Green Hydrogen Forum

Luis Ignacio Parada is Head of Global Regulatory Services at Enagás, where, prior to his current position, he served as Head of Regulatory Development.

He has been a member of EASEE-gas Board since 2019 and also serves as member of the GTE Executive Committee since 2020.

Luis started his career in 1998 at Gas Natural, and joined NERA Economic Consulting in 2001, specialising on regulatory issues.

Luis Ignacio holds an Executive MBA from IESE Business School and a MSc. in Applied Economics. He graduated in Economics at Universidad de Salamanca (Spain).

Stella is a Process Engineer and Subject Matter Expert for Green Hydrogen at McDermott. During the last year she is an active member of the Sustainability Group of the Hague office, focusing on the energy transition strategy, namely CCUS, Blue/Green Hydrogen and Biomass Initiatives. She is responsible to act as a green hydrogen technical advisor focusing on green hydrogen technologies, on modularization solutions and on the balance of the integrated sustainable plant. She is part of the process EVEREST Project with Tata Steel in the FEED phase, designing and simulating the carbon capture plant.

Mary is a Principal Consultant and Subject Matter Expert for Hydrogen at io consulting. A Chartered Chemical Engineer with over 10 years of experience in the energy industry, Mary has worked in all project design stages from conceptual studies to detailed design projects in Hydrogen (Green and Blue), CCUS, offshore and onshore oil and gas and LNG. Most recently, Mary has led the technical teams on several high profile energy transition projects at io, including the NewGen Green/Carbon Neutral Hydrogen Production Plant, the Net Zero Facility Project and the Athos CCUS project.

Mary is a member of the World Hydrogen Leaders and is currently a nominated finalist for the Best Woman Consultant category in the Women in Construction and Engineering (WICE) awards.

Christopher is a Chartered member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers  (IMechE) who has worked in the Energy sector since graduating with a Masters of Mechanical Engineering from Heriot Watt University  circa 15 years ago. Over this period he has worked in a number of key areas including nuclear reprocessing and conventional power however the majority of his experience has been in the Solution Mined cavern industry, working for the Atkins Energy Systems team.     In his current role as Engineering Delivery Manager he is responsible for the oversight and delivery of all technical works where he also holds responsibilities to a number of key clients, both in the UK and Europe, acting as their Owners Engineer. As Owners Engineer he essentially leads a team of engineers investigating client identified issues, developing engineered multi-disciplinary solutions to these and then enacting the solutions on site.  It is based on these experiences that Christopher provides this presentation where the future provision of hydrogen storage is a key development vector for surface and subsurface storage industries.

Prof Stuart Hawksworth has worked in the area of Safety for 28 years, fulfilling a number of technical and oversight roles at the Health and Safety Executive’s Laboratory in Buxton in the UK. These include creating and managing the Centre for Energy and Major Hazards, made up of 70 expert scientist and engineers working in the area of risk management, fire, explosion and process safety.

He has oversight of a programme of Hydrogen Safety Projects covering power, heat and transport funded by the European Commission, UK Government and Industry. He is also the President of International Association for Hydrogen Safety and a task leader in FCHJU’s European Hydrogen Safety Panel.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis is Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe since 2016. Before he was Representative of Infineon Technologies in Brussels and Member of the European Parliament (2004 – 2014) inter alia in the ITRE Committee (Industry, Technology, Research and Energy) where he could contribute to lay the cornerstone for the first and the second Joint Undertaking on hydrogen and fuel cells. In 2007 he was elected “MEP of the year” by his colleagues of the European Parliament in the category “Research and Innovation”. In 2015 he was appointed ambassador at large for Greece. Mr Chatzimarkakis was born in Duisburg, Germany. He holds German and Greek nationality, a degree in political science from the University of Bonn

Tudor Constantinescu is Principal Adviser to the Director General for Energy in the European Commission where he also works on energy priorities and initiatives related to Hydrogen. Previously, he held different positions including founding Executive Director at BPI Europe and president of the Romanian Agency for Energy Conservation. He has degrees in economics and engineer as well as a PhD on regulatory economics in the energy sector

Jeppe Grue is Technical Director with responsibility of new energy technologies, e.g. electrolysis, power-to-x and carbon capture. He has a strong professional background from the power industry with more than 20 years' experience in the energy sector. He is one of Denmark's leading specialists on CCU/power-to-x and has been project manager and technical lead on several power-to-x and carbon-capture projects. During his career he has worked as process engineer and chief specialist on increased operational efficiency of power plants, biomass for heat and power generation, carbon capture, biomass and coal co-firing, heat pumps and process optimisation of industrial processes.

