Referenten

Dries Acke is SolarPower Europe's Policy Director, and is responsible for the policy work of the association. He joined SolarPower Europe from the European Climate Foundation, where he was director of the energy programme for over a decade. Previously, he worked at Apple Inc., in the EMEA public affairs department. Dries holds a master’s degree in contemporary history from the Catholic University of Brussels and Leuven, Belgium, and a post-graduate degree in international relations from the Karl-Ruprecht University in Heidelberg, Germany.

Dr. René Cotting, seit 2015 Mitglied des Verwaltungsrates und Präsident des Audit, Risk & Compliance Ausschusses der Bossard Gruppe. Bis 2020 Vizepräsident des Verwaltungsrates der AVADIS Vorsorge AG und Mitglied des Verwaltungsrates der ABB Schweiz. Nach einer über 26-jährigen erfolgreichen Karriere bei der ABB Gruppe in verschiedenen Funktionen im In- und Ausland, als CFO ABB Schweiz und Operationschef im Innovations- und Startup-Bereich u.a. im Silicon Valley, übernahm er die CFO-Funktion von Smartenergy Group, einer privaten Investmentfirma mit Fokus in der Entwicklung, Finanzierung und Asset Management von grossen Solar, Wind- und grünen Wasserstoffanlagen.

Based in Zurich, Florian Dehne is a Partner at Roland Berger’s Transportation, Tourism and Logistics team. He advises Swiss and global companies in the aviation, rail and road transport, public transport, logistics, and tourism sectors.
Prior to joining Roland Berger, he worked in various management roles at several airlines and has more than 25 years of professional experience in the aviation and tourism industry.
Florian Dehne studied economic geography and business administration and graduated with an M.Sc. in Business Administration from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Giles Dickson is the Chief Executive Officer of WindEurope, a position he’s held since 2015.  WindEurope is the voice of the European wind industry.  It represents the whole value chain of onshore and offshore wind across Europe and has more than 500 members.  It engages Governments and other stakeholders on policy and regulation.  It organises industry exhibitions, conferences and workshops.  And it coordinates publicly-funded R&D in wind.
Dickson is also Chairman of the independent Advisory Council of ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.
From 1992 to 2008 he was a civil servant in the UK Government, working mostly on European affairs. From 2008 to 2015 he worked for the French engineering company Alstom where he was Vice-President for Global Public Affairs

Tobias Federico studierte Energie- und Verfahrenstechnik an der Technischen Universität Berlin. Seine berufliche Laufbahn begann er bei internationalen Beratungs- und Analyseunternehmen. 2003 gründete Tobias Federico Energy Brainpool und ist seither als Geschäftsführer tätig. Er entwickelte eine der Ersten Kurzfristprognosen für die Strompreisentwicklung an Spotmärkten. 2005 auch für langfristige und fundamentale Energiemarktmodellierung das europäische Energiemarktmodell Power2Sim. Tobias Federico ist Projektverantwortlicher im Bereich des Portfolio- und Risikomanagements, Studienleiter zu Marktdesign und -integration erneuerbarer Energien und Trainer und Redner auf internationalen Konferenzen. Er ist zudem ausgewiesener Experte zum Thema Blockchain in der Energiewirtschaft. Als zertifizierter Trainer führt Tobias Federico zudem Börsenhändlerschulungen in Abstimmung mit der European Power Exchange (EPEX SPOT SE) und der European Energy Exchange (EEX AG) durch.

João Galamba was born in Lisbon in 1976.

He graduated in Economics from the Nova University of Lisbon Faculty of Economics in 2000. 

He completed the curriculum part of his PhD in Political Science at the London School of Economics, and he lectured on Political Philosophy at the Government department.

He worked at Santander Corporate Bank, at DiamondCluster International consulting firm, at the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the Mission Unit for Integrated Long-term Care.

He arrived in parliament in 2009 and was a member of parliament in the 11th, 12th, and 13th Governments. He was coordinator of the Socialist Party members of parliament in the Budget and Finance Committee, and Vice-President of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group.

He was Secretary of State for Energy in Prime Minister António Costa's first Government,  Deputy Minister and  Secretary of State for Energy  in Prime Minister António Costa's second Government, and Secretary of State for the Environment and Energy in Prime Minister António Costa's third Government; on 4 January he was appointed Minister of Infrastructure.

Juan Díez Gibson is Economic and Trade Counsellor at the Spanish Embassy in Bern since November 2020, which involves following up on economic bilateral relations between Switzerland/Liechtenstein and Spain and promoting Spanish exports to Switzerland and Liechtenstein as well as investments from Switzerland and Liechtenstein into Spain. With bachelor degrees in Law and Economics (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and a master’s degree in Public Management (Instituto de Estudios Fiscales), Juan Díez Gibson is a Spanish State economist and previously worked twelve years at the Spanish Treasury, including as Deputy Director General for Strategic Analysis and International Financial System.

Pedro Amaral Jorge joined APREN in October 2018. He previously took a role at AfDB to work as private sector expert in developing and structuring Infrastructure, Energy, Water and Sanitation Projects in Africa, with focus in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, undertaking the mission of supporting AfDB executing Non-Sovereign Operations by funding Public Private Partnerships, Private Sector Enterprises as well as State Owned Enterprises, with a portfolio of financial tools, from project finance to risk mitigation.
In March this year Pedro was invited to become a board member of the Portuguese Water Partnership, given the Green H2 development and water constraints and requirements.
Pedro has a track record on EPC and Utility business development, financing, designing, building and management with more than 20 years of international work experience, having worked in Europe, South America, Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Pedro has 22 years’ experience in Top Management positions such as General Manager, Executive Board Member, Executive Director and CEO, in which he was responsible for strategic and investment planning and execution; business development; business planning, implementation and management; project development, project finance and, corporate finance; financial analysis and management; project and contract management; M&A and negotiation.
Pedro lead the development, execution, implementation and management of water and sanitation sustainable infrastructure, natural gas distribution infrastructure and renewable energy projects, all in different contract structures such as full PPP’s, Utility Concession, BOT, EPC, O&M, Engineering and Design, in several countries and continents.
Pedro worked for AfDB, Mitsubishi/METITO, Mota-Engil, SACYR/SOMAGUE, IDOM, among others.
Pedro has an Executive MBA in Finance and Operations from IESE/AESE as well as a MsC in Mechanical Engineering from IST -  Instituto Superior Técnico.

Benefiting of his wide experience in the energy sector, José María Llopis is managing Smartenergy’s Operations in Spain, as well as the Groups’ Wind Business. He is Industrial Engineer by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia with a superior course in Energy Business by ICADE. José María has more than 26 years of professional experience in the energy and utilities industry, having worked in IBERDROLA and in DS2, a telecommunications start-up participated by ENDESA and ITOCHU. Early 2009, he joined the German PV specialist IBC SOLAR, and started his track record in renewable business. In this Group, he was holding various executive management positions leading the expansion of the company from wholesale retail distribution business into large scale project business. During his over 12 years of experience in the solar PV sector, he has been leading highly qualified multinational teams in EPC, O&M and project development business in countries like Spain, Germany, India and Japan.

Luís Lopes is an Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Infrastructure of the Portuguese Government, since january 2023.

Luís holds a Bachelor and master’s degree in management and worked in the European Parliament as an MEP trainee, where he followed several subjects such as the Just Transition Mechanism and the Banking Union. He also worked as an Adviser to the Secretary of State for Energy between 2021 and 2023, where he played an active role on the design of the Portuguese strategies for Hydrogen, Biomethane and Offshore wind.

As Impact Director, François Paquet leads the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition and its advocacy outreach, with the support of the Coalition members, to scale renewable hydrogen in Europe. Belgian-national, François has ten years of experience in EU Public Affairs, industry interest representation and EU association management in Brussels. His fields of expertise include energy, climate change, resource efficiency and circular economy. François holds an MA degree in Business from the Louvain School of Management (Belgium) and an Executive MA degree in Public Affairs and Advocacy (European Institute for Advanced Studies in Lobbying/Strasbourg University). He speaks English and French.

