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.

Allan has worked at Societe Generale for eight years and has been involved in the power sector for more than 30 years, initially as an engineer and then in finance. During his career he has advised on and/or financed power projects in Europe, MENA, the US and Asia, and in sectors ranging from green-field renewable energy, through gas and coal, to the acquisition of large international power portfolios.  

Allan has extensive experience in the clean energy sector, including recently taking a leading role in the offshore wind sector. Most recently he has acted as Financial Advisor to a floating wind project, Dudgeon (400MW) and London Array (630MW) in the UK and the successful Borssele III&IV bid (700MW) in the Netherlands. He also advised an Asian client on the successful acquisition of an equity stake in a 900MW offshore wind development in Europe. In addition to his advisory assignments, Allan has been involved in arranging debt for several EUR1bn+ offshore wind projects in Europe.

In the wider clean energy sector, Allan has also played a leading role in carbon capture & storage field having advised on White Rose, Teesside Industrial CCS and Donn Valley projects in the UK, as well as serving on the UK Government’s original CCS Forum and leading the commercial section of the CCS Cost Reduction Task Force.

Allan has a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA, is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer.

William Mezzullo is Head of Hydrogen at Centrica Energy Markets & Trading, and Chair of the Renewable Energy Association’s Green Gas & Hydrogen Forum. William is responsible for commercialising hydrogen development opportunities for Centrica. Prior to joining Centrica, he was a Fund Lead at JLEN, a FTSE 250 environmental fund. William has worked in the renewable energy industry since 2010, developing and building commercial-scale green gas anaerobic digestion plants, where he was Head of Projects at Future Biogas, one of the largest anaerobic digestion companies in the UK.  He holds a PhD from the University of Bath in bioenergy.

Catherine Gras has been Storengy UK and Germany CEO since 1 October 2018. Storengy is a fully owned subsidiary of ENGIE.

Catherine Gras began her career in the ENGIE Group in 2001 with various roles in Mergers & Acquisitions and then later as CFO of the gas supply division. This was followed by management positions in energy management and trading. Since 2016, she had been Managing Director of Storengy UK Ltd, for which she continues to act as Chairman of the Board. In October 2018 she joined Storengy Deutschland GmbH as the Managing Director.

Catherine Gras holds a Master's degree from the French ESSEC Business School. Before joining the ENGIE Group, she had worked for a private equity fund and the auditing company KPMG.

Thomas joined Barclays in 2009 in the EMEA Power, Utilities & Infrastructure team and has more than 25 years of investment banking work experience with Barclays, Citi and CA Investmentbank. He holds a Masters degree in Technical Mathematics from Vienna University of Technology and is a CFA charterholder. Thomas is leading Barclays’ coverage of a number of large European utilities and advises on European M&A and capital raises in the sector including various projects in the gas transmission and distribution segment. Over the last two years he has also initiated a dialogue with developers and project companies on debt and equity capital raises in the hydrogen space

Stirling Habbitts is based in London and focuses on hydrogen and business development for the renewable energy developer Source Galileo, a joint venture of Galileo Green Energy and Source Energie.  Stirling previously worked in financial advisory and banking in the project finance teams of ING, UniCredit and Triodos Bank in Amsterdam and London focused on renewable energy. Stirling’s experience covers most sectors of the renewable energy transition (hydrogen, offshore wind, onshore wind, hydrogen, solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal), energy infrastructure (EV charging, storage, distribution networks, smart meters), energy from waste and social infrastructure. Stirling has a masters degree in mechanical engineering and a masters degree in environmental engineering and sustainable infrastructure from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ryo is leading end-to-end hydrogen value chain development utilizing LOHC-MCH/toluene in Europe. Ryo has various experience, managing multiple infrastructure projects with a strong track record of solving problems related to project development, partnering, commercial contracts, financial arrangements, construction and operation, in multiple locations globally

Dr. Emilio Nieto, General Manager of CNH2. PhD in Chemistry from Autónoma University of Madrid (1995). Master in PRLs (3 specialities) and MBA by IE. EOI professor for the Master on Management of Eco-innovative industries and Master of Hydrogen Executive Programme. Master professor of Expert in Promotion and Management of R&D&I international projects of UPM. More than 25 years of experience in R&D, quality and business development management in multinational enterprises in different industrial sectors. Dr Nieto is co-author of 2 patents and more than 20 peer-review articles. Dr Nieto is expert evaluator of the European Commission for Horizon 2020, ERAMIN, KAVA EIT RM projects; advisory board of several EU projects, as well as Monitor for FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects related to raw materials and industrial technological development processes. Dr Nieto is president of CLM Regional Hydrogen Cluster and member of the board of the Spanish Hydrogen Association, as well as board member of the Galician Hydrogen Association. He is ExCo Spanish delegate in Advance Fuel Cell Technical Collaboration Platform AFC TCP, member of the Hydrogen Europe Research and EERA, as well as member of Gasnam and Sedigas (Spanish experts group on gases)

