Executive Bios
JOHN MELBY
John Melby is a widely recognized and accomplished leader in energy and environmental markets, with over two decades of experience driving innovation in renewable, carbon, natural gas, and power markets.
Melby guided the creation of the world’s largest registry platform for renewable energy and carbon, and launched new products for power, carbon, demand response, energy efficiency, and transmission capacity markets. Prior to forming Xpansiv, Melby was the co-founder of Noble4 Advisors and the Melby Group, where he advised governments, energy companies, financial institutions, and exchanges. He served as Managing Director of North American Markets for Green Exchange, an international commodities exchange purchased by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He also served as the President and CEO of APX, a leading provider of infrastructure and services for the renewable energy markets, where he oversaw the company’s rise to become the leading infrastructure platform for all major renewable energy markets.
PAUL SESTILI
Paul Sestili joined Xpansiv in 2020 to help develop the company’s technology platform, and has held a variety of executive roles including business line management, Chief of Staff and COO. He is deeply involved in the company’s internal operations, organizational development, and overall integration of the company’s successful acquisitions.
Sestili has had a long career building and scaling companies with leading-edge technology. An avid programmer and trained engineer, Sestili developed software at the National Bureau of Standards, and designed technology to improve the process of oil refining. He joined Chevron Technology Ventures during its formative years, and spent 20 years in venture capital—funding, operating, managing, and successfully exiting a variety of technology start-ups, including software, SaaS, security, and data companies.
HENRIK HASSELKNIPPE
Henrik Hasselknippe leads Xpansiv’s commercial operations.
With more than two decades of experience in environmental and energy markets, Hasselknippe most recently served as Executive Director for CME Group, leading the company’s Corporate Development in EMEA, having previously run CME’s international energy business in London.
Hasselknippe also served as Managing Director for GreenX, an environmental markets exchange owned by a consortium of leading global investment banks, brokers, and trading companies. He started his career as a researcher and consultant in international climate policy and emissions trading markets, including several years as global head of carbon trading analytics and research for Point Carbon (now part of Refinitiv).
EVAN ARD
Evan Ard is an accomplished business leader with more than 20 years of experience in the energy and environmental markets. Ard’s expertise lies in developing successful market strategies, expanding service offerings, and diversifying the business to address the evolving needs of the global marketplace and the challenges of decarbonization.
Ard is responsible for the strategic direction and management of the global institutional brokerage businesses in the Xpansiv group with operations in five countries, including Evolution Markets, OTX Brokers, and High Voltage Brokers. In addition, he manages the Xpansiv Managed Solutions business unit. With extensive market knowledge and strong industry relationships, he offers valuable insights into market dynamics, emerging trends, and regulatory developments. Previously, Ard held various executive roles at Evolution Markets, and began his career in government relations in Washington, D.C. and marketing communications in New York City.
NATHAN ROCKLIFF
Nathan Rockliff brings to Xpansiv more than 15 years of experience as a senior executive in the development and operation of environmental commodity markets including carbon, renewable energy, and water. As co-founder of CBL, Rockliff played an instrumental role in the development, execution, and management of the exchange business. As Xpansiv’s Chief Strategy Officer, he leads the company’s expansion into existing and new markets through mergers and acquisitions, and the development of key strategic partnerships.
Rockliff was previously a board member of CBL Markets and H2OX and is observer to the board of APX. He was also formally admitted to practice as an attorney in both Australia and the UK.
BEN STUART
Ben Stuart brings more than a decade’s experience in environmental markets, and co-founded CBL in 2009. He designed and implemented the CBL product offering across environmental, energy, and soft commodity products, and was part of the joint government initiative that established the Australian water exchange, H2OX. Stuart coordinated development of the first Australian gas pipeline auctions of storage and physical gas, and oversaw the contract design and implementation for the first exchange traded differentiated natural gas contracts in 2019.
Prior to CBL, Stuart was a broker for Tullett Prebon in London for the EU ETS and the UK Power Markets.
MICHAEL GOLDSTEIN
Michael Goldstein has been an executive in the financial services and technology sectors for over 30 years, advising and collaborating with CEOs, Boards and executive management teams on legal, strategic, transactional and operational matters.
Before joining Xpansiv in 2022, Goldstein was Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Digital Asset, a developer of distributed ledger software technology. Between 1993 and 2017, he was an executive with global commodities merchants, including General Counsel and Co-CEO, of RBS Sempra Commodities, Co-CEO of Societé Generale Energy, General Counsel of Castleton Commodities, and Head of Policy & Strategy at JPMorgan Commodities.
Goldstein was also a corporate associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
ERIKA CRANDALL
Erika Crandall leads Xpansiv’s risk, compliance and information security teams.
Crandall developed her expertise in risk and compliance through various roles in traditional and non-traditional financial firms, including the head of risk at Reserve Trust, as well as senior roles at BNP Paribas / Bank of the West, Bridgewater Associates, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia.
Crandall’s expertise extends across various dimensions of enterprise and operational risk management, including technology and information risk, cyber security, regulatory compliance, privacy, and change management.
SESHADRI SUNDARAM
Seshadri (Sesh) Sundaram has over 25 years’ experience in capital markets, and last served as Managing Director, Engineering and Execution at CME Group Inc.
Sundaram has extensive experience in engineering trading, clearing and risk management systems, with a background in establishing large and successful global offshoring and outsourcing centers with focus on 24×7 delivery/support.
Sundaram leads the Technology team in developing essential product solutions and supporting strategic initiatives across the global Xpansiv groups.
FRANK MCANALLY
Frank McAnally brings nearly 20 years of experience driving growth and enterprise value with an impressive track record of corporate finance, treasury, risk, legal, business analytics and strategy at financial technology companies to his role with Xpansiv.
McAnally joins Xpansiv from Nymbus, a banking software provider, where he was President and CFO. He started his career at SunGard, rising to a senior financial role in which he helped execute the company’s $9.1 billion sale to FIS in 2015. Following FIS, he served as EVP and Chief Financial Officer at healthcare payments processor InstaMed, where he led the company through its sale to JP Morgan Chase in 2019.
KAREN MILLER
Karen Miller, with more than 25 years of extensive experience in human resources and organization development, including employee engagement, teaming, organizational change, performance improvement, talent management, communication, facilitation, strategy, coaching, cultural transformation, process optimization, and organizational redesign, brings her expertise to her role at Xpansiv.
Miller joins Xpansiv after her tenure at Pond5, a video content marketplace acquired by Shutterstock in 2002, where she held the position of Chief People Officer. Prior to her role at Pond5, she severed as the Senior Vice President, People at GrubHub, and earlier in her career, she contributed significantly to organization development efforts at EY.