About Us

Michael Azlen, CEO and CIO

Michael Azlen is a senior investment professional with 25 years of industry experience, including the founding, growth, and sale of a regulated investment management business to a public company.  Since the beginning of 2018, he has been researching climate change and environmental investment and has focused his research on carbon pricing and Emissions Trading Systems (ETS).

Michael has completed several executive education courses on climate change, including the highly acclaimed program at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute. Mr Azlen holds a Sloan Masters Degree in Leadership and Strategy from London Business School and is both a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).  Michael is a regular speaker at investment conferences and has been a guest lecturer on the graduate degree programs at London Business School for more than 15 years.

colin hodges, Chief operating officer

Mr Hodges has over 30 years’ experience in investment management and has worked with Michael Azlen since 2006. He was the COO at Frontier Investment Management where he oversaw the day-to-day business planning, operations and eventual sale of the company. Previously, he spent seven years at Gartmore, initially as CEO of their Japan operation and latterly managing the investment fund range for the European business. He began his career with NatWest Markets where he held multiple operational and management positions in London and Hong Kong. Colin holds a BSc in Maths and Economics from the University of Nottingham and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

alex child, Head of Research

Alex Child has seven years’ research experience focused on the design and impact of carbon pricing instruments, most recently as an Economist at Vivid Economics where he advised a wide range of international public and private clients including sovereign governments, the World Bank, the European Commission, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, and major international energy companies. Before joining Vivid, he was an Economist in the Climate Change and Energy practice of DNA Economics in South Africa. He began his career as an Associate at Ernst & Young (EY) Advisory. Alex holds an MSc (distinction) in Economic Development from the University of Cape Town.

Tor Sinclair, Senior Quantitative Analyst & Trader

Tor Sinclair has over 15 years’ experience in systems research and algorithmic trading development across global futures markets. Prior to joining Carbon Cap he was software engineer for a cybersecurity company with a commercial product sold to governments, military and financial services companies to manage risks. Prior to this Tor was a portfolio manager for a technology and cybersecurity focused investment fund. Previously, he was the co-founder and portfolio manager of a quantitative and systematic futures hedge fund that secured an investment mandate from Dutch Pension fund APG’s hedge fund seeding venture, IMQubator. Romanesco was nominated for best Nordic CTA 2013 by Hedge Nordic. Tor also co-authored a paper that was published in the Journal of Alternative Investments, titled The Long and Short of Trend Followers, which presented the asymmetric profitability of trend following strategies.

ian harper, Head of Operations and Risk

10 years of broad operations experience gained within the custodial, retail investment and alternative investment
space. Exposure to a wide range of fund strategies and security types attained from his time at Kairos Investment Management, Ferox Capital and Altana Wealth. Ian holds a First Class Business and Economics degree as well as the Investment Operations Certificate (IOC), the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) & the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing.

stuart kameen, Head of Investor Relations

Stuart Kameen has over 12 years of experience focusing on investor relations and marketing of alternative investment strategies. Stuart previously held roles as Head of Client Services, EMEA at Caxton Associates and as Alternative Investments Sales & Marketing Manager at CME Group. He also served as a senior member of the investor relations team at Brevan Howard Asset Management and completed a graduate programme at Man Group.

Stuart graduated with an MSc in International Securities, Investment and Banking from the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School at the University of Reading and a BA (Hons) in Economics and Financial Services from Nottingham Business School. He also holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and the National Futures Association (NFA) – Series 3.

chetan patel, Carbon Market Analyst

Energy market professional with experience across power, gas, and environmental traded markets. Chetan was a European power analyst specialising in power market fundamentals at analytics provider ICIS. He also has experience on the supply side working at I&C supplier Smartest Energy as Renewables Trading Analyst, where he specialised in environmental certificate trading.

Chetan graduated with an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Aberdeen and a First Class BSc (Hons) in Geology from the University of London. 

Mihnea Craciunescu, Carbon Analyst & Trader

Mihnea has 5+ years of experience in the investment management sector.  Prior to joining Carbon Cap he had spent three years with Alva Capital, a London-based boutique multi-family office, where he was responsible for researching investment opportunities across asset classes, portfolio & risk management and trade execution. Mihnea started his career in DWS at Deutsche Bank, engaged in assignments across both traditional & alternative investments. Mihnea holds a postgraduate degree in Investment & Wealth Management from Imperial College Business School and a bachelors degree in Economics from Royal Holloway University.

Kerry Holmes, business manager

Kerry has over 10 years’ experience in business administration, project management and operations / finance support. Before joining Carbon Cap, she was engaged by PwC to provide operations support during the winding down of a London Brokerage. She previously worked with a number of London-based start-ups, including Brook Henderson
Group, where she led projects to improve existing and implement new operational processes, and managed back-office finance, HR and ongoing business processes. Kerry holds a BA from the University of Winchester and is a qualified Bookkeeper.