Team

Hugh is the founder, Chairman and CEO of IES. 

 With over 30 years of experience advising on energy sector reform and managing IES, Hugh advises government, industry and regulatory bodies on electricity markets and macro energy policy in Australia and ASEAN countries. Hugh conceptualised, developed and commercialised the analytical tools that IES uses internally and sells to its clients. 

 Hugh has particular expertise in:

• Development and implementation of energy policy
• Energy market design and industry reform
• Application of mathematical modelling to a range of complex technical problems

 Currently, Hugh promotes research and development activities to ensure that IES retains its leadership role in energy market design and software. Hugh founded IES in 1983, and is based in the Sydney head office.

Stuart is responsible for the Asia Advisory practice, with a current focus on Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Myanmar. He provides technical and regulatory advice to governments, market operators, energy companies and financial institutions.

 Stuart’s areas of expertise include:

• Energy policy and regulations
• Electricity market design and implementation
• Power system operations
• Demand response and demand-side management
• Energy system modelling, market studies and valuation of energy sector assets

 Ron oversees product development and product marketing activities within IES.

 He has extensive experience in software development, project management, business analysis and systems analysis, communications, software programming, numerical analysis and mathematical modelling and high level expertise in C#, ASP.NET MVC and databases. Ron also leads the team of web and data-analysis specialists.

 Ron has led many developments at IES, including:

• Development of market-leading web-based products and services
• Architecture of IES’ leading edge data visualisation software NEO
• Development of Mercury, an advanced application framework
• Development of an object oriented LP programming language (LORE) written in C# and using LCG
• Development of coding standards including establishing a system of self and peer reviews to implement the standards

 Adriana is the primary point of contact for liaison with clients, sales teams, partners, staff and contractors.

 With a background in IT and computer programming, Adriana efficiently deals with all customer queries in the Sydney office where she is based. She resolves queries in a timely and organised manner, and is responsible for the smooth operation of the office.

 Adriana’s responsibilities include:

• Researching, organising and executing social company events
• Sourcing and securing interstate and overseas travel arrangements for staff members 
• Assisting IES’s Financial Accountant with MYOB tasks and invoicing
• Maintaining the company database

Bill leads the Australian consulting section of IES Advisory and manages a team of four Senior Consultants. As the main point of contact for Australian clients, Bill provides timely and accurate advice, proposes effective solutions and explores new business opportunities.

Bill has fifteen years’ experience in electricity and gas industries. He has worked for AGL, Origin Energy, Ausgrid, and EDF Energy (UK). He has an in-depth understanding of the structure of the energy industry including retail and billing, wholesale markets and regulated networks. 

 Bill’s competencies include:

• Maintaining a centre of excellence for advisory services in the Australian energy market
• Pricing and procurement of energy-related products and services
• Expertise in energy markets and infrastructure regulation
• Communication and training in technical areas of the energy industry
• Energy industry software development experience

 Kim is the project lead for PROPHET at IES. 

 Kim has over ten years’ experience managing teams, forecasting and resolving customer issues, and specialises in the development of both linear and non-linear optimisation methodologies.

 Kim’s areas of expertise are:

• Developing market simulation models for energy companies, including gas and electricity 
• Handling customer issues and feedback in a calm and proactive manner
• Managing a close-knit team of developers and fostering a culture of continuous improvement 
• Developing operations research software products 

Vajira is a software test analyst at IES with extensive knowledge and experience in testing windows and web applications. Vajira is working primarily across PROPHET and NEO applications.

Vajira’s specialist skills include:

• Full cycle of testing: business requirements analysis, test scenarios, test cases creation, SIT, UAT
• Creating and updating user manuals for products such as NEO and PROPHET
• Software license support
• Client support

Denny is a support manager at IES with ability to build productive relationships, resolve complex issues and win customer loyalty. He is also involved in a number of sales and marketing tasks.

He also has experience working in many different coding languages, developing custom solutions for clients that match their individual requirements.

Some of Denny’s expertise includes:

• Managing and building healthy relationship with clients
• Performing support and leading a team of support staffs to help both local and overseas clients
• Actively engaged in sales and marketing campaigns
• Data analyst and reporting using complex queries on SQL Server and Oracle databases
• Web designing and programming with XHTML, Javascript, DotNetNuke and CSS

Lana is a modeller and programme analyst at IES. 

With previous experience teaching Maths and IT and over six years’ experience in software development, Lana has a head for numbers and applies strategic logic to every project she works on.

