Contributors

Sharad Somani

Sharad is the Asia Pacific head of Infrastructure for KPMG. With over 20 years of experience in power and utilities sector covering the entire lifecycle of projects from conceptualization to operations, Sharda brings in-depth experience of working with different stakeholders including governments, regulatory agencies, developers, financial institutions and technology providers. He has been focused on leveraging technology for better infrastructure delivery as well structuring innovative financing for infrastructure sector. Energy transition and climate change are key parts of his focus as clients navigate the environment and sustainability challenges.

Sharad has advised various government and private sector clients in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region. Sharad’s main thrust has been on privatization / PPP advisory, fund raising and project implementation and operational optimization for power, renewable energy, water, waste management, and technology projects in the region.

Some of the key projects he has successfully advised on include 2GW of aggregate solar IPPs in Dubai; Waste to energy projects in Singapore; Desalination and water recycling PPPs in Singapore; Airports structuring and financing in Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand; and electricity utility restructuring / regulatory advisory in Brunei, India, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Sharad is electronics engineer with an MBA in Finance.

Simon Nicholas

Simon Nicholas is an energy finance analyst with IEEFA in Australia. Simon holds an honours degree from Imperial College, London and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. He has 16 years’ experience working within the finance sector in both London and Sydney at ABN Amro, Macquarie Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Sophaphan Saptippayarattana

Sophaphan Saptippayarattana is the Power, Utilities & Renewables Sector Leader for Deloitte Southeast Asia. Saptippayarattana is also an audit partner with Deloitte in Thailand, with over 20 years of extensive experience in audit.

In her role, she sets the overall direction of the Power, Utilities & Renewables sector portfolio, the development of eminence initiatives, the go-to-market strategies across the businesses, as well as team leadership development. She also oversees Deloitte’s work with national utilities companies and various energy clients across the region.

Stefanie Khaw and Aufar Satria

Stefanie Khaw, Principal, is an expert at Boston Consulting Group’s Climate & Sustainability Hub for Innovation in Asia, which aims to pave the way towards building a more sustainable future in the region

Aufar Satria, Consultant, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Steve Minnihan

Steve Minnihan is a Senior Analyst at Lux Research. He leads the company’s Grid Storage Intelligence service while simultaneously exploring new research areas. In this role, he speaks first-hand with innovative companies, start-ups, government agencies, and research groups that are developing technologies in the fields of power and energy storage. 

Steven Minnihan

Steven Minnihan leads Lux Research’s Grid Storage Intelligence service while simultaneously exploring new research areas. Prior to joining Lux Research, Steve worked at Johnson and Johnson Consumer Products where he performed formulation development and claim substantiation for a variety of over-the-counter drugs and medical devices. Steve holds a B.S. in Material Science and Engineering with a concentration on Nanoscale Materials from the University of Pennsylvania.

Stewart Taggart

A former energy market journalist, Grenatec principal Stewart Taggart has published peer-reviewed research as well as written countless trade, specialist and general interest press articles on the ‘Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure’ concept. 

Suman Ghorai

Suman Ghorai is a Senior Manager in Energy and Utility practice under the Government Reforms and Infrastructure Development practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, India. He has more than 17 years of experience in the power sector restructuring projects specialising in distribution performance improvement.

Suresh Vishwakarma & Dr Ruchi Tyagi

Suresh is associated with the electric utility sector for the past 28 years. He has a degree in electrical engineering and MBA and holds Professional Engineer status in Canada and Chartered Engineer in UK. Dr Tyagi is presently designated as Assistant Professor (Selection Grade) in the Department of Human Resources & Organizational Behavior of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies.

Susan Gladwin

Susan Gladwin is the Global Lead at the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program.