In 1982 I graduated from the University of applied science in Haarlem (now INHolland in Delft) in aeronautical engineering. After working for a few years for an electronics company which made high resolution video cards, I started working in 1987 at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as a ground school instructor and a flight operations engineer. During that time he was also employed part-time as an ATPL theory instructor at various commercial flight schools in the Netherlands. In 2005 I joined the university of applied science in Amsterdam to become a lecturer in Aerodynamics, Airplane performance and stability and control. In 2022 I retired from the university and after writing an extended article on hydrogen in aircraft I was asked by the founders of the hydrogen science coalition to be their aviation expert.

Hannah Bryson-Jones is the Founder and Director of Delta H, a consultancy dedicated to accelerating the transition to zero carbon energy systems. She is also secretariat and spokesperson for the H2Accelerate collaboration, comprised of members Daimler Truck, Iveco Group, Linde, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Volvo Group. The collaboration recently announced the acquisition of €72m of funding for the deployment of 150 hydrogen trucks and 29 hydrogen refuelling stations across Europe.

Hannah has worked on some of the most significant hydrogen projects in Europe to date, and has enabled her clients to access acquired hundreds of millions of Euros in grant funding to scale up the deployment of renewable energy, hydrogen, and green chemicals technologies. She holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge

Osamu has more than 25 years of experience in energy industry as engineer, consultant, business development, and recent 10＋ years is focused on technology and business development of hydrogen carrier technology.

Osamu has planned and developed world first global hydrogen supply chain demonstration project by LOHC-MCH technology between Brunei Darussalam and Japan in 2020, and shifted his role to the commercial projects development since 2019. Now in charge of hydrogen and CCU, Digital business development in European market since 2022 toward commercialization of carbon neutral technology.

He has been working in energy sector for over 10 years and has experience in natural gas distribution, hydrogen, biogas and solar energy projects. He has specialized in the infrastructural development of hydrogen-biomethane blended gas and related R&D programs. He has a wide range of project management experience on gas utilization including digitalization, location optimization, smart meters, equipment supply management and customer service technology. He takes part in the committees of international gas organizations such as IGU(International Gas Union) and GERG(European Gas Research Group). He has several publications on natural gas distribution, hydrogen and renewable gases.

Gopal is a Sustainable Aviation Consultant at NACO, Netherlands Airport Consultants, where he leads the hydrogen aviation service offering. Driven by a passion for sustainable aviation and a background in aerospace engineering, his work aims to offer robust & reliable insights into the strategies and adaptations required to facilitate the future aviation energy mix

TBA

Samuel, a Director in JLL's Capital Markets business, is an integral part of the Energy & Infrastructure Advisory team which has successfully arranged funding for over 14GW of renewable energy projects across Europe. With expertise in consulting and M&A, Samuel leads the team's Hydrogen initiatives and currently has a number of clients with projects shortlisted for the UK's HAR1 support mechanism, as well as a range of both early-stage and large-scale European projects. Prior to joining JLL, Samuel worked for international banks, covering major energy companies and industrial gas/chemicals sectors.

Gabriel Bernardes, Lead Technical Project Manager – Denmark Cluster, Vattenfall Nederlands N.V.

Senior Technical Manager with 16+ years of international experience across Europe, Asia and South America, leading large-scale Offshore Energy projects from bid/tender and FEED phases trough EPCI execution (Engineering - Procurement - Construction – Installation – Commissioning) until successful O&M (Operations & Maintenance). Experience in building from scratch effective multi-cultural cross functional teams. Currently leading multi-billion development projects of Offshore Wind coupled with Green H2 productions solutions.”

LOUIS HOMBERG, Fund Manager, Horus Energy

Louis Homberg is the Director of Horus Management Sàrl, the management company of Horus Partners Fund I and Horus Partners Fund II and a member of the Investment Committee. Both funds invest in renewable energy, with a primary focus on Solar PV, BESS and Hydrogen project development. Horus Partners Fund I recently sold ready-to-build projects in Louisiana, Texas and Colorado.

Before Horus, Louis served as a director of Suncore Energy Holding on behalf of a group of private investors, funding a platform of 1.45GW of solar PV projects in Italy and the UK.

Previously, Louis has worked for Royal Bank of Canada in London as a vice-president in the global markets division, focusing on equity derivatives.
Louis is an alumnus of Ecole Polytechnique (MSc Applied Mathematics) and HEC Business School (MSc Management) in Paris, France.

Dr.-Ing Geert Tjarks has joined EWE GASSPEICHER GmbH in October 2020 as Head of Business Development Hydrogen within the business unit Hydrogen. He is in charge of the business strategy for hydrogen as well as political and economic networks for the implementation of the strategy at EWE AG. Before joining EWE, he was with the National Organization Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology – NOW GmbH in Berlin for four years. At NOW he was responsible for international cooperation and represented the federal German government in various international multilateral bodies for hydrogen technologies. In 2019 and 202 he supported the federal government for the development of the national hydrogen strategy. In January 2017 he finalized a PhD at RWTH Aachen with a focus on water electrolysis systems.

Art Pithayachariyakul is Principal, Sustainable Energies at CPP Investments. He has been with CPPIB since 2017 and leads Sustainable Energies Group's European Green Molecules strategy, focused on investing in hydrogen and hydrogen derivative projects. Pithayachariyakul has evaluated investment opportunities in energy midstream, refining and alternative fuels. He previously spent five years in technical and operational capacities with Chevron Canada and Teck Resources. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of British Columbia

Johannes Daum has been working for NOW GmbH (National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology) in various positions since January 2016. Since November 2021, as Head of Division Hydrogen, Alternative Fuels and Fuel Cells, he is responsible in particular for the main topics of "Renewable Fuels", "Climate-friendly Commercial Vehicles", "Maritime Applications" as well as „Climate-friendly Aviation“. Prior to joining NOW GmbH, Mr. Daum worked as a policy advisor for the Association of the German Biofuel Industry in Berlin from 2008 to the end of 2015. Previous activities for the German Renewable Energy Association and the ifeu Institute for Energy and Environmental Technology laid the foundation for his commitment in the field of renewable energies. Already during his studies of chemical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim, which ended in 2007 with a degree in engineering (Dipl.-Ing. FH), Mr. Daum specialized in environmental technologies and renewable energies.

Imran Abdulla is an Associate Director at Guidehouse, specialising in early-stage project development of hydrogen and CCS projects.

Having worked on several projects across Europe and North America, Imran works predominantly with midstream pipeline operators looking to build new and repurposing existing infrastructure for hydrogen and CO2 transportation.

Kevin Schalk is working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems at its site in Bremerhaven since the start of 2020. He is the manager of the team responsible for the construction of the Hydrogen Lab Bremerhaven which has recently been finished as part of the EFRE-project "Hydrogen - Green Gas for Bremerhaven". Additionally he is responsible for the future research activities in the testing facility as well as the efficient operation of the test field. The main focus hereby lies on the research question how to integrate hydrogen into existing and new systems in the course of the energy transition. Key points are the independant validation and optimization of the dynamic performance of hydrogen technology units and their safe and reliable integration into existing or to be constructed energy systems. Especially for the purposes of validiation, he and his group are involved in several international activities for standardization of hydrogen technology units. Aside from the activities at Fraunhofer IWES, Kevin Schalk is deputy chairman of the Bremerhaven local hydrogen network "H2BX - Wasserstoff für die Region Bremerhaven e.V.". The main emphasis here lies on networking activities especially regaring the technological and scientific players of the region as well as communication and transfer of knowledge for the general public. He has been active in the network since 2017.

Matti Malkamäki / Founder, Chairman of the Board / Hycamite TCD Technologies Ltd.

Matti Malkamäki, a hydrogen business specialist and cleantech entrepreneur of over 20 years, is dedicated to decarbonizing the industry through his role as Founder and Chairman of Hycamite TCD Technologies Ltd. Committed to sustainability, Matti has played a key role in adopting clean energy technologies and holds positions in influential groups such as ECH2A, the Finnish Hydrogen Cluster, and the BotH2nia initiative. He is a sought-after speaker on hydrogen possibilities and has written numerous articles on the topic. With extensive experience in power generation and cleantech, Matti drives the transition to a low-carbon, high-energy-efficient economy through Hycamite's revolutionary methane splitting technology.

