Speakers

Dr Fatih Birol

Executive Director

IEA

Tudor Constantinescu

Principal Advisor To The Director General For Energy

European Commission

Dr Tudor Constantinescu is Principal Adviser to the Director General for Energy in the European Commission since March 2011. He is an engineer and economist by education. Before joining the Commission, he set up as Executive Director the Buildings Performance Institute Europe. He was the president of the Romanian Agency for Energy Conservation and for the period 2008-2009 he ensured the presidency of the EnR network of European Energy Agencies. Between 1996-2007, he coordinated the energy efficiency and related environmental activities of the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels.

Paul van Son

President & CEO

Dii Desert Energy

Paul van Son has been active in various management and executive positions in the international (renewable) electricity and gas business for over 30 years at Siemens AG (Germany), SEP (the Dutch power pool and interconnected grid), KEMA Consulting/ECC (international energy consultants), Chief Executive Officer of Essent Energy Trading, Managing Director of Essent Sustainable Energy and Chairman of the Management Board of Deutsche Essent GmbH in Düsseldorf, being responsible for the German activities of Essent N.V.

Mr. van Son has been instrumental in developing of non‐food biomass for power supply, wind power development and marketing of green power (an invention of Essent in 1998). During 2008/9 Mr. van Son was Executive Director of Econcern, NL (renewable energy and energy efficiency).

He is Chairman of the Energy4All Foundation (www.energy4all.org / www.niceinternational.com ), a non‐profit organization promoting decentralized energy and communication systems in Africa.

In addition, Mr. van Son is President of the European Federation of Energy Traders (www.efet.org), which has been a pioneer in energy market opening and (renewable) energy trading.

In 2009 Mr. van Son was appointed CEO of the Dii GmbH (Desertec Industrial Initiative).

Martin Neubert

Chief Executive Officer - Offshore

Ørsted

Martin Neubert is CEO of Offshore in Ørsted, Executive Vice President and member of Ørsted Executive Committee.

Prior to Mr. Neubert’s appointment as CEO of Offshore in Ørsted, he was Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer of Offshore, and Head of Market & Project Development. From 2014 – 2016 Martin Neubert was Vice President, Head of Commercial Transactions & Market Development in Offshore and Senior Director, Head of Group M&A from 2012 -2014. Martin Neubert started as Senior Manager of Group M&A when he was employed in Ørsted in 2008.

Mr. Neubert holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Finance and a CFA charter.

Cas König

CEO

Groningen Seaports NV

Jacques Vandermeiren

Chief Executive Officer & President of Executive Committee

Antwerp Port Authority

Jacques Vandermeiren is Chief Executive Officer and President of the Executive Committee of Antwerp Port Authority as of 1 January 2017. Until January 2015 he was CEO and President of the Executive Committee of the network operator Elia, a listed company, where he held various management positions since joining it in 2001. Before that he worked for 11 years as Senior Advisor Strategy Direction with the energy company Electrabel. Vandermeiren has occupied various directorships with among others Febeg (Federation of Belgian Energy Companies) and the Federation of Belgian Enterprises. He is currently an active board member of the digital platform NxtPort, Kunsthuis Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and the Belgian coffee brand Vascobelo. He is also co-founder, and since May 2018 Chairman, of the Belgian sustainability platform The Shift, as well as co-investor in Qpinch, which generates energy from waste heat.
Vandermeiren graduated as Master of Laws, a qualification which he later supplemented with a master's in European Studies, a middle management course with Vlerick Business School and an “advanced management Program INSEAD”. He is married to Barbara Baeckelmans, with whom he has three children. He lives in Antwerp.

Noe Van Hulst

Hydrogen Envoy

Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy, Netherlands

Noé van Hulst is Hydrogen Envoy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy in the Netherlands. Prior to that, Mr van Hulst was the Dutch Ambassador to the OECD from September 2013 to September 2018 and Chairman of the IEA Governing Board.

From 2003 to 2007, he worked at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris as Director of Long-Term Co-operation and Policy Analysis. He then became Secretary-General of the International Energy Forum (IEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2008 to 2011. He was Director of the Energy Academy Europe in 2012-2013.

Before that, Mr van Hulst worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs from 1988, lastly as Director-General for Energy. Mr van Hulst has a PhD in economics from the VU Amsterdam.

Boyana Achovski

Secretary General

Gas Infrastructure Europe

Since September 2016, Boyana Achovski serves as Secretary General of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), the European association of gas transmission, gas storage and LNG regasification terminal operators. Prior to her current function, Ms. Achovski held the position of GIE Vice Executive Secretary for a period of 4 years. Before joining GIE, Boyana Achovski worked for Bulgartransgaz, the Bulgarian transmission and storage operator, where she led the Analysis and International Operations Division, managing the company’s undertakings relating to the European regulatory framework and European energy policy. Ms. Achovski graduated in International Economic Affairs, specialized in International Finance and holds a Master's degree in Finance. Boyana Achovski was a Chair of GasNaturally Steering Committee from June 2017 to January 2018 and from July to December 2019.

Frank Wouters

Director

The EU-GCC Clean Energy Network

Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for over 28 years and played a lead role in the development of renewable energy projects valued at over $5 billion.
As Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), he managed a US$350 million IRENA/Abu Dhabi Fund for Development project facility for RE.
Mr. Wouters has served on the board of energy companies in Europe, Asia, the US and Africa and currently serves as Director of the EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, a platform that fosters partnerships between Europe and the Gulf. He is Global Lead Low-Carbon Hydrogen at Worley, he is Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines and he is a non-executive Board Director of Gorestreet Capital, London.
Frank has authored several books on renewable energy and lives in Abu Dhabi. He has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University. 

Robin Edme

High-Level Policy Expert - Climate & Sustainable Finance

Ministry for the Ecological & Inclusive Transition of France

Marc van der Linden

CEO

Stedin Groep

Marc van der Linden (1972) has been appointed Chairman of the Executive Board with effect from 1 February 2017. Before that he was, since December 2012, a member of the board of directors of Eneco Holding NV He started at Eneco in 1997 and held various positions including that of director of Eneco Energy Projects, director of Eneco Installation Companies and director of Eneco Wind. Before that, Marc worked at Van Gansewinkel Groep. He studied Economics at the University of Tilburg.

Other position: Chairman of Netbeheer Nederland, Member of Cyber
Security Council of the Netherlands, Member of Economic Board Zuid-Holland,
Member of Advisory Board of Technical College Rotterdam.

Beatriz Ruix Castelló

Innovation & New Energies Division

Enagas

Beatriz Ruiz, Phd Chemical Engineering. Beatriz has over 16 years of experience in the fields of research, development and innovation as Technical Manager leading the deployment of new business and projects in renewable energies, hydrogen, batteries and energy storage technologies. Currently working in the Innovation and New Energies Division at Enagas as Coordinator of the Hydrogen Area and Technical Leader of the Energy Pillar within the Hydrogen Europe Working Groups, representing the interests of the Industrial part within the European association.