Our Team

Steven Taylor

Director

Steven is a Director at EKON, having spent the last 20 years working in the energy industry, both as a consultant and in the power industry working in a utility developing assets (RES and CCGT’s).

Agustín Llana

Associate Director

Agustin, an Associate Director of EKON, has 40 years of international experience in the Energy Industry. His experience encompases Coal Mining and Marketing, Downstream Oil, Gas Upstream and Wholesaling, with a particular focus on LNG Supply and Trading, and Power Trading and Wholesaling.

Kim Keats

Director

Kim Keats Martínez is a director of EKON overseeing market modelling initiatives. Kim started his career in economic consulting at London Economics in 1995 and joined the new London office of ICF International in 2000.

Thorsten Chowanietz

Senior Associate

Thorsten has more than 20 years of experience in banking and renewable energy sectors.

Sergio Ipiña

Finance Director and Senior Consultant

Sergio Ipiña Gosalbo has around 30 years’ professional experience, having combined actuarial and economic valuation activities in Spain and abroad.

Antonio Arco

Senior Consultant

Antonio is a Senior Consultant at EKON, having spent the last several years working in the renewables, electricity and natural gas sectors. He has principally worked in the Iberian region as well as the Middle East.

Steven Taylor

Director. Steven is a Director at EKON , having spent the last 20 years' working in the energy industry, both as a consultant and in the power industry working in a utility developing assets (RES and CCGT’s). Before joining EKON , Steven was responsible for setting up the Pöyry Management Consulting practice in Madrid and was the Head of the Iberian practice for Pöyry Management Consulting from 2005 until the beginning of 2011. During 2011 and before joining EKON Steven continued to work for Pöyry as an associate consultant. Over the last few years Steven has specialised in M&A transaction support services with a strong focus on RES and CCGT’s as well as carrying out expert witness work for arbitration cases (Gas and Electricity) having presented expert witness testimony in arbitration cases internationally. Steven has extensive experience in M&A transaction support services having acted as project director in more than 1 GW of successful acquisitions within the Spanish and Portuguese renewable market. In addition, Steven has experience in Project Finance with leading banks for the Spanish market having participated in raising funds for projects as new Project Finance, Refinancing of existing assets and Finance of several mergers for an approximate amount of € 500 million. Steven has worked on 25 long term LNG/pipe GSA (Gas Supply Agreement) reopeners in Spain having assisted lawyers in preparing the statement of claims and has prepared four expert witness reports. Steven has also prepared a number of rebuttal reports against the counterparties expert reporting as well as having given expert witness testimony to Arbitration Tribunals. Most of his 20 years experience working in the Energy business has been spent on the Spanish energy market, having previously held the position of Director for Business Development for Dong Spain (now eon) as well as having been the Head of the Electricity, Gas and Trading division. Prior to this he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a strategy consultant specialising in the energy industry for 6 years. Steven has an in-depth knowledge of the Iberian Gas, Electricity and Renewables markets with a proven track record of asset valuations for mergers and acquisitions as well valuable experience in modelling gas, electricity and renewable feed-in tariff price projections for the Spanish and Portuguese energy markets. As a result of his years of experience he has developed a detailed knowledge of the Spanish and Portuguese energy sector regulatory framework and has applied this knowledge to modelling gas and electricity price projections. Having studied at Runnymede College in Madrid he went on to study a BSc Honours Degree in Biology and Chemistry at Bedfordshire University and completed his studies with an MBA in Business Administration from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. Steven is bilingual (English and Spanish) and also speaks French.

Agustin Llana

Associate Director.

Agustin, an Associate Director of EKON, has over 40 years of international experience in the Energy Industry. His experience encompases Coal Mining and Marketing, Downstream Oil, Gas Upstream and Wholesaling, with a particular focus on LNG Supply and Trading, and Power Trading and Wholesaling.

