User:ChrisJCook

After an early career as a forensic accountant at the UK Department of Trade & Industry Insolvency & Companies Investigation Branches Chris was from 1986 a market regulator including seven years to 1996 as a Director of the International Petroleum Exchange, now the pre-eminent global energy exchange. Among other market innovations he was responsible for the legal design of the UK natural gas 'Balancing Point' futures contract & market.

Since 1995 Chris has focused on the area where law, accounting & ICT converge in financial technology (fintech). In 1998 he designed and developed the first shared global market transaction confirmation system and database (OilClear) which subsequently became the commercial data backbone of leading global energy exchanges.

From 2011 Chris has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security at University College London where he researches and develops legal design of institutions & instruments underpinning resilient networked markets in services. On the basis that networking resilient communities leads to resilient regions and nations Chris has also advised several governments in relation to energy strategy and has served as a UN Expert in this role.

Chris is a Director of Nordic Enterprise Trust, a Scottish social enterprise and a Partner in Island Power LLP, specialising in accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy.