coal and freight products. Croucher was previously working in energy sales and origination at Standard Bank.

RBS hires power and utilities MD

Arnaud de Giovanni has joined RBS Global Banking & Markets as managing director, power and utilities. Giovanni was previously a managing director at Deutsche Bank. According to an RBS spokesperson, Giovanni’s role is not as senior as former managing director Simon Wilde, co-head of energy and resources at RBS, who left earlier in 2011 to join Macquarie  as senior managing director and head of power utilities coverage in Europe.

Acclaim appoints new risk manager

Acclaim Energy Advisors has hired Alberto Rios as director of energy risk management, based in Houston. Rios will execute heat rate and natural gas hedges for electricity and natural gas transactions for clients across North America. In his previous role, Rios was a risk manager at RBS Sempra Commodities.

Walter parts company with JP Morgan

Michael Walter, head of European gas, power, coal and emissions trading at JP Morgan is leaving the position. The bank declined to comment on where he was heading. In the interlude before a replacement is found, EMEA power and emissions trading will be overseen by Etienne Amic. JP Morgan’s power and emissions trading team has also made two new hires. Nicolas Dreux has joined as head of EMEA gas and options trading, reporting to Amic. Previously Dreux managed the trading, sales and structuring teams at Macquarie, where he started the European power, gas and emissions desk. Stewart Davis has joined as head of EMEA power and gas scheduling, reporting jointly to Dreux and Amic. Davis has over 18 years of gas and power industry experience and joins from BP, where he set up and ran BP’s shift scheduling unit.

Salamander Energy picks CFO

Asia-focused oil E&P firm Salamander Energy has appointed Jonathan Copus (below) as chief financial officer and a board director of the company, to start in the fourth quarter of this year. Copus has worked as an oil and gas equity research analyst for over 10 years, most recently as a director at Deutsche Bank’s oil and gas equity research team. Before becoming an analyst, he worked for Shell International as a geologist in its deepwater E&P team, based in Holland and Houston.

Oil and gas hires at BNP Paribas

Catarina Adolfsson joins BNP Paribas in London in September as a senior marketer in oil sales, reporting to Fasil Nasim, head of energy sales Europe, Middle East and Africa. Adolfsson was formerly vice-president of commodities sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, also in London.

BNP Paribas has also hired Christoph Bilshausen, as senior continental European power and gas marketer reporting to Riccardo Bortolotti. Bilshausen joins from Gunvor, where he was head of central and eastern European origination, and prior to that he worked at Gazprom Marketing & Trading Germania.

Baker & McKenzie hires energy partner

International law firm Baker & McKenzie has appointed Marc Fèvre (right) as a partner in its energy, mining and infrastructure group, based in London. Fèvre joins from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Fèvre is now one of seven partners in the energy, mining and infrastructure group, part of the London office’s 32-partner corporate group.

PwC appoints new US energy leader

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has appointed Niloufar Molavi as the firm’s head of energy in the US, and new market managing partner (MMP) for greater Houston. In her new role, Molavi oversees 920 professionals serving US energy clients in oil and gas, and is responsible for all client services, including assurance, advisory and tax, for the markets of Houston, Tulsa and New Orleans. Molavi previously served as energy leader within PwC’s tax practice and as the firm’s US chief diversity officer. PwC has also hired two new partners at the greater Houston assurance practice, focusing on energy – Craig Friou and Jade Walle.

Several hires & leavers at BAML

Many energy hires have taken place at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) recently. Huy Hoang has joined as director and Nord Pool power trader in London, reporting to Derek Edmiston, managing director for power, commodities. Also in London, Gavin Dillon, has become director and crude options trader, reporting to Thomas Andersen, managing director for oil. In New York, Stephen Carr has joined as a natural gas liquids trader.

BAML has also seen several recent departures. Former BAML managing director Thierry Groell will join VTB Capital later this year as global head of commodities. David McKeon, the former director of refined crude oil products trading, and Angela Matula, vice-president of refined crude oil products analysis, have left BAML in Houston, reportedly to join an energy merchant.