Agustín retired from Shell as “Cluster Country” Chair for Spain and Portugal. He started his career in Cost Engineering, Reserves Evaluation and Investment Analysis in Shell Coal International (SCI) in The Hague. He was the seconded as Deputy MD to Overseas Coal Development, a London-based JV of SCI looking at investment opportunities in coal mining; then transferred to Shell Coal South Africa as Technical Project Manager for the planning of a major opencast coal mine. He moved back to London as Deputy Regional Marketing Manager for Southern Europe and North Africa, managing sales to the Power and Industrial segments. Subsequently moved to Shell International Trading Co (SITCO) as an Oil Products Trading Manager and later Business Development Manager; then moved to run SITCO´s Madrid-based regional office for Oil Products and Crude Oil trading development in Iberia, Magreb and Northwest Africa. He then moved to manage the Oil Product Supply and Operations/Logistics in Shell España and Shell Portuguesa; in that capacity he was involved in several optimization and M&A studies, particularly in a multimillion dollar M&A operation leading to the acquisition of a stake in a leading Oil Products Primary Distribution/Logistics company. Then, in the run up to the liberalisation of the gas and power sectors in Iberia he was involved in a major internal consulting exercise to analyse that potential new market entry, following which he became Shell Gas International (SGI´s) Manager for Iberia and led the successful entry in the Spanish Gas and Power markets, which interalia involved the identification and negotiation of term LNG supply contracts, and the profitable develoment of the local gas wholesale business, and the negotiation and successful conclusion of an 800MW Tolling Agreement on Spain´s first IPP and securing the necessary LNG supplies and TPA contracts. In that capacity he was also part of the Management Team of Shell Energy Europe for Southern Europe. Agustin was also part of the initial marketing teams for a major greenfield LNG project and the rejuvenation/upgrading of another LNG project in MENA.

Agustin has been Shell´s representative in the ExComs of CORES (the Spanish Strategic Stocks Agency) and SEDIGAS ExCom (the Spanish Gas Industry Association) and in the Board of CLH Aviación.

Following his retirement from Shell he served for a number of years as a NED and member of the Audit Committee in a Canadian junior Oil and Gas exploration company with operations in Iberia. In that period the company went through a number of multimillion-dollar PPs, IPOs and farm-outs/JVs and the ensuing major exploration effort. Agustin has also been working as an Independent Consultant in downstream gas and power matters and running training courses internationally on the LNG Value Chain for a major UK gas consultancy and training firm. Agustin is a member of the Energy Working Group of the Royal Institute ELCANO, Spain´s leading think-tank.

Agustin is a Mining Engineer by ETSIM from Oviedo University and holds an MSc in Mineral Production Management from the RSM of the Imperial College in London and an MBA from Wits University Business School in Johannesburg. He speaks Spanish, English and French.

Kim Keats

Director. Kim Keats Martínez is a director at EKON , overseeing market modelling initiatives. Kim started his career in economic consulting at London Economics in 1995 and joined the new London office of ICF International in 2000. Joined IPA Energy + Water Economics (now known as IPA Advisory ) in 2007 developing and leading the transaction team based in London until the end of 2014 when he relocated full time to Madrid. Joined K4K Training & Advisory S.L. in March 2015 launching its advisory business and EKON since October 2015. His primary focus on the preparation of market studies to support and inform financing, refinancing, IPOs and M&A of power, fuel and water desalination projects in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Asia and the Americas covering both conventional and renewable generation technologies on behalf of major international project developers, financiers and fuel suppliers. Much of this has relied on his expertise in preparing bespoke models to forecast prices, dispatch and capacity expansion. Over the past 14 years, Kim has supported the successful completion of 43GW and 496MIGD of capacity with a transaction value of more than USD29 billion. He has worked in Spain and Portugal since 1998 advising on a variety of thermal and renewables projects and for different clients. Last year he collaborated with EKON on a series of assignments looking at valuing the assets of EON’s portfolio in Iberia. Until recently, Kim was a partner of the Electricity Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge (UK) and still contributes to industry periodicals, conferences and workshops. Kim holds a Masters in Economics (with distinction) from the University of London and is bilingual English-Spanish.

