John Cochrane

John Cochrane is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in Boston. Mr. Cochrane leads the Power and Utilities practice within the Economic Consulting segment. Mr. Cochrane specializes in advising gas and electric utility clients in all economic, regulatory and financial areas of their business.

Mr. Cochrane brings more than 30 years of U.S. and international utility sector finance experience. Mr. Cochrane has held senior executive positions at a major U.S. and international utility and served as a member of the Board of Directors on a variety of energy sector companies. Mr. Cochrane’s extensive experience includes all areas within corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, restructurings, regulation, gas and electric supply, and business development, both domestic and international. Mr. Cochrane has extensive experience testifying in rate case matters relating to capital structure/cost of capital, mergers and acquisitions, and financings before FERC and various state-level regulatory bodies.

As Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for National Grid’s U.S. business, Mr. Cochrane was responsible for mergers & acquisitions, accounting, tax, pensions, insurance/claims, risk management, energy supply, property, investments, cash management, forecasting/budgeting, planning, financial analysis and all third-party financing. In this capacity, Mr. Cochrane managed a 500-person organization with 13 reporting functions.

Mr. Cochrane led financial analysis, due diligence, negotiations and final regulatory approvals for National Grid’s acquisitions of publicly-traded Keyspan and RI Gas assets from Southern Union and Niagara Mohawk. Mr. Cochrane also oversaw finance function integrations for National Grid with NEES, Eastern Utilities Associates, Niagara Mohawk, RI Gas and Keyspan, creating the second largest U.S. utility with a total enterprise value of $27B. Mr. Cochrane served as U.S. board member on U.S./European companies involved in cross-border tax structures including Luxemburg, Ireland, Jersey, Iceland and Malta.

As head of Global Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions for National Grid, Mr. Cochrane led all business development, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures globally. Mr. Cochrane led the sale of a wide range of businesses totaling $10B, successfully renegotiated a 15-year, $4.5B power supply agreement with Long Island Power Authority and led commercial and regulatory negotiations for a $3B joint venture with six New York transmission owners. Mr. Cochrane also led joint venture negotiations, feasibility studies, project budgets and timelines and vendor selections for four £1B sub-sea interconnectors between the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

Mr. Cochrane holds a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University in Cambridge and holds a M.B.A from Northeastern University in Boston.