Advisory Board

Nigeria Bloczynski, Founder and Principal of Prism Risk Management & Consulting, is an expert and proven leader with comprehensive experience in strategic, corporate, credit, market, and commodity risk management in the energy and financial spaces. A master facilitator, she proactively utilizes business savvy, industry knowledge, and best practices to challenge status quo, drive enterprise risk mitigation, and navigate regulatory and organizational boundaries to achieve strategic goals. Nigeria is recognized as a credible and trusted business partner and advisor, influencing, and fostering relationships with key stakeholders, developing, and executing sweeping changes while consistently delivering impactful solutions. Her career has spanned multiple industries, working for an engineering company in the steel space, electric and gas trading companies, financial services corporations to the largest US regional transmission organization. With over 20 years in the energy industry, Nigeria has had a front seat at the table while the energy industry has continued its explosive transformation. She has worn her risk management “hat” in many ways, developing tools to ensure compliance within identified risk parameters, as well as being a business partner to identify innovative ways of optimizing risks as a competitive advantage. She has specific expertise in complex market and credit risk assessments, energy trading risk management, regulatory compliance, policy development, commercial transactions, and advising on Board level matters, enabling her to bring various points of view to the table when developing a solution. Her attention to detail and effectiveness at understanding the unique underlying challenges of each client, results in scalable solutions that resolve issues relatively quickly, ultimately reducing costs and avoiding negative publicity. Nigeria’s professional experience includes 14 years as Chief Risk Officer and senior management team member with energy companies in the natural gas, renewable and electricity space, most recently with PJM Interconnection, North America’s largest US regional transmission organization. Prior responsibilities include working in various risk management roles at financial institutions. merchant generation and energy trading companies. In addition to her career, Nigeria has served on the Board of an independent non-profit corporation, as an Advisory Board member for an energy risk publication, and an advisory committee member for a joint natural gas and electricity enterprise risk management professional committee. Nigeria is also a frequent speaker on various topics of energy risk and volunteer mentor to many students and young professionals. . Nigeria holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Mathematics from Morgan State University.

Williamson leads the risk management function for Constellation and Exelon Generation. As a member of the Constellation Leadership Committee, Williamson is responsible for the identification, assessment, and monitoring of Strategic, Financial and Operational risks, and the communication of those risks to the Finance and Risk Committee of the Board of Directors.

Previously, Williamson was vice president, Commercial Risk Management. In that role, she was responsible for ensuring that all commercial activities were aligned with Exelon’s risk appetite while providing the opportunity for growth.

Williamson joined Constellation’s Proprietary Trading team in 2004 where she managed structured oil, power, interest rate, and foreign exchange portfolios. She joined the Risk organization during the liquidity crisis in 2009 and worked closely with the Treasury team to optimize and plan for the company’s liquidity requirements. She joined the Market Risk team in 2013 focusing on Wholesale Power Trading, until the team was expanded to include all other businesses in 2014.

Prior to joining Constellation, she was a member of the Assurance and Business Advisory team at Arthur Andersen.  

Williamson is on the boards of Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, an organization dedicated to building girls of courage, confidence, and character, and Code in the Schools, which is expanding access to quality computer science education programs in Baltimore City. She is also a member of Executive Leadership Council (The ELC), the preeminent member organization for the development of global black leaders.

Williamson holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Family

Williamson lives in Ellicott City, Md., with her husband, Lee, and their daughter, Jordan.

Ilia Bouchouev has been managing global derivatives business for Koch Industries for over twenty years with the focus on energy trading. Ilia also serves as a President of Koch Global Partners, proprietary trading group specializing in trading foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives. Ilia has PhD in Applied Mathematics, and has been a regular speaker at various industry conferences.

Earl Burns Jr. is a leading Energy Executive with more than 30 years of experience in the energy sector serving in various operating, financial, trading and supply roles. Burns was previously manager, Americas Distillate Trading in the Commercial organization. Prior to that, he resided in London and held the role of manager, Crude Trading Europe, Africa and Russia for Phillips 66 Limited, where he was responsible for all crude trading and supply activities. He began his career with Mobil Oil Corporation in a variety of positions in the U.S., Africa and Latin America inclusive of financial trading, logistics and sales positions. Previously, Burns served as the crude trading manager for BP in Chicago as well as manager, Global Strategy and Commercial Development (Commercial Marine) at ConocoPhillips. Prior to his time at ConocoPhillips, Burns spent five years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, receiving an honorable discharge as Lieutenant.   

