About Us

Vincent Duane is an expert in energy market policy, governance and external affairs. Until 2019 he served as Senior Vice President & General Counsel – Law, Compliance & External Relations at PJM, the world’s largest electricity market. There he was responsible for leading state and federal policy and regulatory affairs, corporate strategy, Office of General Counsel and external relations with PJM’s large and diverse membership.  

Prior to PJM, he served as Vice President & General Counsel for the North American and Caribbean businesses at Mirant Corp and as Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel for Southern Company’s energy trading and marketing firm. Mr. Duane began his career in private legal practice in Washington, DC, where he represented public power and industrial consumer interests.

Mr. Duane earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University, a Juris Doctor with Honors from University of Maryland School of Law and a Master of Science with Honors from Georgetown University.

Prior to PJM, he served as Vice President & General Counsel for the North American and Caribbean businesses at Mirant Corp and as Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel for Southern Company’s energy trading and marketing firm. Mr. Duane began his career in private legal practice in Washington, DC, where he represented public power and industrial consumer interests.

Mr. Duane earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University, a Juris Doctor with Honors from University of Maryland School of Law and a Master of Science with Honors from Georgetown University.

Todd Bessemer is a global expert in energy market restructuring and reform. He has spent over 25 years as an advisor to energy spot and futures markets, system operators and network owners, clearing houses and registries, regulators and governments, service providers, participants and investors, in over fifteen countries spanning four continents.

Mr. Bessemer has particular experience planning and leading strategic market transformation initiatives – including the design and establishment of markets, and the introduction of new structures, services and products. He has served as lead advisor/director for a number of large, multi-disciplinary programs, as well as advising extensively on strategy definition and business planning, market design, technology implementation, organisational change, and market readiness.

Mr. Bessemer holds degrees in Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (Australia) and Senior Member of IEEE. In addition to his client work, Mr. Bessemer is responsible for directing the worldwide operations of Market Reform, which he founded in 2004. He is based out of Market Reform’s offices in Philadelphia, USA and Melbourne, Australia.

David Warner has been extensively involved in energy sector reform for two decades, carrying out projects in Great Britain, Ireland, the US and the Middle East. He has provided advice and assistance to clients in a range of areas, including: sector policy and strategy; regulation, including performance and incentives; system and market operation; market design; market rules and market procedure definition; organisation design and staffing analysis; business process design; systems specification; procurement and management of contractors; market readiness and transition planning and coordination. 

Dr. Warner’s work in other sectors has included strategic change programmes and board-level assignments in the international oil industry, with clients including BP and Exxon Chemical. He has been a Senior Advisor to Market Reform since 2005, based in London, UK.

Brendan Ring is an expert in the design, implementation and operational improvement of electricity, gas and water markets. He has played key roles in the development of over eight markets in five countries, and has advised a range of market entities globally.

Dr. Ring has applied his expertise in many contexts, including market design, rules development, software certification, training and advising market and system operators. His experience spans all aspects of market design – including system operation, market operation, settlement and credit, participation, information publication and market administration. He has extensive knowledge of the optimisation techniques and practices used in the scheduling and pricing of energy markets, and has undertaken ground-breaking work to apply similar concepts to markets in water.

Dr. Ring has been a Principal of Market Reform since 2007, based in Melbourne, Australia.

Terry Grimwade is an expert in the design, implementation and operation of energy markets, with 30 years’ experience in the regulatory and technical design, implementation and operation of energy markets, including 15 years in executive management roles with gas and electricity system and market operators in Australia.

Mr. Grimwade has had prominent roles in the initial definition and/or modification of the market rules for almost all of Australia’s electricity and gas markets, wholesale and retail, and in the development of electricity market designs and/or market rules for electricity markets in Ireland, China and Iceland. In addition to his work with system and market operators, he has advised regulators, government departments and directly briefed government ministers on various aspects of market establishment, design and operation, and has extensive experience leading broadly-based stakeholder processes.

Mr Grimwade has worked for Market Reform since 2015.

