Practical LawConferences

Alison Kay was appointed Group General Counsel & Company Secretary for National Grid plc in January 2013. As such, she is responsible for shaping the group legal function within National Grid and providing company secretariat support to the boards and committees of National Grid.

Formerly, Alison was Commercial Director, Transmission at National Grid for four and a half years, working with the gas and electricity industries in the UK and Europe to influence the legal and regulatory regimes in which National Grid operates, to deliver improved efficiency and reliability, while facilitating security of supply for Britain.

Prior to this Alison was General Counsel and Company Secretary for National Grid Electricity Transmission plc and National Grid Gas plc.

Alison qualified with corporate solicitors, Martineau Johnson, and spent eight years in private practice before joining National Grid Company plc in 1996.

She has extensive external industry exposure, including a number of positions on European and UK committees. From 2006 to 2011 she was Chair of the Electricity Pension Scheme and chaired Enabling, National Grid’s Disability Network.

Claire is Head of Legal, Generation at EDF Energy providing legal support in respect of the generating assets of EDF Energy. Claire joined British Energy as a solicitor in 2007 providing advise to the trading and sales functions, following acquisition by EDF Energy she has supported the nuclear and non-nuclear assets. Prior to joining British Energy, Claire was in private practice, advising on energy projects globally.

Ben O’Halloran’s practice encompasses business acquisitions and sales, joint ventures, and other strategic investment transactions around the world.

Prior to joining Jones Day in 2014, Ben worked as General Counsel of European transactions & U.K. for the General Electric Company. In this capacity he led M&A transactions in Europe for GE business units, including advising GE Power & Water and GE Energy Management on their proposed €12.35 billion acquisition of the power (electricity generation) and grid (electricity distribution) businesses of Alstom SA; GE Oil & Gas in its $2.8 billion acquisition of the Well Support division of Wood Group, a manufacturer of electric submersible pumps for optimizing oil reservoir recovery; GE Energy Management in its €3.2 billion acquisition of Converteam, a French-based manufacturer of equipment for electrical and mechanical power conversion; and GE Capital in its £800 million sale of GE Life, a U.K. life insurance and pensions business. Prior to his 12 years at GE, Ben worked in the London office of an American M&A law firm and as vice president for business development of a Canadian media company.

Ben is an active supporter of African Revival, a U.K.-based charity that undertakes grassroots projects to improve health and education in communities in Africa.

Silke Goldberg is Counsel in Herbert Smith Freehills where she specialises in European Energy Law. She is an expert in EU regulatory law and has extensive experience of advising on complex international power projects, in particular in relation to the structuring of JV co-operations and related shareholder documents.

Silke is admitted in England and Wales and the Republic of Ireland as well as a member of the Berlin bar. She regularly publishes on aspects on energy law. Since 2007, Silke has been co-editor of HSF’s annual “European Energy Handbook”. Her other publications include”Introduction and Comment on the Third Energy Package”and “Security of supply in the context of European Energy Market Liberalisation – a Brief Overview.

Hans von der Linde is General Counsel for Shell’s global Downstream business (refining, marketing and chemicals). He currently leads a team of 300 people based in 40 countries. The head of Legal at Shell UK also reports to him. In 25 years with Shell, Hans has worked in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and China. During his time as head of Legal for Shell in North East Asia, he chaired the legal committee of the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

Hans is an experienced M&A lawyer and has also worked in government relations and issues management. He has a keen interest in developing people, and has been in charge of talent management across Shell Legal since 2004.

Rachel Cropper-Mawer is the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer for Willis International Insurance Brokers, a leading global risk adviser, insurance and reinsurance broker.  Willis operates on every continent with more than 18,000 employees in over 400 offices in over 120 countries. Rachel manages Compliance, Sanctions, AML, ABC and regulatory risk in these jurisdictions with a global team of over 50 people.

Prior to that Rachel was a Senior Manager at BP in the Ethics & Compliance Legal Function, for sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and the Middle East for all of BP’s upstream operations in those regions. Rachel is also an anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) legal subject matter expert for BP, as well as the subject matter expert for dealing with NOJV ABC risk.

Rachel joined BP in September 2011 from Clyde & Co solicitors, where she was a partner in the Dispute Resolution Group and acted in a number of high profile fraud cases as well as regulatory and financial disputes. Rachel also advised clients across a number of sectors as to their ABC, compliance programs, AML reporting obligations and internal investigations. She has worked on international matters in arbitrations, mediations and commercial negotiations as well as disputes in the High Court of Justice.

James is a solicitor qualified to practice in England & Wales. He trained and qualified as a corporate lawyer, specialising in Mergers & Acquisitions. He has worked at several law firms in London where he specialised in cross-border M&A transactions. Before joining ENRC in September 2011 as a Senior Compliance Officer in London, James worked in the US at a law firm based in Chicago.

