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).

Gunnar Holen has served as CEO of Nordic Electrofuel since February 2016. Under his leadership, the company has been successfully developed and financed with seed capital, while securing key contracts across off-take, utilities, CO₂ supply, long-term renewable power, and oxygen deliveries and distribution. He has built a highly qualified management team and guided the company through Basic Engineering for its first plant, bringing it to construction readiness.

In July 2023, Nordic Electrofuel, under Holen’s leadership, secured a maximum grant award of €40 million from the EU Innovation Fund, achieving the highest score among all mid-sized projects (82.5 out of 90 points). He has also overseen the signing of an impressive global project portfolio.

With a background in corporate and investment finance, Holen brings 31 years of investment banking experience, with extensive expertise in fundraising and M&A activity, including leadership and participation in a large number of placements. He was previously recognized as a top-rated and highly profiled investment analyst both domestically and internationally.

As an entrepreneur, Holen co-founded and developed an investment bank, growing it from two to 50 employees and from zero to NOK 80 million in annual revenues within five years. He has co-founded two investment banks and served as CEO of both, advising numerous companies that have grown into large enterprises under his guidance. In each role, he has been a significant contributor to the growth and success of the organizations he served.

Holen is also the co-founder and a former board member of Norge Mining, as well as CEO of its Norwegian subsidiary, Norge Mineraler, which has reported one of the largest mineral discoveries worldwide in recent years, totaling 4.5 billion tonnes of critical raw materials.

Maria Luisa Huidobro is the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Spanish Embassy in Switzerland and belongs to the special branch of Civil Service which provides the staff for the highest-level of Economic Policy making in Spain

She has occupied the position of senior economist in the Spanish General Direction of Macroeconomic Analysis at the Ministry of Economy, and she had worked in various governmental departments. of the Ministry of Industry.

She occupied the position of General Director of Energy at the Ministry of Industry and Energy from 1990-1997. At that time, she was member of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency and of the High-level Groups of, Energy (EU) and of the Energy Chater and member of the Intergovernmental Committee AIRBUS

She has been the founder executive president of OMIE, the Iberian Power Exchange, (from 1998 to 2009) and Vice-president of Red Electrica de España.

From 2013 to 2022 she had occupied the role of CEO of the Energy Division of Villar Mir Group, one of the biggest Spanish private industrial groups (fertilizers, ferroalloys, real state and generation and commercialization of electricity and gas) and Member of the Board of VM Energía.

She has also been a board member in several public and private companies in the financial, industrial and energy sectors. CDTI, BCI, CASA, REPSOL, RED ELECTRICA DE ESPAÑA, ENRESA., on behalf of the State and MIBGAS, OMIP and VME and other institutions and associations.

She has written for several publications and has given lectures at several courses and seminars in different organisms.

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.

Marcel Kägi is Director Aviation Policy and Strategy Division of the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) and Co-Head of the Aviation Development Division. This division is responsible, among other things, for promoting sustainable aviation fuels and for the regulatory integration of these technologies into Switzerland’s aviation policy, as well as representing national interests at the international level.

In previous roles, he helped establish a department for innovation and digitalization at FOCA. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Law from the University of Bern and an Executive Master in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

As part of ABN AMRO Bank’s Corporate Finance team, Martijn Koning is responsible for origination (M&A, Equity Capital Markets, Debt Capital Markets) in the Digital Infrastructure sector. He focuses amongst others on the cross-over between energy and digital infrastructure.

He joined ABN AMRO Bank in 2023. Before ABN AMRO Bank, he held positions at KPMG Corporate Finance, as independent financial advisor, and at NIBC Bank Corporate Finance, mostly with a focus on infrastructure assets.

He has extensive experience in originating and executing international M&A buy- and sell-side transaction, capital raisings, and equity capital market transactions.

Martijn holds cum laude MSc degrees in Investment Analysis and Financial Management from Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

Thorsten Lange has been serving as Senior Advisor Sales & Marketing at MB Energy GmbH KG and as Founder and Managing Director of NeboConsult since 2023.

Prior to these roles, he was Executive Vice President of Neste Corporation’s Renewable Aviation business from 2020 to 2023. From 2001 to 2019, he held various positions at Lufthansa, most recently as Head of Global Fuel Procurement.

Thorsten Lange has been a Member of the Advisory Board of aireg (Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany e.V.) since February 2020 and serves as Advisor for SAF Evaluation at Future Energy Global since September 2023. Between 2020 and 2023, he was also a Member of the Advisory Board of Faudi Aviation GmbH.

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.

José Moya is partner of Energy M&A practice in highly recommended Spanish law firm Cuatrecasas. His practice focuses on advising multinational companies in merger and acquisition transactions and implementing all kinds of financing and fixed-income transactions. He is a recommended lawyer by Chambers & Partners, Latin Lawyer and Best Lawyers in Corporate M&A.

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.

Erik Schäfer is Partner and Board Member of Green Investors AG, a Renewable Energy investment firm, originated and backed by his family office, dating back to 1988. Committed to accelerating decarbonization, his mission is to make clean energy not just viable but economically superior to fossil fuels.

Within the Green Investors investment spectrum, Erik focuses on hydrogen, particularly natural, white, or geological hydrogen. As a leading advocate for hydrogen, he believes cost competitiveness is the key to mass adoption and attractive investor returns. With extensive experience in renewable energy and recent breakthroughs in natural hydrogen projects across the UAE, Oman, North America, and Europe, Erik is shaping the future of hydrogen as a scalable, low-cost energy solution. With over three decades of entrepreneurial success, he has played a pivotal role in advancing many early-stage projects into successful companies.

As the author of Hydrogen Horizons, one of Germany’s leading works on hydrogen, and an industry partner at the €500 million SENCO Hydrogen Capital Fund, Erik bridges technical expertise with strategic investment insights. He is a speaker at high-profile forums such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he advocates for the commercialization and scalability of renewable energy solutions to make the world a better place. Through Green Investors AG’s influential platform, he continues to lead the charge in positioning hydrogen as a cornerstone of the global energy transition.

Gian Schelling leads one of Hitachi Energy’s Global Business Units’ growth in Renewables and Green Hydrogen. His team has supported over 100 investors, financiers and developers informing their project business cases, due diligences and FIDs. In addition, the team automates projects for efficient asset management and O&M once built. He joined Hitachi 8 years ago and brings 20 years of international experience from wind, PV, BESS and GH2.

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 clean molecules activity globally. Currently, he is focused on supporting the development of the first low-carbon 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, having the opportunity to work with some of the first movers in the clean molecules industry.

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.