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. Recently 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.