Jean-Christophe Urbani

Jean-Christophe Urbani is a Consulting Director at RCG since May 2023. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the high technology industry, and more than 15 years in the PV energy sector with a broad range of solar and storage technical expertise, project development, management, operational, and strategy experience.

With technical and management experience both in one of the world’s largest independent renewable energy companies and in the consultancy sector, Jean-Christophe Urbani has been involved in very diversified type and size of solar projects all around the world, including storage, floating and Agri-PV technologies.

This includes serving as technical director in an independent power producer with projects spread on three different continents.

He has also, successfully led and supported national government tenders in France and Turkey with hundreds of MWc of PV projects awarded.

Jean-Christophe Urbani studied physics, microelectronics and hydraulic. He gave for many years a course into the introduction of photovoltaic energy at a French engineering school (Ecole Centrale).

Mr Bernd Okkels is a Technical Consulting Director at RCG. He has worked with engineering, procurement and construction of offshore wind farms and Power-to-X plants for more than 25 years and has comprehensive experience with business and project development.

Mr. Okkels has extensive experience with maturation and development of novel technology, converting innovative ideas to actual projects, introducing and implementing new technical solutions for sustainable energy projects. He has detailed knowledge of flexible power plants and large-scale integration of renewables in transmission and distribution systems. He has worked with Hybrid power plants, Solar power, energy storage and founded a Power-to-X competence center.

Mr. Okkels is trained as an electrical power engineer and is also qualified in line- and project management.  

Dylan Mitchell is a Director in RCG’s London Office. He has extensive experience in commercial roles in the renewables industry, with a broad range of commercial, and strategy experience.

Dylan is an expert in commercial strategy, and business development and sales expansion. As Director of Global Business Development, he has responsibility for building and optimising RCG services and solutions for clients. Dylan has a proven track record of understanding customer’s challenges in large complex projects, and creating and leading the multi-disciplinary teams able to solve them.

With experience spanning across the entire offshore wind supply chain, Dylan has held multiple energy industry leadership roles and has directed sales into some of the largest renewable energy development projects. This includes serving as a sales director for complex, international offshore wind projects. In addition to sales, he has extensive experience in market entry and early business development.

Dylan Mitchell is trained as a civil engineer and has additional qualifications in project management, finance, and strategy. He has attended business and executive leadership courses at Bocconi University.

Mr. Okahara is a Director in RCG Tokyo Office. He has over 30 years’ experience in civil engineering construction sector with project management, construction management, design, schedule control, risk management, and trouble shooting roles for both international and Japan domestic projects.

Mr. Okahara is an expert in marine, highway, and plant construction. He has a proven track record in directing mega projects of over JPY 20 billion scale. He brings a wealth of practical knowledge to clients on how to prevent/solve the inherent problems with the delivery of projects.

Mr. Okahara began his carrier as a civil design engineer for marine structures. He has been involved to berth/jetty, under water pipelines, underwater tunnel, cooling water systems construction projects. He also has been involved some earthworks and structural works on land through highway and pipeline projects on land. With the experience in a major contractor in Japan, Mr. Okahara has held project management roles and has led some of the mega projects to successful completion of work. Technically, he has experienced SEP operation under high wave condition, under water works at the sea area with high marine traffic density, and submerging structures at complicated oceanic current situation.

Mr. Okahara was appointed as a parttime lecturer for “International Mega-Project Management” at Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University from September 2015 to March 2016.

Masato Bannai is a Director in RCG Tokyo office. He has unique experience, gained from over 25 years working in various regions and technologies across the power sector (including gas and fossil fuels, hydro, on/off shore wind, and solar) from the perspective of both the EPC Contractor and the Project Owner/Developer.

Mr Bannai is an expert in contracting of engineering procurement construction (EPC) and operations and maintenance (O&M) agreements, together with the associated commercial negotiations and settlement for contractual disputes. He has a proven track record in reaching an agreement for complex issues by exercising his professional skill. As a Director in our APAC group, he has responsibility for building and expanding RCG services and solutions for clients.

With experience working on various overseas power projects whilst serving in a major Japanese trading firm and also a renewable project developer, Mr Bannai has held leadership roles for covering commercial disciplines and has also led renewable energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects in the development phase. This includes serving as manager for offshore wind EPC opportunities. He also has extensive experience in commercial dispute settlement, insurance arrangements, project due diligence for new opportunities, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr Bannai is qualified in international relations.

 

Dan Kyle Spearman is a Director in RCG’s London office, leading on floating wind. A background in naval architecture with 6 years of fixed and floating offshore wind experience brings a broad range of technical, operational and commercial expertise.

Mr Spearman is an expert in floating offshore wind and has worked with the leading developers to reduce the cost and risks to enable the future commercialisation of floating wind. He has a proven track record of delivering complex projects with multiple stakeholders across a range of topics in both fixed and floating offshore wind.

Dan Kyle Spearman has a wide range of offshore wind experience, having managed the Floating Wind Joint Industry Programme and the O&M workstream in the world-leading Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) research programme. In these collaborative programmes, he worked closely with fifteen of the leading international developers and Scottish Government to make both fixed and floating offshore wind into mainstream energy sources. In particular, Dan worked with developers to address the technical challenges for deployment of future large-scale floating farms, giving insight into the challenges and opportunities of floating wind and engaging with the floating wind supply chain to implement the results. He has also managed multiple projects relating to marine logistics which have reduced costs, improved offshore health and safety and reduced vessel emissions. He has supported innovators with demonstrating and commercialising their technologies. Previous experience includes the designing and testing of high-speed vessels, control system programming and build co-ordination at a major UK shipyard.

Dan Kyle Spearman is a qualified Naval Architect with additional qualifications in project management. He also has STCW certification for going offshore.