James is currently the Group Head of Compliance, a role he took in October 2012. James reports directly to the Group General Counsel and the Audit Committee on compliance activity.

Michael Rasmuson joined Baker Hughes in 2002 and currently holds the position of Vice President – International Legal Operations. His responsibilities are to provide and manage the general legal support function in Europe, Africa and Russia Caspian.

Michael has over 15 years of legal practice experience and has worked as an oil and gas lawyer for firms in Canada and the UK before joining Baker Hughes. Prior to his current appointment as Vice President – International Legal Operations, he held several positions in the legal group and was responsible for several different regions. Michael is a member of The Law Society of England and Wales and The Law Society of Alberta.

Elaine began her legal career in private practice. She moved in-house 12 years ago and first became involved in the area of legal compliance in 2005 when she joined Vetco Gray at a time when they had recently entered into a settlement with the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in relation to matters arising under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In January 2007 she joined Baker Hughes, who shortly thereafter also entered into their own settlement with the DOJ and SEC. As part of these settlements both companies also had independent monitors appointed to oversee and advise on their compliance programmes for a period of time. In July 2012 Elaine became the Chief Compliance Officer for Wood Group, serving as the focal point for business ethics and compliance matters across the Group’s global activities. Wood Group is a leading independent services provider for the oil & gas and power generation markets. The Group employs around 43,000 people worldwide and operates in over 50 countries.

Anna is a senior corporate partner and heads up the London team of energy lawyers.

Anna has worked in Herbert Smith Freehills’ London, Hong Kong and Singapore offices and has spent over 11 years in Asia.  Anna advises on a wide range of international transactions including complex cross border acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, restructurings, the development and financing of projects, and commercial agreements in the oil, gas (LNG), coal and power sectors.  Anna understands and has advised on the whole energy value chain from upstream concessions and transportation arrangements to downstream commodity sales and trading.  Recent mandates include advising BP on its acquisition of an additional interest in the Shah Deniz Project in Azerbaijan, Temasek on its investment in Seven Energy, CNOOC on its various investments in the QGC LNG project in Australia and the purchase of 3.6 mpta and 5 mpta of LNG from BG and CNPC on its investment in Rovuma Offshore Area 4 in Mozambique.

Peter Haslam has been a consultant to the NIA for several years, and is now their Public Policy Adviser. He has over 25 years experience in the energy sector and an extensive knowledge of Whitehall and the wider parliamentary process.

Prior to becoming a consultant in 2005 he was British Energy’s Director of Government Affairs for 9 years. During his career at BE, Peter developed and implemented the company’s public affairs strategy at the Scottish, Westminster and European levels. Prior to this, his roles included Public Affairs Manager at Nuclear Electric plc and Head of the Parliamentary Section at the Central Electricity Generating Board. Before joining the electricity industry in 1986 Peter was a career civil servant in the Department of Energy, including spells as private secretary to two Government Ministers.

Jorge Guira, Esq., BA, MA, JD, LLM, PgDip, PhD, is Director of the University of Reading Law School and Henley Business School Centre for Energy Law and Policy and an Associate Professor, in law and finance, including energy matters. He has taught at Warwick, been a Visiting Senior Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, and consulted for leading oil and gas firms in many parts of the world as to finance, arbitration, litigation, and contract structuring, drafting, and negotiation.

Stephen Rosser is currently Legal Director at British Gas, responsible for the Consumer Affairs, Competition and Privacy team. In addition to broad commercial and regulatory experience, Stephen has particular expertise in strategic M&A and private equity transactions. Since joining Centrica in 2010, Stephen has led a number of our most significant acquisitions and investments, including Centrica’s successful consortium bid to acquire the Bord Gáis energy business from the Irish State in a complex €1.12bn privatisation which was announced earlier this year. At Centrica, Stephen has also advised on the establishment and development of British Gas Venture Capital and its investment portfolio, and led the acquisitions of businesses which now form the cornerstone of our Business Services division. Prior to joining Centrica, Stephen specialised in mid-market M&A and private equity at international firm, Eversheds LLP and spent time on secondment to Copenhagen and Stockholm, assisting in the development and integration of the Eversheds International network.