Claas Hülsen is Business Development Director for DNV GLs Energy business in central Europe and part of the European Management team of DNV GL Energy.

Being 15 years with DNV GL he holds a degree in business administration and economics from the University of Hamburg and has about 20 years of extensive experience in the energy sector where he has worked with many different customers ranging from ministries, energy related associations to major industry players in the power and gas industry.

Renewables - Energy - Shipping - Offshore - Oil Service - Seafood

Business and result driven finance professional with more than 18 years international experience from the renewable, energy and maritime sectors.

Core skills and capabilities:
- commercial mindset with proven track-record in developing new business opportunities
- broad capital markets and advisory transaction experience
- deep risk, finance and accounting understanding
- seasoned strategist with international leadership experience
- deep understanding of the offshore wind market and maritime sectors
- innovation competence and mentor for start-ups and accelerator programs

Bert has always been involved in advising, coordinating, supervising and arranging multiple financingsfor large projects and corporates in the Energy sector. Bert is an expert in structuring complex project financings Prior to starting at ING in 2005, Bert has had similar responsibilities at Shell, EBRD and ABNAMRO - including policy and strategy discussions. Currently Bert is focused on the energy transition and responsible for kick starting INGs involvement in clean hydrogen and related efforts such as green ammonia for ING. Bert is also Vice Chair of Kennemer Energy, a trust that facilitates solar solutions in that region. Bert holds an MBA from INSEAD and a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Twente.

After a MSc and a PhD in Energy Sciences, I worked as a university researcher and lecturer on the development of hardware and software systems for the real-time remote diagnostics of power stations, the modelling of power systems towards the deregulation of the electricity systems, as well as innovative fuel cells and gas turbines.

As technical Director of the Venice Energy Agency I worked on a number of EU projects on energy sustainability for urban communities and transport.

Moving to industrial consultancy, as a senior engineer and project manager initially and then as Power Generation Business Line Manager for South Europe operations of MWH Global, I got involved in all the main stages of project development, from conceptual study to final design, permitting and authorisation, procurement, construction and commissioning supervision for different power generation technologies (advanced CCGTs, rehabilitation of Soviet-design coal stations, CHP systems, pollutant abatement systems, wind, hydro, biomass and biogas, photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plants) as well as energy efficiency programs in various industrial sectors. I gained strong skills in planning and meeting P&L targets while operating in international competitive markets, managing international teams and leading on business development and the delivery of client-oriented approaches.

Currently working for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as Associate Director in its Energy Efficiency and Climate Change team, I have expanded my skills to corporate and project financing, stakeholders engagement for markets transformation and policy reforms. The core objective of my work is to contribute to the transition towards high energy and environmental sustainability of energy and corporate sectors. My sectoral responsibility covers the broad energy sector, from the extractive industry and transportation of fuels, to electricity production, transmission and distribution. The main areas of strategic engagement focus on low carbon pathways for the energy sector, including gas sector methane emission reduction programmes as well as production, transportation and distribution of decarbonised gases (in particular clean hydrogen) across all countries of operation of the Bank. I also work on selected large energy-intensive industrial segments, in particular steelmaking and chemicals, with focus on the development of programmes for the penetration of disruptive technologies and business models for the rapid and deep decarbonisation of those sectors.

