Eurogas Annual Conference 'Achieving the EU 2040 climate target: The role of gaseous energy'

Speakers for this event

• Annie Krist

  Annie Krist

  Vice-President of Eurogas

  Annie Krist studied geography at the University of Groningen and after graduating also worked for a short time at the Univerity.

  She started her career at N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie in 1987. She held various commercial positions at Gasunie and was closely involved in the adjustments associated with the liberalization of the gas market in the 1990s.
  In 2005 she joined the management team of Gasunie Transport Services, the transmission system operator of the Dutch national gas network.
  She became in 2008 Director of Strategy and Participations, and from 2011 Annie Krist was appointed as General Manager at Gasunie Transport Services.
  From May 2016 to April 2017 she was member of the Executive Board of N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie. During her career at Gasunie Annie Krist has been chair of PRISMA and member of the Board of ENTSOG.

  Since April 2017 Annie Krist is statutory director (CEO) at GasTerra B.V.
  Annie Krist is Vice-President of Eurogas.

  Vice-President of Eurogas

• Eddy Liégeois

  Eddy Liégeois

  Acting Director, Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport, DG MOVE, European Commission

  Eddy Liégeois is Head of the Transport Networks unit since January 2021. He is responsible to formulate policies and provide overall direction of the activities in the area of TEN-T projects and transport infrastructure development including provision of support for the work of the European Transport Coordinators.
  Previously Eddy was Head of Road transport unit (2015-2020), Head of the legal unit (2010-2015), and assistant of the Director General in DG MOVE (2005-2010).
  Before joining the European Commission in 1996, Eddy has worked in the private sector. He studied law in Louvain-La-Neuve.

  Acting Director, Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport, DG MOVE, European Commission

• Francesco Buresti

  Francesco Buresti

  Director of Smart Infrastructures Business Unit, A2A

  Since September 2017, Francesco Buresti has been head of A2A Group’s Smart Infrastructures Business Unit, which includes group activities in the distribution of electricity and gas, the integrated water cycle, district heating, the smart city and public lighting
  He is chairman of A2A Ciclo Idrico (Water Cycle) and board member of Linea Group Holding (LGH), an A2A subsidiary multi-utility operating in the areas of Cremona, Pavia, Lodi, Rovato and Crema.
  Born in Bologna in 1964, he is married with two children. In 1989, he graduated in Electronic Engineering from the University of Bologna. For many years, he has been Visiting Professor on the Procurement Master course at the University of Rome – Tor Vergata.
  He previously held various positions in the procurement sphere within the ENEL group, both in Italy and abroad. From 2012 to 2017, he was responsible for the group’s Global Procurement, heading a workforce of 850 in 11 countries with a budget of €14 billion. For a two-year period between 2005 and 2012, he was in charge of procurement for electricity distribution in Italy and then, for five years, at Madrid-based subsidiary Endesa, where he was responsible for Spain and Latin America.
  Prior to this, he worked for 15 years in consultancy, initially with Accenture and then with McKinsey, where he headed optimization projects for major Italian and European industrial groups, and development projects for companies active in the telecommunications sector.
  He also served as a board member in various ENEL group companies and, from 2008 to 2017, sat on the Board of Endesa Chile, a company which, at that time, managed the ENEL group’s conventional generation business in Latin America.
  His main hobbies are motorcycling, photography and sport.

  Director of Smart Infrastructures Business Unit, A2A

• Hélène Sibileau

  Hélène Sibileau

  Senior Policy Advisor, BPIE

  Hélène SIBILEAU works as Senior Policy Advisor at BPIE (Buildings Performance Institute Europe) since early 2021. In her role, she makes sure that BPIE’s research results are channelled towards policymakers and stakeholders at EU level and serve as a fact-based and sound knowledge input to policymaking. She also produces replies to public consultations, provides policy recommendations, or assess building policies. Before joining BPIE, she was Senior EU Affairs Manager for almost six years at EuroACE – Energy Efficient Buildings, a Brussels-based business association representing manufacturers of energy efficient products in buildings. At EuroACE, she advocated for more ambitious EU policies in the field of energy performance of buildings. Previous experiences include a Blue Book Traineeship in the European Commission in the ‘Energy Efficiency’ Unit of DG ENER and various roles as consultant. Hélène is a graduate in EU Public Affairs of both Sciences Po Strasbourg and the College of Europe, where she wrote her Master Thesis on the negotiations of the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive.

  Senior Policy Advisor, BPIE

• Kurt Vandenberghe

  Kurt Vandenberghe

  Director General, DG CLIMA, European Commission

  Kurt was appointed Director General of DG CLIMA on 16 January 2023. Until then, he was the Green Deal and Health advisor to President Ursula von der Leyen since 1 December 2019. He joined the European Commission in 1996.

  After reading French and Italian literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) and obtaining a degree in Public and International Affairs at the University Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL), Kurt gained a Master of Arts degree in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (S.A.I.S.) in Bologna, Italy and Washington D.C., US.

