Speakers.

Nikhil Amin

Independent Consultant (previously: General Manager, Amazon Shipping UK)

Former General Manager at Amazon UK, Nikhil is an independent consultant in the fields of Operations, Logistics and E-commerce. He offers expertise to start-ups, marketplaces and larger retail businesses to support their growth ambitions.

Nikhil has a deep understanding of operations technology, transformation management, and commercial business development. Through his career in the Royal Air Force and Amazon, he has developed a track record of leading complex change initiatives, managing and developing high performing teams, and delivering commercial results through a data led approach. His ability to build strong external and internal stakeholder relationships, drive technology innovation to accelerate business growth, and manage large scale distribution and maintenance sites, has enabled Nikhil to successfully build and optimise logistics services and digital solutions for Amazon.

Nikhil holds a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, an MBA from INSEAD, and is a member of the Sainsbury Management Fellows, an organisation whose purpose is to develop engineers as leaders in industry.

Gina Domanig

Managing Partner, Emerald Technology Ventures

Gina Domanig is the Managing Partner of Emerald Technology Ventures. In 2000 she founded the business as the first independent cleantech venture capital fund in Europe. Gina currently serves on the boards of GeoDigital International Inc and Urgently Inc.

In addition to Emerald activities, Gina serves on the board of directors of Die Mobiliar, u-blox AG and Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy Foundation. She serves on the advisory boards of the Danish Innovation Fund, as well as on the advisory committee of the PRIME Impact Fund.

Gina has over 30 years of international business experience including banking, M&A, strategic development, and venture capital. Prior to starting Emerald, she was senior vice president at Sulzer, a Swiss multinational, responsible for strategic planning and M&A. Gina holds a Bachelor Degree in Finance from Arizona State University as well as MBA degrees from Thunderbird in Arizona and ESADE in Barcelona. She is fluent in English, German and Spanish.

Andrew Douglas

Institutional Programs Manager, CSP

Martin Fleischer

Senior Strategy Development Manager, Primetals Technologies

Martin Fleischer is a Senior Strategy Development Manager at Primetals Technologies and Managing Director & Member of the Board of Primetals Germany.

Martin was working his entire career in the field of electric steelmaking – the technology for green steelmaking. With his broad experience in consulting Martin can evaluate the different transition pathways and support the industry on its journey to net-zero. Being a key member of the global Strategy and Green Steel team of Primetals Technologies he facilitates new process routes to meet the demand of their customers for decarbonization considering the steel product quality, availability and quality of feedstock material, the energy situation as well as economics.

After joining an international survey of McKinsey & Company on innovation in steel as team member, Martin joined the Badische Stahl Group as project manager and later as managing director at BSE. During his time at Siemens VAI Technologies Germany, he led the electric steelmaking business.

Dr. Philipp Furler

CEO and Founder, Synhelion

Philipp holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich since 2014. In 2018, he completed his Executive MBA at the University of Strathclyde. Philipp has more than ten years of experience in high-temperature solar chemistry and reactor engineering. For several years, he served as Operating Agent – Solar Chemistry Research for the International Energy Agency’s technology program SolarPACES. Prior to joining Synhelion, Philipp co-founded the ETH spin-off company Sunredox, which was acquired by Synhelion in 2018.

Antonia Gawel

Head, Climate Action; Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum Geneva

Antonia acts as Deputy Head of the Forum’s Centre for Nature & Climate and is also responsible for its Climate Action Platform and Innovation and Circular Economy programmes. In these capacities, she has been responsible for scaling major public private partnerships, including 2030Vision, which aims to fast-track progress on the global goals through 4IR technology. She built the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy – drawing together over 80 Ministers, CEO and experts to fast-track circular economy implementation; the Global Plastics Action Partnership; and Scale360, focused on circular economy innovation.

Prior to joining the Forum, Antonia worked in Bhutan as an advisor on environment and clean energy; the International Energy Agency (IEA)

where she was responsible for IEA’s leading clean energy policy input to the Clean Energy Ministerial and G-20 processes. She was also formerly Deputy Director, Energy and Climate, at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; In 2006, selected for the “Young Canadian Leaders for a Sustainable Future” programme of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. She holds a Master’s in Environmental Planning, Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and an Hon. BA in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Uli Grabenwarter

Deputy Director, European Investment Fund (EIF)

Uli Grabenwarter is Deputy Director – Equity Investments at European Investment Fund (EIF). In this capacity he oversees EIF’s activities in Venture Capital, Impact Investing, and Technology Transfer, with EIF being Europe’s biggest Fund-of-Funds Investment platform in these markets. Previously he was responsible for EIF’s strategic development in the equity space and in this context has led the build-up of the Social Impact Accelerator, the first pan-European social impact investing fund-of-funds. From 2010 to 2012 he conducted a 20 months research project on impact investing in collaboration with IESE University of Navarra in Barcelona and the Family Office Circle Foundation based in Switzerland, analysing best-market-practices for impact investing in the private equity and venture capital space.

He is a visiting Professor for Private Equity and Venture Capital at IESE University and is an angel investor in life sciences companies. Since 2018 he is a Trustees of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (www.GSGII.org) and serves on the Board of several asset management companies and family office structures. He regularly publishes articles and white papers on venture capital and impact investing. Uli is also member of several expert groups on impact investing and impact metrics across Europe. Uli holds a Master’s degree in Business and Finance of the University of Graz.

Luca Graf

CEO, MS Direct

Luca Graf is the CEO of MS Direct, the leading eCommerce logistics provider in Switzerland and beyond. Formerly he led the global innovation activities at DSV Panalpina working closely with the LogTech startup ecosystem.

Luca has been leading digital transformation initiatives over the last 15 years in the airline and logistics industry.

He graduated in Industrial Engineering & Management from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany and holds a PhD in Business Management from the Universität St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Peter Hellich

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Peter specialises in national and international M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions and has been advising clients on all aspects of corporate law for many years. His industry focus is on technology-based industries, in particular in the renewable energy and climate tech sector. In addition, Peter has extensive experience in transaction management. For many years, he is frequently ranked as a market leading expert by Chambers, Legal 500 and Best Lawyers in Germany by Handelsblatt Magazine. Further, Peter lectures at the Institute of Civil Law, Commercial Law and Economic Law of the University of Cologne and at Steinbeis University on corporate law, M&A, private equity and venture capital. He is author of numerous articles and co-author of the German standard setting handbooks “Mezzanine Finanzierungsinstrumente” published published by Erich Schmidt Verlag and “Private Equity” published by C.H. Beck Verlag.

Susan Kish

Conference Moderator and Executive Committee Member, Energy Venture Forum

At the forefront of the global climate change movement, Susan is a catalyst for change and creating a positive environmental impact. Susan is a seasoned business executive, entrepreneur, director and marketer, working at the intersection of sustainability, disruptive technologies and the evolving energy system. A facilitator, moderator and public speaker, Susan connects people and innovative ideas with a focus on driving change at industries in transition.

As the VP Strategic Marketing / Chief Marketing Officer at the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), Susan worked to accelerate collective impact around the climate crisis. Through her work at IHS Markit, she launched the Innovation Agora @ CERAWeek, bringing together innovative technologies and the challenges of the energy transition. Susan drove new products, services and thought leadership at New Energy Finance (NEF), later purchased by Bloomberg. At NEF, she launched the Bloomberg Future of Energy Summit which are today a series of 6 summits held across the year and around the globe.

Michael Liebreich

Chairman, Liebreich Associates

Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates, but he is perhaps best known as Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance – the world’s leading provider of information and research on clean energy and transport. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, and a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board.

