Bio

Olaf Karstens is a Partner with Thorndike Landing, LLC. Prior to this position, Mr. Karstens was the Director responsible for Navigant Consulting’s Financial Valuation Team within the Energy Practice, and, prior to that, he was responsible for the Market Modeling Team, leading efforts with a range of forecast models, such as PROSYM, PROMOD, and GE MAPS in support of a wide range of market-driven strategy developments and financings. Mr. Karstens has been involved in transactions valued in excess of US$ 8 billion. Mr. Karstens’ professional focus has been in investigating and forecasting the wide range of markets affecting the North American energy industry. To support the increasing need of clients to deeply understand and analyze these markets, he has developed an integrated suite of fundamental forecast models that integrate items such as carbon supply curves, natural gas marginal cost of exploration and production, as well as power industry supply and demand into a well-rounded forecast set. Early on and with increasing frequency, owing to the explosive growth in wind generation, Mr. Karstens has supported several transactions in the renewable space with items ranging from the commercial due-diligence of these entities and projects to the intricate analyses of wind data, turbine-specific issues, and other salient financing drivers. Thorndike Landing’s wind databases have allowed effective and efficient support in this part of the industry that is especially reliant upon fast engagement execution. In the course of his market-related work Mr. Karstens has authored several Market Reports that have been used to finance acquisitions. He is therefore accustomed to providing independent opinions to project sponsors, investment banks, and rating agencies. Often, these opinions are supported with market primer presentations and conference calls. Geographically, his work has spanned most of North America and has ranged from providing testimony in New England on peaking margins to market support for many transactions in New England, New York (NY-J and western zones), PJM, MISO, SERC, FL, ERCOT, SPP, as well as the Western Interconnect and California. Prior to his position with Navigant Consulting, Mr. Karstens was a Principal with Barrington Energy Partners, LLC, a firm specializing in the areas of M&A, business strategy and private equity within the energy industry. Mr. Karstens’ entry into client advisory started with his strategy work for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Europe, where he worked for a variety of clients in the financial services, real estate, and manufacturing sectors. Mr. Karstens holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Duesseldorf, Germany. His studies included time as an exchange student in the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.