Context
The Energy sector plays a major role in today's world economy. Many of the resources used in the 20th century have become scarce, and are often located in geo-politically sensitive areas.
The development, extraction and transportation of energy and resources requires huge capital expenditures, mounting to more than 25 trillion US dollars over the next 20 years. Such capital expenditures necessitate sourcing the appropriate financing, which often requires the elaboration of complex contracts.
Delays in implementing the appropriate investments lead to short and medium term imbalances in the price of energy and resources. These have a considerable impact on both price levels and associated volatility. Such volatility blurs the signals needed by both corporations and governments concerning the economic feasibility of the projects.
Investment decisions have become all the more complex with the discovery that most current forms of energy have a negative climatic impact, especially as the technologies needed to combat such consequences are only in the first phase of development. Such evolution requires corporations to deeply rethink their business models, individuals to change their behaviour, and governments to adopt visionary policies.
The Energy & Finance Certificate at HEC is a formidable opportunity for participants to confront the above issues, and acquire the knowledge and analytical skills that will help them make informed decisions as important contributors to the current industrial revolution.
History
The Chair was created under the sponsorship of DELOITTE in January 2006. The first few years were dedicated to developing courses in various HEC programs, advising Masters students on their theses, and organizing public events focused on Energy issues.
Since 2006, a course on "The Fundamentals of Oil, Gas, Coal and Power" has been taught by Affiliate Professor Jean-Michel Gauthier, a Deloitte partner, to students specialized in Finance within the MSc, and to students of the Master in International Business.
An associates Club of high level Executives was put in place from April 2008 to September 2009 under the Chairmanship of Jean Martin FOLZ.
The first certificates of "Energy in a Carbon Concerned Economy" were issued from April 2009 to June 2009.
Missions and objectives
The Energy and Finance Certificate is designed for students concerned by the economics of Energy & climate change
The HEC Energy and Finance Certificate has the following objectives:
To develop teaching material and applied research related to:
- Physical and financial energy markets; Carbon trading
- Corporate strategies for energy producers, infrastructure operators, energy-intensive industries: price-risk, volume-risk, regulatory risk. Players' exposure to energy risks, responses to climate change and the way forward
- Corporate and market restructuring in the energy industry
- Financing multi-billion US$/€ energy projects and infrastructure
To develop a portfolio of courses and seminars for HEC graduate programs and Executive education seminars in France and abroad
Candidates and Program
The Certificate is open to:
- MSc and Specialized Master students
- MBA students
- Exchange students from partner institutions