Until recently he was a long-standing board member of Transport for London and a member of the high-level group for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

Michael serves on too many advisory boards to name, he is a prolific speaker and writer, and is known to make the occasional angel investment and finally, he also skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics.

Jan Pechstein

Head of Corporate Emissions Management and Sustainable Aviation Fuels, Lufthansa Group

Jan studied Aviation Systems Engineering as well as Aerospace Engineering in Bremen, Phoenix and Berlin. In parallel, he completed the airline pilot training at Lufthansa Flight Training. From 2015 onwards he researched at Hamburg University of Technology in the field of sustainable aviation and is about to complete his Ph.D. Furthermore, he attended an MBA program at the Collège des Ingénieurs. While still an active First Officer on the Airbus A320 fleet, Jan is responsible for the corporate emissions management and SAF at Lufthansa Group since 2019. Within the CleanTech Hub, he heads the cluster alternative fuels and emissions.

Dr. Tom Rowlands-Rees

Head of Research, North America, BloombergNEF

Patrick Sheehan

Founder & Managing Partner, ETF Partners

Patrick Sheehan is a founder and Managing Partner of ETF Partners. He represents the firm on the Boards of ELeather, Wirepas, Telensa, Zeelo and Tomorrow. Patrick has worked in venture capital since 1985, when he joined 3i. He was instrumental in founding 3i’s venture capital practice, and later became the founding Managing Director of its Silicon Valley operation. Before this he was a research engineer for GEC and was technical consultant for Marconi Space Systems while completing a PhD in electronics.

Patrick was a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Invest Europe from 2007 to 2010, during which time he also chaired the Venture Capital Committee.

Marc Siegel

Senior Manager Marketing Sasol ecoFT

Marc is responsible for leading Sasol’s global ecoFT marketing, Sasol’s sustainable fuels and chemicals business unit enabled by Sasol’s proven Fischer-Tropsch technology solution, from incubating to scaling in an accelerated time horizon. ​​

Marc is a specialist for developing new businesses from the idea to world scale. He has a track record with Engelhard, Dow, Koch-Glitsch and most recently Sasol’s polymers business. Driving efficiency and value generation for customers are his passion. ​

Marc held several business development and marketing positions within the global chemical industry until accepting a position with the newly established Sasol ecoFT early 2022. He has vast experience within the petrochemical value chain incl. adjacent industries.​

Marc holds a degree in chemical engineering where he focused on petrochemical processes and catalytic chemistry.​

Bas Sudmeijer

Managing Director and Partner, BCG

Bas Sudmeijer is a London based Managing Director and Partner at BCG and leads its Climate & Sustainability practice in the UK and Benelux as well as BCG’s global CCUS team and is core member of its Energy practice. He has consulted in the Energy industry in Europe and North America for 18 years and has supported 20+ CCUS related projects in last 3 years. He co-authored a number of recent BCG publications including “The business case for carbon capture” (2019) and recorded his TED talk on “How carbon capture networks could help curb climate change” in 2021.

Robert Thomson

Partner, Roland Berger

Robert Thomson is a Partner in Roland Berger’s London office focused on the Aviation and Aerospace & Defence sectors with a strong emphasis on sustainability. In this area his work includes the Roland Berger Roadmap to True Zero, a blueprint for how the aviation sector can minimise its total environmental impact, and Roland Berger’s recently completed study for the EU Clean Sky Joint Undertaking “Towards Climate Neutral Aviation”.

He is the author of several additional publications on sustainable aviation, including:

• Electrical propulsion: “The next chapter of aviation?” and “Onwards and upwards”
• Hydrogen: “A future fuel for aviation?”
• Sustainable aviation fuels: “The best solution for large commercial aircraft?”

Copies of these publications and further details on Roland Berger’s work in sustainable aviation can be found at: www.rolandberger.com

After reading Engineering at Cambridge University he worked for Rolls-Royce and Kleinwort Benson. With over 20 years’ experience in consulting he focuses on strategy, mergers & acquisitions and operational performance improvement for leading companies, governments, trade bodies, industry associations and investors.

Edmond Toutoungi

Senior Manager, Supply Chain Consulting, PwC

Edmond is an operations management expert, bringing digital transformation and new business models to consumer and industrial businesses, using new and disruptive technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Machine Learning and more.
Edmond has a industry focus on Consumer and Industrial Products, as well as around Circular Economy / Renewables / Sustainability.
Edmond is an Electrical Engineer and an INSEAD MBA.

Luke Baker

Investment Manager, Climate-KIC

Carsten Bartholl

Partner, Energy & Infrastructure, Taylor Wessing

Markus Böhme

Salary Partner, Taylor Wessing

Markus is a sought-after legal expert in the national and international energy industry. Clients value his advice on regulatory issues in the light of the liberalised energy market.

Markus advises on M&A transactions and on the entire field of energy supply (gas, electricity, local and district heating as well as renewable energies).

Claire Curry

Head of Technology & Innovation, BloombergNEF

Claire leads the technology & innovation research at BloombergNEF, a strategic research group specializing in covering markets and technologies driving the transition to a low-carbon economy. In this role, Claire oversees BNEF’s coverage of industrial digitalization, and the development of early-stage climate-technology. The work covers the application of technology to the energy and commodity sectors, the capital flow that enables them, and the company innovation strategies emerging around them. Claire’s team manages the BNEF Pioneers program, an annual climate-tech innovation competition.

Claire has held previous roles at BNEF as the head of Digital Industry, the battery and fuel cell analyst for the Advanced Transport team and the next-generation biofuels and chems analyst within the Bioenergy team. Claire was also head of the Applied Research work at BNEF. She regularly presents at conferences, publishes research notes and helps clients navigate the world of start-ups, strategy and technology platforms. Claire holds an MSc from Imperial College’s Sustainable Energy Engineering and a Chemistry BSc from Durham University.

Thierry Duvanel

Director of Collaborative Innovation, Bühler Group

Thierry is Director of Collaborative Innovation for the Buhler Group, managing the front-end innovation activities and overseeing the scouting and engagement with startups for the group. Before joining Buhler Thierry led MassChallenge Switzerland, the European branch of the leading global startup accelerator. The program runs today with over 1’500 yearly applications from startups from all around the world and provides support to 100 each year. Prior to MassChallenge, Thierry co-founded two companies active in software development and medical devices respectively, which brought him to work and live in the US, UK and South Korea. 

Thierry holds a MS and BS on electrical engineering from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. 

Shruti George

Senior Director, Strategic Innovation Platforms, Avery Dennison

Following nearly a decade-long international career with McKinsey, Shruti joined Avery Dennison in 2017 where she has worked in different strategic and business roles already.  

She currently works at the intersection of innovation and sustainability in material science and digital solutions, driving long term disruption to achieve a net zero value chain in labels and packaging 

Joseph Gottlieb

CTO & Founder, Rhombus Energy Solutions

Joseph Gottlieb is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Rhombus Energy Solutions. Prior to Rhombus, Joseph held executive and senior engineering and technology positions at Rockwell, Flux Power, Raytheon, Fairchild, Conexant, and Cymer.

He has 28 years of embedded and control system product development experience, and is an expert in battery and battery management system technologies. Joseph holds a BSEE and an MSEE from Northern Illinois University, and has five patents to his name.

Jing Li

Global Digital Product Manager, Tetrapak

Jing Li is the global digital product manager at Tetra Pak, based in Sweden. Together with the team, he contributed extensively to building up Tetra Pak’s connected package and other digital solutions. He also worked on Tetra Pak’s 2030 strategy with a focus on digitalized supply chain, rapid innovation and eco-system.