Earl is a proud member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC); the most elite organization advancing the cause of Black Executives globally, an active board member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Energy Oversight Committee, as well as being an incoming (2020) board member and director of the United States Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point) Alumni Foundation.

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.

Glen E. Mackey is Chief Risk Officer of NRG Energy. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s governance, risk management, trade compliance, cash management, insurance, retail costing and structuring.

Mr. Mackey also serves as a an adjunct professor in Applied Mathematics at Rutgers University, a member of the CFTC's Market Risk Advisory Committee, and board or advisory member for related energy firms.

Mr. Mackey holds undergraduate diplomas in accounting and finance respectively. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration, all through western schools.

Prior to joining NRG in 2011, Mackey held senior commercial and commodity management positions, in agriculture, energy and financial services sectors with KPMG, Nexen, EnCana, Duke Energy Marketing, Koch Energy Trading, Engage Energy, NGX, and TD Bank.

Partha S Chatterjee is a digital transformation and technology strategy leader with almost 30 years of experience in the United States. He is the Data and Analytics SME for Shell Energy at Trading and Supply IT. Previously, he was head of market-facing strategy for Product Management at ION (OpenLink) and Managing Director at Capco Energy Solutions. Partha has held technology leadership positions at Schlumberger, Kinder Morgan, Accenture and Sapient among others.

His expertise encompasses energy and trading risk management (ETRM) systems, risk management and trading analytics, regulatory compliance, and governance. He compliments that with deep technical knowledge in enterprise architecture, digital transformation, data and analytics, AI and mathematical modeling, blockchain and emerging technologies. As a global expert on trading and risk management, Partha has worked on think tanks and summits, advising governments, regulatory boards and financial institutions. Partha brings strategic vision and leadership capabilities in driving solutions and roadmaps as a technology executive.

Partha holds a Bachelor of Technology (Honors) with first class in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) (Kharagpur) in India. He came to the United States for graduate studies on a NASA-funded scholarship to work on Computer Vision at the Intelligent Systems Laboratory. He has a master’s degree in computer science from the University of South Carolina and an MBA from Texas A&M University, specializing in finance and MIS.
Partha lives in Houston and enjoys sports and music with his wife, Arpita and children, Ishaan and Trisha.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parthaschatterjee/

Lynda Clemmons is a Vice President in NRG Energy's Business Solutions group. As the leader of the Sustainability and Products team, she manages product development, implementation and sustainability professionals. Their goal is to create a cleaner energy future through technology, renewables and efficiency, both within the organization and with clients. She has been at NRG since 2012, incorporating all of the commercial products and services that enable Fortune 250 companies to achieve their sustainability goals.

Lynda started her career as an analyst in an investment bank. She then spent eight years at Enron where she started the weather derivatives business as well as the SO2 and NOx emissions trading desk. In 2000, Lynda co-founded and was COO of XL Weather and Energy (a division of XL Capital Ltd), a trading and insurance company based in Connecticut. She also co-founded and was the former President of the Weather Risk Management Association.

Lynda holds BA degrees in History and French from Southern Methodist University and a Master of Finance from Tulane University.

Robert Trinnear is a widely respected expert in risk management and financial derivatives with two decades of industry experience. He brings invaluable strategic insight to The Energy Authority (TEA), leading trading services across all commodity types for TEA’s clients in the East Coast markets.  An entrepreneur by nature, Mr. Trinnear is spearheading TEA’s exploration and integration of blockchain technology. Mr. Trinnear’s expertise in both blockchain technology and energy make him a highly sought-after speaker at conferences across the country. His lengthy history of leadership roles at TEA gives him a unique perspective on the specific needs of clients as they adjust to significant change and opportunity in the energy markets.

In addition to leading one of public power’s most active trading desks in the nation, Mr. Trinnear was the Managing Director of Southern Horizon Consulting, where he specialized in financial risk management for clients in the technology, energy, and financial industries. He also worked for Tyson Foods Inc. and Mirant Corporation where he held a variety of trading and structured finance roles.

Mr. Trinnear holds a master’s degree in finance from Georgia State University, and a bachelor’s degree in management from Trinity College, Dublin. He also has an advanced diploma in business studies from the Dublin Institute of Technology and an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John L. Doran, Global Director, Trade Monitoring & Analysis with ConocoPhillips, brings more than 20 years of experience providing advisory services and analytical modeling methods to his clients in the energy industry. Mr. Doran is the designer of multiple commodity trade surveillance methods used to detect targeted trading patterns. He has worked with integrated oil companies, investment banks, hedge funds and Department of Justice sponsored monitors providing customized trade surveillance solutions and independent reviews. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Mr. Doran spent a significant part of his career with Ernst & Young and SunGard Global Services focusing within the energy industry. John graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

Mr. Vincent Kaminski has spent 14 years working in different positions related to quantitative analysis and risk management in the merchant energy industry. The companies he worked for include Citigroup, Sempra Energy Trading, Reliant Energy, Citadel Investment Group, and Enron (from 1992 to 2002) where he was the head of the quantitative modeling group. Prior to starting a career in the energy industry, Mr. Kaminski was a Vice-President in the Research Department, Bond Portfolio Analysis Group, of Salomon Brothers in New York (from 1986 to 1992).
As of September 15, 2006, Mr. Kaminski has accepted an academic position with Rice University in Houston (Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business) where he is teaching MBA level classes on energy markets, energy risk management and valuation of energy derivatives. Mr. Kaminski is also teaching classes in the executive education program at the Jones school.

Mr. Kaminski holds an M.S. degree in international economics, a Ph.D. degree in theoretical economics from the Main School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw, Poland, and an MBA from Fordham University in New York. He is a recipient of the 1999 James H. McGraw award for Energy Risk Management (Energy Risk Manager of the Year). Mr. Kaminski published a number of papers, and contributed to several books, on energy markets. His recent publications in the risk management and commodity options pricing areas include: Managing Energy Price Risk, Risk Books, London 1999, all three subsequent editions, editor and coauthor; The Challenge of Pricing and Risk Managing Electricity Derivatives, in: The US Power Market, Risk Publications, London 1997, author; and Energy Modeling. Advances in the Management of Uncertainty, London 2005, editor and coauthor.

Kevin Kindall is a Senior Data Scientist at Hartree Partners. Prior to joining Hartree, he held front and middle office positions at ConocoPhillips, Enron, and EDF Trading. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Clemson University, and a Masters in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University, and serves on the Alumni Relations Board for the Tepper School of Business.

Nima Safaian is the head of trading analytics with Cenovus Energy in Calgary, Canada. In this role, he applies Data Science and Statistical Learning methodologies to get better insights on risk/reward opportunities. Previously Nima worked as a risk manager with Scotiabank and  BP's Integrated Supply and Trading Group. Nima is an active member of GARP Calgary where he leads seminar/workshop series on the practical applications of Big Data and Machine Learning to trading and risk analytics. Nima holds degrees in nuclear engineering and an MBA.

Dr. Zhukovsky has worked as a "quant", a manager, and a director of Energy Portfolio Risk Management at National Grid for more than ten years. He also has been serving as a chair of Commodity Management Committee and a Director of Quantitative Risk and Financial Reporting. Dr. Zhukovsky specializes in applying advanced mathematical and computational techniques to the real-world energy risk problems, developing risk reporting, advanced risk metrics, and valuation models. He played a key role in three Energy Risk Management and two Data Management System implementations. Before joining National Grid, he worked as an adjunct professor at SUNY at Stony Brook and an analyst/software developer for firms specialized in scheduling, dispatching, and supply chain optimization. He holds advanced degrees in Applied Mathematics and Management and Policy.

Managing Director and Head of Global Energy & Commodities, Trade & Structured Finance - Americas at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking. Enthusiast for tech all things Fintech and Blockchain related.

Mr. Stevens joined Natixis in New York in August 2011. He specializes in Commodity Trade and Structured Finance and leads a commodity bankers team comprised of industry veterans. The team covers a wide range of sectors in the Americas, including Energy (Oil, Gas & Power), Metals (base and precious metals) and Agricultural products. The group has developed a strong expertise in physical commodity merchant finance and does focus on structured commodity finance solutions (syndicated Borrowing Base facilities, Structured Inventory/Repo financings, pre-export financings and Mining finance).

He has more than 20 years of experience in Corporate and Investment banking with a demonstrated track record in trade and structured commodity finance, debt & equity capital markets and asset-based financings. He has spent the majority of his career at Natixis and its legacy companies, and has held a number of senior management positions in the Natixis Group.

Arnaud graduated from Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) Paris and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.