Team Leadership
LEI’s subject matter experts come from over a dozen countries and hold degrees in economics, finance, public policy, engineering, mathematics, and business. Our organization is relatively flat, consisting of research associates, consultants, senior consultants, managing consultants, and directors. In addition, industry experts in particular areas are hired to represent the firm and participate in projects as senior advisors. Senior team members are supported by a dedicated team of consultants and research associates spread across Boston, Chicago, and Toronto.
Senior Partners
A.J. Goulding
President
In his role as president of London Economics International, LLC, A.J. Goulding manages a growing international consulting firm focused on finance, economic, and strategic consulting to the energy and infrastructure industries. In addition to serving as a sector expert in electricity and gas markets, his responsibilities include project management, marketing, budget and financial control, and recruiting. A.J. also serves as an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, where he teaches a course on electricity market design and regulatory economics while also supervising graduate workshops.
A.J.’s diverse background enables him to work effectively in both emerging markets and OECD countries. In North America, A.J. has been articulate in describing market relationships between wholesale power marketers, merchant plants, aggregators, and the existing investor-owned utilities. In emerging markets, A.J. has considerable experience dealing with the challenges of mixed private and public ownership, difficulties in creating credit-worthy distribution and retail entities, and the realities of line losses, unreliable fuel deliveries, and politicized labor relations. A.J. has worked on every continent except the Antarctic.
A.J. began his career performing natural gas market analysis in Washington, DC. Later, he lived for two years in New Delhi, India, where he advised the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on electric power sector restructuring in India. He continued his work in India while pursuing his MA at Columbia University, leading to the publication of an article on Indian privatization. Simultaneously, he researched the process of power sector reform in Pakistan, contrasting it with the Indian experience. Upon completion of his MA, A.J. served as business development associate for Citizens Power, LLC, then a top 10 US wholesale power marketer. He then moved to LEI, where he has held roles of progressively increasing responsibility.
Julia Frayer
Managing Director
Julia Frayer is a Managing Director specializing in economic analysis and evaluation of infrastructure assets, such as power plants, natural gas-related infrastructure, electricity transmission and distribution systems, and utilities, as well as market design and expert economic advisory services for power markets. She has worked extensively in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia in valuing electricity generation and wires assets, water and wastewater networks, as well as gas transportation assets, and in advising on market rules, innovative rate design, and institutional best practices.
Julia manages LEI’s quantitative financial and business practice area, and also specializes in market and organizational design issues related to electricity. In addition to electric generation sector market power and antitrust analysis, sample projects include:
- Cost of capital estimation
- Rate-setting analysis
- Short- and long-term forecasting of wholesale power prices
- Valuation of generators and vertically integrated utilities
- Assessment of retail market design including provider of last resort portfolios and contracts
- Advice on and design of energy sales agreements
- Advisory on structuring requests for proposals and sale processes for energy assets and derivative contracts
As part of these analyses, Julia and the LEI team of economists and consultants have developed and applied proprietary real options based valuation tools, portfolio risk analytics, models of strategic bidding behavior, and sophisticated power system simulation tools, as well as customized econometric models. Julia also leads many of the firm’s regulatory economics projects, spanning such diverse issues as cost-benefit analysis, market power mitigation, tariff ratemaking, auction design (including competitive solicitations for procurement), wholesale market rules design, productivity analysis, and efficiency benchmarking.
Prior to joining LEI, Julia was working as an investment banker with Merrill Lynch in New York.
Chief Economist
Marie Fagan
Chief Economist
Marie leads LEI’s engagements related to natural gas market analysis. She directs gas pipeline modeling efforts based on a sophisticated network model, supporting outlooks for natural gas prices and basis, and analysis of flows on North American interstate pipelines. She provides in-depth expert testimony on issues such as basis differentials, pipeline capacity and utilization in key regions, and LNG import and export supply and demand. Recent projects for LEI have included serving as independent market expert for the Maine Public Utilities Commission, in the evaluation of the costs and benefits of new natural gas pipelines into New England, which included reviewing pipeline precedent agreements and negotiated rate agreements, and leading quantitative analysis of costs and benefits; for a private investor, she evaluated contracts for firm gas transportation capacity for gas-fired plants in PJM and ISO-New England.
Marie directs LEI’s research of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) electric power market. Recent projects have included assessing the current ancillary services (CAS) market and proposed Future Ancillary Services Nodal Protocol Revision Request (FAS-NPRR) in ERCOT; examination of the political, legislative, and economic drivers that led to creation of ERCOT’s Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) and assessment of the potential for state-level support for further expansion of CREZ transmission lines; and assessment of and outlook for ERCOT’s and the Public Utility Commission of Texas’s views of the “system cost” of wind.
Marie draws on her long-time experience across fuels and regions to ensure clients benefit from an integrated understanding of market rules and practices. Recent projects have included providing expertise related to FERC practices around monitoring, enforcement, and prosecution of potential market manipulation; providing analysis of market rules and regulatory risks to support a client’s compliance program; and SWOT analysis of the economic and regulatory environment for the power sector in a Canadian province. Marie is experienced in the use of scenario analysis, an approach that helps clients identify potential turning points and arrive at decisions that are more robust given the uncertainties inherent in any future set of market conditions.