Christian Pho Duc is heading the hydrogen activities of Smartenergy and is also in charge of solar projects in Germany. His many years of international management experience, his marked technical background and, last but not least, his multicultural roots make him ideally suited for this task. After over 5 years of expanding E-Mobility on the water as SVP Sales at market leader Torqeedo he is now eager to provide clean energy to the installations worldwide. Christian spent already 5 years in the Solar Industry at Smartenergy Renewables, Nanosolar and Solyndra developing solar projects as managing director and VP Sales in EMEA and India. Prior to his engagement in the renewable energy space, Christian worked for 15 years in the semiconductor industry, always at the leading edge of technical innovations launching what were then the most highly integrated memory chips. He marketed high-end products for Infineon, Giesecke & Devrient and Siemens on the international stage, holding a number of management positions. Christian holds a master’s degree in semiconductor physics and microelectronics engineering from Cambridge University and master’s degree in physics from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich and showed an early interest in the market potential of new technologies. He undertook research at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics into high resolution detectors that today orbit the earth in satellites.

Samuele Porsia is an accomplished professional with a distinguished career in international trade and commerce. With a wealth of experience spanning various roles at the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) across multiple countries and functions. He currently serves as the Trade Commissioner for the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in Bern, Switzerland. During his tenure in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Mr. Porsia successfully represented ITA, contributing to the promotion of Italian exports and the strengthening of trade relations. As the Trade Commissioner in Jakarta, Indonesia, he played a pivotal role in expanding Italian trade opportunities in the region. In the capacity of Chief of Staffs, Mr. Porsia managed the operations of ITA's Head Office in Rome, Italy. He served as the Trade Commissioner in Algiers, Algeria, where he spearheaded trade initiatives and market development efforts.

Ana Maria Rosas holds a law degree, a master's degree in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship and several short courses in economics, management and international trade. She also attended the Management and Leadership Development Program for SME Leaders promoted by the Catholic University in partnership with IAPMEI, the institute for the promotion of medium and small enterprises in Portugal, and the AESE's Business Management Program.

As part of AICEP's technical staff, she worked at IAPMEI, in issues such as financial support and incentive systems for SMEs, inter-company cooperation, the social responsibility of organizations and essentially, entrepreneurship supporting programs. After 11 years she returned to AICEP. Since 2016, she represents Portugal in the economic and commercial areas abroad.

Christopher Schmitt is a Principal at Roland Berger with a focus on sustainable infrastructure for energy and transport. His core expertise is in large-scale decarbonization infrastructure projects and in decarbonization technologies, in particular renewable electricity, low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives. Christopher's track-record spans a wide range of projects along the full value chain, covering investment strategies, financing concepts, feasibility assessments, market entry and transformation, as well as hands-on project development and implementation support. His key clients include financial investors, energy companies, infrastructure developers and operators, green technology OEMs, as well as government entities.

Uwe Weichenhain is a Partner in Roland Berger's Energy & Infrastructure Practice. He focuses on the energy transition and new technologies, incl. renewable energy, hydrogen & fuel cells, and clean fuels/P2X. Uwe helps clients in the energy, technology and mobility sector in formulating investment and growth strategies, business planning, setting up and managing capital investment projects and M&A processes. He further has substantial experience in formulating technology commercialization roadmaps for public institutions.

Christian Weinberger is independent strategy adviser for the European hydrogen economy.

Before becoming independent, he worked for more than 20 years in the European Commission. In 1999 he joined DG Enterprise and Industry in the sector for technical harmonisation in the Common Market and EN standardisation. In 2003 he was appointed Head of Unit dealing with Entrepreneurship and SME Policy and later Advisor in the same area. In 2016 he became Senior Adviser for Macroregional Strategies the Danube Region, working from Vienna. After returning to Brussels in 2018 he was named Senior Adviser for Advanced Industrial Technologies and Hydrogen Coordinator in DG GROW.

Before joining the European Commission, Christian Weinberger worked in the private sector, for 10 years with a large multinational corporation in Marketing, Sales, Finance and Special Business Operations in various countries and at European HQ and then founded an international SME in Information Technology and was its CEO for 10 years.

Being a European born in Austria, Christian Weinberger holds a Master of Physics in Engineering, an MBA and a Ph.D. in Economics.