Christian Grutte

Christian is an independent financial advisor with some 18 years’ experience in the power & renewable sector.He started out his career in a leading North European Strategy Consultancy, where he made substantial contributions to build the energy practice within the firm. He developed and implemented innovative distributions concepts for utility clients to face the competitive challenges of the newly liberalized German electricity market.In 2002, anticipating the tectonic shifts to arrive in the energy sector by renewables, Christian decided to set-uphis own advisory boutique to serve exclusively the renewable energy sector. In the following years, Christian,supported world leading Utilities, IPPs and Private Equity Investors, such as Iberdrola, AES, RWE, OMV, EnglefieldCapital and Hudson Clean Energy Partners to thoroughly assess international market opportunities andsuccessfully assemble project portfolios across mature and emerging European renewable markets. Based onthis work his clients were able to realize their investment strategy via the acquisition of local partners, greenfieldand operating wind, solar, biomass, geothermal or hydro projects with pipelines of many thousands MWcapacity.

Christian became a recommended speaker at leading international energy conferences on topics of marketattractiveness and investment drivers for renewables. He formed part of the Working Group ‘Financing theEnergy Turnaround’ in Frankfurt and was one of the first members of the European Technology Platform forWind Energy, as well as of EWEA, ACORE, LAWEA, EUBIA, ESHA and EGEC.Since ten years, Christian, focuses on the particular challenges of power projects in emerging markets, such asBulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Georgia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, South Africa or Pakistan. He flagsrisks to international investors coming from regulatory environment, grid connection and competitors. Developers are supported to raise equity, mitigates risks via the creation of international project consortia and achieve project finance bankability with domestic and international lenders.Since five years, Christian has successfully delivered energy finance training to hundreds of executives from morethan 80 countries in plus 50 seminars in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, The Netherlands, UAE, the US,Chile, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Georgia, Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia and Hong Kong. Additionally he servedas a lecturer in the Renewable Energy Finance Studies Program of the Frankfurt School of Finance andManagement.

Delegates come from leading financial institutions, industrial corporations and governments such as e.g.IFC, FMO, GIZ, IFU, Obviam, KfW, HBOR, European Investment Bank, UNDP, Asian Development Bank, AfricanDevelopment Bank, African Finance Corporation, JBIC, Industrial Development Corporation, Banco Santander,Enel, E.ON, Vattenfall, Endesa, Eskom, Total, Sumitomo, Gamesa, Siemens, Akka Enerji, Akzo Nobel, BP, Shell,Abengoa, Energomontaza, Mitsubishi, SgurrEnergy, PwC, Investec, RES, The Crown Estate, Coca-Cola,Procter&Gamble, Pacific Gas & Electric, Omrom, OFGEM, Munich Re, AES, Alstom, Schneider Electric, AvengGroup, Air Liquide, NEPRA, Saudi Aramco, King Saud University, Swicorp, Qatar Petroleum, K.A. CARE.Some of the topics delivered include Renewable Technologies & Economics, Independent Power Projects, ProjectFinance, Financial Analysis & Structuring, Risk Mitigation, Loan Term Sheets Elements, Power PurchaseAgreements, EPC and O&M contracts, Resource Assessments, Government Tenders and Policy Incentives,Electricity Market Structures & Liberalization, Electricity Pricing, Project Transactions & Valuations, InnovativeRenewable Business Models.Due to his versatile experience and personality, Christian has the ability to quickly relate to and leverage differentcultural and professional backgrounds of delegates.

His objective is not only to train passionately on fascinatingenergy finance topics, but to deliver a seminar experience, where delegates weave together as a group of personsand exchange not merely business cards, but ideas to spur business beyond.Christian holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Berlin and isa qualified RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Instructor. He is trilingual in English, Spanish and German and conversationalin French.