Executive Summary
Morgan Stanley has restructured its energy investment banking operations by combining its Global Energy and Global Power & Utilities groups into a single Global Power & Energy Group, effective September 2025. The new unit is co-led by Jon Fouts (formerly Global Head of Power & Utilities) and Michael O’Dwyer (formerly Global Head of Energy), with regional leadership roles assigned across North America and EMEA. This move reflects the bank’s strategic shift to align with evolving client needs spanning both fossil fuel and clean energy transactions.
Analysis
The merger of Morgan Stanley’s Global Energy and Global Power & Utilities teams into a unified Global Power & Energy Group signals a strategic recalibration to better grapple with structural shifts in the energy sector. Key drivers include accelerating demand for renewable power, sustainability pressures, grid modernization, and the convergence of sectors—oil & gas producers increasingly overlap with power utilities and energy infrastructure players. Such convergence demands firms offer integrated advisory capabilities—from upstream oil & gas to renewable power generation, storage, and grid services. The reorganization positions Morgan Stanley to pursue cross-sector deals such as LNG-to-power projects and grid storage financing with a unified coverage model, consolidating client touchpoints across traditionally siloed teams [1][2].
The new dual-leader model with Jon Fouts and Michael O’Dwyer ensures both heritage and energy domains are represented at the top. Regional leadership appointments—Eddie Mannheimer (North America power & utilities), Ryan Synnott (Houston energy), Francesco Puletti (EMEA power & utilities), and Mutlu Guner (EMEA energy)—mirror where core deal flow resides geographically and sectorally [2].
However, discrepancies in public reporting—OilPrice’s version names John Jameson and Andrew Ward as co-heads—highlight the risk of incomplete or conflicting disclosures in media accounts, underscoring importance of verifying from primary internal sources [3].
Strategic implications: Morgan Stanley appears positioning itself to capture a larger share of fee-generating deal flow at the intersection of conventional energy and energy transition sectors. Their competitors are executing similar moves, making leadership, execution capability, and credibility in both fossil and clean energy increasingly differentiating. Questions remain around staffing, cost efficiencies, and how integrated the advisory delivery will be across what have historically been distinct product lines.
Supporting Evidence
- Morgan Stanley is combining its Global Energy and Global Power & Utilities investment banking teams to form a new Global Power & Energy Group. The change was announced via an internal memo in mid-September 2025 [2].
- The new group will be co-headed by Jon Fouts and Michael O’Dwyer: Fouts has been global head of Power & Utilities since 2022, O’Dwyer was global head of Energy [2].
- Regional leaders: Eddie Mannheimer will lead North America power & utilities, Ryan Synnott will head energy in Houston; in EMEA, Francesco Puletti will lead power & utilities, and Mutlu Guner will lead energy [2].
- The reorganization is intended to address accelerating demand from both traditional and renewable power sources, reflecting trends in global energy demand and transactions [2].
- Global energy deal flow has remained robust through 2025, including U.S. shale consolidation, Middle East capital raising, and multibillion-dollar renewable projects—creating demand for advisory services spanning fossil and clean energy sectors [2].
- Different reporting by OilPrice names John Jameson and Andrew Ward as co-heads, a discrepancy from Reuters’ naming of Jon Fouts and Michael O’Dwyer, suggesting possible misreporting in some secondary sources [3].
Sources
- [1] www.reuters.com (Reuters) — 2025-09-17
- [2] www.reuters.com (Reuters) — 2025-09-17
- [3] oilprice.com (OilPrice.com) — 2025-09-17