Princeton Energy Programme
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Faculty
Steven E. Conant is currently a member and manager of CABO Energy
Enterprises LLC. CABO, a consulting company, provides affordable energy
marketing expertise to independent producers. Mr. Conant has over twenty-five
years of experience in the natural gas industry with both regulated and
non-regulated entities. His experience in the regulated arena includes
integrating the commercial activities of affiliated interstate, intrastate and
Hinshaw pipelines with non-regulated producing, gathering and marketing efforts.
In 1997, he began consulting at Central Louisiana Electric Company (CLECO) on
risk management, natural gas and power trading, as well as identifying physical
and financial options present in generation assets. He also actively traded all
financial and physical instruments for CLECO regulated and non-regulated
interests. This affiliation assisted in the creation of CLECO Energy LLC.
Mr. Conant has also held commercial storage, marketing and transportation
responsibilities for PanEnergy Trading and Marketing (now Duke Energy Trading
and Marketing) and ERI Energy Supply & Trading. He received his BA in Economics
from The University of Texas.
David Ford was until recently Managing Director of IPE Training Ltd
having joined the Exchange in 1997. Prior to joining the IPE David worked as a
broker trading futures and options. He has written a number of books on futures
and options as well as contributing articles for a number of national newspapers
and has lectured for the City of London Business School, IATA and more recently
in Russia, Kazakhstan and China. He is now involved in providing risk management
services to a number of clients.
Nigel Harris has over 15 years of experience of working with energy
trading organisations to help them in their trading and risk management
activities. Nigel was a key member of the team that designed and developed PAWS,
Saladin's innovative oil and gas market analysis system, which was launched in
1987 and is still used extensively throughout the industry today. At Saladin, he
helped expand the analytical capabilities of PAWS, and then ran all of Saladin's
software development and customer support activities. After leaving Saladin in
1999, Nigel worked as an independent consultant for three years prior to forming
Kingston Energy Consulting with Mary Jackson in 2002.
Mary Jackson has over 15 years of experience in the energy industry.
She began her career at BP working in the information management group, then
later rose to a trading analyst in the supply and trading department. She
subsequently joined Saladin as an energy consultant to provide consultancy
advice and training on energy market analysis, trading and risk management
to clients throughout the world. In several senior roles at Saladin, she
managed the energy consulting team, ran the energy market information
service and directed strategy for new software and information product
development, including the development of a new internet based trading
system. After leaving Saladin, Mary worked as an independent energy market
consultant until she formed Kingston Energy Consulting in 2002. She has
lectured regularly for The Oxford Princeton Programme on energy markets,
trading and risk management and is also a regular speaker and panel member
at public conferences. She has written articles for industry publications
including Harts Energy Markets, Energy and Power Risk Management, Global
Energy Business and Petroleum Review. Mary obtained a bachelor's honours
degree from Bristol University and a master's degree from London University.
Janet Lawrence, based in Oxford, UK, has over 27 years of experience
in various aspects of crude oil trading. Ms. Lawrence began her energy
career with Texaco Inc. in Houston, Texas. She handled supply and
distribution functions for Texaco's U.S. refining system and traded U.S.
domestic and international (destined for the U.S.) crude oil. After a short
time at a small Houston-based trading company, Janet joined Elf Aquitaine as
their first American trader. At Elf, she traded cargoes of crude oil
worldwide and started up their crude oil futures trading operation when crude
futures debuted on the NYMEX in 1983. In 1986, Janet took a position as an
energy futures broker with Goldman Sachs, where she assisted international
major oil companies with their hedging and trading strategies. Janet was
lured back into physical crude oil trading by Total CFP and remained an
international crude oil trader with various subsidiaries of the Total group.
Janet holds a BA with Honors in Industrial Psychology
from the University of Houston.
Larry G. Lawrence, President of Enterprise Risk Consulting, LLC, has
close to 20 years of experience in energy risk management and trading. His
experience includes risk management and trading consulting, derivatives
portfolio management, corporate education, technical and options analysis,
advisory service publishing, and institutional sales. He has assisted retail
electric providers in determining and defining their retail objectives, in
developing a spectrum of supply strategies for hedging retail risk and in
quantifying the volume and price risk inherent in securing retail customers.
His work also includes the integration of retail and wholesale risk
management policies and procedures and has assisted industrial energy
consumers in assessing their energy-related risks in developing strategic
hedging frameworks and implementing supply procurement programs.
Mr. Lawrence served domestic and international energy companies as an
institutional broker of exchange-traded and over the counter derivative
financial instruments. During his brokerage career, Mr. Lawrence held
the position of vice president at Elders Futures, Inc. and at Merrill Lynch
Futures, Inc and president of Eastbrook Futures, Inc., a subsidiary of the
Saudi Arabian merchant bank Eastbrook, Inc. Mr. Lawrence was responsible
for all aspects of futures fund management including fund concept and
creation, trading advisor selection and negotiation and administration. As an
independent consultant, Mr. Lawrence served the needs of a variety of
privately held money management entities. In this role he developed many
fundamental, technical, and econometric models for trading and risk
management in equity and fixed-income cash and derivatives markets and
managed equity and fixed-income portfolios for small institutions and high
net worth individuals. Mr. Lawrence holds the BS in Communications from
the University of Texas at Austin. He is registered with the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA)
as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA), and with the State of Texas as an
Investment Advisor.
Steven P. Martin is a founding member of CABO Energy Enterprises, LLC.