Thorsten Chowanietz

Senior Asociate. Thorsten has more than 20 years of experience in banking and renewable energy sectors. He started his professional career at Hypovereinsbank and Deutsche Bank in Germany and later Spain. In 2002 he joined the Spanish construction group Sacyr where he was involved in the merger process with the real estate group Vallehermoso. For 4 years he participated in different transactions of biomass, cogeneration and desalination plants mainly in Spain and Algeria. In 2006 joined EPURON (part of the CONERGY Group) eventually becoming its Managing Director and from 2008 taking over as the CFO of CONERGY, a worldwide leader in solar power. Since 2014, he has been an independent advisor specialising on renewables. He has analysed various emerging markets, with special focus in Latin America and Africa, providing insight into viable market entry strategies. This has included screening project developers, external advisors (legal, technical, financial) and potential financial/strategic investors on behalf of clients. He has also helped structure the acquisitions of projects at different stages of development and supported the due diligence by preparing studies on the economic viability of different projects. Over his career he has participated in transactions valued at over €1.5 billion. Thorsten has a dual degree in Business Administration from the ICADE business school of the University of Comillas in Madrid (Spain) and the Reutlingen University in Reutlingen (Germany). He is fluent in German, Spanish and English.

Sergio Ipiña

Finance Director and Senior Consultant. Sergio Ipiña Gosalbo has around 30 years’ professional experience, having combined actuarial and economic valuation activities in Spain and abroad. Sergio is familiar with the renewable energy industry having prepared expert reports quantifying the economic damages of regulatory changes. Sergio has acquired intense experience in deterministic and stochastic modelling in the insurance and banking industries acting as an external consultant in multiple valuation proceeds. Sergio has worked with Andrés & team on multiple forensic reports (IPF) within the Financial Industry as well as with EKON to assist in the economic damage calculations within the Renewable Energy Industry, especially helping in building up robust financial models. Sergio has a long professional track record within the financial industry, especially within the insurance industry, where he has developed significant skills in deterministic and stochastic modelling for product pricing and reserving, default & credit risks valuations, as well as for project financing & business planning etc., combining as appropriate disciplines such as accounting, statistics and finance. All this experience has been capitalized in the last years within consultancy activities of different kinds, among which we can include the economic expert reporting with damages & loss of profits (quantum analysis). He has been involved in the modelling and preparation of several expert witness reports which have been filed in Court, technically assisting the Independent Expert and Legal Councils of the party represented for the Courts. Sergio is Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in Madrid, is Bachelor in Business Administration by the Complutense University of Madrid and MBA by the IESE Business School of the University of Navarra. Prior to his present professional engagements, Sergio has worked for over 20 years in important multinational insurance firms, also occupying senior and officer roles in several companies, being member of boards of Directors, Risk Assessment boards, M&A boards and Project Finance boards, where among other techniques he modelled economic structures using financial reinsurance treaties to set up complex take overs and/or greenfield operations in other countries.

Antonio Arco

Senior Consultant. Antonio is a Senior Consultant at EKON , having spent the last several years working in the renewables, electricity and natural gas sectors. He has principally worked in the Iberian region as well as the Middle East. Before joining EKON , Antonio was a Consultant at Altran in Madrid. During that time he analysed regulatory, legal and policy frameworks, and undertook due diligence, market analysis and price forecasting in the renewable energy, electricity and natural gas sectors of Spain and Europe. Antonio has provided strategic power sector investment advice to private clients, and has analysed the regulatory risk profiles of the power and natural gas sectors in several countries. Antonio has an Engineering Degree from the Swedish University of Agricultural Science and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and a MSc Degree in Renewable Energy and the Energy Market from EOI (Escuela de Organizacion Industrial). He speaks English and Spanish.

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