Ex-Mirant risk officer named executive director of CCRO

Mike Smith, former global risk control officer of Atlanta-based energy firm Mirant, was today named executive director of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO).

Founded in March by a number of energy companies, including Mirant, the committee seeks to encourage the adoption of best practices that provide common measures to enhance transparency for evaluating merchant energy trading activity and estimating risk.

Smith highlighted restoration of “confidence among investors in the role merchant energy companies serve in securing competitively priced energy for consumers”, as one of his key aims.

Meeting in Houston today, the CCRO’s market price indexes working group called on energy price index providers to begin a dialogue with the body with an aim to make market price indexes more transparent, independent and auditable.

Participants at the CCRO’s forum today included Bloomberg, Energy Argus and Reuters. The CCRO, which now has 31 members, plans to publish a white paper summarising its recommendations for industry best practice at the end of January.