Energy swaps

Neil Eckert has joined Climate Exchange as chief executive, while Carole Brookins and Laurie Magnus have arrived as non-executive directors.

Eckert was previously chief executive of Brit Insurance Holdings, an international insurance and reinsurance company with current market capitalisation of around £1 billion, which Eckert founded in 1995. He also serves as non-executive chairman of Trading Emissions and Econergy International.

Carole Brookins served as the US executive director to The World Bank Group from 2001 to 2005, following an appointment by President George Bush. Brookins represented the US government as the Bank's largest shareholder. In 1980 she founded the strategic consultancy World Perspectives, of which she was chairperson and chief executive. She is widely recognised for her expertise on the global political economy and its effect on agricultural and food markets.

Laurie Magnus is an investment banker with nearly 30 years' experience advising on corporate transactions, equities and debt, mergers and acquisitions in the UK and Far East, and cross-border transactions between the UK and US. Magnus is currently the executive vice-chair of Lexicon Partners, a corporate finance advisory business, specialising in financial services and utilities. EDF Trading embarks on Italian job

EDF Trading, the subsidiary of Electricité de France (EDF) responsible for the wholesale energy market, has announced the appointment of Francois Dassa and Marco Rocco to the origination team focused on the Italian market.

Based in Rome, Dassa and Rocco will be part of EDF Trading's southern Europe origination team, headed by Domenico Franceschino of EDF Trading's London headquarters. The Rome business, EDF Trading Italia, will offer structured deals enabling medium to large counterparties to enhance their risk management profiles.

Commenting on the appointments, Franceschino says: "We recognise the importance of the Italian market for the continued growth of our Southern Europe business and changes in the market have seen the need to strengthen EDF Trading's origination business in Italy. EDF Trading is now playing a fundamental role in optimising the market that was historically dominated by utilities. We've also seen regulatory changes that have made entry into the Italian market easier."

Point Carbon's analyst team expands

Point Carbon, a provider of market intelligence and analysis to the energy and environmental markets, has made two new appointments to its team of analysts as part of the company's rapid expansion.

Anette Einarsen has joined as a senior analyst, primarily covering the UK gas market within Point Carbon's gas team. Einarsen previously worked as a senior analyst in economic research at Nordea Markets, with global responsibility for following developments in the oil market and making oil-price forecasts.

"Point Carbon was founded just six years ago and now employs over 75 specialists. By 2004, we understood that the carbon market was increasingly sitting within the energy complex so we moved into energy analysis," says Per-Otto Wold, Point Carbon's chief executive.

Joining Point Carbon's power analysis department as a senior hydrologist is Bjørn Edvard Sønju-Moltzau. He was previously with Norwegian utility, Statkraft.

Sønju-Moltzau specialises in snow hydrology, the modelling of hydrological systems and operative hydrology. He is also an experienced analyst of the fundamental conditions for power markets in the Nordic countries and across Europe. In addition, he has worked as a trader and portfolio manager in the Nord Pool power market.

"Not only have we attracted one of the most experienced hydrologists in the market, enabling us to strengthen our hydrological modelling, but Sønju-Moltzau also has considerable experience as a trader, making him uniquely suited to Point Carbon's activities," says Wold.

Econergy expands carbon division

Michael Ashford has joined Colorado-based Econergy International, a clean energy and carbon developer, as senior vice president, carbon markets. Ashford will be responsible for developing Econergy's global carbon business, including Clean Development Mechanism and other markets, and for increasing its presence in the US carbon market.

Ashford rejoins Econergy, after five years with The Climate Trust, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of project-based greenhouse gas reductions and offset trading. Prior to joining The Climate Trust in 2001, Ashford spent seven years with Econergy, rising to the position of vice-president responsible for Washington DC operations, where he focused on consulting and early-stage emissions reductions activities.

