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Speakers


Keynote Speaker
State of the Union - The Energy Transition in Context of Current Events
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Lord Browne of Madingley

Co-Founder and Chairman, BeyondNetZero

Lord Browne is Chairman of BeyondNetZero, a climate growth equity fund established in partnership with General Atlantic. He served as Group Chief Executive of international energy company BP from 1995 to 2007, having joined the company in 1966 as a university apprentice. He led BP through a period of significant growth and transformation, including a merger with Amoco in 1998. His landmark speech at Stanford University in 1997 established BP as a global leader in the way it thought about and sought to address climate change. In 2007, Lord Browne joined Riverstone, where he was co-head of the world’s largest renewable energy private equity fund until 2015. He is Chairman of Windward, a global maritime predictive intelligence company and Chairman of SparkCognition, and artificial intelligence technology company.

Lord Browne is independent co-Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Council on Science and Technology, Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Chairman of the Francis Crick Institute, Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Lord Browne was educated St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA degree in physics. In addition to his degree in physics from the University of Cambridge, he holds an MS degree in business from Stanford University, California. He is a former Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Judge Business School.

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Fireside Chat
Future of Clean Mobility: Decarbonization of Transport and Fuels

Dev Sanyal

CEO, VARO Energy

Dev Sanyal is Chief Executive Officer of VARO Energy, based in Zug, Switzerland. He was appointed to this role effective 1 January 2022. Prior to this, Dev had a 32-year career with BP PLC including over a decade as a member of the Group Executive Committee and headed gas and low carbon energy globally. Prior to this, he was Chief Executive of alternative energy and accountable for BP’s Europe and Asia regions. During his tenure, he built world-scale businesses in sustainable energy and led the pivot in the company’s energy transition strategy. Dev joined BP in 1989 and held a variety of international roles in London, Athens, Istanbul, Vienna, and Dubai. Prior to joining the Group Executive Committee, he held the roles of Group Treasurer and Chairman of BP Investment Management and Arco Aluminum, Chief executive of Air BP International and Chief Executive of BP Eastern Mediterranean.


Dev is an independent non-executive director on the board of Man Group PLC and member of the board of M&G PLC ; a member of the energy advisory board of the Government of India; the advisory board of the Centre for European Reform; and the board of overseers of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where he obtained a master’s degree in economics and politics. He is a Fellow of the Energy Institute. He was a member of the Accenture Global Energy Board (2012-2019); Vice Chairman, Centre for China in the World Economy, Tsinghua University (2014-2019); The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation Business Leaders Group (2012-2015); and Trustee of the Career Academy Foundation (2007-2013).

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Wafa Jafri

Partner and UK co-lead of Energy and Natural Resources Strategy, KPMG 

Wafa is a Partner and UK co-lead of Energy and Natural Resources Strategy at KPMG. Since joining KPMG she has worked with most major energy companies and global manufacturing companies advising on creating and executing energy transition plans. She advises global clients on strategy, partnerships and deals in the energy transition space.

Given her passion for energy transition and delivering net-zero, she is on the Board for Aldersgate Group - an organisation championing a competitive and environmentally sustainable economy.

Prior to joining KPMG she worked for Department of Energy and Climate Change providing advice to the Secretary of State for Energy, Ministers and Senior officials at HMG on energy policy and at RWE where she worked in Corporate Strategy team for the generation business across Europe.

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Speaker
Grid Reliability and Transition To Net Zero
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Cian McLeavey-Reville

Head of Market Development,

National Grid ESO

Cian heads up the Market Development department at National Grid ESO, responsible for the Net Zero Market Reform programme, which is assessing how electricity markets must evolve to meet net zero most cost-effectively. The department also sets the strategy for ancillary services market reform, ensuring they deliver efficient investment, efficient dispatch and value for money. It also sets the strategy for cross-border markets, as well as for enabling distributed flexibility.

 

Prior to this, Cian spent 4 years as a manager in the ESO Innovation Team, delivering the Innovation Strategy for ESO as well as scoping and funding innovation projects to help tackle the energy system transition. Cian previously spent 5 years at EDF Energy, across Corporate Strategy and Retail Commercial Strategy, following 4 years working as a consultant in the distributed energy space.

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Panel Discussion
Opportunities, Challenges, and Trends in Clean Energy Investments

Gareth Burns

Vice President, bp Ventures

Prior to joining bp to lead bp Ventures, Gareth Burns led Equinor Ventures, Equinor’s corporate venture capital activities. Before establishing Equinor Energy Ventures in 2016, Gareth was senior vice president for business development and has almost 30 years of experience within the energy industry. He has held various management positions throughout his career with Equinor and has worked in all areas of the energy value chain. 


Gareth is the vice chair and trustee (“director”) of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited where he also chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. He is a trustee of the Stewardship American Donor Fund UK Limited and his local church. 


Gareth is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and has a BSc in Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics from Heriot-Watt University in the UK. He is an Irish citizen, a keen cyclist and lives with his family in London, UK.

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Julien Perez

VP Strategy & Policy, OGCI

Julien builds on 20 years’ experience on energy transition and low carbon solutions, covering initiating, fundraising, engagement, management and execution of large-scale international projects. His work exposure at senior management role in multiple organizations (engineering firms, industry, consulting, non-for-profit) provide him an extensive network and complete perspectives of the opportunities and challenges of policies, economics, markets, and technologies towards a net-zero future. 

Today he is the VP of OGCI, an organization he was the architect of in 2014. His day job is to run the non-for-profit side of the coalition, engaging oil & gas companies, managing stakeholders’ relationship, sourcing opportunities, strategic planning and management of the budget and execution of the OGCI agenda. At the launch of the fund, Julien helped the leadership team of the fund on the governance, scanning opportunities and providing advises on technologies/markets, support the investment committee.

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Irena Spazzapan

Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Systemiq Capital

Irena Spazzapan is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Systemiq Capital, the climate-tech VC spin-off from the world's largest pure-play climate advisory firm Systemiq. She built the current team and led most investments in Fund I (ZeroAvia, Jupiter Intelligence, OpenInvest, Charm Industrial, Brimstone, BEDEO, Ohme and many others). In 2022, Irena led the spin out of Systemiq Capital from Systemiq, continuing to back early stage companies across the UK, EU and North America.

Irena comes from a real assets background, coming to climate tech after spending over 10 years at Goldman Sachs Commodities in power, carbon and gas. She is a board director at H1 Energy (the CWP subsidiary developing large scale PtX projects), Apolitical and Carbon Gap. Irena previously co-founded MiQ and Capterio and remains a board director.

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Michael Klimbacher

Decarbonization Partners

Michael Klimbacher is a member of Decarbonization Partners, a BlackRock and Temasek JV which invests in the next generation of innovative decarbonization solutions and businesses to accelerate global efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Prior to joining Decarbonization Partners, Michael worked for the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for nearly 8 years where he led investments in the industrials sector (with major emphasis on energy transition and growth opportunities) and in financial services (with focus on fintech and alternative lending businesses). Michael joined the QIA in 2015 in Doha and was instrumental in driving the direct investment efforts globally as well as closely partnering with leading alternative asset managers on co-investment and direct lending opportunities which led to the establishment of a material separately-managed internal direct lending capital pool.

Michael has 18 years of investment experience across various industries and different business models. He has been responsible for originating and executing private investments across the capital structure and engaging with portfolio companies as well as co-investors to achieve attractive investment return outcomes.

Before joining QIA, Michael held senior investment banking roles in mergers & acquisitions at UBS and Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and London, focusing predominantly on the natural resources and infrastructure sectors.

Panos Stergiopoulos

Director, PwC Strategy&

Panos is a Director in PwC Strategy&'s London team, advising clients on strategy development and deals in the low carbon energy and mobility markets.

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Ekaterina Kozinchenko

Managing Director and Leader of Energy Transition, Accenture

Ekaterina is a Managing Director and Leader of Energy Transition in Accenture Europe. She has 25 years of consulting experience in assisting major clients in the Energy and Utilities in Europe.

 

She started her career in the field of Natural gas and LNG and has worked across Europe, China and Middle East. Recent years her focus was on numerous engagements with Energy clients in the area of energy transition and  transformation programs to new business models and solutions with focus on CCUS and Hydrogen.

 

She also advises different stakeholders - Energy players, non-for-profit organizations as well as Governmental officials on partnerships to develop Decarbonization programs, e.g. across major Industrial Clusters in UK and Europe in order to achieve Net zero targets

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Panel Discussion
Hydrogen's Role in the Energy Transition

Oliver Bishop

Former Head of Hydrogen, Shell

Hydrogen industry Executive with 10 years running Shell’s Hydrogen business as the General Manager starting with a handful of staff in 2013 to a stable and mature business in 2023 with operations in Europe,North America and China.
During his 25 years in Shell, he held various Board roles in Shell entities, and held posts in Mergers & Acquisitions as Manager executing portfolio transactions, as well as General Manager for Trading in Switzerland.

 

He has a First-Class Honours degree from the Open University, UK, in Electronics & Programming and a dual Swiss and British nationality. He lives with his wife and children in Zug, Switzerland.

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Guy Doyle

Chief Economist - Energy &Carbon,

Mott MacDonald

“Dr Doyle is Chief Economist of Energy and Carbon at Mott MacDonald and has over 40 years’ experience of forecasting and analysing world energy markets. Guy was on the Panel of Technical Experts (PTE) from 2013-2022. At Mott MacDonald, Guy leads on techno-economics and fundamental modelling and provides guidance on green electrons and molecules and flexibility procurement arrangements and policy for a range of clients spanning Governmental, lenders and developers worldwide. His positions prior to joining Mott Macdonald included running Power Ink, an electricity consultancy firm. He was also founder and editor of Power UK, Consultancy director at McCloskey Coal, Chief Economist of IEA Coal Research, and energy forecasting manager at Global Insight. Guy holds a Phd in Energy Economics and a Masters in Natural Resource Economics.”

