About the Instructor:
Julia M. Ryan, Managing Partner, Aether Advisors, LLC
Julia M. (Julie) Ryan is a Managing Partner of Aether Advisors LLC, providing advisory services to energy industry executives in the areas of strategic planning, risk management, business development, and M&A due diligence. Her clients include utility, private equity, merchant power, and competitive retail marketing companies. At Aether Advisors, Ms Ryan provides clients assistance with expansion into new business ventures, acquiring strategic assets, building risk management infrastructure, and business integration. She brings a diverse energy business background in power and gas at both regulated and unregulated companies.
Prior to starting Aether Advisors in 2006, she served as Vice-President, Risk Management and Strategic Planning at Puget Sound Energy (“PSE”), from 2005-2006. Prior to that, she was PSE’s Vice-President of Energy Portfolio Management, responsible for the utility’s wholesale power and natural gas supply procurement, hedging, risk management and portfolio optimization activities from 2001-2005.
Before joining PSE, Ms. Ryan was one of four principals who developed a North American marketing, trading and merchant power business in 1997 (Merchant Energy Group of the Americas or “MEGA”) for parent company, Gener S.A. and later, TransAlta Corp. In her last position, she led North American energy marketing as Managing Director, Origination.
Ms. Ryan started her commodities career at Louis Dreyfus Corporation. In 1996, she was Sr. Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives in the energy joint-venture, Duke-Louis Dreyfus, where she managed regional natural gas marketing joint-ventures as well as the industrial and national accounts marketing activity. In the early to mid 1990s, she pioneered natural gas trading, building one of the largest natural gas futures and basis trading entities.
Ms. Ryan has spoken at numerous industry conferences and has been a guest instructor at Willamette University’s Atkinson School of Management in the areas of risk management and strategic planning since 2006. She graduated Cum Laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, from Smith College in Massachusetts.
