Our Team
Chris Starling
Managing Director
Chris has over 20 years experience in the energy industry and is Chartered Member of the Securities and Investment Institute in the UK. After graduating with a First Class degree in Economics from the University of Leicester, Chris worked in the City for Aviva Investors and the Bank of New York before moving into the energy sector where he has performed a number of commercial, economist, corporate finance, business development and M&A roles for Centrica, Sterling Energy and ENGIE before founding Holt Energy Advisors in 2018.
Chris has worked on over 40 energy sector transactions both asset and corporate deals and restructurings with his most recent role with ENGIE being Head of Commercial and Business Development in ENGIE's UK E&P business where he was the member of the management team responsible for commercial negotiations, strategy and portfolio management and MA&D. Chris also coordinated and developed ENGIE's UK E&P Commercial Training Programme.
Specialist Areas: Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestments, Corporate Finance
Favourite Teams: Liverpool F.C
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Andrew Webb
Chief Operating Officer
Andrew has 35+ years of experience in upstream oil and gas working for US Independent Companies and International Consultancy. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering. Andrew has core strengths in economics, asset evaluation and significant experience in production operations, in the UKCS. He has 18 years of worldwide upstream petroleum consultancy experience a strong strategic focus and has facilitated clients with their growth strategies. Andrew has led the technical effort on several successful major acquisitions and been the lead in the delivery of competent persons reports on assets across the globe.
Andrew enjoys leading multi-disciplinary teams and working closely with clients. He has been a speaker at international conferences and seminars. Whilst working for US Independent Oil and Gas Companies (LL&E and Burlington Resources) he has had operational roles as well as roles in corporate planning and economics.
Specialist Areas: Economics, Evaluation, E&P Strategy
Favourite Teams: Arsenal FC, Leicester Tigers Rugby
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Andres Mesa
Director - Subsurface & Strategy
Andres is a geoscientist with a robust track record in the oil and gas industry. During his 17 years in the sector, Andres has built a reputation for delivering strategic insights to high-level executives during MA&D transactions, bid rounds, new country entry and new ventures research. Being a consultant since 2014, first in Colombia and since 2020 in the UK, Andres has expanded his client base and business activities across South America, Canada, the UK, and Europe, engaging with different types of clients both in the private and public sectors.
Previously, Andres served as an Exploration Geoscientist at HOCOL S.A. in Colombia, where he was instrumental in discovering two gas fields, increasing the company's 2P reserves significantly. His strategic foresight and technical proficiency were pivotal in managing substantial annual budgets and expanding the company's presence into new regions
Andres holds an MSc in Energy Economics and Finance from the University of Aberdeen, an MSc in Petroleum Geology with Distinction from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a BSc in Geology from Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Specialist Areas: Geoscience, Portfolio Valuation, Market Analysis, E&P Strategy
Favourite Teams: Nacional de Medellin. All teams with a Colombia footballer in the squad.
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Andy Giles
Director - Commercial
Andrew has over 35 years experience in the oil & gas sector in various upstream and downstream positions including commercial roles with Mobil, Arco British and ENGIE (formerly GDF SUEZ) and also roles on offshore development projects for British Gas and Amerada Hess.
Andrew has also worked as an independent commercial consultant with clients including Chevron, ATP and GDF SUEZ. This included working on gas sales issues such as hydrocarbon marketing and operations, hedging strategies and dispute resolution. In his most recent role as Commercial Operations Manager, Andrew took a lead role in the commercial activities relating to the start up of the operated Cygnus field and he was responsible for the tendering of gas sales and day to day management of the company's equity share of gas production for ENGIE's UK portfolio. In addition, Andrew has experience of enterprise risk management and was Risk Officer for the commercial and business development function at ENGIE.
Specialist Areas: Hydrocarbon Sales and Marketing, Commercial Operations
Favourite Teams: Queens Park Rangers F.C, Warwickshire CCC
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Robert Chambers
Director - Upstream
Robert has 20+ years of experience in upstream oil & gas. He graduated with a Masters of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham and has worked in a range of technical, commercial and advisory roles in the UK and Singapore for IHS and S&P Global.
Robert provides technical support for facilities design and cost estimation together with advisory services related to mergers & acquisitions, company strategies, asset valuations, cost estimation, technology screening and market studies for oil companies, service companies and financial institutions.
Specialist Areas: M&A, Field development planning, cost estimation, economics, company strategy, portfolio optimisation, Asia-Pacific.
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Uisdean Vass
Consultant Senior Advisor - Legal
Uisdean has over 35 years experience in UK and International Oil and Gas upstream transactions and commercial agreements. He has worked in senior positions within a number of International and UK Law firms including Head of Oil and Gas in premier scottish/UK law firm Maclay Murray and Spens LLP (2004-2012). He founded VassPetro in September 2020.
Active in the Association of International Energy Negotiatiors (AIEN) and a regular commentator on matters of importances to the UK and International oil industry, Uisdean has expertise in M&A, upstream contract advisory, MERUK, petroleum regulations, supply chain and policy and legislation.
Specialist Areas: Legal, M&A, Upstream Contract Advisory, Petroleum Legislation.
Favourite Teams: Rangers F.C.
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Nigel Holmes
Director and Senior Advisor - Commercial
Nigel has over forty years oil and gas experience, of which thirty were in the upstream sector. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Engineering & Economics, Nigel started his career with BP latterly moving into corporate planning. During this time he had postings to West Africa and Hamburg. His experience in the upstream sector has included all aspects of the Industry: commercial negotiations, A & D evaluations and execution, oil and gas sales and economic analysis.
Most recently he was Corporate Affairs Manager with ENGIE E&P responsible for relationships with all external stakeholders: high level contact with Partners; government departments across the ENGIE Group - gas regulation, power generation and gas storage. Before this Nigel was Commercial & Business Development Manager and participated in initiatives in the regeneration of the UKCS including fiscal stimulus, decommissioning security agreements and the Wood Review leading to the current MER legislation. He is a Committee Member of the European Petroleum Negotiator's Group.
Specialist Areas: Acquisitions and Divestments, Commercial Operations
Favourite Teams: Tottenham Hotspur F.C, Sevenoaks Hockey Club
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Nick Holloway
Senior Advisor - E&P Strategy and Geoscience
Nick brings over 50 years of experience in geoscience, business development and E&P strategy : over 35 years with major oil companies and a variety of UK, US, Australian and Dutch independents followed by roles in both technical and business development consultancy. He has provided research and strategic analysis with specific expertise in geoscience, opportunity screening, upstream business development strategic review and deal origination.
Prior to joining HEA, Nick worked with IHS (now IHS Markit) on several strategy projects for UK, US, Australian, SE Asian and Russian companies as well as the development of the Global Window screening system. With IHS, Nick gained critical insights across the energy spectrum from shale gas and tight oil production to renewable energy. Before joining IHS, Nick undertook several successful business development consulting assignments with Premier Oil, Sterling Energy and Bow Valley Petroleum. Previously he held various management, business development and technical roles with Burlington Resources, Santos, Sovereign Oil & Gas, Phillips Petroleum and Burmah Oil. Nick has specific experience in NW Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Nick holds an MA and a BA in Natural Sciences (Earth Sciences) from the University of Cambridge.
Specialist Areas: E&P Strategy, Business Development, Geoscience
Favourite Sports: Rowing, fell walking and mountaineering.
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