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Shane Heffernan

Senior Manager, Baringa

Shane sits in Baringa’s Energy & Resources practice and brings experience in corporate strategy, having worked with a range of clients across energy, retail, manufacturing and services. Since joining Baringa, Shane has managed a range of strategy, commercial advisory and policy advisory engagements, with renewable energy procurement and decarbonisation being a common thread throughout.

More recently Shane has led hydrogen and CCS projects looking downstream at use case value chains and upstream, at optimising production models.

 

Prior to joining Baringa, Shane spent 4 years as a strategy consultant at L.E.K. Consulting and obtained a PhD from University of Cambridge for research on oxide photovoltaic materials. ​

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Ekaterina Kozinchenko

Managing Director and Leader of Energy Transition, Accenture

Ekaterina is a Managing Director and Leader of Energy Transition in Accenture Europe. She has 25 years of consulting experience in assisting major clients in the Energy and Utilities in Europe.

 

She started her career in the field of Natural gas and LNG and has worked across Europe, China and Middle East. Recent years her focus was on numerous engagements with Energy clients in the area of energy transition and  transformation programs to new business models and solutions with focus on CCUS and Hydrogen.

 

She also advises different stakeholders - Energy players, non-for-profit organizations as well as Governmental officials on partnerships to develop Decarbonization programs, e.g. across major Industrial Clusters in UK and Europe in order to achieve Net zero targets

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Panel Discussion
Leadership and How to Think about Sustainability for the Future?
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Mark Davis

CEO, Capterio

Dr Mark Davis is the CEO of Capterio, a company mission-driven to reduce emissions from gas flaring.  Mark's recent work has been featured on the front pages of the Washington Post, New York Times, and in the Economist, Financial Times and on the BBC.  Mark has over 20 years of experience in the oil & gas industry. He worked in upstream exploration and business development at Shell International, before joining McKinsey & Company where he led many projects on strategy, operations and organisation. He was then CEO of the oil and gas quality assurance business at Intertek, where he was responsible for global operations and strategy in over 100 countries. Mark has a MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge, a PhD from Liverpool, and an MBA from IMD. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

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Magali Anderson

Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer,

Holcim

Magali started working as a field engineer on offshore oil rigs in Nigeria, beginning a 27-year career in oil and gas. She spent the majority of her career with Schlumberger, holding operational line management positions including CEO, Angola, and Region Head, Europe. She has also held several functional roles, including Vice President, Marketing & Sales; Vice President, Shared Services Organization for the Europe and Africa region; and Global Head of Maintenance.

She joined Holcim as Group Head of Health & Safety in 2016, before becoming Chief Sustainability Officer in 2019. In 2021, the Group announced the expansion of Magali’s role to Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer, putting sustainability at the core of its innovation pipeline.

Magali graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from INSA Lyon.

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Cressida Pollock

Trustee and Advisor, Various

Cressida Pollock is the former CEO of the Quadrature Climate Foundation, a UK based philanthropic foundation which she led from its inception. During her tenure QCF granted over $500m into global, systemic and tactical efforts to combat the climate emergency. 

A deep generalist who focuses on transforming organisations and systems, she has advised national and multinational companies, governments, and NGOs on strategic challenges and transformational change. She is the former Chief Executive of English National Opera where she led the rescue and turnaround of the company from 2015-2018 and was a founding member of Somerset Capital Management, an emerging markets focused investment fund.

Cressida currently co-chairs the Advisory board for the Smith School on Enterprise and Environment at Oxford, and is a Trustee of the International Rescue Committee (UK), Carbon Gap, the International Centre for Future Generations, and InfluenceMap. She advises on the deployment of philanthropic and commercial capital to shift the current trajectory on climate change and build towards long-term sustainable economic systems. She holds an undergraduate degree from Cambridge and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Jennifer Howard-Grenville

Diageo Professor of Organisation Studies, Cambridge Judge Business School

Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville is the Diageo Professor of Organisation Studies at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Her research is focused on how people and organisations generate and navigate change. She has conducted in-depth qualitative studies in a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, apparel, and energy. Jennifer has published more than 40 academic journal articles, several books, and regularly contributes to publications like Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times. She teaches on change management and sustainability topics at all levels including executive education, and is active in board and senior management team advisory work. She has served as both Deputy Editor and Associate Editor at one of the management field’s flagship academic journals, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of Trinity Hall college, Cambridge. Jennifer received her PhD at MIT, her MA at Oxford, and her BSc (Eng.) at Queen’s University, Canada.

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