Commodities moves: Vattenfall’s new trading head, new COO for Aegis, and more

Vattenfall has confirmed Frank van Doorn as the head of its trading unit, four months after he took the Hamburg-based post on an interim basis. His predecessor, Niek den Hollander, was named as Vattenfall’s head of markets in November 2017.

Van Doorn joined Vattenfall in 2011 after four years as head of gas portfolio management at RWE Supply & Trading. 

While head of gas trading, he took over the liquefied natural gas (LNG) desk in addition in 2015, and shortly afterwards became head of continental power trading and LNG, covering Germany, France, Italy and central and eastern Europe. In 2016, he became head of power term and cross-commodity trading. 

Nerc picks CEO from Wecc 

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the international body that oversees the electricity grid in the US, Canada and northern Mexico, has named James Robb as its new president and chief executive. 

Robb was previously chief executive of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, one of Nerc’s regional components. 

He takes over the Atlanta-based role from Charles Berardesco, Nerc’s general counsel. Berardesco had been working as interim chief executive since the resignation of previous chief executive Gerry Cauley in November 2017 following charges of domestic violence; he will oversee the transition before Robb’s official start date of April 9.

Nerc has yet to replace its chief security officer, Marcus Sachs, who resigned shortly after Cauley; his post is being filled on an interim basis by Tim Roxey, the chief operating officer for Nerc’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center. 

Wecc, headquartered in Salt Lake City, oversees the electricity grid for western Canada, northern Baja and the continental US west of the Rocky Mountains. While it searches for a new chief executive, general counsel Steven Goodwill will fill the role on an interim basis.

Aegis appoints Sansbury as new COO 

Bryan Sansbury has joined energy risk management specialist Aegis Energy Risk, based in Woodlands, Texas, as chief operating officer, a newly-created position. He was previously president of health and wealth solutions at benefits management specialist Alight Solutions, and is a founding partner of Aegis. He will be working alongside his brother Trent, Aegis’ director of operations. Aegis Energy Risk was named as Hedging Advisory of the Year for 2017 in last year’s Energy Risk Awards.  

Akbar joins Greenhill

Ali Akbar has joined New York-based investment bank Greenhill as a managing director specialising in the midstream energy sector. Akbar joins from RBC Capital Markets, where he was a managing director covering transaction origination and execution in the midstream energy and oilfield services sectors. 

German renewables ally steps down

One of Germany’s most influential political advocates of renewable energy has left office. Rainer Baake, formerly one of three state secretaries (junior ministers) at the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, has stepped down. The new German coalition government, an alliance of chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU/CSU and the centre-left SPD, took office in March. The new economic affairs minister, Peter Altmaier, has appointed three new CDU/CSU colleagues as state secretaries – Baake, a member of the German Green Party, and his two SPD colleagues have left the ministry. 

Baake was formerly the founder and director of Agora Energiewende, a policy lobbying group aimed at reducing German dependence on nuclear power and fossil fuels. The new government included a commitment to renewable power in its coalition agreement, but according to press reports Baake was disappointed in the commitment, which he said did not go far enough.