Peter Cramton is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Maryland. Since 1983, he has conducted research on auctions and market design, with a focus on the design of complex markets to best achieve goals. Applications include electricity markets, financial markets, and auctions for radio spectrum. He has introduced innovative market designs in many industries. Cramton has advised numerous governments on market design and dozens of bidders in major auctions. He is chief economist and advisor for startups in finance, insurance, and communications. From 2015-2021, he was an independent director of the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). He received his B.S. in Engineering from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in Business from Stanford University.
Who is Forward Market Design?
Jason Dark is a software engineer and mathematician. He received his MS in statistics from Georgetown University in 2011 and PhD in applied mathematics from the University of California, Merced in 2017. Jason has also spent a number of years working in government labs and tech startups. His primary focus during his PhD was interdisciplinary topics in mathematical biology, but has published in a wide range of fields including bioinformatics, linguistics, and cognitive science. Jason brings a unique blend of advanced mathematics knowledge with full-stack web application development skills to build and deliver compelling quantitative experiences.
Darrell Hoy is a computer scientist driven by designing, implementing and understanding incentives in foundational auctions and markets. He has built and studied markets across venture-backed private equity, public markets, reinsurance, and wireless spectrum. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Northwestern University in 2015 and B.A. in Computer Science and Math from Dartmouth College in 2007.
David Malec is a Principal of Cramton Associates LLC and a research associate at the Economics Department of the University of Maryland. His research focuses on topics on the interface between the fields of computer science and economics, and how complex economic settings can be approached algorithmically. Of particular interest is how algorithmic techniques in approximation can be used to design near-optimal economic mechanisms in settings where exactly-optimal have proven elusive, and how such techniques can be adapted to take advantage of the types of information available in practical economic settings. His work has appeared in top conferences in algorithmic game theory and theoretical computer science. He received his B.A. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Lake Forest College in 2007, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2014.
Chris has designed auctions in industry for more than ten years. As a practitioner, he has designed, implemented, and analyzed auction marketplaces in areas ranging from ads to reinsurance. Chris holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an M.Eng. and a B.S. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Simon is a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of Cologne under the supervision of Peter Cramton and Axel Ockenfels. His research focuses on market design and behavioral economics with a particular interest in energy and electricity markets. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy & Economics from the University of Bayreuth and a Master’s degree in Economic Research from the University of Cologne. Simon also worked as a trainee in the energy market analysis team of McKinsey & Company and as an intern in the Norwegian renewable energy company Statkraft.
Fabio brings extensive experience in bridging Software Engineering and Market Design, having worked on projects that span from research to full-scale production systems in the industry. With a MSc in Computer Science from the University of Zurich, he combines Sofware Engineering foundations with practical expertise in Software Architecture and Infrastructure to effectively connect technical implementation with Market Design applications.
Nicolas Stevens is currently a post-doctoral researcher, affiliated with UCLouvain and the University of Cologne. He holds a PhD from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE), UCLouvain, Belgium. His PhD dissertation, Price Formation with Non-Convexities : Theory and Applications for the Electricity Market, examines how the pricing rules in electricity auctions may accommodate the non-convexities that are present in the market. His research interests include energy economics, energy policy, market design and operations research. In the past, Nicolas worked in the industry as a consultant in the energy sector at N-SIDE. He has worked on various topics including the design of the European day-ahead market in collaboration with the European Power Exchanges.
Robert Ethier has over 30 years of experience in electricity markets, market operations, and planning. A long-time executive at ISO New England, his roles have included Vice-President of Market Development, Vice-President of Market Operations, and Vice-President of System Planning, as well as responsibility for Market Monitoring. Previously he was an energy-sector consultant focused on the development of asset valuation models. Bob has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Resource Economics from Cornell University and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.
Mr. Watkiss is a member of the District of Columbia, New York and Energy Bar Associations. He served as special assistant to the deputy general counsel and senior litigation attorney at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Mr. Watkiss has over 40 years of practice experience in energy and environmental law and general litigation.