Building on the success of our Energy Insights Event earlier this year, we will be holding another event on 14th January 2025. This event will be headlined by a very special guest speaker, Sam Lightstone (see bio below).
The theme for this event will be Energy Transition – Progress and Emerging Risks. We, along with other experts, will provide insights from various regions around the world on some of the current challenges that the insurance market is facing.
Our event is intended to provide meaningful insights for anyone involved in Energy insurance. This event will include discussions with our global Energy group, guest speakers and panellists from across the industry. The timings below are GMT.
Register Here
Registration and Lunch – 12:15pm
Welcome Remarks – 1:00pm
Session 1 – “Powering the Future: Transition to Sustainable Generation”
1:10pm – 1:50pm
In this session, Andreea Illie, Jessica Feola and Katharina Wilson will discuss the progress made (since our last Energy Insights Event) in transitioning to sustainable power generation. We will discuss the challenges, what has gone well, and what has gone poorly. The TED Talk will also discuss the merit order and how renewables are impacting this, recent discussions from COP29 and speculation on how what we’re doing will affect global temperatures.
Session 2 – “Are We Digging Ourselves into a Hole?”
1:50pm – 2:30pm
In this session, Alan Smit and HJ Ustler will provide an update on critical mineral strategy since our last Energy Insights Event in 2024 and since China’s announcement to ban exports of rare earths. We will discuss what needs to be mined for the conversion of green power and how nuclear power and SMRs may impact the demand for metals in the future.
Tea/Coffee Break
Session 3 – “Drill, Baby, Drill! Have We Been Sold Down the Stream?
3:00pm – 3:40pm
In this session, Nattakarn Prasitsumrit, Kent Bogdan and Phillip Taylor will discuss the flow from crude oil extraction to petrochemical production, the evolution of supply and demand in the petrochemical market, how we are meeting increased petrochemical demand from crude oil as demand for fuel evolves and the transition from conventional refining processes.
Session 4 – Expert Panel – Is the Market Ready, Willing and Able to Keep Up with the Transition?
3:40pm – 4:20pm
Moderated by Gerry Bouwman, our expert panel will discuss the hot topics of the day. We’re delighted to have Alastair Nicklin, Vice President of Power and Renewable Energy at Marsh, and Dan Stevens, Head of Renewable Energy at Axis Capital, as panellists this year. Topics discussed include infrastructure and supply chain challenges associated with the energy transition, energy transition technology, the challenges of energy transition / renewable claims and big data and AI.
Session 5 – Keynote Speaker – Sam Lightstone
4:20pm – 5:00pm
Sam Lightstone is a well-known innovator in data and analytics, having served as CTO, technical Fellow and executive at IBM, Facebook and Airbnb. He founded multiple products and major tech initiatives. Sam holds over 70 patents and is the author of 4 books and more than 40 scientific publications.
Sam will talk to us about how data, AI and technology are impacting the energy sector.
Reception at The Factory House – 5:00pm
Guest Speakers
Sam Lightstone
Sam is a well-known innovator in data and analytics, having served as CTO, Technical Fellow, and executive at IBM, Facebook and Airbnb. He has founded multiple products and led major tech initiatives. Sam holds over 70 patents and is the author of 4 books and more than 40 scientific publications.
Sam will talk to us about how data, AI and technology are impacting the energy space.
Alastair Nicklin – Vice President of Power and Renewable Energy at Marsh
Alastair is a client facing executive in the Power and Renewable Energy team at Marsh. He specialises in finding insurance solutions for new renewable energy technologies. In his role, Alastair connects risk engineers and underwriters with new and existing Power and Energy clients to support their growth ambitions. This includes considering novel risks in nascent technologies. He has particularly focussed on lithium-ion batteries and their insurability within the renewable energy sector.
Alastair studied chemistry at the University of Oxford and started his career on the Lloyd’s of London graduate programme.
Dan Stevens, Global Head of Engineering, Renewable Energy at Axis Insurance
Dan has worked in the renewables industry since 2001, supporting the development, funding, construction and operation of many Gigawatts of projects from California to China. As Head of Engineering for the Renewable Energy team at AXIS Capital, Dan leads a team of renewable engineering specialists who work with our underwriters to understand the technological risks associated with renewable energy projects, and supports brokers and insureds with insights on engineering best practice across all renewable technologies and regions, worldwide.
Prior to joining AXIS in April 2020, Dan was a Director at the Renewables Consulting Group where he headed up the global transaction advisory function and oversaw all project due diligence work for Private Equity and Debt transactions in wind, solar and energy storage. Before that he managed the wind resource assessment department at SSE Renewables, a major UK energy utility, and was responsible for the layout design, energy yield predictions and wind farm performance assessment of over 2 GW of wind capacity.
This page will be updated frequently in the run-up to the event, so please check back for more information.