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Brian Collins
Managing Consultant at capSpire
Brian Collins is a seasoned Senior Consultant with extensive experience in the energy and commodity trading industry. With a strong background in Allegro, C#, and various database technologies, he is well-equipped to handle a wide range of projects. Brian is dedicated to leveraging his expertise in both technology and industry knowledge to deliver exceptional service to his clients. He received his education at University College Cork, where he studied Business Information Systems and Information Technology. Brian has worked with a variety of organizations and has held positions such as Associate Business Analyst at Citi, Technology Associate - Electronic Execution at Citi, ICO Reporting Specialist at EMC, and MS Excel/Access Tutor at University College Cork.
Highlights
Last week we celebrated capSpire 15 year anniversary and I was lucky enough to spend a few days visiting colleagues in our Bangalore office. It was fantastic to get to catch up in person with colleagues who I work with on a daily basis and who have brought huge energy, creativity and deep technical skills to capSpire. Some special memories from the trip:
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Running a ‘Market Fundamentals’ (Cross commodity) bootcamp with 6 recent graduates who are part of our ‘Ignite’ training programme. I was impressed by the knowledge and experience that the new team members bring, even so early in their respective careers. I think we all got particular enjoyment from the Power trading game where it got so competitive an audit was required.
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Sharing many typical Bangalorean ‘Filter Coffees’ in the south Indian café just down the street.
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Team lunch and celebratory cake with more than 30 colleagues on the day of capSpires 15th anniversary.
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Trying any Indian food that the team put in front of me! My personal favourites were Vada Pav, Biriyani and Pani Puri. (disclaimer – on more than one occasion a glass of cold buttermilk was called for to soothe my burning mouth!).
-Taking a few hours out of a busy work schedule on my final day to see some of the sights at Bangalore palace, Commercial street and the Botanical Gardens!
Gaurav Garg and the rest of the team continue to build our capabilities in India at an impressive pace, and capSpire continues to grow while delivering for our clients. If you need any help in building your functional, technical or support capabilities across all energy trading domains and technologies – we are the best people to deliver for you. We now bring our deep experience and understanding together with global presence and scale, offering an unbeatable combination that enables our clients to focus on their core business activities. Here's to the next 15!
Now that the dust has settled on E-World 2024, and I finally feel like my social battery is back at least partially charged, I felt like it is a good time to share my thoughts on the event and what I saw/heard/felt on the ground:
- The scale of the event always surprises me. It feels like it gets bigger each year.
- Having a capSpire stand for the first time, I never appreciated how much effort it takes to keep everything running smoothly throughout the event (kudos to Ken Twomey, Gaurav Garg and Oliver Jones for keeping the show on the road on Thursday!)
- Vendors continue to make large strides in CTRM, Data Analytics, pricing and modelling software, forecasting tools etc. The amazing range of products available and the different sweet spots of each of these products are quite astounding. Integrating these products is going to require skill, experience and discipline.
- Data volume has never been higher. Making use of this data is a challenge. This will also require experience, skill and discipline.
- Performance and scalability are still key to clients.
- Agility is really important. How quickly can you onboard? How quickly can you upgrade? How quickly can you add new products?
- People are motivated by relationships and interactions with people. Keeping your contacts alive is more crucial now than ever, given we all spend a considerable amount of time working from home.
Until next year, that is it with the E-World posts!
