Peter Weigand

Peter Weigand
Chairman & CEO


Skipping Stone

The Energy Expert

For over 30 years, Peter Weigand has been at the forefront of driving innovation and launching new businesses, both for himself and for clients in the energy industry. He is a visionary who understands how and where market changes impact businesses, and sees opportunities to address those changes across global energy markets. He has built Skipping Stone around this entrepreneurial and innovation model, which makes Skipping Stone unique compared to standard consulting firm models.

" Skipping Stone is a global energy markets consulting and technology services firm launched by former energy CEOs. "

According to Peter, there have been three major drivers of change within the energy industry: deregulation, technology, and climate change. Each of these drivers impacts all segments of the gas and electric industry globally. In the U.S. market, Peter was a pioneer at the onset of deregulation forming retail energy companies, launching wholesale trading companies, and developing the technologies that enabled these new businesses to operate and grow. The same deregulation dynamic and new business approach have been adopted in many global markets, where Peter and Skipping Stone have been instrumental in working with businesses and technology innovation within those markets.

At the onset of renewable generation options some 15 years ago, Peter was an early adopter and saw the future benefits of renewable power. He quickly moved Skipping Stone to focus on this new market, launched several companies himself in the renewable trading business, and has been instrumental in helping over 40 renewable companies grow from inception to large companies today. Vision and innovative ideas emanate from Peter and Skipping Stone’s activities in more than 50 countries.

“We see new strategies and business models and believe the best ideas and outcomes require a collaborative approach,” says Peter. “Instead of just delivering a report, we work together with our clients to develop the ideas into actionable plans.”

In one instance, a client’s software business had stopped growing, competitors were forcing prices down, and they were losing customers. Skipping Stone developed several ideas for new add-on solutions that they thought customers needed to fill competitor gaps and surveyed their customers and other potential customers to validate which of the ideas they would be willing to buy. Once Skipping Stone narrowed it down to two new functions, they designed the solutions, which the client developed into new modules. Skipping Stone then helped them with marketing and business development to roll out the new modules. The client saw a revenue jump of 25%, selling the new modules not only to existing customers, but signing up new customers, as well.

When working across multiple sectors of the energy industry and across global markets, one often sees solution gaps in one market that are being addressed in a different market. For the past several years Skipping Stone has invested in identifying these gaps as well as other market solutions and then bridging one to the other.

“Sometimes this is driven by one of our client engagements, others we address ourselves,” says Peter. “An upcoming example is in the Japan fledgling wholesale power market. We worked for over a year to help launch the Japan electricity futures market. Now, with its recent launch, the international trading companies are gearing up to enter the Japan market.”

Skipping Stone developed a complete library of all things Japan energy and converted it into English to remove language barriers, which has dramatically shortened the time it takes to enter the market. This has been valuable to trading companies and to the futures market by increasing trading volumes. Increased trading volumes, in turn, help consumers and industry to have more choices in how they buy and price electricity.


Company

Skipping Stone. LLC

Management

Peter Weigand
Chairman & CEO

Description

Skipping Stone Partners are all former CEOs and energy entrepreneurs who have successfully built and grown energy and technology businesses. Our global team of over 300 resources and partners all have energy market experience.


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