 Lana’s range of skills includes:

• Linear and mixed integer programming, C# programming and MS SQL
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM, including its integration with other web applications to create simple, automated procedures that streamline work practices
• Maintaining MIP model of the personal finance optimisation software Pathfinder
• Developing reporting engine and reports to conveniently display and analyse results output from Pathfinder

Oliver has over six years of experience in solving large-scale combinatorial optimisation problems arising in industry, in particular in the areas of scheduling, timetabling, and rostering. Oliver enjoys developing and refining algorithms, both exact and approximation, to solve specific optimisation problems as well as those in the general case.

Oliver's skills include:

• Linear and mixed integer programming, quadratic programming, convex optimisation, interior point methods
• Decomposition methods such as column generation
• Metaheuristic, hybrid heuristic, and matheuristic algorithms
• C/C++ and C# programming

Andy manages computer systems, database services, network connections and internal technical support at IES.

 Andy has over ten years’ experience managing databases. He recently completed the migration of an entire database into the cloud to enable mobile customers to access it from almost anywhere. 

 Andy’s areas of expertise are:

• Installing and maintaining Windows and Exchange servers 
• Database management, with a focus on Oracle and Microsoft SQL 
• Maintaining and Managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Sophisticated and robust IT security measures
• Maintaining and updating the company’s fleet of desktops and laptops

Patrick is a Senior Consultant with ten years of experience on a range of market-based projects. These include analysis of strategies for electricity and gas trading, performing due diligence for clients that are buying or selling energy assets, and undertaking a broad range of energy market studies, both in Australia and overseas. 

 Patrick’s areas of expertise include:

• Providing clients with fundamental analysis of pricing dynamics in both power and gas markets
• Detailed market modelling and sensitivity analysis covering generator behaviours and network constraints
• Advising clients on due diligence matters covering current market dynamics, risks and opportunities
• Power trading including analysis tools and database systems covering physical dispatch and contracts trading

Simon is an Electrical Engineer with experience in the industrial automation and manufacturing sector and more recently in the electricity network operation and regulation industry.

Simon joined IES after recently completing his PhD thesis titled “Facilitating the Technical Network Integration of Distributed PV Generation”, at the University of NSW. In 2010 Simon completed a Master of Engineering Science – Energy Systems and in the following year won a PhD scholarship from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). His PhD topic was an investigation into the impacts of distributed PV generation on the electricity grid and the development of methods for facilitating its integration.

Over the course of his candidature Simon gained a good understanding on the operation of electricity networks, distributed generation and distributed devices (electrical storage and controllable loads) as well as experience in power flow analysis, data analysis and electricity network impact studies. Simon has a number of research publications and also contributed to reports on the behaviour of solar PV and the impacts and benefits of distributed generation for both CSIRO and the Australian PV Institute (APVI).

Before starting his PhD Simon worked as an Electrical Control Engineer, both in Australia and in the UK. His roles primarily involved the design and development of electrical control equipment and software

Since joining IES, Simon has been working in our international advisory area on a range of topics, including contract optimisation and the auditing and certification of electricity market systems.

Jennifer has a degree in Electrical Engineering and work experience in energy retail contract brokering. This includes analysing electricity prices with the goal of minimising costs to the consumer. She has a good understanding of the Australian energy market via her liaison with different retailers and self-initiated research. Jennifer joined the company in 2015.

Michael is a software developer at IES.

He has a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering and a Master of Research from Macquarie University. Before working at IES, he worked as an engineer in telecommunications, electrical, and software.

Michael's expertise and interests include software development for both front-end and back-end applications, and improving the maintainability and efficiency of software applications.

Alireza is a qualified and experienced Electrical Engineer and Senior Research Fellow with diverse experience in academic and industrial research, teaching, networking, and project management, primarily in the areas of power systems and energy economics.

His areas of expertise include:

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications in Power Engineering, UNSW, Australia.
• IEEE senior member
• Extensive research background in designing, executing, analysing, writing, and producing detailed reports on a variety of experiments in the areas of: Electricity Markets, Renewable Energy Systems and Integration, Power Systems Optimisation and Smart Power Grids
• Published author of 30+ manuscripts that appear in peer-reviewed journals and scientific international conferences, as well as 5 research grants.
• Technical proficiency in power systems analysis, energy market studies, optimisation modelling, simulation, and engineering tools.
• Ability to research and interpret rapidly changing and complex electric energy issues that significantly impact supply-and-demand and energy use.
• Sound understanding of Australian national energy market and related standards and regulatory framework.