Severin Garanzuay has over 24 years’ experience in the utilities and energy sectors, helping clients solve complex problems across business and digital strategy, project planning and implementation, and defining target operating models for enduring operations. His clients include transmission system operators, market operators, and energy market participants in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

Mr. Garanzuay has particular expertise in the delivery of technology and service provider solutions that support transmission system and market operations, and in leading stakeholder communications and customer outreach for complex programmes and diverse audiences.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant in 2018, Mr. Garanzuay was a Senior Manager at Accenture, and held senior roles for an engineering software solution provider (ABB Enterprise Software).

Craig Price has extensive experience in the design, implementation and operation of energy markets, the operation of power and gas systems, forecasting and planning future energy grids, and designing the power system to support the energy transition to a system dominated by renewable, inverter-based utility and distributed energy resources.  

Most recently, Mr. Price was Head of Planning at the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the operator of the gas and electricity markets and the national planning authority for Australia. In this role he had overall responsibility for the critical joint planning across the National Electricity Market (NEM), including AEMO’s Integrated System Plan (ISP), which provides a detailed roadmap for the 20-year development of the future interconnected power system, as well as designing and planning for near-term power system operability and the transition of the power system.  

He has wide ranging experience across the gas and electricity industries, spanning design, procurement and construction, planning, operational control and maintenance, engineering, and market design.  He has also played key roles in the design, establishment, and ongoing management of Australia’s gas and electricity markets.

Mike Cleary is a seasoned executive with over 30 years’ experience – in energy, information technology, manufacturing, supply-chain logistics, commodities trading and risk management – across four continents.

Mr. Cleary served as Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Electricity Market Operator – the electricity and gas system and market operator for much of Australia – from 2012-2017. Previously, Mr. Cleary served as Chief Operations Officer and Chief Technology Officer of ERCOT, the electricity system and market operator for Texas, USA, where he led the turnaround of a strategic $650m project and delivery of a 5-year business strategy. He also previously served as Executive Director, IT, for PJM Interconnection in the USA, where he led a significant restructuring of the division.

Mr. Cleary has extensive consulting experience, having served as a Senior Manager at both Deloitte, and Accenture, with work spanning business planning, organisation design, process transformation, systems design and implementation, and market readiness. He is a fellowship member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Ireland. In 2009, he was commissioned as an Admiral of the Texas Navy by Governor Rick Perry in recognition of his service to the people of Texas.

Dr. Larry Ruff is an internationally recognized expert on the restructuring of electric and gas utilities to create competition and on the operations of the resulting competitive markets. He has advised governments, markets operators and utilities in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Indian subcontinent, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America on competitive restructuring. He writes and lectures extensively on these matters. Dr. Ruff has also led ground-breaking work to develop and apply similar concepts to markets in water. 

Dr. Ruff is has been a Special Advisor to Market Reform since 2008, based in San Francisco, USA. He has previously held senior positions with a number of major economic consulting firms, including as a Managing Director of Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett (PHB). He has also held senior positions in government, industry and non-profit organizations. In 1998, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

John Carnwath is an accomplished senior manager in the electricity, gas and water industries, with 30 years’ experience managing and advising utilities in the UK, Ireland and the Middle East.  

Mr. Carnwath worked extensively with EirGrid on cross-border arrangements, and the establishment of SEMOpx as the Nominated Electricity Market Operator (NEMO) for Ireland and Northern Ireland. He has also advised extensively concerning the implications on power system operations of the transition to significantly higher non-synchronous renewables penetration.

Previously Mr. Carnwath held senior operations management roles, as Networks’ Management Division Manager for Transco (Abu Dhabi TSO), and over 25 years as a manager with National Grid, responsible for power system management, and operations planning and load forecasting, amongst other roles.

Peter Carruthers has over 25 years’ experience as a consultant and executive specialising in competitive energy markets and the utilities sector. He provides senior-level advisory and management consulting services to clients in market reform, mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and commercial domain areas. Project managing complex projects in challenging environments is a specialty, with a clear focus on ensuring projects and commercial initiatives achieve the required strategic outcomes.

