Asian Power Thermal Energy Conference

Mike Thomas is a founding partner and the managing director at The Lantau Group, an economic consultancy focusing on the energy sector in the Asia Pacific region.  For the past three decades, Mike’s consulting work has centred around the intersection of regulation and competition in the energy sector.  He works with stakeholders throughout the region on matters involving commercial transactions, regulation and market design, strategy, and economic evidence in commercial, competition, and regulatory disputes.   Prior to co-founding The Lantau Group, Mike headed the Asia Pacific Energy & Environment practice of a global consulting firm and was based in Wellington, New Zealand for ten years   He transferred to Hong Kong in 2007.  He had begun his consulting career began in the United States, working for 10 years with a firm that, among other things, specialised in energy sector transformation and the introduction of competition in energy markets.  Mike has an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School (PAE Prize) and a BA in Economics from Carleton College. 

Tony is the Managing Director of OWL Energy.  He has worked across most power generation technologies throughout the project cycle.  He started working in the solar sector in 2006 and has worked on solar projects from hundreds of kW to hundreds of MW including ground based, rooftop and floating.  His experience includes development, construction and operations of solar projects throughout East Asia.  He is Lenders' Engineer for rooftop projects in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia 

Sean Purdie is the Managing Partner for Power in the Asia Pacific region within ERM, based in Hong Kong. He joined ERM in March 2013 and is responsible for power sector strategic development, client relationships and business growth, while providing high level project and sector review and inputs. He maintains a strong power sector network across the region regarding projects, markets and personnel.

Prior to joining ERM he was Development Director Power for Parsons Brinckerhoff (owned by Balfour Beatty) in Asia (joining them in June 2011). 

From July 2007 until May 2011 he was Senior Vice President at Marubeni Asian Power in Hong Kong, the IPP development arm of Marubeni Corporation.  

Sean moved to Asia in June 2000 as Vice President – Business Development for Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) Power, a leading power sector consulting company.  

Mr. Frank Thiel is currently the Managing Director of Quezon Power (Philippines), Limited Co.(QPL), a power generating company with a 460 MW coal-fired power plant in Mauban, Quezon. Quezon Power is wholly owned by Electricity Generating Public Company Limited (EGCO), a Thailand based company. Mr. Thiel is also the General Manager for the San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL), a new 500MW supercritical coal fired plant located also in Mauban, Quezon. SBPL is a partnership composed of MERALCO Power Gen Corporation (MGen) of the Philippines and New Growth B.V. (EGCO) of Thailand.

Prior to this, Mr. Thiel managed the Inter Gen assets in Mexico. He also worked as Inter Gen’s Vice President for operation and maintenance in the Asia Pacific Region, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Turkey and Egypt operating plants. Before joining Inter Gen, Mr. Thiel held positions with Westinghouse Electric Power Corporation, Bechtel Power Corporation and Marine Pacific of California. Mr. Thiel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from California Coast University, Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Resources at the University of San Francisco. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Dharma is currently the Deputy CEO for Adaro Power, a position he has held since 2015. Adaro Power is one of the pre-eminent IPP in Indonesia with ownership stakes in 2260 MW of power generation assets. He is also the the Deputy CEO for Adaro Water, a water treatment and management company with 1670 litre per second production capacity. Dharma was also the Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Coal Mining position from 2015-2018.

Prior to Adaro, Dharma held the CEO position in several companies in the mining sector. Prior to that Dharma was in pre-eminent global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, specializing in the Energy & Mining sector.

Dharma holds an MBA degree from INSEAD, and previously graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon.