Firm/People & History

An independent
advisory firm.

Founded in 2007 by three former FERC and Brattle Group economists, Northgate has remained employee-owned, capital-independent and quietly indispensable to the largest decisions in U.S. energy policy.

§ 01. History

Nineteen years of counsel.

The firm has grown deliberately. We have never accepted outside investment, never billed a contingency, and never represented two parties on opposite sides of the same docket.

Northgate was founded in the months after FERC's Order 890. At a moment when the architecture of the modern U.S. electricity industry was being rewritten from the transmission planning rules out. Nineteen years later the rewrite continues, and the questions our clients bring us have only grown in stakes.

2007

Founded in Washington, DC

Three former FERC and Brattle Group economists open the firm with a single mandate: serve as counsel to clients navigating the transmission and market reforms unfolding in the wake of EPAct 2005 and Order 890.

2011

Sacramento office opens

Following the firm's role in California's first IRP proceeding (R.10-05-006), Northgate establishes a permanent presence two blocks from the CPUC headquarters.

2015

Brattle & Cambridge alumni cohort joins

A cluster hire expands the firm's market design and rate case capabilities; Northgate begins regular expert-witness work in PJM stakeholder proceedings.

2019

The Decarbonization Practice

Recognizing a categorical shift in client questions, Northgate stands up a dedicated decarbonization practice covering 24/7 carbon-free energy strategy, IRA monetization and corporate net-zero implementation.

2022

Boston office & the M&A practice

The firm opens a third office in Boston to support the growing volume of infrastructure-capital diligence work and launches its formal M&A advisory practice.

2026

Today

72 advisors across three offices. Counsel of record in 47 active dockets before FERC, ISO/RTO stakeholder bodies and 11 state commissions.

§ 02. Philosophy

How we work.

Long-form thinking, short partner lists, and a refusal to optimize for the answer the client wants to hear.

We believe the best counsel begins by narrowing the question, not the answer.

Most of the consequential decisions in U.S. energy policy are not technically difficult. They are jointly conditioned on physics, capital, statute and political timing in ways that defeat any single discipline. The firm's intellectual habit, inherited from its founding partners' academic training, is to disaggregate those conditioning variables before reaching for a model.

In practice this means our first deliverable on most engagements is a one-page framing memo, not a deck. It means our economists read the underlying tariff and our lawyers read the underlying production-cost model output. It means we routinely tell clients that the question they asked is not the question they should be asking. And we say so before the engagement letter is signed.

We staff lean. A senior partner is present in every working meeting, every commission filing, and every expert deposition. We do not run analyst pyramids; we do not bill for training. The partners do the work.

§ 03. Founding Partners

The four partners on the masthead.

Each leads a practice area; each holds at least one advanced degree and prior service inside the regulatory or research institutions where our clients operate.

EHW

Dr. Eleanor Hsieh-Whitmore

PhD Economics, MIT · SM Tech. & Policy

Managing Partner · Resource Planning

Eleanor founded the firm's resource-planning practice and serves as managing partner. Her dissertation work on stochastic capacity expansion under climate uncertainty remains widely cited in IRP proceedings.

Prior Senior Economist, FERC Office of Energy Policy & Innovation (2003–2007). Adjunct, Harvard Kennedy School. Editorial board, Energy Journal.

RTM

Raphael T. Mendoza, Esq.

JD Energy Law, Yale · BA Government, Georgetown

Partner · Regulatory Strategy

Raphael leads the regulatory practice and is the firm's principal expert witness in FERC and state commission proceedings. He has given testimony in more than 60 dockets across 14 jurisdictions.

Prior Administrative Law Judge, California Public Utilities Commission (2009–2014). Senior Counsel, Office of FERC Chairman Wellinghoff. Member, ABA Section of Environment, Energy & Resources.

PAO

Dr. Priya Aneesha Okafor

PhD Operations Research, Stanford · MS EE

Partner · Market Design

Priya leads the firm's market design practice, advising ISO/RTO stakeholders, IPPs and state agencies on capacity construct reform, FCAS markets and the interaction of ELCC accreditation with storage portfolios.

Prior Principal, The Brattle Group (2012–2019). Visiting Research Scholar, MIT CEEPR. Co-author, Restructured Electricity Markets in the Long Run (Cambridge UP, 2024).

