Balancing
risk and opportunity
in the corporate
energy transition

Benedict graduated as a Master in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven. Writing a thesis on the philosophy of Karl Popper applied to the science and politics of climate change sparked his interest in energy transition and energy markets.

He started his career in 2000 in sales at GfE, an energy & environmental consultancy where in 2004 he became the manager of the environmental consultants team.

In 2005 he co-founded E&C and his professional bio as of then obviously highlights the main events in the history of the company. Benedict started as an energy procurement consultant, practising the basics of negotiating contracts, helping clients to hedge and checking invoices. As the team grew, Benedict started to focus more on helping the ever larger clients to develop and implement energy procurement strategies, conceiving and finetuning E&C’s unique risk management approach.

He also became a globetrotter, travelling all over the planet to set up offices, develop business and service clients. After becoming the majority shareholder in E&C in 2019, he focused on making E&C a scale-up company, enthusiastically putting in place teal management principles.

He also translated his experience in energy markets in the making of the ePoint product, acting as a product owner in the first years of the ePoint 3 and eCore data platform project. Together with co-CEO Jens, an inspired management team, the partners and the whole E&C family, Benedict is currently gearing everything up to make the company a leading global energy services business.

The many insights gathered during his unique professional experiences and encounters can also be found in the many blog articles and white papers authored by Benedict.

When he’s not working he is a passionate angler, finding inspiration for energy markets and E&C and personal balance on the banks of small lakes. 

Andor Savelkouls is consultant and product owner for the Energy Transition Services group at E&C Consultants. He has responsibility for developing and delivering decarbonization solutions to clients globally.

Andor started his career at industrial gases supplier Air Products in the Netherlands in 2000 as a participant in the company’s Career Development Programme, for which he also relocated to the UK in 2001 as part of his final assignment. In 2002 he started as a project development engineer for the Generated Gases product supply team there. He then moved back to the Netherlands in 2004 to join the Procurement organisation as an energy analyst for the Corporate Energy group.

From 2008 to 2013 he held a variety of positions as energy manager for countries within Europe before being appointed as the head of the energy sourcing team for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In this role, he had direct responsibility for energy procurement and energy project development in these regions and managed the energy sourcing team in providing cost-effective energy supply schemes to the company’s business units. He has also been leading various sustainability programmes for the company, including implementation of the company’s first Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), during this period.

In 2020 he joined Edison Energy as a senior director for the Renewables Advisory group to build and lead the company’s European practice, later established as Altenex Energy, in support of its international growth strategy. His work focused on both the business development and operational aspects of the company’s consulting activities in this region.

Andor holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology  in the Netherlands and an executive MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

Gerard Reid, as the Co-Founder and Partner of Alexa Capital, is a leading authority on the changes going on across the worlds of energy and mobility.

Gerard leverages his extensive experience, insights and network across the energy and transport world to help companies position themselves for capital.

He is an avid blogger and author with a following of more than 150k across several platforms and he is the co-host to “Redefining Energy” podcast. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum Future Energy Council.

He has spent over fifteen years working in investment banking (equity research, fund management and corporate finance) with a focus on both the energy transition and the digital energy revolution the sector is going through. Before founding Alexa Capital, he was Managing Director and Head of European Cleantech Research at Jefferies & Co.

He was born and raised in Dublin and received a Bachelor of Business Studies and Master of Arts as well as a Higher Diploma in Education from Trinity College Dublin. Currently, he works in London and lives outside Berlin in a small village. He is a senior fellow with the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.