Castalia Staff

Roland Leroy - Chairman

Mr. Leroy founded Castalia in 1980. Under his guidance, the firm pioneered the use of concession and lease contracts to improve electricity and water services in developing countries. This built on Mr. Leroy’s pre-Castalia work in Lisbon, Madrid and Cote d’Ivoire on the optimal organization of utility services. Much of Mr. Leroy’s work has been in France and Africa, and in the last decade he has also assisted Governments and municipalities in the Ukraine, Poland, Latin America and the Caribbean.

David Ehrhardt - Chief Executive

David focuses on private finance and regulation of infrastructure and utilities. Qualified in law and economics, his experience prior to Castalia includes work on infrastructure, regulation and finance at the New Zealand Treasury, London Economics and Azurix. He is skilled in developing new structures for private investment in public infrastructure, and also advises governments on ways to improve policy and organization in infrastructure sectors.

Alex Sundakov - Executive Director

Alex joined Castalia as Executive Director after a career spanning the New Zealand Treasury, the International Monetary Fund, and serving as a Director for the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Mr. Sundakov co-manages Castalia and leads many of Castalia’s consulting assignments on competition and regulatory policy and infrastructure transactions. Alex has a particular interest in climate change policy, and advises commercial clients on compliance with the emission trading schemes and on carbon risk management. Alex also frequently acts as an expert witness before courts, regulatory hearing and legislative commissions.

Alfonso Guzman - Managing Director

Alfonso specializes in enabling and preparing public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects. He has advised on PPP policies and specific transactions in electricity, water and transport. Prior to Castalia, Alfonso was with Deloitte & Touche’s utilities practice, and worked as PPP advisor to the government of Colombia. Alfonso holds Master’s degrees from the London Business School and Colorado State University. Alfonso heads Castalia’s office in the United States.

Ben Gerritsen - Managing Director

Ben advises public and private sector clients on economic and regulatory policy in infrastructure sectors, focusing on the interplay between public demands for quality infrastructure services and private sector investment opportunities. Ben also works on competition policy cases, providing economic advice and analysis of competition law claims. Ben was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 2006 and holds a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Ben also holds Bachelors degrees in Law and Economics from New Zealand.

Nils Janson - Senior Vice President

Nils advises governments, financial institutions, and private companies on strategies for financing, developing and managing infrastructure. He specializes in designing and implementing public-private partnerships, and governance and regulation of public service providers. He has conducted business valuation, due diligence and financial modelling of water, energy, natural gas and solid waste management companies. With over 15 years of experience in more than 30 countries in emerging markets, he focuses on Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Nils graduated from Georgetown University with an undergraduate degree in Economics and a graduate degree in Finance.

Paul Paterson - Vice President, Telecommunications

Paul heads Castalia's global telecommunications practice following15 years experience in the telecommunications industry, both as a senior economic consultant and in key executive positions. He has also worked in a number of influential Commonwealth and State Government bodies in Australia and for the Paris-based OECD. Paul's telecommunications consulting work has included advice on regulatory, competition, commercial, strategic and government policy matters spanning Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy and the USA. He has recently provided expert testimony on telecommunications competition and media royalty issues. Paul is an honorary Visiting Fellow in College of Business and Economics, Australian National University.

Paul writes a blog on telecommunication issues, TelcoThoughts, which can be found at www.castaliatelecoms.com

Peter Hoogland - Director

Peter has extensive experience in the Australian energy sector, gained from working in the sector in regulatory and energy trading positions and for the government in the area of energy policy and reform and ownership monitoring. He has been involved in substantial reforms of the Australian energy market to improve the governance and economic regulatory framework. This involved establishing a national energy regulator and an independent rule making body as well as national regulation of electricity and gas distribution and national transmission planning and regional boundaries review processes. Peter was also responsible for monitoring the commercial performance of the eight electricity businesses owned by the NSW Government. Peter graduated from Curtin University with a business degree. Prior to joining Castalia in 2009, Peter was Director at NSW Treasury

Usman Saadat - Director - Telecommunications Strategy

A qualified economist, Usman is experienced in economic regulation of the telecommunications sector, and skilled in business operations and management. Before joining Castalia, Usman led the multi-utility and competition regulator in The Bahamas during a period of major policy, legal and regulatory reform, including privatisation. Usman also held leadership roles for a telecoms provider in the UK, the Caribbean and in Asia, focusing on turnaround and business development in regulated markets. Usman's past consulting experience includes projects for European and Asian regulators, and telecoms operators covering interconnection cost models and access pricing, tariff rebalancing, cost-benefit analyses, liberalisation and privatisation, and economic impact studies. With over 16 years of international experience, he is able to combine economics and his industry insights to analyse regulatory problems, competition issues, and inform business strategy. Usman holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the London School of Economics.