Speakers

Manuel Breva is a graduate in Law from the Jaume I University of Castellón (Class of 1997). He obtained a Master’s degree in Environmental Law from the same university in 1998 and later completed the General Management Program (PDG) at IESE Business School, University of Navarra, in 2014. In 2024, he further enhanced his expertise through the ESADE Artificial Intelligence and Leadership Program.

He serves as Secretary General of several national and European industry associations, including the National Association of Manufacturers of Frits, Glazes, and Ceramic Colours (ANFFECC), the National Association of Importers of Raw Materials (AIMPR), and two pioneering European Consortia for REACH and CLP regulations, created in Spain in 2008 and 2009. In 2014, he also assumed the role of Secretary General of the EEIG for Complex Inorganic Products for Emerging Regulations, which now advises companies in 22 countries worldwide.

Beyond his advisory work, Manuel Breva is an active leader in the chemical and industrial sectors. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of CEOE, sits on the Permanent Committee of the Federation of the Chemical Industry, and is part of the Presidential Board of the European Association Eurocolour. He also contributes to the Grow Hydrogen Platform, supporting the development of renewable energy initiatives.

As a recognized expert and speaker, he has participated in major international conferences, including the World Hydrogen and Renewables Iberia in Madrid, the World Hydrogen Congress 2024 in Copenhagen, the 1st and 2nd Spain National Green Hydrogen Congress in Huelva (2024 and 2025), Renmad H2 in Zaragoza (2025), and WhyH2 in Madrid (2025).

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis has been working at Hydrogen Europe since 2016. He currently holds the position of CEO of the association. He previously covered roles in the planning department of the Foreign Office of Germany, at Infineon Technologies and was 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. He was awarded Hydrogen Person of the Year at the World Hydrogen Awards 2022, “as a major player promoting hydrogen in Europe and world-wide, accelerating collaboration and industry development”.
Jorgo was born in Duisburg, Germany. He holds German and Greek nationality, and a degree in political science from the University of Bonn.

Dr. René Cotting, CFO Smartenergy Group since May 2021, a privately owned investment company, focusing on investments in renewable energy and related ventures. Additionally, he is mandated CFO and head of Investor Relations of SIX stock-listed company Edisun Power.

Previously, Dr. René Cotting has held various management positions in Switzerland and abroad for the ABB Group since 1995. From 2013 until the end of May 2017, he was CFO of ABB Switzerland. On March 1, 2017, he was named Head of Operation, Innovation and R&D for the ABB Group and Chairman of ABB Technology Ventures.

In addition, he has served as Board member in different companies, including SIX stock-listed company Bossard, being the Chairman of the audit, risk & compliance committee from 2015 to April 2023. Since April 2023, he is Board member of SIX stock-listed insurance company Helvetia.

In the course of his professional activities, Dr. René Cotting gained experiences in emerging markets, in particular in India, China and Poland and worked several years as CFO in the Silicon Valley and Texas (USA).

Dr. René Cotting holds a PhD from University Fribourg/Freiburg Switzerland in Strategic Management, Finance and Macro-economics and has educated himself further at IMD (Lausanne CH), Harvard Business School (Boston USA), Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University (Evanston USA), MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge USA) and at Wharton Business School (San Francisco USA).

Vincent Girard joined the European Investment Bank in 2009.

Since 2021, he has been heading the Project Finance team covering Southern European countries including Italy, Spain and Portugal, focusing on Renewable Energies, PPPs (rail, hospitals, universities) and Telecom (data centres, fibre networks) transactions.

Vincent has been working on the origination and execution of structured finance operations for 20 years, initially working at Natixis (2006-2009) and then at the EIB where he covered both EU and non-EU countries (Africa and Latin America).

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.

Cornelius is a well-respected leader and investor in the renewable energy industry and built several successful clean energy businesses and start-ups within Middle East and Africa. He has extensive board level experience from 10 years in Deutsche Bank (among others, youngest board member in Deutsche Bank Italy Group) and several leading renewable energy organizations and associations via pro bono work as well as different startup companies.

By building the international shareholder and partner network of Dii (Desertec Industrial Initiative), he was at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution in North Africa and the Middle East. A keen entrepreneur and investor in emerging markets with recognitions such as “Solar Pioneer 2015” for the Middle East or the Visionary CleanTech Influencer of The Year 2022 by World Cleantech Awards. He is lecturing at several universities including St. Gallen and is a regular speaker at international conferences. He holds an MBA (Dipl. Kaufmann) from University of Passau, and speaks German, English, Italian, French and Russian.

His experience ranges from M&A transactions, asset management, developing utility scale renewable energy projects (including mid-market with private PPAs), pay-as-you-go solar to energy efficiency, including ESCO projects and new business models. Some of the projects and companies were executed in challenging settings or countries. He has led sizable organizations both in startup environments and blue-chip companies and has raised funds from angel investments to USD 100m+ projects with institutional investors.

“I am glad to be able to work in renewable energy which is also my passion – we can genuinely make an impact with many different things and help people, to make our planet a better place. Having new challenges every day is fantastic and many more mountains to be climbed!” Executive management and boards of a variety of companies in emission-free technologies, as well as investment funds, seek his advice.

Christian Pho Duc is the CTO at Smartenergy Group AG and a member of the Board of Directors at Solar Power Europe. He has been the Chair of its Hydrogen and Electrification Workstreams since 2021. He graduated as a Physicist and an Engineer from Munich and Cambridge University. Christian has accumulated 30 years working experience in Semiconductors (Siemens, IBM, G&D, Infineon Technologies), Renewable Energies & Hydrogen (Solyndra, Nanosolar, Smartenergy) and Electric Mobility (Torqeedo) in various management positions.

Raghu Viswanathan has been the Global Director of eFuels, Supply Chain, and Strategy at Smartenergy since July 2024. He has a background in Chemical and Materials Engineering and over 20 years of expertise in renewable fuels, energy, utilities, and academia.

Prior to joining Smartenergy, he served as the Global Head of Strategy & Business Development for the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) division at Neste in Amsterdam, where he was instrumental in driving growth and developing business models that ensured the successful operation of the business.

Having held senior management roles at Vestas and GE Renewable Energy, his expertise extends into energy and utilities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions in business development, product management, and commercial operations.

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.

María Ángeles Zatarain, Vice President, Investment Banking at Bankinter, specializing in structured finance for renewable energy and hydrogen projects. She has led landmark financings across PV, wind, CSP, and hydrogen, from merchant portfolios to long-term PPA assets, designing ad-hoc structures to offer full debt-equity solutions. Angeles Zatarain is CFA charterholder, PhD in Economics (Cum Laude), and lecturer at IESE and ICADE, she combines deep academic rigor with hands-on transaction leadership in the energy transition.