Thomas Engelmann, rejoined KGAL last year when he took on the role as Head of Energy Transition of KGAL Investment Management GmbH & Co. KG as of 1st of July 2020. He takes responsibility for the development of a newly structured Energy Transition asset class within KGAL, investing in energy transition related Equity investments such as green hydrogen. Before that he was the Head of Investment Management, Infrastructure Equity, at Allianz Global Investors. Additionally, he acted more than ten years at Siemens AG and Siemens Financial Services in various senior management positions. He holds degrees as a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) as well as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Master of Business administration (Dipl.-Kaufmann) at the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg.

Frank Wouters

Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for 30 years and played a lead role in the development of renewable energy projects valued at over $5 billion.

He served as Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) from 2012 to 2014. 

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 VP Clean Hydrogen at Worley, Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines, Chairman of the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Chairman of the Dii Advisory Board, non-executive Board Director of Gore Street Capital, London and Board Advisor of Vast Solar in Australia.

Frank has authored several books on renewable energy and green hydrogen and lives in Abu Dhabi. He has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University.

Dr Minh K Le is part of the Renewable Energy research & analytics team at Rystad Energy. As a senior analyst, he is currently leading Rystad Energy’s green hydrogen research as well as renewable energy research for APAC. Dr. Le completed his PhD research in Mechanical Engineering at The University of New South Wales and has authored articles/papers in highly regarded international peer-reviewed journals & reviews covering topics ranging from fundamental scientific research to industrial engineering applications. He spent a few years working in academic & industrial R&D before joining Rystad Energy.

Martin Hartvig is Senior Engineer (Ph.D.) at Energinet (Denmark) in the Gas System Innovation department. He works on renewable energy system development focusing on system integration through electrolysis and PtX in the Energy Systems track on the Danish Energy Islands and in the North Sea Wind Power Hub Consortium (NSWPH).

Richard is a Director at the Energy Systems Catapult established and overseen by Innovate UK  to stimulate innovation and transformational change across the energy system. Richard joined the Catapult in 2015, having previously worked for over a decade at White Young Green, Turley and Babcock Engineering specialising in energy system transformation, innovation, planning and sustainable development. He has led a diverse range of projects and programmes in partnership with government, industry and academia Including the Catapult’s delivery of the first phase of the Smart Systems and Heat programme. 

Zac is a director at Southern Company Gas and has been with the company for 6.5 years.  He is responsible for the research and development (R&D) group that focuses on hydrogen, amongst other operational and environmental areas.  Zac has experience in asset integrity management, risk management, and compliance.  He has previously held roles in the private and public sectors and has an educational background in engineering

Extensive record in international business development in renewable energy: Solar, Wind, Hydrogen. Technology – Economics – People

• International experience: worked in energy projects in more than 20 countries in Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia

• Early on, has taken green hydrogen initiatives in various countries, such as using electricity from one of the major UK offshore wind farms for hydrogen supply to bus fleets, to steer them into projects to grow the international hydrogen  portfolio (confidential).

• Member of the Expert Advisory Board of the MENA-Fuels Project of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) Germany, analysing the Region Middle East and North Africa as strategically important trading partners in supplying green hydrogen based synthetic fuels up to the year 2050.

• Co-Author of the publication “How to make Green Hydrogen economic?” (Hermes, Witte et. al.)

• Since 2014, Project Governance Officer for the renewable energy projects at Vattenfall; steering investment decisions and project developments, heading the Project Review Board. Responsible for the Project Governance Policy and Decision Framework for the renewable projects.

• 2011-2013, Head of Biomass Business Development, Vattenfall

• 2007-2010, Head of Climate Mitigation Projects at Vattenfall, where he created the “Vattenfall Carbon Fund”, financing renewable energy projects in Asia, East Europe, and Latin America.

• 2000-2007, Head of Energy Economics, Lahmeyer Intl. (Tractebel Engineering), responsible for the restructuring and financial turnaround of the two energy and water companies Electrogaz in Rwanda, and Jirama in Madagascar, financed by World Bank.

• PhD in energy economics, and MSc (Dipl.-Ing.) in mechanical engineering

• Business fluent in English, native language: German, fluent in French and Spanish

Shiva Dustdar has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry working for large private and public institutions in New York, London and Luxembourg. Since joining EIB in 2003, she has worked in risk management, lending and investing in innovative companies and currently heads the Innovation Finance Advisory (IFA) Division in the EIB which she was tasked to set up in 2013. IFA has 2 units covering project advisory and thematic finance providing access to finance advice to public and private entities, performing market studies and developing new financial products to meet the financing needs across the innovation spectrum to support smart, green and healthy growth. (https://www.eib.org/en/products/advising/innovfin-advisory)

Shiva started her career in 1993 at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking in New York  working in M&A, Project Finance and Emerging Markets before joining Fitch Rating Agency in 1999 to set up its European High Yield rating business.

Shiva holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an Executive MBA from London Business School (LBS). Shiva co-founded the European High Yield Association (EHYA), which is now part of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) and was nominated to Top 50 Women in Credit by Credit Magazine in 2006. She is a regular speaker on innovation and impact financing, gender smart investing, digital and green financing and actively engaged in networks that promote sustainable and mission oriented financing.

Ana Quelhas was recently appointed the Managing Director for Hydrogen at EDP, leading the company strategy the renewable hydrogen business. Prior to that, Ana was the Head of Energy Planning at EDP, being responsible for supporting the Executive Board of Directors in the decision making processes, contributing with a long term perspective of the energy sector and an integrated vision of the company across businesses (renewables, conventional electricity generation, retail and distribution) and geographies (mainly Europe, US and Brazil).

Before joining EDP, Ana worked in the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission, in Brussels, supporting the development of the strategic research agenda in the field of energy. Prior to that, she was at the California Independent System Operator providing strategic energy consultancy to the wholesale power market and grid operator in the State of California.

 Ana holds a PhD with distinction in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University. She also holds a master’s degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Engineering from the same university, being graduated from the University of Porto with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Adamo Screnci/ Vice President Clean Hydrogen/Total SA

Holds a Master’s degree in Engineering, Process, Electrochemistry and Energy from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble.

He is also a graduate of the INSEAD (International Development Program).

Adamo began his career as an engineer for ELF Atochem and Siegwerk for 4 and 5 years.

In 2000, he joined Air Liquide where he quickly moved from a project management position to the management of a unit before becoming Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He has engineering and management skills. He has extensive knowledge of the gas, energy and high technology industries.

In 2009, Adamo plunges into the entrepreneurial adventure co-founder of McPhy Energy, a start-up in the field of energy. He will contribute to the strong international development of the company (Asia, US, Europe ...) until its successful IPO.

He was also adviser to CEA Liten's CEO, in order to elaborate the French hydrogen road-map gathering industry and research, for the French ministry of environment

He build the Green H2 & Green Chemical business line at thyssenkrupp from 2017 to 2020 (world leader in electrolysis).

In June 2020 he joined Total as Vice President of the newly created Clean Hydrogen Business Unit.

Barry directs ScottishPower’s activities in hydrogen across the UK and Ireland, as part of a global Hydrogen Division within the Iberdrola Group.  This focuses on the production of green hydrogen as a complementary method of decarbonisation, alongside electrification solutions.

His previous roles include Head of Corporate Innovation, Sustainability and Quality which led strategic activities in the decarbonisation of transport, heat and other emerging technologies, as well as corporate initiatives aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  This followed several years in ScottishPower Renewables where Barry led activities in marine energy and wind innovations across the sector.

Dr. Roland Roesch is Deputy Director at the Innovation and Technology Center of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He currently leads IRENA´s work on RE Innovation, Grids-Assessments and the Strategies Teams for Power Sector Transformation and for the Gas Sector Transformation. During his first years of assignment he was the lead to set-up the IRENA Project Navigator platform to support member countries with developing renewable energy projects. He actively leads the development of IRENA´s work in the fields of ocean energy, blue economy and decarbonizing the shipping sector.

Roland became in October 2010 a Professor for Energy Economics at the University of Applied Science in Darmstadt he worked for 15 years in the Oil&Gas and Utilities Industry for Shell and E.ON in his last position as General Manager Power at Shell and for E.ON as Head of Division, Project Leader, Project Executive and Technical Project Developer. Before he joined E.ON he worked as Energy Market Consultant for Lahmeyer International and as researcher for renewable energies. Roland has solid business experience in energy markets, energy economics and energy strategies, renewable integration management, energy project development and project financing.

Hyung-Ja de Zeeuw , Senior Strategist Sustainability, Executive Director , Rabobank

Hyung has over 20 years of experience in the financial sector. In her current position as Senior Strategist Sustainability at Rabobank, she is responsible for research on utilities and the energy transition, with a special focus on hydrogen and the EU-Taxonomy. Before joining Rabobank she has had various positions in Financial Markets Research and the Debt Capital Markets at ABN AMRO and SNS Asset Management.

Ewan Murray , Project Manager (Ceng) in Energy Storage, Hydrogen & CCS , SNC-Lavalin Atkins

Ewan is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has been a core member of the Atkins Energy Systems business for 8 years. Ewan leads the delivery of Atkins works in the clean gas storage sector and our wider capability in renewables. Ewan has a had a career long passion and interest in the renewable sector, and has a strong understanding of technologies, integration and implementation. Ewan recently authored (hydrogen focused) elements of the Atkins Engineering Net Zero report. Ewan represents SNC-Lavalin Atkins in the North West Hydrogen Alliance; which is an industrial consortium aiming to develop the NW region as a low carbon energy hub.

Dr James Kenneth Ryder Watson Secretary General Eurogas

Dr Watson is the Secretary General of Eurogas, a role he has held since January 2019. Eurogas is the association representing the European gas wholesale, retail and distribution sectors.

Prior to taking the helm at Eurogas, Dr Watson was the Chief Executive Officer of SolarPower Europe, the European solar industry association. Before joining SolarPower Europe, Dr Watson worked as the Director of Public Affairs for Weber Shandwick, specialising in energy and trade policy. Before coming to Brussels, Dr Watson worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat on a

European Commission project on trade and sustainable development based in Ethiopia. Earlier in his career James worked for various UK government bodies in London and worked as a lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Manchester.

He holds a Ph.D in International Trade and Environmental Law from the University of Leeds, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Cyril has started his career as a technical expert in the french engineering group FIVES. Afterwards, he successfully managed several industrial companies in the energy sector such as a french biomass boiler manufacturer or the leading PEM electrolyzer manufacturer AREVA H2GEN. Meanwhile, he joined the german VIESSMANN group to develop its industrial branch worldwide and develop first Power-to-X projects. He is focussed not only on technology fit to the need but also on the business models coherence when attached to production, storage and use of energy (in particular hydrogen for industrials,  biofuels, grid flexibility, mobility use…).

Cyril co-founded the HY2GEN Group to design, finance build and operate 100% carbon free green hydrogen production and hydrogen-based bioproducts facilities worldwide.

Tim Harwood, Head of Programme Management and H21 Project Director at Northern Gas Networks         

Tim has 40 years experience in the UK gas industry covering a wide range of operational and project roles across distribution and transmission. His current role is Head of Programme Management and H21 project director responsible for NGN’s H21 research programme alongside maintenance, capital projects, REPEX and connections.

Previously working for 8 years in National Grid Transmission (NGT), he held a number of senior roles as pipeline engineer, project delivery engineer and engineering manager. In a long career mostly spent in and around the West Yorkshire area he has also held a number of operational roles within gas distribution covering pressure control & storage, mains replacement and emergency response.

Peter van Ees is the Renewable Energy Banker of ABN AMRO for Europe. He is one of the frontrunning bankers in hydrogen due to the advanced discussions in the Netherlands on this topic.

Sean McLoughlin is EMEA Head of Industrials Research, covering industrials, renewables and grid. He joined HSBC in 2011, and has been covering renewable energy and clean technology sectors as an equity analyst since 2007. Before that he worked in low carbon energy fields in industry. Sean holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering.