Leadership

Naeem is responsible for the management of credit risk globally, with a focus on Castleton’s oil trading platform. This role involves risk management on daily transactional flow, counterparty credit management, credit structuring of origination initiatives, and management of select trade finance activities. 

With 17 years of experience in the commodity industry, Naeem has covered a multitude of traded products. Prior to joining CCI, Naeem has had experience working in the oil refining, merchant trading, and banking sectors. 

Mark Holler is the Vice President of Credit Risk for Tenaska Power Services Co. Mark joined TPS in 2007 and has the led the credit department since 2008. TPS offers utilities, municipalities, large commercial and industrial clients and independent power producers a variety of optimization, risk management, power trading and settlement services. Mark is an active member of various regional credit working groups and has previously chaired the Southwest Power Pool Credit Practices Working Group, as well as the ERCOT Credit Work Group.

Mark has been an active member of the IECA since 2008, and has previously chaired the United States Regional Education Group, as well as the Credit Analytics Education Group. Prior to joining TPS, Mark held positions as a market analyst for a business consulting firm and as a business analyst for an independent bank in Dallas. Mr. Holler has a Bachelors degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas and is a graduate of the IECA CRMCP course.

Will Christensen is the Manger of Risk and insurance at South Bow Corporation. In this role he has overall responsibility for the credit risk, market risk, and insurance risk programs at the company. Prior to this role, Will was the Counterparty Risk Manager at TC Energy where he worked supporting all parts of the business on credit needs for the last 10 years. Prior to his work at TC Energy Will spent ten years at a professional service firm in Australia and Canada where he worked in their Assurance and Advisory practice. Will attended the University of Queensland where he received a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Economics. Will is a CPA in Canada and is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand. Will has been an active member of the IECA since 2017 and has served as the chair of the Canadian Regional education committee for 2024. He is an executive and board member for the IECA in 2025 and serves as the Assistant Treasurer. When not at work, Will is actively involved with a number of community events and charities including serving as VP Finance for the Knight Hockey Club. Will resides in Calgary with his wife Judy, daughter Tessa, and twin boys, Liam and Jude. When he’s not working he enjoys watching his children participate in all of their activities. 

John Vedra currently serves as the Risk Officer at Concord Energy Holdings, LLC. Prior to joining Concord, John served in various risk management, credit, and commercial roles in the energy sector. He started as a risk and credit analyst with Xcel Energy, then moved into a commercial role with BP Energy Company, where he worked with various producers in the Rocky Mountain region. John also spent four years with Antero Resources as a Risk & Credit Manager, implementing all middle office functions, as well as the Director of Gas Scheduling. 

John graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and from the University of Colorado at Denver with his MBA. 

Anne Line is the Department Manager for Credit Risk at ADNOC Global Trading (AGT) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. AGT, established in 2020, is the trading arm for refined products within the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Anne Line played a pivotal role in establishing the Credit Risk Management function at AGT, bringing 20+ years of experience in credit risk across both banking and corporate sectors. 

She holds a Master’s degree in International Business from Nord University in Norway. Prior to joining AGT, she spent 19 years in various credit risk roles across banking and corporate sectors in Germany, including nearly 13 years as Senior Credit Risk Manager at Vattenfall Energy Trading in Hamburg.  

Anne Line has been an active member of the International Energy Credit Association since 2017. She served as Chair of the Education Sub-Committee from January 2020 to October 2022 and has been Chair of the European Regional Education Committee since January 2022. She also served as a Director on the IECA Board from 2022 to 2025. 

Nithya Venkatesan is currently FVP, Risk & Compliance at Navitas.  Navitas is a managing general underwriter (MGU) that represents some of the strongest balance sheets in North America; Navitas acts as the leading conduit in between the energy markets, their broker partners and carrier partners.  Prior to Navitas, she was the Senior Manager of Corporate Risk at Hess Corporation (Hess) globally.  

She has over 25 plus years of risk management experience spanning credit risk, market risk, regulatory reporting, hedge accounting and enterprise risk.  Nithya has experience with multiple commodities including natural gas, power, crude oil, refined products, natural gas liquids, emissions credits and derivatives products.  Prior to Hess, she worked at NRG Energy in different roles as Director of Finance, Director, Enterprise Risk and Manager, Credit Risk.   

Nithya is an active Board Member (on the Executive Committee) with IECA (International Energy Credit Association) as well as Board Member on Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO). Raised in Houston, she graduated Cum Laude from University of Houston with a degree in Finance/Marketing, holds an ERM Fellow designation from NC State Poole College of Management and Certification from UT Austin Executive Program for Energy Leaders. 

Phil Lookadoo is a partner in the D.C. office of Haynes and Boone, LLP and is the current chair of the Dodd-Frank Working Group of the IECA. Phil has been practicing law in the energy sector for more than 30 years and has represented developers of fossil fuel-fired and renewable power generation facilities, obtaining FERC approvals under the Federal Power Act and PURPA, negotiating project contracts, project financing agreements, and related M&A agreements. Phil has an active commodity trading practice, including physical supply and financial derivatives transactions involving oil, natural gas, various petroleum products, electricity, RECs, ethanol, biodiesel, RINs, and other commodities. Phil has been recognized by Chambers USA as one of America’s leading energy lawyers. Phil holds a B.S. in Physics from West Virginia University, a M.S. in Nuclear Physics from University of Virginia and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law. 

Claude Brown is a senior member of Reed Smith’s global financial industry group (FIG). Currently based in London, Claude has a long established cross-border transactional and advisory practice in the financial and commodity sectors and has worked in Europe, North America, Asia, the Pacific Rim and Africa during his career.

His clients include sovereigns, government agencies, multilateral development banks, international finance institutions, NGOs, financial institutions corporations, commodity merchants and brokers, funds and asset managers.

He has advised clients on various aspects of  numerous high profile complex domestic and cross border restructurings and insolvencies, including BCCI, Peregrine Holdings, Long Term Capital Management, Bear Stearns, MF Global, Lehman Brothers, AIG, RBS, Northern Rock, SVB, and Credit Suisse in the financial sector. He has also been involved in corporate and sovereign insolvencies and resolutions, including Payroll Services, Marconi, Railtrack, Parmalat, Argentina, and Vnesheconombank, and in the energy sector TXU Europe and Enron.

Claude regularly advises on the resolution and recovery regimes for financial institutions in the UK and EU as well as preparing and reviewing specialist opinions on the resilience of security, set-off and netting arrangements under various insolvency and resolution regimes.

He is a frequent lecturer on credit risk mitigation techniques and UK and EU financial regulation and has contributed to a wide range of books and periodicals. In addition to being a member of the UK’s Financial Markets Law Committee, a P.R.I.M.E. Finance Expert and Chair of the firm’s European opinions committee, he is also a Board member of the IECA and a member of the European Committee.

He lives in the Chiltern Hills between London and Oxford with his family and an extremely disobedient dog.

Maria Holeman serves as the Head of Credit Risk at Uniper Global Commodities North America, bringing with her over two decades of credit risk expertise across diverse sectors such as banking, investments, and energy. Uniper specializes in providing natural gas energy storage services and a range of environmental products aimed at fostering climate-friendly fuel and power markets. The company is actively involved in sourcing US natural gas for liquefaction and export to LNG markets worldwide. Operating under the umbrella of Uniper SE, one of the largest power generators globally and a prominent energy commodities trader, Uniper plays a crucial role in both domestic and international markets.

Maria has been an integral part IECA since 2008 and currently serves as the Chair of the Credit Analytics Education Committee. She has further distinguished herself as a member of the inaugural cohort of the IECA Credit Risk Management Certificate Program. Originally hailing from Chicago, Maria earned her Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois. She currently resides in Houston with her husband Christopher.

Maurits is Managing Director for Marsh Singapore Pte Ltd, responsible for the delivery of growth strategy for Marsh Credit Specialties in Asia. He also Chairs the Global Commodity Trading Solutions (CTS) team.

He has been stationed in various locations in Europe and is currently living in Singapore supporting the IECA Asia Chapter. For over 15 years, Maurits has focused on working with commodity traders and their lenders in mitigating operational and financial risks in the areas of Marine, Credit and Political Risk. He was part of the initial Credit Specialties team developing the framework of the award-winning Marsh ESG Risk Rating.

Prior to joining Marsh in 2015 Maurits worked as an insurance broker for 9 years. He has been a guest speaker at the Geneva University for the Master in Commodity Trading as well as the Commodity Diploma. Maurits has been an active member of the IECA, being part of the Education Sub-Committee before moving to Singapore.

Having been in the energy industry for 20 years, Samantha has had the opportunity to grow her professional repertoire of experience and knowledge in Credit Risk, Contracts, Insurance and Systems (technology). Her experience includes working in Risk Management at Direct Energy, Capital Power (5 years) and Suncor (11 years). She currently works with Keyera Corp. as the Manager of Credit & Insurance. She has been a member of the IECA for 15 years and completed a Board appointment with the IECA in 2016.

Knox Davidson is the Credit Manager for the ATCO Group of Companies.  Knox has more than 15 years of experience in senior credit risk roles across construction, technology, wholesaler, cooperatives, and energy markets.  Knox is the Chair of IECA’s Canadian Regional Education Committee, and sits as a board member and Treasurer for the Kings Own Calgary Regimental Funds Foundation.

Holding a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from University of Zaragoza in Spain, Mercedes is a seasoned risk leader with 20+ years of international experience in risk management.

She recently joined Engelhart CTP UK Ltd. as Credit Risk Manager based in London. Starting her career a commercial credit analyst with GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation), she quickly moved to more front facing roles within the commodity trading industry. Throughout her career, as well as assessing the credit worthiness of counterparties and being heavily involved in the establishment of the relevant credit documentation, she played a key role in the implementation and development of different credit systems, improvements to credit policies and procedures, digitalisation of processes, and the management of teams located in different regions. Further, she spent few years working within the compliance function at Equinor, where she experienced firsthand the importance of a strong due diligence process as a first line of defence.

Mercedes has been an active member of the International Energy Credit Association since 2009. In her role as Chair of the European Education Sub-Committee, which she has held since October 2023, she actively promotes innovation and professional development in the credit and risk management community, fostering collaboration and thought leadership at the industry level. Mercedes has been appointed as a Director on the IECA Board from October 2025.

When not working, Mercedes loves to plan trips, the more exotic the better!