Prior to Tetra Pak, Jing obtained broad experience within strategy, digitalization, M&A, product development and project management from the automotive industry (SAAB Automobile|NEVS) and digital tech industry (Ericsson, SONY Mobile, Alcatel-Lucent|Nokia). He is passionate about innovation, digitalization and sustainability.

Jing Li also has startup experience, both as co-founder at a smart wearable startup as well as an advisory board member for Swedish electrical vehicle and mobility startups. He also serves as a strategic advisor for SCCC (Malmö) – Swedish Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

Jing Li holds a double Master’s Degree both in Business and Digital Technology from Lund University Business School and Chalmer University of Technology in Sweden.

Michael Liebreich

Chairman and CEO, Liebreich Associates

Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates, but he is perhaps best known as Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance – the world’s leading provider of information and research on clean energy and transport. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, and a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board. 

Until recently he was a long-standing board member of Transport for London and a member of the high-level group for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. 

Michael serves on too many advisory boards to name, he is a prolific speaker and writer, and is known to make the occasional angel investment and finally, he also skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. 

Tara Hemmer

Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Office, WM

As the Chief Sustainability Officer for Waste Management, Tara Hemmer is responsible for growing sustainable service offerings, including recycling, renewable energy and organics. In addition, she oversees all environmental, social impact and governance initiatives.

She was previously Senior Vice President, Field Operations for the southern part of North America, including oversight of collection, disposal, recycling and landfills. Tara graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Alex Joss

Technology & Innovation Leader, COP26

Alex Joss is the Lead for Technology and Innovation with the UNFCCC Climate Champions team for COP26. His role sees him leading on venture investing, commodity and carbon markets, cryptocurrencies, and novel carbon removal solutions.

Previously, he spent five years at McKinsey & Company, before joining a rapidly growing AI business as Chief of Staff, helping close their $70m series D.

Susan Kish

Conference Moderator and Executive Committee Member, Energy Venture Forum

At the forefront of the global climate change movement, Susan is a catalyst for change and creating a positive environmental impact. Susan is a seasoned business executive, entrepreneur, director and marketer, working at the intersection of sustainability, disruptive technologies and the evolving energy system. A facilitator, moderator and public speaker, Susan connects people and innovative ideas with a focus on driving change at industries in transition.

As the VP Strategic Marketing / Chief Marketing Officer at the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), Susan worked to accelerate collective impact around the climate crisis. Through her work at IHS Markit, she launched the Innovation Agora @ CERAWeek, bringing together innovative technologies and the challenges of the energy transition. Susan drove new products, services and thought leadership at New Energy Finance (NEF), later purchased by Bloomberg. At NEF, she launched the Bloomberg Future of Energy Summit which are today a series of 6 summits held across the year and around the globe.

Louise Muhdi

Professor of Innovation and Strategy, IMD

Dr. Muhdi is passionate about innovation management, entrepreneurship, strategy, business transformation, organizational culture, sustainability and leadership. 

Thanks to her extensive research, teaching and experience as an executive working across a number of sectors, she has a truly holistic understanding of business ecosystems, dynamics, drivers and challenges as well as customer, partner and stakeholder requirements and needs. 

Her unique career path has spanned the fields of research (life sciences and management), management, consulting, and leadership roles with extensive experience in fragrances and flavor manufacturing, family office advisory, and the pharmaceutical industry. She has led global cross-functional leadership teams and has worked with and advised influential thought leaders as well as members of corporate executive committees and boards of directors.  

Prior to joining IMD, Dr. Muhdi was the Head of Innovation Strategy and Portfolio – Global Science and Technology (GST) at Givaudan International SA in Switzerland, where she led the development of the global innovation strategy and leading strategic initiatives across the organization.  

An influential figure on the Swiss startup scene, she is an active member of the VentureKick jury where she contributes to selecting and supporting Swiss science-based technology startups. 

Dr. Muhdi is the Director of the IMD BOOSTR Program, contributes to IMD offerings and works extensively on a number of custom programs with leading organizations from across the globe. Additionally, she is an active, engaging and thought provoking public speaker, author and consultant. 

Florian Nägele

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Florian Nägele is a Partner in McKinsey’s Zurich Office. Since joining the firm in 2010, he has been serving clients in the automotive, industrial and high tech sector. Florian founded and leads McKinsey’s EV Charging Infrastructure group and is a core member of the Advanced Industries and Product Development practices.

He works intensively with OEMs, suppliers and technology ventures. Besides his industry focus, he has experience in strategy, operations, technology development and large scale performance transformations.

Sophie Rouzeau

Global Head of Plastic Circularity, Givaudan

With a PhD in polymer recycling and biomaterials (Univ. Lyon 2004), Sophie has focused her entire professional career on the circularization of plastics & polymers. She managed the recycling and sustainability of technical textiles at Serge Ferrari and was then Head of Recycling, Biomaterials & Eco-circular Sourcing at Danone for more than a decade when she moved earlier this year to Givaudan’s sustainability leadership team as Global Head of Plastic Circularity. 

Damien Sauer

Head of EMEA, Nomura Greentech

Damien Sauer, based in Zürich, heads the Europeanoperations of Nomura Greentech, advising leading IOCs, Utilities, Industrial Groupsand Disruptive Companies on M&A and capital raising assignments.He brings to our clients over 20years of transaction experience driven by value creation.In the last few years, Mr. Sauer has completed more than 25deals in renewable and energy efficiency sectors.Drawing upon his true understanding of corporate internal dynamics, he focuses on anticipating his clients’ needs.

Mr. Sauer joined Greentech Capital Advisors from AREVA, where he was Head of M&A.He was instrumental in expanding AREVA’s product portfolio and geographical footprint by executing acquisitions and joint ventures with European, US, Asian, and South Americanpartners.

Before being promoted to Head of M&A, Mr. Sauer was Senior M&A Manager at AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution division, in charge of implementing top management’s external growth program and divesting non core activities.He also supported business units in the preparation of integration and carve-out plans.

Prior to AREVA, Mr. Sauer co-founded the M&A department of MGT, a French leading boutique advisory firm focused on high growth companies, where he sourced and executed a variety of strategic M&A transactions for private equity firms.

Mr. Sauer began his career at Deloitte & Touche, where he carried out financial audit assignments for large French corporations.He then joined the business valuation practice within the Corporate Finance Division.

Mr. Sauer holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Master’s Degree in Finance and Accounting as well as a Bachelor in Mathematics from the University of Paris Dauphine.

Carmen Sprus

Client Associate, EYCarbon & Smart Cities

Carmen is an experienced senior associate within the Swiss EYCarbon team and PhD candidate at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) with prior project work in the public sector (Swiss National Bank, Swiss Economic Institute) and sustainability transformation consulting cumulating 6 years of professional work experience in Switzerland, Germany and China.

As an engaged project manager at Ernst & Young (EY) and HSG Carmen combines  academia and business practice on the intersection of green hydrogen, sustainable / circular business models and smart cities.

Carmen studied Economics at the University of Zurich (UZH) and Fudan University in Shanghai, and graduated magna cum laude.

Rami Syväri

Head of Mobility, Energie360

Driven by his ambition to advance sustainability as one of his main values, Rami Syväri combines extensive experience in corporate venture building as well as business internationalization. He strives to live a modern leadership approach and cultivates progressive organizational structures.

Rami grew up in Finland and Germany and is a father of two boys. Succeeding his studies in foreign trade and marketing he joined Mäkitorppa, the leading Finnish mobile phone retail chain where he participated in its expansion to Germany heading sales. Subsequently to an internal change, he participated at the successful turnaround of the telecom network provider. After his return to Finland he joined E.ON Finland as Sales Manager heading the B2B sales of the electricity division. Following the acquisition by Fortum, Rami has been working with new business and was Head of International Sales & Business Development at Fortum Charge & Drive, the leading charging operator in the Nordics.  As Vice President, he has been responsible for the company’s e-mobility business and its international expansion, initiating market activities in India among others.

