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Our Leadership

Aurora combines in-depth policy experience with knowledge of academic research in energy, the environment, and finance.

Our directors and advisors define the company’s research agenda, in consultation with clients, and their expertise shapes Aurora’s forecasting models, analyses, and reports.

Founder and CEO

John Feddersen

John is the Founder and CEO of Aurora Energy Research.

Outside business, John has held academic roles at Oxford University, New York University (Abu Dhabi); and Melbourne University.

He holds a first-class degree in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Melbourne, and MPhil and DPhil degrees in Economics, awarded with the George Webb Medley Prize, from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

CFO

John Paul Whyatt

Our Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director John-Paul has a strong background in investment banking, telecoms, and agriculture. He specialises in M&A, corporate finance and business operations.

After seven years with former banking giant Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, initially covering Russian oil and gas majors, John-Paul joined US-based investment giant Bear Stearns as Managing Director for telecoms and media before co-founding a Tanzanian agribusiness for biofuel which grew into East Africa’s largest rice producer.

He read Philosophy and French at Oxford and has further achieved an MGA from the University of Pennsylvania as a Thouron Scholar.

Chairman of the Board

Steve Halliday

Steve is our Chairman of the Board, with key professional skills in delivering sustainable growth, formulating and delivering strong business strategy, and expertise in private equity.

He was previously CEO of Wood Mackenzie from 2007 to 2015 – playing a key role in its transition to Verisk where he took on the role of Chairman, Natural Resources. He has also held energy roles in oil and gas with both BP and Total.

Steve is a board advisor for Loops and is a member of the Advisory Board at Scottish Equity Partners as well as Aurora.

He has an honours degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.

Head of Business Infrastructure and Operations

Caroline Appleton Turner

As our Head of Business Infrastructure and Operations, Caroline leads the design, implementation, and ongoing enhancement of the company’s global operational activities and international expansion programme. With over 15 years’ experience and a strong track record as a dynamic business professional, she has successfully delivered major digital transformation projects for clients globally including utilities providers, the oil and gas industry, CPG, and pharmaceutical companies.

In her previous roles she was responsible for operations management at award-winning SAP consultancy EY AgilityWorks – developing and leading the company’s global business processes and client operations team.

Caroline is a qualified PRINCE2 practitioner and is currently studying for a Master of Business Administration at Warwick Business School.

Head of Iberia and Latam

Ana Barillas

Ana, our Head of Iberia and Latam, has over fifteen years of professional services experience with an extensive energy market modelling, forecasting, and advisory background across energy companies. She has consulting experience across the energy value chain gained through working on a wide range of projects, from energy retail market strategy for utilities to policy and regulation support for government.

Prior to joining Aurora, Ana worked at CRA where she focused on energy disputes and energy policy and regulatory work. Ana also worked at KPMG in the Power & Utilities Strategy team, as well as in the Commodity & Energy Risk Management team. Ana started her career with a US-based energy consulting firm specializing in wholesale electricity price forecasting, power plant dispatch and gross margin modelling, portfolio strategy, energy market advisory, and risk and uncertainty modelling for utilities, financial institutions, and infrastructure developers in the US, Latin America and Europe.

Ana holds an Energy MBA from Warwick University and a BSc. Economics from George Mason University.

Managing Director, APAC and California

Hugo Batten

Hugo Is Aurora’s Managing Director for APAC and California. He also led our UK consulting team, as well as our expansions into Australia, California, Japan, and now broader expansion into South-East Asia.

He is the author of several major Aurora reports on renewables, grid dynamics, storage, hydrogen, policy and regulation. He has led buy and sell-side energy due diligence for over $10b of EU, USA and APAC assets.

Hugo has previously worked at McKinsey & Co. in Sydney and New York with a focus on energy and resources. He has a Law degree from the University of Melbourne, and an MBA and MPA from the University of Oxford.

Modelling Director

Jonathan Black

As Modelling Director, Jonathan leads the development and maintenance of Aurora’s in-house models.

Since joining Aurora in 2016 Jonathan has:
Led the global expansion of Aurora’s modelling scope across Europe, into the Americas, and into the Asian-Pacific region. Advanced the capabilities of Aurora’s in-house models in areas including the development of novel approaches for the modelling of flexibility markets, Nodal modelling for North American markets, and stochastic modelling of Hydropower plants.

Jonathan holds a MSci in Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham and a DPhil in Applied Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Head of People & Culture

Jani Burwood

As Head of People & Culture, Jani partners closely with Aurora’s senior leadership team to identify business priorities, drive our global People & Culture strategies and programs to support the firm's continued success in achieving its strategic growth plans.

Jani joined Aurora from Amadeus, a global leader in travel technology, where she was Head of Talent UK and part of the UK People & Culture leadership team. In this role, she was recognised across Amadeus globally for transforming the UK Talent function to one that is now highly regarded and high performing.

Prior to this, Jani built up over 18 years of experience in HR Consulting in London and Guernsey providing talent strategy, leadership development & People & Culture operational delivery expertise to clients in investment banking, private equity, and professional services. Her clients included Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, SBC Warburg, BNP Paribas, KKR, Coller Capital, Permira, Accenture, BDO Stoy Hayward, KPMG, Coca Cola, Heidrick & Struggles, and Korn Ferry.