Tom Stoner, chief executive of Econergy says: "We are delighted that Michael has decided to return to our team. His appointment demonstrates and advances Econergy's commitment to carbon markets globally, in anticipation of a carbon regime being implemented in the US in the coming years."

SuperDerivatives hires Duff

Adam Duff is the new London-based product manager for equity options and structured products at SuperDerivatives. Duff will also become head of its quantitative research group.

Previously, Duff was head of equity exotic derivatives trading at Susquehanna International Group (SIG) in its joint venture with The Bank of New York. Prior to SIG, Duff was head of quantitative research at Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital.

Duff will drive the company's fast expansion of its line of equity options solutions for real-time pricing, portfolio revaluation, dividend forecasting, risk management and trading. David Gershon, chief executive and president of SuperDerivatives says: "I am convinced that Adam's extensive background in trading equity derivatives and developing analytics for various complex structures makes him ideal for further expanding our advanced offerings for exotic equity options, cross-asset equity linked notes and various multi-asset structures."

"It is very satisfying to join a company whose target is to introduce transparency to options pricing," says Duff.

Baltic beckons Barry Bednar

Barry Bednar of ABN Amro has been appointed as the chairman of the Baltic Exchange's Freight Market Information Users' Group (FMIUG) tanker section. Bednar, head of ABN Amro's freight derivatives division, takes over from Bruno Boulanger of BP Shipping, who has stepped down after an 18-month term.

The FMIUG is made up of ship owners, charterers and traders who rely on independent shipping data for their daily business and liaises with the Baltic Exchange on a regular basis to ensure the information produced is relevant to their members' activities. The FMIUG provides input on new routes, vessel descriptions, Forward Freight Agreement (FFA) Brokers Association contracts and freight-derivative clearing issues.

"Over the next 12 months we hope to continue this work and provide input from principals to the Baltic Exchange," says Bednar. "We are always keen on welcoming new members to the group and call on principals trading tanker FFAs to join." The group meets on a regular basis around the world and a range of issues are discussed by email between meetings. New weatherman at Spectron

Mike Scharfenberger, previously at Icap, has joined Spectron Group as the global head of weather.

Spectron Group, a global energy broker, has a weather derivatives desk in the US based in Houston, Texas, and is a leading broker of weather derivatives in Europe, where it operates the only electronic screen for trading OTC weather products.

Scharfenberger has seven years' experience in weather derivative markets and 11 years in emerging markets. "His appointment underlines Spectron's continued commitment to weather – we are seeing ever-increasing interest in the market and believe it has considerable growth potential; it is also another key stage in our plans to expand all of our US brokering operations," says Drew Stephens, chief executive of Spectron Group.

BarCap takes five in New York

Barclays Capital has made a significant expansion in its United States-based energy investment banking services with five new appointments in New York.

Santino Basile (below) joins as managing director, Bill Cassidy as director, and John Eleoterio, Juan Kreutz, and Richard Mandery as associate directors.

Basile, previously with WestLB AG and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), will lead BarCap's services for independent power producers, developers, and energy-focused financial sponsors.

Cassidy has been teamed with Mandery to cover BarCap's oil and gas operations, while Eleoterio and Kreutz have a wider remit across the investment bank's broad energy effort as support to continued expansion.

Financial Objects doubles energy team

Financial Objects, a supplier of advanced technology software solutions for the banking, wealth management and energy sectors, has doubled the size of its support team for energycredit, a credit risk management solution for the energy industry.

The focus on energycredit follows Financial Objects' acquisition of Raft International and a surge in demand from key energy players looking to deploy Financial Objects' credit risk solution. In the third quarter of 2006, 12 industry specialists have also been hired into the European and Americas teams, together with a similar expansion in its Bangalore-based offshore development centre.

Glenn Barnett joins Debbie Brackett (chief operating officer of the Americas operation) and her team as vice-president of sales and marketing for the Americas.

Barnett has more than 25 years' of energy automation sales experience within international enterprise trading and risk management.