Our Mission

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). He is also 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.

Ken Towers | Chief Operating Officer

Ken Towers has over 25 years’ experience in financial markets.  Prior to joining Carbon Cap, Ken was a Partner and COO/CFO of East Lodge Capital, a credit hedge fund manager with a focus on structured and private credit.  Prior to this he held several roles at Rabobank International including managing their structured investment vehicle business, portfolio management within both the investment bank and corporate bank, and asset-liability management for Europe within Group Treasury.  Before joining Rabobank, he worked for the investment management company Gordian Knot where he held roles in Technology, Risk, and Treasury.

Ken graduated with a 1st Class degree in Computer Science from the University of Swansea and holds the Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.  He has a broad skill set and experience across technology, risk, treasury, finance and operations.

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 and 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 a 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.

Stuart Kameen | Head of Investor Relations

Stuart Kameen has over 12 years’ experience focusing on investor relations and marketing 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

Chetan is an energy market professional with experience across power, gas, and environmental traded markets. He has worked as a European power analyst specialising in power market fundamentals at analytics provider ICIS.

He also has experience on the supply side working as a Renewables Trading Analyst at I&C supplier Smartest Energy, 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 and Trader

Mihnea has more than five years of experience in the investment management sector. Prior to joining Carbon Cap, he 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 and risk management, and trade execution.

He 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 bachelor’s degree in Economics from Royal Holloway University.

Callie Jenkins | Investor Relations Associate

Callie joined Carbon Cap’s Investor Relations team with experience across all channels of sales and relationship management. Callie was previously a Client Service Associate for MFS Investment Management, a large US asset management firm, where she supported the growth of the distribution business across the United Kingdom and EEA.  

Callie holds a BA (Hons) in International Relations and History from Claremont McKenna College and an MSc in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh. While at Claremont McKenna College, Callie worked as a Research Assistant to Claremont’s leading environmental policy specialist, William Ascher, Professor of Government and Economics. Callie’s research with Professor Ascher largely focused on the long-term effects of environmental policies on local communities within developing countries.