Rami then moved to Switzerland and joined Alpiq, where he has been responsible for the swiss e-mobility operations before assuming his current position as Head of Mobility at Energie 360° in 2019. The Energie 360° mobility group provides a unique offering on the market for the creation and implementation of innovative solutions across the whole e-mobility charging solutions value chain. Since 2015, Rami has been a member of several boards in the E-mobility industry, currently as chairman of the board at swisscharge.ch, GOFAST and Protoscar.

Jeff Way

Practice Partner for Supply Chain Innovation, Pilot44

Markus Bachmaier

Head of Hydrogen Solutions, Linde Hydrogen FuelTech

Markus Bachmeier works in Linde’s Engineering division and is the Head of Hydrogen Solutions.

Following military service in the Alpine and Airborne Divisions, Mr. Bachmeier worked at the Boston Consulting Group in Dusseldorf and Munich as a Consultant and Project Manager, working with clients in the automotive, industrial goods, and durable consumer goods industries. Mr. Bachmeier also worked in sales, marketing, and after sales at BMW AG in Munich, Germany, and Birmingham, UK. Since 2008, he has been employed by Linde AG and is responsible for Hydrogen Solutions.

Mr. Bachmeier received a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University Munich, Germany, and an MBA degree from INSEAD in France.

Anders Berger

Director of Public Affairs, Volvo Group

Jacob Duer

President & CEO, Alliance to End Plastic Waste

Jacob Duer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a global non-profit organisation that brings together industry, government, civil society, development agencies and investors to help end plastic waste in the environment. The Alliance has nearly 50 member companies and supporters across the world’s leading organisations in the plastic value chain.

Jacob leads the strategic visioning and direction of the Alliance that targets to invest $1.5 billion over five years to develop, accelerate and scale technologies and solutions focussing on integrated waste management systems, engaging communities and catalysing capital towards a circular economy.

Jacob has more than 20 years of experience with the United Nations, focusing on chemicals and waste management, environment and sustainable development. Currently based in Singapore, he has lived and worked with the United Nations in Austria, Senegal, Kenya and Switzerland.

Tom Edwards

Senior Modeller, Cornwall Insight

Tom is a senior modeller at Cornwall Insight with an interest in wholesale electricity market design, balancing services and network optimisation. Tom has helped deliver the Cornwall  Insight Ireland, GB and EU power market and capacity models, as well as business models for energy storage and renewables generators.

Tom has been involved in industry change projects since 2012, including the Electricity Balancing Significant Code Review, Project TERRE, Network Access & Forwards Looking Charges Review and the Balancing Services Use of System Charge Task Force. Tom has been an elected member of the BSC panel since 2016.

You can follow Tom on Twitter @NotionalGrid

Wolfgang Falter

Global Chemical Lead, Deloitte Consulting

Wolfgang specializes on Sustainable Solutions for companies, investors and Governments. He helps to manage risks, capture opportunities, transform operations and drive growth in a low carbon, sustainable economy. After serving as an application technology manager for the beverage industry at Henkel, Wolfgang spent more than 15 years with Roland Berger, where he was an equity partner and leader of the global chemicals and oil practice. He created this practice and successfully developed it internationally, not only in Western Europe, but also in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Before joining Deloitte, Wolfgang was leading the Oil, Gas & Chemicals practice in EMEA at AlixPartners as a Managing Director for more than 9 years. At Deloitte Wolfgang is heading the global Chemicals as well as Oil, Gas and Chemicals activities in Central Europe and Sustainable Solutions activities of Deloitte in Germany.

Wolfgang studied chemistry in Germany (RWTH, Aachen) and the US (University of Kansas, Lawrence) and business administration in France (INSEAD, Fontainebleau) and the US (Harvard Business School, Cambridge). He teaches twice a year at INSEAD and is an author of various publications and a regular guest speaker of conferences and conventions.

Stefan-Jörg Göbel

Senior Vice President, Statkraft

Stefan Göbel is heading STATKRAFT’S activities in continental Europe to become a leading renewable developer by 2025.

Between 2008 and 2018 he led STATKRAFT’s Trading & Origination activities outside the Nordics and built up its German market access and PPA business to market leadership.

Until November 2001 he worked for ENRON in Frankfurt and London.

Stefan loves competitive markets, classical theatre and time off.

Rowan Hooper

Managing Editor, News Scientist

Auke Ijspeert

Professor, EPFL

Luda Kopeikina

Investment Director, DSM Venturing

Uwe Kruger

Senior Managing Director, Temasek International

Mr. Uwe Krueger joined Temasek in January 2018 and is currently Head, Industrials, Business Services, Energy & Resources and Joint Head, EMEA.

Mr. Krueger was most recently the CEO of WS Atkins plc.  Prior to Atkins, Mr. Krueger was the President of Cleantech Switzerland. He was also an Operations Director and Senior Adviser with TPG Capital based in London and San Francisco. Before TPG Capital, Mr. Krueger was the CEO of OC Oerlikon Management AG and had assumed multiple roles with Hochtief AG, among them CEO Central/Eastern Europe (Warsaw, Moscow) and Chairman Turner International (Dallas/US). He started his career as a Project Manager with A.T. Kearney.

Mr. Krueger serves on the Boards of Aggreko plc and Gategroup Holding AG.

Mr. Krueger holds a Doctorate of Physics from University of Frankfurt and was conferred a Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He also holds an Honorary Professorship of Physics at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt. He received the European Chief Executive Officer of the Year Award in 2016.

Michael Liebreich

Chairman & CEO, Liebreich Associates

Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates, but he is perhaps best known as Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance – the world’s leading provider of information and research on clean energy and transport. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, and a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board. 

Until recently he was a long-standing board member of Transport for London and a member of the high-level group for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. 

Michael serves on too many advisory boards to name, he is a prolific speaker and writer, and is known to make the occasional angel investment and finally, he also skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. 

Julia Ling

CTO, Citrine Informatics

James Mawson

CEO, Mawsonia

Paddy Padmanathan

CEO, ACWA Power

Paddy Padmanathan, a Civil Engineering graduate of the University of Manchester with over 40 years of experience, has served ACWA Power from 2005 as this Saudi Arabian company focused on reliably delivering electricity and desalinated water at the lowest possible cost, grew from a start-up, to now operating in 13 countries with a portfolio of assets of an investment value in excess of USD 50 billion that can generate 34+ GW of power and produce 5.9 million m3 /day of desalinated water delivered on a bulk basis to credit worthy off-takers on long term contracts.

With considerable experience in developing infrastructure in two dozen countries, Paddy Padmanathan is implementing a strategy of not seeking to market price the generated electricity or produced potable water but to focus on minimizing cost and recovering a reasonable risk reflective return, which has consolidated ACWA Power’s reputation for driving down the cost of renewable energy and desalinated water and setting ever lower tariff bench marks.

Utilizing the long term investor mind-set of the company, Paddy Padmanathan has shaped the ACWA Power’s business model to not only drive the acceleration of the decarbonisation of the power and desal water sectors but also to promoting localisation of technology and industrialisation of the emerging economies in which it invests on the back of implementing such investments and in developing local communities within which the facilities are located.

In addition to his leadership role at ACWA Power, Mr. Padmanathan serves on the Board of Directors of several power and water service providing companies including Desolenator BV, a start-up that is developing solutions to address the potable water supply challenge to serve the 800+ million people who currently lack access to potable water and X-Links Ltd, another start-up working on establishing the feasibility of a 4000+ Km under sea direct power cable between Morocco and United Kingdom to supply renewable energy at cost competitive tariff.