Thomas Munch, a commercial P2X consultant at Hydrogen Valley in Denmark, brings over five years of experience from the P2X industry. His vast expertise in P2X and CCUS projects, along with significant work with business development for biogas companies, showcases his diverse skill set in renewable energy technologies. Thomas support project developers in navigating complex commercial and regulatory aspects, ensuring the robustness and commercial viability of projects before FIDs. His contributions are vital in integrating renewable energy sources, particularly eFuels, into various sectors. Thomas also holds a Master's degree in Finance and International Business from Aarhus University

¢Gabriel joined the bank in 2009 and spent most of his career in project finance both as an arranger and advisor for large Metals & Mining and Industrial Infrastructure transactions.

¢He participated in the creation of CA-CIB H2 working group in 2019 and was appointed Head of Hydrogen Sector in 2021.

¢As sector head, he has a global responsibility of growing the bank expertise and franchise in the sector and leads to the marketing and origination efforts across the entire value chain of hydrogen and its derivatives.

¢Most recent transactions originated by the Hydrogen sector includes:

¢Project Finance Debt advisory for a giga-scale green ammonia facility in Latin America

¢Project Finance Debt advisory to a project of hydrogen production and liquefaction intended for LH2 ferries in Europe

¢Debt and Equity Financial advisory for a large scale green ammonia project in the Middle East

¢Debt and Equity Financial advisory for a multi-GW hydrogen production project sponsored by major industrials (including renewables generation), dedicated to a portfolio of offtakers including a large steelmaker in Europe

¢Debt and Equity Financial advisory for the creation of a SPV dedicated to the financing of customers’ solutions in hydrogen mobility and equity raising for the SPV in Europe

¢Financial Advisory for a large energy player in the context of an equity investment in a giga-scale green ammonia project in North America

¢Financial Advisory to a consortium of financial players willing to take a minority stake in a green hydrogen development platform in Europe

¢Financial Advisory to an Investment fund willing to invest in a hydrogen mobility company in Europe

¢Financial Advisory to a start-up active in the hydrogen mobility space in Europe

¢Financial Advisory to a start-up developing a breakthrough manufacturing process to produce hydrogen equipment in Europe

u

Gabriel graduated from Paris-Dauphine university in Mathematics and Finance and from Paris-Assas university in Banking and Finance

She is a managing director and founder of Green Giraffe Group. She has a strong track record in the contracting and (re)financing of onshore and offshore wind farms in Northern Europe and helped support the energy transition by supporting clients in developing new business models in amongst other EV and storage propositions

Barbara supported the development, contracting, and (re)financing of NorthSeaCluster (1.5 GW, DE, ongoing), Gemini (600 MW, NL, 2014, 2022), Deutsche Bucht (252 MW, DE, 2021), Norther (370 MW, BE, 2016 and 2020), Windpark Zeewolde (322 MW,NL, 2020), Windpark Fryslân (383 MW, NL, 2019), Baltic II & Co (1.5 GW, PL, 2019), Veja Mate (402 MW, DE, 2015), and Northwind (216 MW, BE, 2012). Barbara has been supporting consortia participating in several European (floating) offshore wind tenders as well as having been involved in other technologies such as the ground-mounted solar farm Duurkenakker (64 MWp, NL, 2020) and a large scale battery storage buy-side project in the Netherlands

Before founding Green Giraffe, Barbara worked at the project developer Econcern, and as investment banking trainee at ABN AMRO

Barbara is recognised in the top 100 most influential business leaders in wind in the 2023 Tamarindo Power list

She holds an MSc in financial economics from Tilburg University

Andriy, Tractebel’s Business Developer for hydrogen, e-fuels and decarbonization, is passionate about overcoming the challenges of the energy transition. His focus is bringing to life large-scale hydrogen and decarbonization projects.

Started his career as a nuclear engineer and completed his PhD studies, worked on a variety of international projects as both an analyst and a technical coordinator. In 2013, he joined Tractebel as a senior expert. He later joined the commercial team for energy projects, covering gas and LNG, offshore wind and, more recently, hydrogen and power-to-X activities.

Jun is a Senior Analyst at Westwood Global Energy Group where his focus lies in market research and analysis on the low-carbon hydrogen market. He has previously worked in leading market research and consulting firms. He has spent over 5 years working in the energy sector in both consulting and research roles, initially having wide coverage across the sector, with a later focus on the energy transition and hydrogen. Jun holds a Masters in Petroleum Geoscience from Royal Holloway University of London.

