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.
John is the Founder and CEO of Aurora Energy Research.
Since beginning his business career with Deutsche Bank he has advised a number of major government and private sector clients – previously working with the Boston Consulting Group throughout Australia and South-East Asia.
John is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford. His commentary and analysis is regularly featured in international press and he has contributed papers for various academic journals.
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.
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.
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 member for ThinkSprint, Scottish Equity Partners and Aistemos as well as Aurora.
He has an honours degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.
As our Head of Operations, Caroline manages the design, implementation and ongoing enhancement of the company’s operational activities, HR, IT, compliance systems and culture.
With 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 Agility Works – developing and leading the company’s global business processes and client operations team.
Caroline is a qualified PRINCE2 practitioner and has a background in finance and client relations.
Ana, our Head of Iberia, has over ten 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 to government.
Prior to joining Aurora, Ana worked at CRA where she focused on energy disputes and 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. She was also operations manager for a team in charge of energy management and energy procurement for large industrial and commercial clients in the UK and mainland Europe.
Ana holds an Energy MBA from Warwick University and a BSc. Economics from George Mason University.
Hugo was appointed as our Managing Director in Australia after delivering great results as our Head of UK Renewables, managing our UK consulting team.
He is the author of several major cross-industry energy studies, and advises on all aspects of the Australian and European power markets. He has led buy and sell-side energy due diligence for over £5bn of UK, Ireland and Australian assets, and led our National Electricity Market modelling – including modelling the evolution of Middle Eastern energy markets for a major client.
Hugo has previously worked as Project Leader for energy and resources at McKinsey & Co. in Sydney and New York.
He has a Law degree from the University of Melbourne and an MBA and MPA from the University of Oxford.
As Modelling Director, Jonathan leads the development of Aurora’s modelling capabilities.
While at Aurora, Jonathan has:
Advanced Aurora’s modelling for the cross-industry study on ‘The New Economics of Offshore Wind’
Been responsible for the modelling behind multiple Aurora forecasts and commissioned projects
Prior to joining Aurora Jonathan worked at The National Physical Laboratory in the Mathematics, Modelling and Simulation group where his main work involved developing optimisation algorithms for the placement of sensors in an electricity grid.
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.
Thekla jointly heads the Commissioned Projects team in the Berlin office at Aurora Energy Research. In this role, she leads Aurora’s work on PPAs, advising utilities, renewable developers, financiers, and corporate off-takers on all aspects of the European power markets with a focus on green decarbonisation, direct marketing, power procurement and hedging. She has supported clients on PPA transactions and strategy structuring across Europe, incorporating Aurora’s core modelling expertise of long-term power prices. Prior to joining Aurora, Thekla worked at KPMG for more than six years in M&A and strategy for the energy sector. She is an economist by training with degrees from Münster and Humboldt University Berlin, and holds an executive leadership degree on Sustainability with Yale University in collaboration with the WBCSD.
As Head of HR, Jani partners closely with Aurora’s senior leadership team to identify business priorities, drive our global HR strategies and people 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 & HR 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.
Felix is our Head of Commissioned Projects for Western Europe, advising utilities, investors and policy makers on European energy markets.
This has included advising on over £5bn in transactions of power infrastructure across Europe, leading the development of our GB Distributed and Flexible Energy Service, advising a UK government department and developing a power market balancing services strategy for a major utility company.
Felix started his professional career as a researcher at the Bank of Canada before lecturing at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford.
He holds MPhil and DPhil degrees in Economics from the University of Oxford and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
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, and has just completed a Master of Business Administration at Central St-Martins and Birkbeck.
Richard is Aurora’s Research Director and is responsible for managing and developing Aurora’s suite of market intelligence services across European power markets, renewables, flexible and distributed energy, and global commodities.
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.
Sebastian is our Commercial Director, responsible for business development, marketing and client management of our power and gas market intelligence services, our external communication and positioning and our frontline events and conferences.
After a project leadership role at BCG, advising European utilities on strategic, organisational and operational considerations, he was responsible for Strategic Business Development at Gazprom in Berlin before joining our team.
Sebastian holds a PhD in energy economics from University of Duisburg-Essen. His research on short-term flexibility markets for electricity in Germany was published in Energy Economics and Journal of Regulatory Economics. He studied business administration at Leipzig Graduate School of Management.
Oliver founded Aurora’s first North American office in Austin, TX where he is responsible for building and running our US practice.
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. He has also supported the UK government in identifying least-cost decarbonization pathways to meet 2050 targets.
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.
Our Managing Director in Germany, Manuel leads our German and Continental European activities advising financial investors, utilities and policy makers on power and commodity markets.
His professional experience includes advising BEH on its 1.4 EUR billion acquisition of EEW, and on major gas pipeline transactions, quantifying total system costs of coal-to-biomass conversions to support regulatory engagement for a major power utility, and developing an investment strategy in decentral generation assets for an infrastructure fund.
Manuel joined our team from McKinsey and Co. in Berlin, where he was a Project Manager and Senior Consultant.
Manuel studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Gottingen, holds a PhD, magna cum laude, in Mathematics from the University of Gottingen and University of California, Berkeley where he studied as a Fulbright scholar.
Hanns leads Aurora’s Berlin-based Commissioned Projects team. 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 honors 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.
Dan recently joined Aurora as our Managing Director for the UK and Ireland. Previously, Dan was Director for Energy Security, Networks & Markets in the UK government, where he has 18 years’ experience, holding many roles in BEIS and the Cabinet Office. His most recent position involved policy and analytical
advice to government ministers on energy systems & market design.
advice to government ministers on energy systems & market design.
Dan has an MBA from London Business School and degrees from Magdalen College Oxford and University College London.
Our Director of Software Engineering, 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.
As the Digital 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.
As Head of Finance, Yi leads the development of Aurora’s finance function to support the strategic decisions of the global business.
She is a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years of international experience in Finance, spanning South Africa, British Virgin Islands and London.
Prior to Aurora, Yi has been responsible for financial reporting, control and risk management of complex finance environments.
Yi has worked with diverse stakeholders in a range of sectors including KPMG financial services, listed media company, consumer goods, mining and metals and investment banks.
