The Team
Prior to founding Aether Energy, Matt worked for ECM, a European Fixed Income Investment Manager; joining the startup in 1999 as Head of Funds Finance. Matt’s responsibilities included the valuation of the funds and the structuring of liability solutions. In 2007, ECM sold a majority stake to Wachovia Corporation, and a year later Matt was given the role of COO of Europe for Wachovia Global Asset Management (WGAM), shortly before Wachovia Corp merged with Wells Fargo & Co.
Matt began his career with 4 years as a Derivatives Product Controller at UBS. He is a graduate of London University, Imperial College, with a degree in Business Studies and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Scott Hunt, Portfolio Director
Scott joined Aether Energy in October 2014 with four years experience within the renewable energy sector in the UK. Scotts experience with client relationships, project management, planning, business development, sourcing new projects and suitable sites comes from his lifelong network within the agricultural sector. He heads up our new business section and is typically the companies first point of contact when sourcing new proposals or projects.
He is a graduate of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester where he studied an MSc in Advanced Farm Management.
Victoria Price, Finance Director
Victoria joined ECM in 2003 as a Senior Product Controller. There, she managed a team of 20 and was responsible for the relationship between ECM and the Custodian Administrator, CACEIS Luxembourg. Victoria also worked closely with Trustees, clients and legal advisors on the structuring of liability solutions. Prior to joining ECM, Victoria spent 5 years as a Money Market Derivative Controller with Nestle and Deutsche Bank.
Victoria is a graduate of Oxford University with a degree in Physics and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
Nick Koidl, Portfolio Director
Nick is the founder and Managing Director of Absolute Investment Partners and works with Aether Energy on sourcing and financing renewable energy projects globally. In addition, Nick has ten years’ experience in Asset Management, Hedge Fund and the Third-Party Fund platform industry. Prior to setting up AIP, Nick was with Natixis Alternative Investment (now called Mirova) focused on renewable energy project finance transactions.
Nick is a native English speaker but is fluent in German.
Kirsty Shepherd, Marketing Director
Kirsty most recently worked as Senior Marketing Analyst at ECM for 7 years. The role included responding to client requests for information, sourcing and responding to tenders, and producing marketing material. Prior to this, she worked for Commerzbank in both Marketing and the Middle Office.
Kirsty is a graduate of University of Natal, Durban with a degree in Economics and Finance.
Richard Westover, Director of Operations
Richard has been heavily involved with renewable energy since he co-founded one of the UK’s first micro-generation approved installers, A Greener Place UK, in 2009. He is also on the main Board of Chaucer Capital Limited, an infrastructure investment and development company with a particular focus on renewable energy projects in India. He previously also co-founded and ran Oceanwave Digital Limited, an IT Services company, until he arranged for its sale in 2008. Before that his career was in investment banking with Bankers Trust where he worked in the equity derivatives trading department in London. Richard is a graduate of the University of Oxford (Worcester College).
Mark Tate, Marketing Director
Mark Tate has spent 35 years in the financial services industry, 20 years with Nomura Securities Company Ltd., both in the UK and Japan. Proceeded by 2 years at Mitsubishi Bank in London and the last 14 years at ECM Asset Management. He is a graduate of Oxford University.
Rupert Harrison, Marketing Director
Rupert has 26 years experience of the international capital and structured finance markets. Rupert worked at Citibank and Salomon Brothers, where his responsibilities included international product origination, in particular for securitisation and for structured capital market transactions. Rupert was then a partner at Andersen Corporate Finance, where he established a structured finance advisory business with activities throughout North America and Europe. Most recently, at Eurohypo AG – the world’s largest investor in public sector finance assets, Rupert led the international diversification of the bank’s €160 Billion public sector portfolio. Rupert was for many years on the Board of the European Securitisation Forum, the leading industry body, qualified as a Barrister and holds Ll.B and Ll.M degrees from London University.
Justin Tate, Marketing Director
Since the beginning of 2000, Justin has been based largely in the Far East supporting European and US based fund management companies in Asia with particular focus on the institutional market in Japan. Justin had previously worked in the debt markets division of Merrill Lynch for 13 years in a variety of trading and sales positions in Tokyo (1988-90). New York (1991-92) and London (1988-90 and 1993-98), his last position being as Managing Director of the Private Placement and Loan Syndication desk in London. He has a BA from Oxford University and is an FCA approved person.
Tim Franks, Marketing Director
Tim has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. He has worked in equity, fixed income, foreign exchange and multi-asset sales roles. He has also traded and worked as a sales trader. His experience covers cash, derivatives and delta one products. He has been involved in over 100 IPO’s over his career. His roles have been varied including Head of Institutional Sales, Head of Asian Head Fund Sales, Global Equity Sales, Asian Equity Sales, US Equity Sales and Delta One Sales. Tim worked in Hong Kong for over 8 years. Tim has worked for Citigroup, HSBC, Bank of China, Pru-Bache and Bank of Montreal. Tim graduated from Imperial College with a degree in Business Studies, is a member of the CFA Institute and holds the Investment Management Certificate. Tim recently completed an introduction to Python course.