Fluent in French, Jani earned her bachelor's degree in European Business from NEOMA Business School, Reims and Middlesex University, London. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for Brunel Sen Mat, a 0-25 multi-academy trust focusing in the special education sector. Formerly, Jani was a Member of the People Strategy Steering Group for the BTA, the representative body for Travel Management Companies and the business travel community in the UK. Jani has a special interest in social mobility and returner programmes.

Transformation Manager

Meng He

As Transformation Manager at Aurora, Meng is responsible for strategic internal projects to improve and develop operational effectiveness across the business, in particular as Aurora scales at pace.

Prior to this role, Meng was Aurora’s legal counsel, having started her career as a private practice lawyer at Allens Linklaters in Australia, and at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Hong Kong and London. She also worked for a number of years in a marketing technology start-up in product and in client services.

Meng has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, as well as a Master of Business Administration from Central St-Martins and Birkbeck.

Research Director

Richard Howard

Richard is Aurora’s Global Research Director and is responsible for managing and developing Aurora’s suite of market intelligence services across power markets, renewables, flexible and distributed energy, hydrogen and upstream energy markets.

Before joining Aurora he was a Director and Head of Energy and Environment at Policy Exchange, where he authored a number of influential reports on energy and environmental policy and regulation. Prior to that he was the Chief Economist at The Crown Estate.

Richard has a first class degree in Economics and an MSc in Environmental Policy.

Commercial Director

Dr Sebastian Just

Sebastian is our Commercial Director, responsible for business development, marketing and sales of our subscription analytics and software solutions, managing client relationships and our external appearance including industry-leading events and conferences.

After a project leadership role at BCG, advising European utilities on strategic, organisational and operational issues, he was responsible for Strategic Business Development at Gazprom in Berlin before joining the Aurora team.

Sebastian holds a PhD in energy economics from University of Duisburg-Essen. His research focussed on short-term flexibility markets for electricity. He studied business administration at Leipzig Graduate School of Management.

Head of North America

Oliver Kerr

Oliver leads Aurora’s North American practice based out of our US headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Since joining Aurora in 2016, he has worked on a wide range of buy and sell-side transactions for renewables, storage, and conventional generation, both in the USA and Europe. Now he is responsible for running our North American business covering all US Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), regulated markets, and Canada.

Oliver has a decade of experience working on the energy transition, including roles with the UK Government and World Bank. He holds an MSc in energy economics, policy and modelling from UCL, an MA from Harvard, and BA from Oxford with first class honors. He is a recipient of the Kennedy Scholarship.

Managing Director, EMEA

Manuel Koehler

Our Managing Director EMEA, Manuel leads our activities in the region and helps developers, financial investors, utilities, energy off-takers and policy makers navigate the energy transition.

His experience at Aurora includes transaction and financing support, policy assessment, PPAs as well as launching new products and expanding Aurora’s coverage to new markets.

Manuel joined our team from McKinsey and Co. in Berlin, where he was a Project Manager.

Manuel holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Gottingen and University of California, Berkeley where he studied as a Fulbright scholar.

Managing Director, Central Europe

Hanns Koenig

Hanns leads Aurora’s work in Central Europe. He advises utilities, equity and debt investors, corporates, and political decision-makers on all aspects of the European power and gas markets, and is a frequent commentator on energy issues in European media.

Hanns co-founded Aurora’s Berlin office in 2015. Previously, he worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants as the executive assistant to the firm’s founder, Prof Roland Berger, and gained work experience with BCG, the International Energy Forum and the German Foreign Office.

Hanns holds a BA with first class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, and an MA with honours in International Relations & Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington and Bologna, where he was a Haniel Scholar of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

Managing Director, UK & Ireland

Dan Monzani

Dan joined Aurora in 2021 as our Managing Director for the UK and Ireland. Dan leads all of our services to clients in these markets, including both advisory and subscription products.

He is a regular expert contributor to Government, Parliament and in the media, including recently as a member of the Committee on Climate Change’s Expert Group on Electricity Market Design. Previously, Dan was a director in the UK government with almost two decades’ experience, holding many roles in BEIS and the Cabinet Office, including latterly as the Director leading policy and analytical advice to government ministers on gas and electricity energy systems, market design, security and affordability.

Dan has an MBA from London Business School and degrees from Magdalen College Oxford and University College London.

Director of Technology

Stuart Tricklebank

Our Director of Technology, Stuart started his career as a Software Developer and has gone on to build and lead a number of large software teams working on very complex and high transaction cloud services, including heading the development for a large and complex service which transformed exam paper marking supporting GCSEs, Baccalaureates and other leading educational exams around the world.

He has previously worked with Capita and RM Education.

Stuart has a first-class degree in Computer Science (BSc) from Leeds University.

Software Solutions Director

Mateusz Wronski

As the Software Solutions Director, Mateusz heads our SaaS business, developing and commercialising our cutting-edge suite of software tools. In his earlier years at Aurora, he led the international expansion of our research services, and the design and development of the EOS platform.

Mateusz authored multiple influential studies and insight reports into a broad range of energy topics, spanning policy, market design and energy finance. He developed our flagship publication: the GB Power Market Forecast – followed by more than 80% of GB electricity market participants.

Mateusz was formerly a member of the UBS investment banking team in London, and prior to that a quantitative modeller for a collateralised debt analytics firm. He has a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.