Quick Info

• Degree - Master of Financial Risk Management
• Graduating year - 2021

What is your project title?

Assessing Business Opportunities with Blockchain Technology in the Oil & Gas Industry

Who is your project sponsor (i.e, company)?

Mavennet

What challenge were you asked to solve by your sponsor company? 

I helped develop a financial model for Mavennet’s flagship product – Neoflow. The model quantifies the positive impacts Neoflow is making as a disruptive product in the traditional oil & gas industry, in which users of this model can run various scenario analyses, costs and benefits analysis, and reflect them back to the valuation of the platform from a discounted cash flow approach. On top of that, I also explored opportunities to make Neoflow an industry-standard protocol for calculating carbon intensities, where a carbon intensity-based oil market will be made possible.

I believe there is clearly a demand for cleaner energy from both the value chain and end consumers, while oil & gas are not going to be replaced anytime soon.

What background knowledge and technical skills were absolutely essential for you to complete this project successfully?

I would say the project mostly required curiosity about the topic. Besides the basic understanding of concepts surrendering blockchain, excel modeling skills and basic python Pandas skills would be essential.

What kind of opportunities did you have to interact with other staff members at the company during your virtual work experience?

During my time at Mavennet, there were many opportunities to interact with other staff at the company. Firstly, there is a daily stand-up where everyone would join and give a short update and check-up on what they are working on. Additionally, we had an hour-long weekly meeting every Monday, where each week a member of the team presented to everyone an “industry pulse” – a presentation on a trendy topic, whether it is in Blockchain space, or the energy space. This is my favorite part of the meetings because I can learn new topics every day. I had the pleasure to make an industry pulse presentation on NFTs and had lots of fun discussing it with the rest of the team members.

Do you feel that the project helped you to better understand the risk management industry, and has it changed your ideas about where you'd like to work after graduating?  

Throughout this project, I gained much knowledge on what are the concerns during the initial stage of building a business-to-business type “Blockchain as a Service” platform.

I have always been interested in entrepreneurship and potentially joining a start-up, this experience at Rotman gave me a taste of that.

Which courses and sessions at Rotman have you found most beneficial to your project?

Innovations in Financial Technology (Fintech) has been the most beneficial course for my project. During this course, Professor Park introduced us to blockchain and its various applications, namely decentralized finance. I learned the idea of automated market makers and various interesting ideas and applications in his lectures. Then during my project at Mavennet, I assisted the team in exploring business opportunities surrounding decentralized finance in the oil and gas industry.

Was the experience and overall project outcome expected?

Yes, there are many possibilities surrounding the use of implementing Blockchain technology in the oil & gas industry. We are happy that we explored various ways of adding value to Neoflow. My deliverable was a finalized version of Neoflow’s financial model and worked together with my teammate Dehua with a business opportunity assessment report on GHG emissions standard and carbon intensity-based oil markets.

What are your tips and advice to students completing the Risk Management project next year?

Depending on how quickly the pandemic ends, hopefully, there will be an in-person project experience next year. This program offers a wide range of options for you to choose from for your project internship – from government regulators to buy-side, from traditional big banks to fintech start-ups.

It is important for you to get a clear vision of which area you want to pursue, and is why my best tip would be to have as many appointments with the MFRM career consultant as needed, they are always happy to help.

Any parting thoughts?

It was a special experience to part of the team that could potentially disrupt a billion-dollar industry at its infancy stage, I appreciate this unique opportunity.

The Master of Financial Risk Management is a full-time program designed to prepare ambitious young professionals for careers in risk management and finance.