Martin McAspurn-Lohmann is the Head of Oil & Gas at Santander Corporate and Investment Banking in London with responsibility for the global coverage of major oil & gas companies. Prior to this, he was a Director in Lloyds’ Oil & Gas team with responsibilities for the global relationships with the Majors and business development in the European upstream sector. During his 12 years in corporate finance, Martin has worked in the US, Germany and the UK  and has provided advisory work and led deal teams in numerous high profile debt and equity transactions in the Natural Resources and Energy sectors. Martin is bi-lingual in German and English and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration

Ken earned a B.A. degree in Philosophy at Miami University and his law degree with honors from the University of Georgia in 1981.  He then joined Dinsmore & Shohl in Cincinnati, Ohio where he became a partner and had a diverse general civil and white-collar criminal trial practice.  Ken served from 1985-1989 as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for the State of Ohio, during which time he successfully prosecuted participants in the Savings & Loan crisis.  Ken’s experience also included the successful pro bono representation of a death row inmate in Mississippi before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ken joined General Electric Company in 1993 as Sr. Counsel, Litigation at GE Aviation. Ken became Vice President & General Counsel for GE Oil & Gas in 2005, headquartered in Florence, Italy, with over 40,000 employees and a legal and compliance department of approximately 100 professionals world-wide. During Ken’s tenure, the business grew from 3.5B to 20B dollars in orders.

Ken retired from GE in June of 2014, and is now President of ATRQ Global LLC, a consulting firm focusing on anti-corruption, compliance, governance, localization, international partnerships and “license to operate” issues in the oil & gas and energy sectors.

Ken taught classes in business ethics and values in the M.B.A. program at Xavier University in Cincinnati, and currently serves as a professor in international business ethics and sustainability at Syracuse University in Florence, Italy. Ken has served on the board, and as President, of the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, and he currently serves as a director of a privately held company in the US.

John Upton is Legal Counsel – Audits and Investigations for Baker Hughes, a leading Global Oilfield Services  Company.  John’s role is to carry out FCPA audits and internal investigations on a world – wide basis.  He is a barrister who has previously worked in private practice and as an Enforcement lawyer in Several Government Departments and for the Financial Services Authority. He  holds degrees from  the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.

Ana Stanič is an English Solicitor Advocate and an Honorary Lecturer at the Centre of Mining and Natural Resources at the University of Dundee.  She is the founder of E&A Law Limited, an innovative law firm which combines energy specialism with expertise in EU law, international law and arbitration.

Ana has advised on concession agreements, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and privatisations. She is currently advising states and companies on EU energy, competition and environmental law as well as international law particulalry in relation to energy projects. She regularly acts as counsel in investment treaty and commercial arbitrations and has appeared before the Court of Justice of the EU.  Ana has a LLM from Cambridge University, UK and a LLB and B. Commerce (Finance and Banking) from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to private practice, Ana worked for the Slovenian Ministry of Economic Relations and Development and the Central Bank where she inter alia negotiated bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements.

Ana is recommended as a leading lawyer in Energy and Energy Disputes by Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners and a leading lawyer in CIS and CEE countries by the IFLR. Besides English Ana speaks Slovenian, Bosnian/Croat/Serbian, Italian and understands Russian and French.

Euan McVicar is General Counsel of UK Green Investment Bank plc. Prior to taking up that role he was at Pinsent Masons (and predecessor firm McGrigors) for 14 years (eight as partner), where he headed the Energy Projects team. He was involved in the development, project finance and acquisition and disposal of energy projects of all sorts, but with particular emphasis on renewable energy and energy efficient/clean carbon projects such as offshore and onshore wind power, biomass, combined heat and power, and carbon capture and storage.  Before joining McGrigors, Euan was part of the legal team at Scottish & Southern Energy plc.

Alex Barnes is Head of Regulatory Affairs for Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited, based in the UK. After joining GM&T in 2009 he established the Regulatory Affairs team which covers gas, power and financial regulation in the countries in which GM&T operates. He has 23 years experience in the oil and gas industry, focusing on the gas industry for the last 19 years, working for Total and BG Group prior to GM&T. For the last 13 years he has focussed on gas market design and regulation. He is chairman of the European Federation of Energy Traders Gas Capacity Work Group, and is one of the “prime mover” advisors to ENTSOG on the development of the EU Network Codes for Capacity and Tariffs. He was a member of ACER’s expert panel on gas transportation tariffs, and is an advisor to the EU-Russia Gas Advisory Council. He has an MBA from Henley Management College, and a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.

Robin has acted as General Counsel and Company Secretary to AIM and TSX-V listed E&P Companies since 2007.

Most recently Robin was with Equus Petroleum Plc, a Kazakhstan focused, privately held, E&P Company.

Robin was General Counsel and Company Secretary at Central European focused Aurelian Oil & Gas PLC 2011-13, before its sale to San Leon Energy plc.

Prior to this, Robin held the same role at Stratic Energy Corporation, before its sale to Enquest PLC in 2010. Robin was a Non-executive Director of Carthage Hydro Limited, a hydroelectric power start up 2008-2012.

In his earlier career, Robin was Legal Manager at PetroKazakhstan Inc, based in Kazakhstan 2003-6, until its sale to CNPC for $4.2Bn.

