David Banks

David Banks is an Associate Director at RCG with over 10 years experience in wind consultancy, primarily focused on international onshore wind due diligence assignments.

Mr Banks has specialist knowledge in onshore wind farm operation, technology and construction and is aware of the wide-ranging contractual, buildability and operational issues which arise during all stages of a project.

Mr Banks has nine years’ experience in onshore technical due diligence, having undertaken leadership roles on over 40 international assignments, including vendor, acquisition and pre-financial close projects for single sites and large complex portfolios. Country experience includes Pakistan, Jordan, Australia, USA, Latvia, Lithuania and Scandinavia. In his previous role, he oversaw the day to day management and delivery of a number of onshore operations monitoring and construction monitoring projects and, as such, has acquired specialist knowledge in wind farm operation, technology and construction. David has significant experience in carrying out turbine inspections and attending sites during construction.

Mr Banks has a Masters degree in mechanical engineering.

Hideto Seto is an Associate Director in RCG’s Tokyo office. He has over 15 years’ experience in the wind energy industry working across a broad range of operational, commercial and account management roles.

Mr Seto is an expert in wind turbine operation and maintenance (O&M) management, project management and account relationship building. He provides clients with solutions for wind farm planning, lifetime operation cost optimization and project management. He has a proven track record in directing projects in global markets for wind power and other industrial sectors (including automotive and telecoms).

With experience spanning both project management and O&M execution for international clients, Mr Seto has held multiple industry leadership roles. This includes serving as project manager for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of a new, complex, manufacturing plant producing equipment for international markets. He has extensive experience in service management from planning to execution. This includes providing clients optimisation plans for existing wind farm assets to drive reliability improvements, the use of cutting-edge digital technologies to yield performance improvements, and lifetime operation budget planning for new wind farm developments. Mr Seto has also led the launch of new O&M organizations in multiple countries, including relationship building with local contractors.

Mr Seto is trained in mechanical engineering and was also a certified project management professional (PMP). He has attended business and executive leadership courses at the GE Learning Center.

Mark Del Franco is Associate Director of RCG and is the firm’s Head of Communications. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the publishing industry, with a broad range of editorial, public relations, social media, as well as corporate and internal communications experience.

Mr Del Franco is an expert communicator and has a unique ability to find the story. As head of communications, he has responsibility for building and optimising RCG services and solutions through traditional and new media. He has a proven track record in generating buzz and getting results.

With experience spanning major trade publications and within the energy consultancy sector, Mr Del Franco has held multiple energy industry leadership roles and has reported on several major stories involving the North American renewables market. Focusing on all aspects of the wind industry, Mark Del Franco served as editor of respected trade journal North American Windpower for a decade. He scored several major news interviews with US senators, governors as well as other stakeholders. From the ongoing saga of the production tax credit to the development of the emerging US offshore wind industry to Ontario’s feed-in tariff struggles, he has covered it all in North America.

Mr Del Franco is qualified in corporate communications.  He has served as moderator for several renewable energy conferences, including the American Wind Energy Association and Canadian Wind Energy Association.

Francis Charbonneau is an Associate Director in RCG’s Vancouver office. He is an experienced consultant, engineer and project manager, and has a proven track record leading multidisciplinary project teams and technical advisory assignments on solar and wind projects globally.  Mr Charbonneau has over 15 years experience working on renewables and infrastructure projects across Canada, the United States, and Latin America.

Mr Charbonneau is an expert in the technical and commercial aspects of wind and solar project development and financing, having worked in global renewable energy consultancy servicing international developers, lenders and investors. He has extensive experience managing multiple projects concurrently, in business development, and leading engineering teams across international offices.

Before joining RCG, Mr Charbonneau headed up Canadian project development and engineering services for a major renewable energy consultancy, where he provided technical services and business development of owner’s engineer, front-end engineering and design (FEED) and due diligence services. Mr Charbonneau has held multiple prominent advisory roles in the solar and wind energy market. This includes serving as project manager and consultant on due diligence assignments for lender’s independent engineer, tax equity, merger and acquisition, and refinancing scopes on behalf of debt financiers, tax equity investors, cash equity investors and owners. Additionally, he acted as project manager on owner’s engineer services with scopes including the development of conceptual and preliminary engineering design, engineering procurement construction (EPC) tender package, equipment selection, energy yield assessment, fatal flaws analysis, CAPEX, OPEX and decommissioning cost estimates, utility interconnection requirements, and environmental evaluation. Mr Charbonneau also provided construction monitoring and O&M assessment of projects, and installation of independent wind turbines power performance testing measurements systems.

Mr Charbonneau is a qualified electrical engineer and electrician. He is bilingual in English and French.

Fiona Richardson is an Associate Director in RCG’s Glasgow office. She is an expert technical consultant with a strong commercial focus, with considerable experience covering both the renewable energy technical consultancy sector and time working for an owner / operator as a contracts manager.

Mrs Richardson is skilled in conducting technical due diligence assignments in the offshore and onshore wind sector. She has an excellent level of commercial and technical awareness, gained from managing over 5 GW of onshore and offshore wind mandates. During her professional career, Mrs Richardson has successfully supported a wide range of clients, including lenders, investors and vendors in reaching their end goal, managing high profile projects with demanding timescales.

Since joining the renewable energy industry, Mrs Richardson has led on many significant onshore and offshore wind technical due diligence assignments, including acting as lenders technical consultant for a large Scottish offshore wind project and representing lenders for the first onshore wind farm in Jordan.  She is an experienced project manager and is practiced in managing programs of multiple projects. In addition to overall management responsibility, Mrs Richardson is also experienced in specific work package reviews, including key project construction and operations phase contracts, identifying key project risks and considering mitigation options available, and review of project budgets and determination of contingency levels. She has a strong commercial awareness and is focused on providing high quality technical advise, ensuring client expectations and requirements are met in full.

Mrs Richardson has a bachelors degree in the earth sciences and a post-graduate degree in renewable energy. She is a qualified project management practitioner.

Richard Clarkson is an Associate Director in RCG’s technical advisory team.  A highly experienced and effective leader, Mr Clarkson has served in numerous high-profile project director, senior project manager, and package manager roles. He has extensive experience across a full spectrum of mechanical, electrical and civil engineering relating to onshore and offshore wind projects in both construction and operational phases.

Able to translate projects plan into reality through customer focus, relationship building, interface management and effective planning, he has successfully delivered multi-million dollar renewable energy projects on time and to budget. Mr Clarkson’s experience is global, but with a particular emphasis working in SE Asia. He is fully conversant with current health, safety, welfare and environmental regulations and quality management systems.

Prior to joining RCG, Mr Clarkson delivered multiple projects for a multi-national wind turbine manufacturer.  In addition to construction projects, he has managed customer relationships and the interface across all functions (logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, field operations etc.) to meet project targets and customer expectations on service.  Earlier in his career, Mr Clarkson delivered major thermal power plant projects. He served in the British Army, within the corps of Royal Engineers.

Mr Clarkson is a qualified engineer and a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, with Incorporated Engineer status. He was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in HM The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 1992.