Bertrand Piccard

Initiator and Chairman, Solar Impulse

Carlo Pinciroli

Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Levi Tillemann

Lead, World Economic Forum

David Trevithick

Principal Analyst, Delta-EE

Cheryl Benini

Head of Strategy Infrastructure, Siemens

Cheryl Benini is the Head of Strategy of Smart Infrastructure at Siemens, a new 14 billion Euro business with 71,000 employees, combining Building Technologies, Low- and Medium-Voltage and Digital Grid businesses.  She is responsible for market intelligence, strategic planning, alliances, M&A and investments in start-ups.

Cheryl began her career in the automotive industry in 1988, worked for Ford, Chrysler and a supplier doing manufacturing engineering in the US and Switzerland before joining Siemens in Munich in 1997.  At Siemens, she began in the Siemens Nixdorf IT division and joined Building Technologies in Zurich in 2000.

Cheryl has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Management, both from MIT.

Charles Boettcher

Senior VP, Waste Management

Charles (Chuck) Boettcher is senior vice president, corporate development and chief legal officer of Waste Management. He is responsible for all legal, corporate secretary, ethics and compliance, government affairs, corporate development and innovation
as well as, oilfield services, security and real estate functions. He is a member of
the Company’s senior leadership team and reports to Jim Fish, president and chief executive officer.

Boettcher has previously served as the Company’s vice president and general counsel. Immediately prior to joining Waste Management, he was executive vice president, chief financial officer and general counsel of Dallas-based Oilfield Water Logistics,
a produced water gathering, transportation and disposal company backed by private equity sponsor Natural Gas Partners.

Prior to that, Boettcher served for eight years as senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary of Houston-based Eagle Rock Energy Partners.

Boettcher received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Juris Doctor from Texas Tech University School of Law.

Alex Brand

Program Manager SmartRail 4.0, SBB

Alex Brand, Electrical Engineer ETH Zurich, PhD in Telecommunications Engineering King’s College London, has joined the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) 2005 after having worked for British Telecom in London and Swisscom in Bern.

At SBB he joined the telecommunications department where he was responsible from 2010 to 2017 for SBB telecoms asset management including dedicated mobile communication and data networks as well as outsourced business telephony. On top of this, he was also responsible for the definition and coordination of all SBB endeavors to improve the mobile communications coverage for SBB’s railway passengers and for the free Wireless LAN at 80 SBB railway stations.

In February 2017 he joined the Swiss Rail sector’s digitization program SmartRail 4.0 as program manager for “Location, Connectivity and Security”.

Barbara J. Burger

President, Chevron Technology Ventures

Barbara J. Burger, PhD., is president of Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV). CTV addresses Chevron’s business needs through the identification and integration of innovative externally‐developed technologies that strengthen Chevron’s business now and in the future.

Burger joined Chevron in 1987 as a research chemist and has since held a number of management positions across International Marketing, Chemicals, Technology Marketing and Lubricants.

Her many civic and industry affiliations include leadership positions with Houston Exponential and the Houston Symphony Society. Beyond Houston she serves on the leadership counsel for Cyclotron Road, the external advisory council for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the governing board of the MIT Energy Initiative and is a member of the MIT Visiting Committee. She was recently appointed to the Board of Oil and Gas Climate Initiative Climate Investment LLP. Burger is an active alumnus of the
University of Rochester where she serves on the Board of Trustees and the university’s River Campus Libraries National Council e. She established the Barbara J. Burger Endowed Scholarship in the Sciences and founded the Barbara J. Burger iZone, where students generate, refine, and communicate ideas for social, cultural, community and economic impact.

Burger holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Rochester, a doctoral degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and an academic honor MBA in finance from the University of California, Berkeley.

David Doherty

Energy Specialist, BloombergNEF

David is an Energy Specialist at BloombergNEF, based in London. With a focus on the oil industry, David helps clients to understand how clean energy, evolving transport modes, digital innovation and advanced materials will shape the future of the energy sector.

Prior to joining BNEF, David spent time as an Oil Trader with Citibank before joining Wood Mackenzie as a Senior Oil Analyst, covering Europe, Africa and the Caspian region.

David holds a BSc in Financial and Actuarial Mathematics from Dublin City University and an MSc in Finance from Imperial College London.

Arjun Ghosh

A&D, EHT & IoT Lead, Accenture

Tony Kingsbury

EMEA Director of Sustainability & Advocacy, DOW

Dominique Levin

Co-CEO, Winning by Design

Spencer Levy

Senior Economic Advisor, CBRE

Spencer Levy is the Chairman of Americas Research and Senior Economic Advisor for CBRE, the largest commercial real estate firm in the world. Spencer is the chief spokesman on real estate matters for CBRE in the Americas. He is regularly quoted in major business publications and frequently is a guest on business television, including Bloomberg, CNBC, PBS and Fox Business.   He is widely considered one of the finest commentators in the entire Commercial Real Estate industry.

By leveraging his 23 years of experience in commercial real estate, including the past 11 at CBRE, Spencer has redefined the role of research leader. Spencer combines his experience as a lawyer, investment banker and capital markets leader to create presentations that go deep and touch on all aspects of commercial real estate. Combined with his unique and engaging presenting style, this makes him one of the most respected commentators and advisors in the business. Spencer regularly speaks at major events of the country’s leading commercial real estate organizations, including CORENET, NAIOP, ULI, ICSC, NAREIM and CREW. He also has guest lectured at major universities, including his alma maters Harvard and Cornell, in addition to Columbia, NYU, Johns Hopkins, Indiana, Georgetown, Pitt, Auburn and many others. Spencer is a recipient of multiple industry awards, including the CORENET Luminary Award for Excellence in Public Speaking, the CBRE Trammell Crow Master Builder Award, the CBRE Gary J. Bebon Teamwork Award, the CBRE Capital Markets “MVP”, and was named a State of Maryland Influencer in Real Estate.

While a New Yorker for most of his life, Spencer currently hails from Baltimore and is a proud husband of 19 years and father of three children. Spencer sits on the boards of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women and Harvard Alumni Real Estate.

Chris Luebkeman

Fellow and Director for Global Foresight, Arup

David McIntosh

Moderator

David is a Boston-based consultant, educator, author and speaker, serving as a consultant to executives and their  organizations. As a facilitator, he designs and leads strategic planning sessions for businesses and non-profit institutions. As a teacher, he creates customized management development programs for CEOs and their leadership teams, as well as teaching two online courses at Harvard University (advanced business strategy and behavioral economics). He is the co-author of The Art of Business (Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005), which was published in five languages. He has extensive experience as a speaker, addressing audiences in Europe, Asia, and North America about technology trends, innovation, and the synthesis of work and art.

David earned his MBA and his AB (magna cum laude) from Harvard University.  His writings have appeared in Urban Land, Leader to Leader, Opera America, and Perspectives on Business Innovation.

Ruben Merz

Lead Architect 5G, Swisscom

Paul Morris

Independent Advisor, ex-DOW Chemical

Paul Morris is a 22-year veteran of the Corporate Venture Capital industry. He set up and ran the CVC operation of Dow Chemical in Europe and has been at the forefront of new CVC initiatives for many years. He has invested over $100M in 35 direct deals and, as an LP, in 15 VC funds. During a 28-year career with Dow, Morris held senior business management roles across various geographies, including Head of New Businesses for EMEA. He now consults for corporates, governments, start-ups and funds on CVC, investments and fundraising. This currently includes supporting initiatives by certain governments, including the UK, to stimulate the flow of inward VC investment, drawing on his network of close contacts with over 100 CVC leaders globally.