He is a Natural Gas expert and commercial manager of asset oriented enterprises
which extends to the creation of value in the production, processing and
pipeline segments of the gas industry with skill sets in contract negotiations,
risk management, acquisitions & due diligence, transportation, storage,
processing and other midstream services. Prior to CABO, Steve worked for
Calpine Natural Gas Company as Manager of Marketing during its "growth thru
acquisitions" phase across seven states and the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, he
provided key support to the acquisition team with the commercial review and
product price valuations on numerous projects. Prior to that, he served as
Manager of Finance and as Area Asset Manager for Duke Energy Field Services,
LLC. He also served as Director of Marketing for Concorde Gas Marketing;
Director of Transportation for Gulf States Pipeline Corporation in its founding
period, Manager of Marketing for Franks Petroleum, Inc., and Manager of Supply
& Marketing for Producer's Gas Company.
Bob Mehall has been a successful executive in the energy business for
over thirty years. As Executive Vice President of Diamond Shamrock, Inc.,
reporting directly to the Chairman/CEO, he was responsible for a variety of
strategic corporate functions including refining and marketing coordination,
petrochemicals, corporate planning and development, treasury and credit,
investor relations and various other ancillary businesses including Mexico
retail marketing operations, Bolivian exploration and production, Argentine
refining and marketing. He directed the negotiation of major transactions
including the acquisition of National Convenience Stores (Stop & Go), as
well as the merger of Ultramar, Inc. and Total N.A. that totalled some
$7 Billion. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from West Virginia
University, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Case institute of Technology
and an M.B.A. from the Krannert School of Purdue University.
John H. Shepherd, based in Houston, Texas, has 30 years of experience in
the petroleum industry. John began his career with Cities Service Company (now
Citgo Petroleum Corporation). His responsibilities included refined product
terminal and pipeline engineering, pipeline and marine terminal management,
transport truck fleet management, computer information systems management and
crude oil supply and trading. Serving as International Crude Supply Manager and
Vice President of Cities Service Trading Company, he negotiated spot, as well as
long term contracts for the purchase of waterborne crude oil cargos for the
supply and optimization of company refineries. He was also responsible for
negotiating long term sales contracts with foreign host governments in order to
market the company's foreign equity crude oil production. After 12 years with
Cities Service Company, he joined the international crude trading group of
Transworld Oil U.S.A. as Vice President, and then served in the same capacity
for Koch Supply and Trading Company. With both Transworld and Koch, John managed
a staff of professional international crude oil traders, dealing in a wide range
of international crude oil grades. This work involved crude oil trading for the
supply and optimization of U.S. based refineries, as well as entrepreneurial
crude trading for profit involving complex arbitrage trading and hedging
strategies. He now serves as President of John H. Shepherd Enterprises, Inc.,
a privately owned Texas corporation involved in energy consulting and
residential real estate appraisal and construction work. John holds a Bachelor
of Science Degree in Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Jorge R Tapies has over 15 years of experience in the oil industry from
diverse perspectives including that of a state-owned company, a global oil major
and a leading management consulting firm. His career started at Petroleos de
Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state owned oil company where he worked in
international bunker fuel sales, aviation fuel sales, as well as commercial and
retail fuel and lubricant sales. He also worked at BP during the BP Amoco merger
integration process. While there, Jorge dealt in commercial and retail fuels
pricing and risk management and then moved to Oil Trading International where he
joined the Risk Management team as a Marketing Manager for BP's risk management
solutions to commercial customers such as airlines, wholesalers and shipping
companies. Jorge also worked as a Principal Consultant at PA Consulting Group in
their Energy Trading and Risk Management practice, where he worked alongside
leading industry experts in developing and implementing energy trading and risk
management solutions for clients in the oil, gas and power markets in the US and
overseas. Jorge also spent two years at PA's Wholesale Energy Markets practice
focusing on major US energy companies' bankruptcy restructurings and in
particular, portfolio and structured products valuation and trading and risk
management oversight. Jorge is native Spanish speaker and has a Mechanical
Engineering Degree and an MBA in Finance and International Business.
Eva T. Thorne is a founder and principal of Corporate Governance
Solutions and is a political risk specialist. She holds an undergraduate degree
in history from Harvard University and a doctorate in political science from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Ms. Thorne has expertise in
natural resources and emerging markets. Her firm's clients include oil and gas
companies, government ministries and mining companies, among others. Eva has
designed and carried out workshops for independent, state-owned and
international oil companies, done marketing research and analysis on the
telecommunications sector of Brazil, and executive coaching at the London
Business School. She has lectured widely on issues of political risk, corporate
social responsibility and governance in the United States, Europe, and the
Caribbean. Ms. Thorne writes and publishes on political risk in oil, gas, and
mining for business journals and has lectured on these topics at industry
conferences. She is completing a book on the politics of reform at the World
Bank and is working on another book project on indigenous communities, land
titling and extractive industries. She has lived and worked all over the
developing world and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. Ms. Thorne resides in
Boston, MA.
Jeanne Westhoff, based in West Palm Beach, FL, is a professional with
over nine years of experience in the energy industry. She has held positions
with Mobil Oil Corporation as distillate sales consultant and regional
trucking manager. As distillate sales consultant, Jeanne was responsible for
promoting risk management programs to distributors in the Northeast. These
programs included NYMEX based hedging strategies and counseling on the
heating oil market. As regional trucking manager, Jeanne was responsible
for lubricant sales to truck stops and dealers in New York, New Jersey and
the New England states. Prior to her employment with Mobil, Jeanne was
sales manager for a distributor in Palm Beach County, Florida. In this
position she was responsible for bulk sales and distribution of gasoline,
diesel fuels, methanol, lubricants, and additives.
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