Nguyen is the Head of Hydrogen at OWC - a leading independent global renewable energy consultancy and a company of the ABL Group with offices in more than 40 countries. He is leading OWC global hydrogen expert teams and consultancy services including Market studies, Technology advisory, Technical Due Diligence, Economic optimization and analysis, Concept design / Feasibility of Power-to-X plants, Hydrogen underground storage, and Ports for hydrogen and derivatives. Nguyen and his teams have gained experience across the hydrogen value chain and from completing more than 50 project in Asia - Pacific, Europe, North and South Americas. Nguyen is a member of the Renewable UK’s Green Hydrogen Working Group and Wind Energy Ireland’s Hydrogen Committee. He was the Hydrogen Energy Specialist for the Asian Development Bank representing ABL Group in a two-year project supporting identification of investment for green hydrogen projects in in the Pacific. Nguyen has more than 20 years’ experience. The outcome of his Ph.D. won the Mitsui-Sumitomo Research Award in 2009.

TBA

Responsible for the coverage of and lending to energy clients and projects in The Netherlands, with a focus on hydrogen, carbon capture storage, utilities and gas infrastructure.

Graham Weale is Professor for Energy Economics & Politics at the Ruhr University Bochum where he is undertaking research into Hydrogen Economics, Industry Decarbonisation and Power Market Design.

Previously he was for nine years Chief Economist for RWE AG (Germany’s largest power generator). In this capacity he was responsible for economic planning assumptions used throughout the company and for advising the Board of major market developments.

Beforehand he was Director of European Energy Services for Global Insight (now S&P). His responsibilities included projects for the European Commission, European governments and regulators, and acting as an expert witness in natural gas arbitration cases. Previously he worked as a management consultant with Deloitte specialising in energy liberalisation issues. He began his career with ExxonMobil working in supply and refining.

Graham has a physics degree from Oxford University, an MSc in Systems Engineering from London University and an MBA. He is regularly invited as a speaker or moderator at international conferences.

Since February 2021, Tobias Bühnen has been working as a Policy Advisor within GIE, focusing on the current and future role of gas infrastructure operators in contributing to the REPowerEU and EU Green Deal targets. Within GIE, he works on topics related to hydrogen, CCUS and energy system integration.

Before joining GIE, he worked on European affairs within the Regulatory & Public Affairs Department of the German Gas Transmission System Operator ONTRAS.

Tobias holds a Master’s degree in European Studies from Maastricht University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Cologne.

James is an Executive Director in Santander’s Structured Finance Energy team with over a decade of experience in debt financing the energy and broader infrastructure sector. 

He has acted as Financial Advisor on multi-GW renewables project financings across Europe and is currently leading a number of live financial advisory mandates in hydrogen. 

James previously held roles at NatWest and Rothschild. He graduated with First Class Honours in Environmental Policy with Economics from the London School of Economics. 

Chief Strategy Officer of FNM S.p.A. and project leader of hydrogen projects of the FNM Group

MBA, PhD, 20+ years of international experience as manager for transport companies and as strategy, management and transport consultant for top tier transport companies. Member of the board of directors of several transport companies. Strong understanding of transport industry and of its functioning across different modes (rail, bus, road, aviation, maritime, logistics).

Paul-Louis-Marie Lemaire / Executive Director – Resources & Industry EMEA / Crédit Agricole CIB

Paul-Louis-Marie joined the Bank in 2005 and has over 19 years banking experience with most of it in Midstream and Downstream project finance both as a financial advisor and a lender having acted as MLA in numerous transactions, with a recent focus on projects that support our clients in the energy transition and the global decarbonisation ambitions (CCUS, green ammonia and hydrogen, biomethane, etc.).

• Urbano Troncoso is chemical engineer with more than 10 years of experience in the energy industry. He joined Santander’s Structured Finance team in February 2022, in order to lead its hydrogen activity globally. Currently, he is focused in supporting the development of the first hydrogen and derivatives projects around the world, ensuring that they set the right foundations to access non-recourse financing.
• He started his career in an integrated Oil and Gas company, holding different technical and commercial position in Europe, Asia and Africa between 2011 and 2019,. Prior to joining Santander, Urbano spent three years leading and executing energy transition strategic projects at Boston Consulting Group.

TBA