Morris is a regular speaker at major CVC events. He delivers training courses for corporate VCs in the US, Europe and Asia in his capacity as Head of the Global Corporate Venturing Academy; and is the current President of GCV Connect Europe . He holds board positions in five entities in Europe and the Middle East spanning both public and private sectors. An avid sportsman, Paul Morris has captained teams at club and representative level in rugby and cricket. He is now an enthusiastic skier and cyclist.

Valerio Nannini

Independent Advisor, ex-Nestlé

Former Senior Vice-President, head of Strategies and Performance at Nestlé global HQ, Valerio is a leading innovation enabler who offers his expertise to a broad spectrum of start-ups, agencies and consulting companies as they expand their businesses and offerings.

Valerio has an exhaustive understanding of disruptive technologies, digital environments, and their commercial applications. A respected driver of innovation, he has a track record of engaging with academia, accelerators, VCs and start-ups, as well as with major strategic partnerships and alliances, to accelerate growth. His vast network, his drive to maximise corporate efficiency, his passion for innovation and for nurturing cross-functional corporate culture have allowed Valerio to deliver a number of business-relevant and innovative concepts, whilst leading change management.

Valerio’s international business expertise extends across Europe, Asia, Africa, the US and Latin America. He has an MBA from the University of Wales and is the recipient of the Certificate in Lifelong Executive Learning from IMD Business School in Lausanne. Valerio holds British, Swiss and Italian citizenship.

Kimmo Rauma

Vice President, Danfoss Editron

Dr. Kimmo Rauma is the co-founder and former CEO of Visedo, currently a Vice President of the Danfoss Editron Ltd (once Danfoss acquired Visedo on December 2017). Danfoss Editron is a Finnish headquartered manufacturer of heavy-duty electric drivetrains. Danfoss Editron delivers the market’s most efficient hybrid and electric power for marine vessels and commercial vehicles.

Before pioneering heavy-duty electrification with Visedo, Kimmo founded numerous technology start-ups in different fields, from dental technology to machine learning.

Kimmo received M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Lappeenranta University of Technology in 2002 and 2006. He is also a member of the Electric Vehicle Systems Program steering group of the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and member of the board of directors of Lappeenranta University of technology (LUT).

Estefania Tapias

Co-Founder & CEO, WeSpace

Dr. Estefanía Tapiasis co-founder & CEO at WeSpace. She obtained her Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and worked as a researcher and lecturer on the topic of Future Cities. Estefanía has been listed in BILANZ Top 100 Digital Shapers in Switzerland and in Forbes 30 under 30. She is Mentor & Expert at CVLabs, WEF Global  Shaper, and Founding President of the EIT Alumni Board.

Estefanía co-developed the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) series on ´Future Cities` on edX and co-authored the book ‘City in your Hands’. She has been invited speaker in different international events such as the World Web Forum, the Sustainable Innovation Forum – COP21, and the European Forum of Young Innovators – EURODOC. Estefanía is committed to develop and shape initiatives that support the sustainable future of societies and cities.

Roelof Westerbeek

Independent Advisor, ex-DSM Plastics

Roelof is an independent senior advisor in the fields of Strategy, Innovation and Circular Development with a focus on Materials/Plastics and Packaging. He councils multiple large and small organizations to advance their Sustainability and Circularity roadmaps, and is mentoring start-ups on Business Strategy. His activities include those that are focused on helping solve the dramatic pollution by plastics of our main waterways and oceans.

Roelof has 30 years of experience in Plastics and Packaging. He was CEO of DSM Engineering Plastics, leading for several years a global bn€ business. As Business Group Director at Amcor he managed a bn€ Flexible Plastics Packaging business in Asia Pacific with manufacturing in 8 countries.

He is a strong believer on the responsibility and opportunities that businesses and business leaders have to address the large global challenges that we face in climate change and making our economy carbon neutral and fully circular. He is passionate about the convergence of Business and Circularity; Doing Good by doing Well.

While he managed large P/Ls for most of his career, he has a strong background in Technology, and having led for many years the global Materials Science Research group at DSM with over 400 PhDs.

Roelof has worked and lived in Asia Pacific for 20 years. He holds a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Delft University in the Netherlands. He is married to Susanne and they have three kids, who have lived most of their life in China and Singapore.

Aviad Almagor

Director Mixed Reality Program, Trimble

Florian-Artinger

Founder & Partner, Simply Rational

Roger A. Assaker

CEO, e-Xstream engineering

Roger is a Technology Entrepreneur.   He is the co-founder and CEO of e-Xstream engineering.   A software and engineering services company 100% focused on the modelling of advanced materials such as composites.

In September 2012, Roger sold e-Xstream to MSC software where he took the additional role of Chief Material Strategist.

Roger holds a PhD and MS in Aerospace Engineering with a strong focus on nonlinear computational mechanics where he totals more than 25 years of experience.

Roger complemented his engineering education with an MBA in International Business and several advanced technology, business and entrepreneurship courses from prestigious universities such as MIT & Harvard.

In parallel to growing e-Xstream to be the world leader in advanced composite modeling, Roger is on the Board of Directors of the National Research Fund (FNR) of Luxembourg, sits on the industrial advisory board of the National Composite Center (NCC) of Luxembourg, is the Vice Chairman of NAFEMS Composite Working Group, and an active member of other technical material associations such as SPE and SAMPE.

Roger received multiple awards for his entrepreneurial and technical innovations including: R&D100, JEC Composites (3 times), CAMX, SPE, Young Entrepreneur of the Year.  Roger has also won several regional and European business plan competitions.

Outside of work, Roger is a Business Angel aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship and enjoys outdoor sports such as scuba-diving, sailing, snowboarding, golfing and running.

Rolf Dobelli

Entrepreneur, thinker and writer

Christoph Frei

Secretary General & CEO, World Energy Council

Christoph Frei became WEC’s fifth CEO & Secretary General in April 2009. He has led the further development of the world-renowned London-based organisation by strengthening its policy and strategic insight processes, including WEC’s on-going World Energy Scenarios. Under Christoph’s leadership WEC has achieved that the WEC’s annual Trilemma report has become a reference for governments in many of WEC’s over 90 member countries, for the UN, the Clean Energy Ministerial and, in policy discussions with Multilateral Development Banks.

He is also a Professor at the Swiss Federal Technical Institute in Lausanne and a member of the board of the energy blockchain focused Energy Web Foundation. Prior to joining WEC, Christoph was a member of the Executive Council of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its Senior Director in charge of Energy.

Cecilia Gee

Analyst, Lux Research

Cecilia Gee is an analyst based in Lux Research’s Amsterdam office. With the Materials team, she leads research on technology innovation and market trends in composites, structural materials, coatings, future materials platforms, and sustainability. Cecilia has authored articles on a range of topics including the future of carbon fiber, graphene successes, functional coatings, and novel adhesives.

Prior to joining Lux, Cecilia was active in both Canada and France with projects in modelling, manufacturing, and smart materials. Her background is in materials science and engineering.

David Giger

Founding Partner, Global Space Ventures

David Giger is a founder and Managing Partner of Global Space Ventures, the premier global VC firm focused exclusively on private companies in space and adjacent sectors.

Previously as a SpaceX executive, David was the Senior Director of Dragon Engineering leading the overall Dragon program since 2009 until his departure in 2017.  He carried overall responsibility for the first flight of the Dragon spacecraft in 2010 and the first mission to the ISS for NASA in 2012.  In 2015 he led the successful Dragon pad abort test as part of human spaceflight certification.

David joined SpaceX in 2005 as the inaugural Mission Manager and went on to develop the Draco thruster.  He graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering, subsequently receiving a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California Berkeley.

