APX | Power Spot Exchange – Making Markets Work

Bert den Ouden is Chief Executive Officer of APX and one of the founders of the company which started in 1999 as the Dutch electricity spot market. Under Den Ouden’s supervision, the exchange grew by acquiring British gas and power exchanges, launching gas exchanges in the Netherlands and Belgium, integration of the gas and power futures exchange ENDEX in 2008 and subsequently formulation of APX-ENDEX and, in 2010, the merger with the Belgian power exchange Belpex. More strategic focus for power spot and clearing was reached by the demerger of APX-ENDEX, whereby ENDEX has been splitt of APX, early 2013.

Bert den Ouden has been a pioneer in the integration of Europe electricity markets through the Market Coupling mechanism. When he was a chairman of EuroPEX, the European Association of Power Exchanges in 2002-2004, he prepared the basis for the broader European introduction of the idea. Subsequently, together with Belgian and French parties, he co-developed a sound partnership between exchanges and grid companies (TSOs) resulting in the launch of Belpex and the Trilateral Market Coupling between Netherlands, Belgium and France. This success has been followed by many follow-up market integration initiatives wherein Bert den Ouden maintains a close involvement.

Bert den Ouden has a broader track record in energy policy including clean and renewable energy technologies and the design of liberalised energy markets. After his studies in Physics, he started to work for an environmental consultancy developing energy conservation programs and early initiatives for wind energy and combined heat and power, CHP. He continued this during his next employment with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (The Hague, 1987), supervising programs for carbon-reducing energy conservation, CHP and renewables in a partnership with energy utilities. Subsequently he was involved in a ministry team that developed the new policy for energy market liberalisation in 1995, before moving to the Dutch Association of Energy Companies where he coordinated the feasibility and launch of the energy exchange.

James Matthys-Donnadieu is Chief Operations Officer of APX and CEO of Belpex.

Previously James Matthys-Donnadieu has worked at the Belgian system operator Elia and the Belgian power exchange Belpex. Starting as a Product Manager at Elia, he participated to the set up of Belpex in 2005 for which he later became in charge of Product and Market Development. He returned to Elia in 2010 to head the European Market Integration department. In this period, he was also the chairman of the steering committee of the Central Western Europe Regional Group, which is the forum where Transmission System Operators develop and coordinate the different market integration and security of supply tasks for that region.

James Matthys-Donnadieu holds a Master in Business Economics from the University of Antwerp and a Master in Business Administration from VlerickLeuvenGhentManagementSchool.

Andrew Claxton is Director of Business Development and is responsible for the development of APX’s products and business development strategy, including the development of cross-border market integration.

He led APX’s involvement on a number of projects, including the trilateral market coupling (“TLC”) between the Netherlands, France and Belgium, the Central Western Europe (“CWE”) market coupling (Benelux, France and Germany), the Interim Tight Volume Coupling (“ITVC”) over NorNed, and the BritNed market coupling. He is currently involved in the North West Europe initiatives for both day-ahead and intraday, and in PCR – a joint PX project to develop a Europe-wide market coupling solution.

In 1996 he helped found the international Association of Power Exchanges, APEx. He remains actively involved with the European association of power exchanges, Europex, where he chairs its power markets working group and he is a member of the ACER Electricity Stakeholder Advisory Group (AESAG) which advises on European market integration.

Prior to joining APX, he was Chief Executive of the Electricity Pool of England and Wales, a position he held for five years. During this time he led the implementation of the wholesale market changes required to support the liberalization of supply to the household level.  He previously worked for McKinsey, the international firm of management consultants, in London. Andrew has a BA and MEng in Chemical Engineering from CambridgeUniversity, and a MBA from StanfordUniversity in California.

Maureen Bal is Director Corporate Affairs, General Counsel and Company Secretary with APX. Within Corporate Affairs the following functions reside: Legal, Public & Regulatory Affairs, Communications, Risk & Compliance and Company Secretary.

Maureen Bal has built a track record in the financial world; she has been counsel at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and Mees Pierson/Fortis. Before joining APX Maureen was Head Legal Financial Markets at ING Bank. Maureen is board member of the Association for Securities Law.

Maureen holds a Master in Dutch Law from the University of Utrecht and a post-master’s degree in Dutch company law from the Grotius Academy.

Matthijs Nijpels is Operations Director and is responsible for the Operations teams residing in Nottingham, London, Brussels and Amsterdam. Matthijs has been with APX since October 1999 and has acquired a wide and expert knowledge in dealing with energy commodities in general and electricity in particular since then.

Matthijs has had a hand in practically all major and minor gas and electricity projects involving APX throughout its history so far. He has lead the Product Management department of APX and has managed the Amsterdam-based Operations department already in the past.

Matthijs has a background in economics and has worked at a wholesale raw materials company and an investment bank prior to joining APX. He holds a bachelor degree in Business Economics.

Jeroen van den Heuvel is Finance Director and responsible for internal & external financial reporting, financial and business control, treasury and clearing & settlement.

Jeroen has a background in financial consulting and has worked as financial accountant for a privately held metals & mining company before joining APX in 2010.

Jeroen holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Maastricht.

Derek Abernethy joined APX in January 2012 as Commercial Director.

Derek has over 20 years commodity, trading and risk management experience. He was Power Director for Centrica Energy where he was responsible for trading, operations and quants for the power business, procuring power for their customer portfolio and optimising and procuring fuel for their generation fleet whilst successfully running their proprietary trading books.

Derek joined  Centrica from the Royal Bank of Scotland where, in his role as Global Head of Commodity Risk, he oversaw the trading and risk management functions of RBS Sempra in the US, UK, Europe and Singapore.

Prior to joining RBS Derek spent a total of 10 years at Scottish Power as Head of Analysis, leading the quantitative analysis, forecasting and risk management teams and more recently as the Head of Trading managing the Gas, Power, Coal and CO2 desks. During this period, Derek also had the opportunity to study with WhartonUniversity in Pennsylvania as part of Scottish Power’s Leadership Program.

Derek has a first class honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Strathclyde where he graduated top of his year. He trained as an actuary in the Life and Pensions sector for 5 years before joining the world of commodities.

Jos Overbeek is ICT-Director of APX.

Previously Jos Overbeek has worked for KPMG Management Consulting and Synergetics IT Consultants. The last 16 years he worked as a contractor in senior ICT management functions for a range of companies like Delta Lloyd, Reed Business Information, Achmea and ING.

Jos holds a Master in Computer Science from the Technical University Delft.