FACULTY

Dr. Anguel Grigorov - North American Director for Risk Data Services, Platts.
Dr. Anguel Grigorov leads the natural gas and power M2M production teams as well as Platts’ quantitative modeling and research efforts. On top of having a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Sofia and an MBA from Vanderbilt University, Anguel has 15 years of risk management and quantitative modeling experience. During his 10+ year in energy markets, he has been involved in devising quantitative tools, frameworks and strategies, catering to the risk management and trading needs of companies like Enron Corp., LyondellBasell and Centrica, PLC. He has worked on creating forward curves for natural gas, power, oil and products and petrochemical commodities for much of his career.

Dr. Zak El-Ramly - President and CEO, ZE PowerGroup Inc.
Dr. El-Ramly started ZE PowerGroup in 1995 to help support clients in the deregulating energy markets. Zak spent over twenty years at the local utility across various departments and roles, including forecasting, demand side management, and rates and policy development. Before Zak ended his tenure with the utility, he was co-founder and VP of Marketing of Powerex, the marketing arm of BC Hydro. Now, as President and CEO of ZE, Zak uses his expertise in competitive energy markets to execute a variety of client projects, including: asset evaluation and acquisition, strategic planning, trade and risk management, commodity price forecasting, regulatory support and intervention. Zak’s vision and ambition are the driving forces behind the success ZE enjoys today.

Gary M. Germeroth - Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, Calpine
Gary M. Germeroth, who leads Calpine’s Risk Management function, is responsible for maintaining oversight of Calpine’s risk management framework and ensuring that the complex risks of the company are communicated and understood throughout the organization. Mr. Germeroth joined Calpine in July 2006. He brings to Calpine more than 26 years of experience in energy strategy and risk management, having directed a variety of commercial strategy, enterprise risk management and corporate restructuring projects for multiple companies. He has led efforts related to corporate governance, portfolio risk evaluation, operational risk management, strategic options analysis, management of portfolio capital requirements, organizational and business process design, transaction settlement and financial accounting. He most recently worked for PA Consulting Group and its predecessor firm, Hagler Bailly Risk Advisors. Prior to joining PA in 1999, Mr. Germeroth held a variety of controllership, risk control and treasury positions at various entities in his energy career. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Denver.

Ken Piddington - Chief Information Officer, Global Partners LP
Ken Piddington serves as the Chief Information Officer of Global Partners LP. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving Global’s Information Technology strategy and providing information technology services across all divisions of the organization. Prior to being named CIO in June 2010, Ken served as the Director of Applications and Software Development for Global.
Prior to joining Global, Ken was a partner at Lyland Associates, Inc. where he managed the technology division of the company’s energy practice. In this role he served as a technology advisor and led custom development and application implementation projects for its Fortune 500 clients.
Previously Ken had spent 12 years working in the energy consulting and software industry. At Triple Point Technologies he was Director of Product Development for the company’s flagship product Tempest XL. He has served as a Director for Opportune in their energy practice and as a Senior Technology Consultant for MRE Consulting.

Larry Heitkemper - Vice President of MDA Information Systems, Inc., Director of the Weather Division.
Mr. Heitkemper is Vice President of MDA Information Systems, Inc. (formerly MDA Federal Inc.) and Director of the Weather Division. Larry created the Weather Division in the early 1980’s. His background includes experience in meteorology, agricultural economics, remote sensing, statistics and computer programming applications. He serves as Project Manager for several research contracts funded by NOAA, NASA, USDA and the National Academy of Sciences. These projects have included development of rainfall estimation algorithms combining surface observations and remote sensing data, and developing methodologies for improving temperature forecast for energy load models. Mr. Heitkemper is an active member of the American Meteorological Society and the American Agricultural Economics Association, and is a member of National Honor Societies in mathematics and agriculture. Mr. Heitkemper, earlier this year, was elected to the Weather Risk Management Association Board of Directors.