Michael Liebreich

Chairman and CEO, Liebreich Associates

Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates, but he is perhaps best known as Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance – the world’s leading provider of information and research on clean energy and transport. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, and a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board. 

Until recently he was a long-standing board member of Transport for London and a member of the high-level group for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. 

Michael serves on too many advisory boards to name, he is a prolific speaker and writer, and is known to make the occasional angel investment and finally, he also skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. 

Belinda Littleton

Group Strategy & National Grid Ventures, National Grid

Belinda is leading National Grid’s strategy for supporting electric vehicles.

She has worked right across the energy industry, beginning her career in policy-making at Ofgem, then at PwC supporting domestic and international clients, both private and governmental, with strategic energy challenges. Since joining National Grid in 2015, Belinda has worked on the sale of the Gas Distribution business, and corporate strategy with a focus on decentralised energy opportunities. With over a decade of strategy experience tackling energy’s big questions, she is looking forward to shaping our decentralised and decarbonised energy future.

Belinda is a Chartered Engineer, with degrees in Chemical Engineering and Economics from the University of Queensland, Australia.

Samuel Merkli

Global Business Development Manager, BU Building Products, ABB

Global Business Development Manager for the Business Unit Building Products, responsible for organic and inorganic growth in commercial- and residential electrification products, building automation and EV charging infrastructure

Born in Bern, Switzerland

• Masters in Business Economics from the University of St. Gallen (MA HSG)
• Masters in International Management (CEMS MIM) from Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)
• 2008-09 Consultant in Financial Services Practice, Arthur D. Little (Switzerland)
• 2009-11 Analyst in the Group Function Sustainability Affairs in ABB (China & Sweden)
• 2011-13 Business Development Manager Energy Efficiency India & Middle East (UAE)
• 2013-17 Assistant Vice President Corporate Strategy ABB Group (Switzerland)

Oliver Rix

Partner, Baringa Partners

Oliver is a Partner in Baringa’s Energy and Resources practice, with over 25 years’ experience in energy markets.  Oliver’s work has spanned policy and regulatory analysis in electricity and gas markets, commercial and risk management advice, asset valuation and investment advisory, and fundamentals and price modelling of electricity and gas markets, and full energy systems.  Oliver leads Baringa’s work in long term decarbonisation pathways and climate change, and in ultra-low emission vehicles, working with investors, energy suppliers, network companies, fleets, and oil and gas majors to understand the risks and opportunities, in particular around commercial models, consumer propositions, and the interaction with the energy system.

Oliver started his career at Shell, where he worked on the development of gas storage facilities in the Netherlands, before joining Caminus, a leading UK-based strategic energy consultancy.  Following a period in New York working on energy trading and risk management software systems, he returned to London and co-founded Redpoint Energy in 2004, merging with Baringa Partners in 2012.  Oliver’s clients include the UK Government, energy regulators, oil majors, asset developers, utilities and energy sector investors.

Baringa Partners topped the FT’s 2018 ranking of UK management consultants in the Energy, Utilities & Environment category.  We work across the entire energy spectrum.  We understand the context within which our clients operate, and use our deep industry knowledge and practical experience to help them address their toughest challenges, to build trust with their customers and navigate the complexities of our industries with them.

Nanja Strecker

Managing Director, ESA BIC Switzerland

Since summer 2016, Dr Nanja Strecker is the Managing Director of ESA BIC Switzerland (www.esabic.ch). She is an employee at ETH Zurich (www.ethz.ch), the No. 1 technical university of continental Europe.

Nanja is an innovation expert by training and professional experience. Before joining ETH Zurich in 2015, Nanja was the General Manager of “Innovation Cells” an innovation unit focusing on breakthrough innovations, and Chief Innovation Officer, at Constellium (formerly Alcan), a leader in the aluminium industry. Innovation Cells was located on the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne.

Prior to Constellium, and from 1998-2007, Nanja was a senior project manager at Monitor, a strategic consulting firm founded by Michael Porter, from Harvard University. For Monitor she worked primarily on innovation related topics, in various industries and in 13 countries around the world.

Since 2012 Nanja is also teaching “Corporate Strategy” at Master’s level at EPFL (= ETH Lausanne).

Nanja holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany and a PhD in Innovation Management from Graz University, Austria.

She is fluent in five languages and was a competitive athlete in roller and ice figure skating. She continues to enjoy sports today, actively as well as a spectator.

Patrick Sheehan

Founder and Managing Partner, ETF Partners

Patrick is a founder and Managing Partner of ETF Partners. He represents the firm on the Boards of Metalysis, Telensa, Wirepas and E-Leather. Patrick has worked in venture capital since 1985, when he joined 3i. He was instrumental in founding 3i’s venture capital practice, and later became the founding Managing Director of its Silicon Valley operation. Before this he was a research engineer for GEC and technical consultant for Marconi Space Systems.

Patrick was a member of the Executive Committee and Board of EVCA from 2007 to 2010, during which time he also chaired the Venture Capital Committee.  After that he then established and Chaired their Environmental Task Force.

Patrick has a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from UCL, London.

Ben Vollmer

Global Field Service Lead, Business Applications, Microsoft

Ben Vollmer has been involved with helping companies improve their strategies around Customer Engagement and Experience for the past 25 years. This has included companies of all shapes and sizes and may different areas of Customer Engagement and Experience including; Sales Force Automation, Customer Service, Marketing Automation and Field Service. This has included helping architect and show value out of integration patterns and practices, migration between systems and the most important part, helping with the human change management.

He has been with Microsoft since 2003 in a wide variety of customer engagement and experience roles, with customers from some our largest to some of their emerging customers.

Arijana Walcott

VP of Consumer Innovation, Swisscom

Arijana is an expert in AR/VR, digitalization and intrapreneurship. Most recently she was part of Swisscoms Innovation Outpost in the Silicon Valley working with swiss corporates and startups alike in finding the most exciting use cases, business models and collaborations around AR/VR. While living in San Francisco Arijana cofounded DART.

DART supports university projects, creators and early stage startups, test, scale and fund their ideas in San Francisco​ and is building a tokenized security backed by the DART FUND – an early stage emerging technology fund focused on new and creative forms of human computer interaction.

Robert Berendes

Co-Owner and Partner, a-connect

Kai Engelhardt

Head of Corporate Strategy, M&A & Venture Capital, MAHLE

Kai Engelhardt is Head of Corporate Strategy, M&A & Venture Capital at MAHLE Int. GmbH

In 2013, he established a new Corporate Venture Capital Unit within MAHLE. This CVC Investment Unit focuses on companies offering technologies which either reinforce and strengthen MAHLE’s core business or enable new opportunities within the automotive sector but outside of current principal competencies.

Prior to joining MAHLE as a Strategic Analyst in the Corporate Planning Department in 2008, Kai worked for premium OEMs such as BMW and Daimler. During this time, he established a worldwide competitor network and developed several business strategy support tools. Thus, he is well connected within the automotive industry.

From 2010 to 2012 Kai became Business Development Manager at MAHLE. Herein, he actively contributed to the continuous strategic advancement of the sector “MAHLE Non-Automotive” and was additionally highly involved in various M&A projects.

Kai studied Mechanical Engineering in both Constance and Auckland. He holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering as well as a Swiss MBA and is fluent in both German and English.

(Top 20 Global automotive supplier 77.000 employees, 12,3 bn € sales).