  Director General, DG CLIMA, European Commission

• Maria Spyraki

  Maria Spyraki

  Member of the ITRE Committee, European Parliament

  Maria Spyraki is now serving in her second mandate in the European Parliament as member of the Committees on Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE), on Regional Development (REGI), on Beating Cancer (BECA) and on the Environment (ENVI). She has served as vice-chair of EU-China inter parliamentary committee and she is co-chair of the Intergroup for Sustainable Development and Climate Change. During the current mandate she is the Rapporteur on behalf of the European Parliament on the revision of Classification Labelling and Packaging Regulation and on Reducing Methane Strategy of the EU, which was the basis of the global pledge in COP26 in Glasgow. She is also the awarded MEP of the year 2019 for Industry, Research, and Innovation. Her first degree is in Chemistry and she also holds an MSc at economics and energy policy.

  Maria Spyraki has also worked for 22 years as a journalist in her home country Greece. She has also worked in the Press Office of the European Parliament in Athens from 2003 to 2004, as well as the office of Greek Commissioner to the EU, Mr. Stavros Dimas, for the period 2004-2009.
  She has served as the Spokesperson of Nea Demokratia and as an elected member of the Nea Demokratia Executive Board.

  Member of the ITRE Committee, European Parliament

• Matthew Baldwin

  Matthew Baldwin

  Deputy Director General, DG ENER, European Commission

  Deputy Director General, DG ENER, European Commission

• Nadège Leclercq

  Nadège Leclercq

  Government Relations and Market Development, Westport Fuel Systems

  Nadège Leclercq is Senior Director, Government Relations and Market Development at Westport Fuel Systems. Since 2011 she has been actively engaged in facilitating the deployment of alternative fuel vehicles, particularly in the European heavy-duty transport sector.
  Westport Fuel Systems is a leading supplier of advanced fuel delivery components and systems for a wide range of affordable alternative low-carbon fuels such as natural gas, biomethane, propane, and hydrogen. Westport is driving cleaner performance by addressing lower emissions regulations with practical applications using innovation available today.
  Nadège is an active member of several industry associations including Eurogas, Hydrogen Europe and the Hydrogen Council. She has been Senior Vice President of NGVA Europe, the European Natural & bio Gas Vehicle Association, until the association merged with Eurogas in 2024. She is active on the political, technical, and marketing and communications issues specific to renewable gas in transport. Nadège has also been President of the French standardization group BNG 326-340 dealing with gas mobility installations and Vice Chair of the NGVA Europe Technical Committee.

  Government Relations and Market Development, Westport Fuel Systems

• Stefan Moser

  Stefan Moser

  Head of Unit for Buildings and Products, DG ENER, European Commission

  Head of Unit for Buildings and Products, DG ENER, European Commission

• Tatiana Marquez Uriarte

  Tatiana Marquez Uriarte

  Member of the Cabinet of Kadri Simson, European Commission

  Tatiana
  Marquez Uriarte is Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Simson, where she is in charge
  of hydrogen and gas issues. Before joining the Cabinet, Tatiana worked as Deputy
  Head of Unit in the State aid – Energy Unit in DG Competition. She has also
  held several positions in DG Environment and DG Energy. In DG Energy she worked
  in the Energy Efficiency Unit and as Assistant to the Director General for
  Energy. 

  Tatiana is a graduate in law, having
  specialised in European Law at the Katholieke University of Leuven and Kings
  College (London), and in EU Politics at the College of Europe.

  Member of the Cabinet of Kadri Simson, European Commission

• Walburga Hemetsberger

  Walburga Hemetsberger

  CEO, SolarPower Europe

  Walburga Hemetsberger has been the CEO of SolarPower Europe since 2019.
  She has been working in Brussels for more than 20 years in different positions, most of the time in the energy sector.

  Before joining SolarPower Europe, Walburga headed the VERBUND Representation Office in Brussels and was a Board Member of Hydrogen Europe.

  Walburga holds a degree in Law and Business Administration from Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck. She speaks German, English, Dutch and French.

  CEO, SolarPower Europe

• Willemijn Westerlaken

  Willemijn Westerlaken

  European Affairs Manager, Port of Rotterdam

  Working as European Affairs manager, Willemijn
  Westerlaken is responsible for contacts with stakeholders in Brussels such as
  the EU institutions and a broad range of interest groups that impact the
  activities of the Port of Rotterdam in areas such as energy, transport and
  decarbonisation. The port of Rotterdam is the largest sea port of Europe. With
  a throughput of 467 TEU per year it makes up 3,2% of the GDP of The
  Netherlands. Besides being an important logistical hub, the port area also
  includes a big industrial cluster. The energy-intensive industries in
  North-West Europe are interwoven in the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Rhine Ruhr-area
  (ARRRA) cluster. Consequently, three times more energy is transported through
  the port of Rotterdam than is consumed in the whole of the Netherlands. The
  port of Rotterdam aims to reach a minimum of a 55% CO₂ reduction in 2030
  compared to 1990 and wants to become climate neutral by 2050.

  European Affairs Manager, Port of Rotterdam