After Qualifying as a Solicitor with Cameron McKenna in 1997, Robin worked at BP until 2003, advising on major Russian upstream investments in East Siberia, Sakhalin IV/V, as well as the upstream aspects of the TNK-BP Merger, and also the Kashagan PSA in Kazakhstan.

Robin holds a Degree in Law from King’s College London.

Jonathan Brearley runs a consultancy focussed on the energy sector. He advises a range of public sector and commercial clients on energy markets, policy and regulation. He helps clients formulate their commercial strategy in response to regulatory changes and advises governments on regulatory and market design issues.

Until July, Jonathan was the Director of Energy Markets and Networks at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. In this role, he focused on ensuring the security of supply and driving the low carbon transformation of the UK electricity sector.

Before this, Jonathan was Director of the Office of Climate Change – a cross government strategy unit focussed on climate change/ energy issues. Jonathan has also worked at the Prime Ministers Strategy Unit, focussed on UK public services and prior to that as a consultant at Bain and Company.

Findlay is Associate General Counsel for the global Subsea Systems business of GE Oil & Gas, a $5bn business headquartered in Aberdeen, UK. Findlay advises and supports the business on all aspects of the company’s operations in over 30 countries.

Before joining GE, Findlay was a Partner in the Oil & Gas team at UK law firm, McGrigors LLP, where he advised clients on a wide variety of O&G industry issues, including M&A transactions, field developments, joint venture operations and supply chain contracting.

Prior to joining McGrigors, Findlay was Legal Manager for CNR International (the international business of Canadian Natural Resources, a large Canadian Oil & Gas E&P operator), where he oversaw all legal support for the company’s operations in the UK and Africa.

Findlay was previously recognised by Chambers as having an “invaluable background in the Oil & Gas industry”. In 2010, Findlay was shortlisted in the finals of the Legal Business Awards and in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Supplement. More recently, Findlay was shortlisted for the Rising Star of the Year award at the Legal Business Awards 2014.

Catherine is a Senior Associate at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP. She has promoted a number of major infrastructure projects including the New Tyne Tunnel river crossing and EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. She is currently acting for Cuadrilla Resources in relation to their hydraulic fracturing operations in the UK, and is an active member of the UK Onshore Operators Group.

Corin Taylor is a senior adviser at UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG), the trade association for the onshore oil and gas industry.  He is currently on secondment at UKOOG from Centrica Energy, where he was responsible for research to inform the communications team.

Prior to joining Centrica, Corin was a senior economic adviser at the Institute of Directors (IoD), responsible for energy and transport policy.  He is author of a number of energy policy reports, including the IoD’s influential report on shale gas in 2013.

Corin has also worked for a number of public policy think tanks.

Professional experience in various areas including the Institute of World Economics, Germany – Federal Ministry for Housing, Regional Planning and Urban Development, Germany – European Commission: Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry – Directorate General for Competition –  Directorate General for Energy (team leader: offshore safety of oil and gas operations).

Rupert Steele is Director of Regulation at ScottishPower.  He is responsible for Public and Regulatory policy across all aspects of Iberdrola’s interests in the UK.  This includes working with Government and regulatory stakeholders to help find solutions which meet both the needs of the company and the public interest.

He reports directly to ScottishPower’s Chief Corporate Officer and to Iberdrola’s Global Regulation Director.  He is a member of the ScottishPower Co-ordination Committee which brings together the top level managers in the UK business.

Rupert was appointed Director of Regulation on joining ScottishPower in April 2007.  Prior to this, he ran a consultancy business (Energy Strategies Limited) that advised utility, City and Government clients on energy policy issues.

His earlier career included 16 years working on energy issues in the Department of Trade and Industry and three years at TXU Europe.

He was appointed OBE in 1992.

Thamala Perera is General Counsel of IGas Energy PLC, the AIM listed, largest onshore oil and gas exploration and production company in the UK. IGas has more than thirty years’ experience of successfully and safely extracting oil and gas from over 100 sites around the country. Following the acquisition of Dart Energy Limited in October 2014, IGas has an asset base of over 1 million licensed acres and explores for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas.

In 2011, following the reverse takeover of Star Energy Group Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of PETRONAS) by IGas, Thamala was appointed to lead the legal function of the enlarged group.  Prior to the reverse takeover, Thamala was General Counsel of Star Energy responsible for all legal matters of the European Infrastructure Group of PETRONAS with a primary focus on gas storage.

Thamala was called to the Bar in 2000. During her career she has gained a combination of in-house and regulator (Ofgem) industry specific expertise and has a proven record of successfully advising pioneering and fast growth companies on a variety of challenges faced in the oil and gas industry.