Christoph Frei

Secretary General & CEO, World Energy Council

Christoph Frei became WEC’s fifth CEO & Secretary General in April 2009. He has led the further development of the world-renowned London-based organisation by strengthening its policy and strategic insight processes, including WEC’s on-going World Energy Scenarios. Under Christoph’s leadership WEC has achieved that the WEC’s annual Trilemma report has become a reference for governments in many of WEC’s over 90 member countries, for the UN, the Clean Energy Ministerial and, in policy discussions with Multilateral Development Banks.

He is also a Professor at the Swiss Federal Technical Institute in Lausanne and a member of the board of the energy blockchain focused Energy Web Foundation. Prior to joining WEC, Christoph was a member of the Executive Council of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its Senior Director in charge of Energy.

Nina Harjula

Chief Marketing Officer, Visedo

Nina Harjula is the Chief Marketing Officer of Finnish technology company Visedo. Visedo is the leading designer of fully electric and hybrid systems for marine vessels and commercial vehicles. Nina has a strong background in marketing communications, especially digital marketing strategies and concepts.

 Through her former career in the Finnish Cleantech Cluster, leading the Cleantech Venture Day -event and as a co-founder of the Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA), she is one of the pioneers and thought leaders in the cleantech business development in Finland. She is also the Executive Chairman and developer of a digital platform Nordic Innovation Accelerator and a member of the Cleantech Advisory Board of Business Finland.

Markus Hökfelt

VP, Fortum Charge & Drive

Michael Liebreich

Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Michael Liebreich is the Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the world’s leading provider of research for senior decision-makers in clean energy, carbon and power markets, advanced transportation, energy technology and natural gas. Since August 2012 Michael has also served as a Board Member of Transport for London, the capital’s transport authority.

Michael founded New Energy Finance in 2004 and acted as Chairman and Chief Executive before selling it to Bloomberg LP in 2009. Bloomberg New Energy Finance is headquartered in London and now has over 200 staff working out of 13 offices around the world.

He serves on the high-level Advisory Group for the UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative and is Founder and Chairman of Finance for Resilience (FiRe), EcoVillages and the Liebreich Foundation. He chairs the selection committee for the Bloomberg New Energy Pioneers, which are announced each year at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit, and is a Visiting Professor at the Imperial College Energy Futures Lab.

Michael has in the past served on the advisory board of the Clinton Global Initiative‘s Energy and Climate Change working group and on the selection panels for the Zayed Future Energy Prize and the the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers. He was a long-time member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils for Sustainable Energy and the New Energy Architecture, among other things helping launch the initiative which led to the current WTO Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations. Michael was a founding Board Member of the Middle East Clean Energy Business Council, a member of the Accenture Energy Board and a member of the advisory panel for the INSEAD Energy Club.

Michael is a prolific technology angel investor, and acts as Chairman of technology startup Pearlshare. He is also Chairman of St. Mark’s Hospital Foundation, a charity supporting research and teaching in colorectal medicine at St Mark’s Hospital, part of London North West Healthcare NHS. He is a three-time finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, and in June 2015 was presented with the Renewable Energy Association’s Judges Award for his outstanding contribution to the development of renewable energy. Michael is also a member of the Advisory Council of Business for Britain.

Prior to founding New Energy Finance, Michael was an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and media executive. In the 1990s he acted as Deputy Managing Director of Associated Press Television and Founding Director of Sports News Television, then as UK Managing Director of Groupe Arnault’s technology investment activities. He also spent five years in the London office of McKinsey & Company.

Michael graduated in Engineering from the University of Cambridge with first class honours, winning the Ricardo Prize for Thermodynamics and the Christ’s College Wyatt Prize. He earned his MBA from Harvard, where he was a Harkness Fellow and Baker Scholar. He was a member of the British Ski Team from 1986 to 1993, competing in two World Championships and the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games.

Michael is a frequent advisor, conference speaker and commentator on matters relating to energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, finance and sustainable development. To enquire as to his availability, please contact jo@liebreichassociates.com.

Andy Merchant

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Europe, TomTom

Monique Morrow

Global, Technology Futurist, ex CTO Cisco

Simon Myers

Director, Something More Near

Simon is one of the UK’s leading brand strategists and has worked both client and agency side. He is also an entrepreneur whose award winning brand agency was acquired in 2013 by a large US marketing consultancy. He has invested in several UK start ups including Yoti, Breezie and Snact.

Simon started work for the BBC World Service, then moved to Beijing to join the Swire Group and introduce Carlsberg to northern China in a sales and marketing role. His second posting in China was to Henan Province to reform sales and distribution in an underperforming Coca-Cola bottling plant.

Returning to Europe Simon spent 5 years at Interbrand in Amsterdam and London before co-founding Figtree, the brand agency that was bought by US based marketing consultancy Prophet. His own clients have included significant projects for Orange, HTC, Samsung, Stanhope, Arup Associates, Better Place, Netafim, Velocys and several NGO’s including Restless Development and SSAFA.

Simon speaks French and Mandarin, is a published author and a member of ClearlySo an angel investor fund focusing on environmental and social impact.

Will Rosenzweig

Senior Advisor, Generation Investment Management

William Rosenzweig is a 2010 recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award, an international honor recognizing his leadership in the realm of responsible business. Will is a serial entrepreneur, veteran educator and experienced venture investor. He currently serves as Senior Advisor to Generation Investment Management, a global investment management partnership chaired by Vice President Al Gore.

Most notable of his many entrepreneurial endeavors, Will was founding CEO of The Republic of Tea, the company that started a tea revolution (1992) and created the premium tea category in the United States.

Markus Schlögel

University of St. Gallen

Prof. Dr. Marcus Schögel is Executive Director of the Institute of Marketing at the University of St.Gallen (IfM-HSG). Among specialists, he is known as the expert from Berlin concerning Customer Centricity, Digital Marketing and the Development of successful Go-to-market Strategies.

He has completed several projects in cooperation with international partner companies such as BMW Group, Google, Bayer Crop Science, FRANKE, Procter&Gamble, Coop, Mobiliar, Swiss Life, Graubündner Kantonalbank, Deutsche Entwicklungsgesellschaft, McKinsey & Company, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. In his projects he develops approaches for a sustainable implementation of innovative and customer-centric business strategies.

Mel Torrie

CEO, Autonomous Solutions

Arij van Berkel

Ph.D. , Research Director, Lux Research B.V.

Arij van Berkel joined Lux in the Amsterdam office in 2015 and currently oversees the Energy and Water Intelligence practices. He and his team provide strategic insights in the rapidly changing landscape of energy supply to mobility, residences and industry. Prior to joining Lux Research, Arij worked for Shell and TNO, the public research and technology organization of The Netherlands. At Shell, he conducted research into process safety and combustion. At TNO he worked on a variety of topics including food preservation, emission reduction and biomass conversion. Just before joining Lux, Arij held the position of Director Chemical Industry at TNO, responsible for all projects and interactions with the Dutch and EU governments related to the chemical industry.

Arij obtained an MSc. degree in mechanical engineering from Twente University and a Ph.D. from Eindhoven University.

Marcel van Gerwen

Former Business Director, DOW Pharma & Food Solutions

Simon Wüthrich

Senior Communications Manager, webrepublic

Richard Youngman

CEO, CTG (Cleantech Group)

Since January 2016, Richard Youngman has been CEO of San-Francisco based Cleantech Group (CTG). This followed 7 years of driving the growth of CTG’s activities outside North America, especially in Europe and Israel, and Asia, based in CTG’s office in London.

Richard has more than eight years experience researching cleantech innovation, venture capital markets, and start-ups across Europe and globally. He is a regular keynote speaker at major cleantech events and is the driving force behind the annual Global Cleantech 100, a list of the world’s most promising private cleantech companies.

Richard has an MA from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Theseus International Management Institute, Sophia Antipolis, France.