JCK

James C. Kowalski

MBA Finance, Wharton · BS Civil Eng., Purdue

Partner · M&A Advisory

James leads the M&A advisory practice from the Boston office, focused on infrastructure-capital diligence, asset-level commercial assessments and post-merger integration for generation, storage and transmission platforms.

Prior Managing Director, Lazard Power, Energy & Infrastructure (2010–2019). Engineer, Sargent & Lundy. Trustee, Energy Foundation.

§ 04. Senior Counsel

A wider bench.

Twelve senior advisors lead specific engagement workstreams. The full firm is 72 advisors across Washington, Sacramento and Boston.

Dr. Anjali Ramaswamy

PhD Economics, Berkeley Senior Advisor · IRP Prior: Senior Economist, CAISO Department of Market Monitoring.

Hannah Beauregard, Esq.

JD, Columbia Law Senior Counsel · Regulatory Prior: Attorney-Advisor, FERC Office of General Counsel.

Dr. Marcus T. Idris

PhD Operations Research, CMU Senior Advisor · Markets Prior: Lead Engineer, PJM Capacity Market Operations.

Søren A. Lindqvist

MSc Energy, DTU · CFA Senior Advisor · M&A Prior: VP, Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets.

Dr. Naomi Whitfield-Chen

PhD Public Policy, Harvard Senior Advisor · Decarbonization Prior: Director of Policy, U.S. Climate Alliance.

Ravi B. Saxena, Esq.

JD Energy & Env., NYU Senior Counsel · Rate Cases Prior: Assistant General Counsel, Edison Electric Institute.

Dr. Geneviève Toussaint

PhD Civil & Env. Eng., MIT Senior Advisor · Transmission Prior: Senior Engineer, MISO Transmission Planning.

Thomas O. Beresford

MBA Wharton · MS EE Cornell Senior Advisor · PPAs & Procurement Prior: Director of Energy, Microsoft Cloud Operations.

Dr. Lina Park-Hofstetter

PhD Economics, Yale Senior Advisor · Market Design Prior: Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future.

Sebastián Vega-Ortiz

MPP Princeton · BS Stats Senior Advisor · DSM & Load Flex Prior: Director, NYSERDA Energy Efficiency Programs.

Annika Foss-Mwangi, Esq.

JD Stanford · LL.M. Energy Law Senior Counsel · Markets Prior: Of Counsel, Van Ness Feldman LLP.

Dr. Henry Aldermaston

DPhil Physics, Oxford Senior Advisor · Reliability Prior: NERC Director of Reliability Assessment.

§ 05. Values

Four working principles.

These principles govern how we accept engagements, staff them, and conclude them. They are not aspirational.

Independent of capital.

The firm is fully employee-owned. We have no parent firm, no carried interest in client transactions, and no incentive to recommend a deal that should not happen.

II.

One side of the docket.

We do not represent intervenors and applicants in the same proceeding, ever. Our conflicts policy is published, audited and enforced by the Managing Partner.

III.

Partner-led, always.

A senior partner is in every working meeting, every filing, and every deposition. We do not bill associates for partner judgment.

IV.

Published record.

Our analysts publish under their own names. The firm's working papers are subjected to internal red-team review and external academic comment before release.

§ 06. Careers

Now hiring.

We recruit principally from academic economics, energy law and federal regulatory practice. We hire continuously rather than in classes; the firm has never conducted a layoff.

Senior Economist, Resource Planning

Washington, DC PhD or 7+ yrs equiv. Open role

Counsel, Regulatory Practice

Washington, DC JD · 5+ yrs FERC/state Open role

Senior Associate, Market Design

Sacramento, CA MS/PhD · 4+ yrs Open role

VP, M&A Advisory

Boston, MA MBA · 10+ yrs banking Open role

Postdoctoral Fellow, Decarbonization

Washington, DC PhD · 2-year term Open role

Director of Knowledge & Publishing

Washington, DC MA · 8+ yrs editorial Open role

Engage

A conversation
begins with a memo.

Write to the Managing Partner's office at counsel@northgate-ea.com. We will respond within two business days with a one-page framing of the question we hear, and a recommended next step.

Request a conversation →

Washington: 1099 17th Street NW, Suite 920
Sacramento: 980 9th Street, 16th Floor
Boston: One Federal Street, 28th Floor

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