Mr. Carruthers experience spans the upstream, wholesale and retail energy sectors.  He specialises in wholesale gas and electricity, with a particular interest in implementing market reform across, and experience from both the market operator and industry perspective.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant in 2008, Mr. Carruthers was with TRUenergy (now Energy Australia, a major Australian electricity and gas business) for six years and Accenture for 11 years.

Tim Williams has over 30 years of experience providing programme management, consulting and technology advice, spanning the energy, natural resources and financial markets sectors. He has helped clients plan and deliver transformational business change by assisting them in redefining their operating strategies, restructuring their organisations and delivering large, complex business and technology-driven change programmes.  

Mr. Williams has advised energy market clients on numerous market restructuring and transformation initiatives in the UK and Europe, spanning market establishment, energy trading and risk management, power generation optimisation, supply contract negotiation, network asset management, geospatial systems, field force operations, retail pricing and sales, customer relationship management, and metering.

He is an experienced contract and commercial negotiator, with extensive experience working on behalf of clients to settle arrangements with vendors and other third-parties, and advising C-level executives and corporate boards on the same.

Dr. Veronika Nemes has extensive experience in designing, testing, and implementing a range of markets and auctions. Her expertise includes developing detailed technical specifications and rules, providing technical oversight, testing trading systems, providing advice on bidding strategies, developing training materials, coaching market participants and supervising auction processes.

Dr. Nemes has extensive knowledge of various auction types, including ascending price auctions, package (or combinatorial) auctions, sealed-bid auctions, second-price and multi-unit auctions. She has applied her experience in many contexts, including energy markets, system services markets, spectrum licenses, emissions permits, aquaculture licenses, native vegetation offsets, and licenses for berthing and mooring. She has also provided advice in the areas of emissions permits, carbon credits, and water markets. 

Dr. Nemes previously served as a Director with the Australian Energy Markets Commission, as a Senior Economic Advisor to the Department of Treasury and Finance in Victoria, Australia and a Senior Economist/Manager at the Department of Sustainability and Environment. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, she was a consultant with Accenture, based in Germany.

Dr. Peter Jackson specialises in power market financial investment and has a strong background in the interface between market design and investment, as well as in optimisation and electricity market modelling.  He has worked in areas as diverse as electricity market software certification, economic assessment and modelling of electricity and gas market price caps, hedging and credit support arrangements in markets, market power and investment.

Dr. Jackson’s doctoral thesis, “Complementarity Modelling of Investment in Electricity Generation Capacity”, explores the impact of price signals, risk and uncertainty on generation investment in electricity markets.  While undertaking his research, Dr Jackson tutored and lectured in the fields of both electricity markets and optimisation.  

Dr. Jackson has been an advisor to Market Reform since 2016, advising clients in Ireland, Australia and elsewhere. He is based in Melbourne, Australia. Previously he worked in New Zealand as an energy market consultant, and as a software consultant for a decision support and database vendor.

Jonathan Jennings has been intimately involved in a wide range of significant energy market development and reform, across multiple countries. He has particularly deep experience in architecting, designing and overseeing the implementation of system and business process solutions, in environments governed by complex rules and procedures – and ensuring these solutions support the organisations and markets they serve.

Mr. Jennings has a particularly deep understanding of electricity wholesale spot market operations and system operations. His roles have included market rules and procedure definition; capability and business process definition; business analysis; systems design and implementation; and project management. He also has extensive experience developing financial models for market operators and participants.

Dr. Marshman is an experienced consultant in market design and modelling energy system investment and operational problems.  He has worked on market design projects for clients in Australia, Ireland, China, Iceland and the Middle East.  He has conducted market simulation work as part of certifying market systems in Ireland, developed a day-ahead market simulation tool to aid market design work in the Middle East and has simulated future two region electricity market designs for the Northern Territory.  

Dr. Marshman’s doctoral research focused on generation expansion and unit commitment modelling to examine financial and technical performance of markets and participants with increasing renewables. Prior to joining Market Reform in September 2018, he applied his work in industry through various consulting projects with the Melbourne Energy Institute.  He has lectured in the Master of Energy Systems degree at the University of Melbourne.