From 1996 to 2014, Marie was with Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA, now part of IHS, Inc.). She served as an Associate, then Associate Director for CERA’s Global Oil research practice, as Director for the North American Gas research practice; she founded the CERAView Institutional Investor Service and co-founded CERA’s Global Steam Coal service; she served as Senior Director for CERA’s North American Electric Power service and of IHS CERA’s Upstream Strategy service. Before joining CERA, Marie served as an economist with the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), conducting analysis and modeling supporting the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), and conducting analysis of energy company financial performance.
Marie is the author of original research with publications in academic and industry journals. She holds a PhD in Economics from the American University in Washington, DC.
Directors and Managing Consultants
Amit Pinjani
Director
Amit Pinjani joined LEI as a summer associate in 2007 and continued working as a part-time consultant with the firm while pursuing his MBA. He joined as a full-time consultant with LEI in December 2008, then was promoted to Senior Consultant in December 2009 and to Managing Consultant in October 2013. Today, he holds the position of Director.
Prior to LEI, Amit was working as an analyst for the Investment Banking Division at Citigroup Pakistan where he assisted on capital market transactions and sell-side M&A deals. Amit’s exposure to the energy sector began during his stay at Eni (previously Lasmo Oil) in 2004–2005, where he worked as a Graduate Economist, modeling the economics of various internal projects, and assisting senior management in economic and project evaluation of oil and gas reserves.
Amit has been deeply involved with LEI’s international engagements in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East as well as North America, particularly in Canada. He has worked on various regulatory advisory projects in addition to assisting on energy litigation support and asset valuation projects with the firm. He has also served as an expert witness before a number of Canadian regulators, testifying on issues such as cost of capital, capital structure, and performance-based ratemaking.
Cherrylin Trinidad
Director
Cherrylin, or Len, is a Director at London Economics International, LLC. She is familiar with infrastructure valuation models and analyses, having performed due diligence analyses in both the generation and transmission sector, and in a variety of market jurisdictions (both deregulated and regulated markets). Len has also supported regulated rate design in the wires sector and is very familiar with performance based rate design, having worked with utilities in North America and Southeast Asia.
Len is also the firm’s lead modeler and market expert of the one of the largest electricity markets in the world, the PJM Interconnection market. She has also modeled the New England and the Luzon (Philippines) markets, and managed several mergers and acquisition projects in the PJM market for various clients.
Eva Wang
Director
Eva joined the firm all the way back in 1999. She has worked on a variety of engagements ranging from wholesale market design and generation asset valuation, to industry and market analysis and research for numerous clients in North America and Asia. Eva is involved in many of the firm’s market design engagements, spanning such diverse issues as cost-benefit analysis, market power mitigation, tariff ratemaking, auction design (including competitive solicitations for procurement), and wholesale market rules design.
Eva is also the primary modeler for many of the firm’s price forecasting engagements. She provides analysis of market dynamics and potential revenues for the purposes of valuing electric generation assets. Prior to joining London Economics International, Eva completed her Master’s degree in public policy at Columbia University.
Sayad Moudachirou
Director
Sayad is a senior energy sector advisor at London Economics International LLC (LEI) with more than a decade of experience working on all matters related to energy infrastructure around the globe. Mr. Moudachirou leverages his expertise in energy regulatory economics to educate market participants on market fundamentals and provide technical assistance and thoughtful insights in their operations, strategy and decision-making process. Sayad assists a wide range of clients including state agencies and other public entities, electric utilities, private developers, investment companies and large infrastructure firms.
Sayad’s expertise in the power sector involves proficiency in conducting regulatory gap analysis, designing energy policies, carrying out due diligence on commercial transactions, and strategic planning for energy transition and decarbonization roadmap. Sayad is leading several of LEI’s international engagements in Africa, Latin American, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands Countries and Territories. Most of his work in emerging countries revolves around improving market governance, enhancing access to affordable energy, and building resilience in the face of climate change.
Concurrently to providing advisory services, Sayad has been carrying out exclusive management services activities for an owner and operator of renewable projects in the Northeast of the US. His responsibilities entail improving operational and financial performance of a portfolio of hydropower projects, overseeing outages and re-commissioning projects, carrying out license activities, and administration of other regulatory affairs.
Prior to re-joining LEI a few years ago, Sayad worked for Wheelabrator Technologies as a finance manager responsible for budgeting, strategic planning and project management at both project and corporate levels. Wheelabrator Technologies is a waste to electricity technology company.
Originally from Benin, Sayad is a native French speaker who has lived and worked in several countries across the world. Sayad holds a Masters of Arts in Economics and Finance from Brandeis University – International Business School, a Master in Finance and Banking (Magistere Banque Finance, Assurance) from Universite Paris IX Dauphine, and a Bachelor degree in economics from Paris I, La Sorbonne.
Victor Chung
Managing Consultant
Victor has over 15 years of experience assisting both private and public clients on a variety of issues pertaining to the power and natural gas industries. He utilizes critical thinking rooted in innovative modeling and fundamental analysis to deliver solutions that are tailored to clients’ needs.
Victor is based out of Hong Kong where he leads most of LEI‘s projects in the Asia-Pacific region. He specializes in issues related to the integration of clean technologies in power markets, strategic planning, and market transformation. With a unique skill set combining reliable power expertise with a detailed understanding of advanced technologies, Victor has been a key contributor to LEI’s development of cutting-edge solutions that focus on solving our clients’ problems with ever-evolving critical thinking. Prior to his employment at LEI, Victor completed his Master’s degree at Columbia University, and worked as an operations analyst for Goldman Sachs, where he advised on numerous transactions in the natural resources and energy sector.