Eurogas TECH Conference 'European Gas Tech: Delivering on 2050’

Speakers for this event

• Ana Quelhas

  Ana Quelhas

  Managing Director for Hydrogen, EDP Renewables

  Ana Quelhas is the Managing Director for Hydrogen at EDPR, leading the Group’s strategy on the renewable hydrogen business. Prior to that, Ana was the Head of Energy Planning at EDP, being responsible for supporting the Executive Board of Directors in the decision making processes, contributing with a long term perspective of the energy sector and an integrated vision of the company across businesses (renewables, conventional electricity generation, retail and distribution) and geographies (mainly Europe, US and Brazil).
  Before joining EDP, Ana worked in the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission, in Brussels, supporting the development of the strategic research agenda in the field of energy. Prior to that, she was at the California Independent System Operator providing strategic energy consultancy to the wholesale power market and grid operator in the State of California.
  Ana holds a PhD with distinction in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University. She also holds a master’s degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Engineering from the same university, being graduated from the University of Porto with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

  Managing Director for Hydrogen, EDP Renewables

• Christian Pho Duc

  Christian Pho Duc

  CTO & Managing Director H2 Projects, Smartenergy Group

  Christian Pho Duc is the CTO & Managing Director H2 & PtL Projects at Smartenergy Group AG and the Vice Chair of the Renewable Hydrogen Workstream at Solar Power Europe. He graduated as a Physicist from Munich and Cambridge University. Christian has accumulated 25 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. With his multi-national background he speaks fluently German, English, French, Italian and some Spanish.

  CTO & Managing Director H2 Projects, Smartenergy Group

• Didier Holleaux

  Didier Holleaux

  President of Eurogas

  After graduating as an Engineer (Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Mines de Paris), Didier HOLLEAUX started to work as an Engineer in the car-manufacturing and in the oil industry. He then made a career in the French Civil Service which led him to the position of head of the departmental staff (“Directeur de Cabinet”) of the Energy Minister (1992-1993).

  Didier HOLLEAUX joined Gaz de France (merged in GDF SUEZ in 2008 and renamed as ENGIE in 2015), in 1993. Since then, he held different managing positions in the transmission, distribution, and LNG businesses of the company. He also founded and managed the North Sea Exploration and Production (1997-2000) and managed the worldwide Exploration and Production of the group (2007-2015). Since 1st of July 2015, he is Executive Vice President of ENGIE. He is currently in charge of special projects particularly in the field of renewable gases and external representation.

  Didier HOLLEAUX has been elected President of Eurogas in June 2021.

  President of Eurogas

• Edith Hofer

  Edith Hofer

  Deputy Head of Unit Decarbonisation and Sustainability of Energy Sources, DG ENER, European Commission

  Edith Hofer has been working for the European Commission since 2011. She joined
  Directorate-General for Energy in the internal energy market unit, then from November
  2012 to January 2015 was Assistant to the Director-General. From February 2015 until
  September 2017, she was team leader of the Energy Union team in the Secretariat-
  General of the European Commission. From September 2017 until July 2021, Ms Hofer
  changed the subject of her work and was team leader of the Drugs Policy team in the
  Directorate-General for Home Affairs and Migration of the European Commission. Since
  August 2021, Ms Hofer is Deputy Head of Unit of the Unit “Decarbonisation and
  Sustainability of Energy Sources” in DG Energy.
  Prior to the Commission, Edith Hofer worked as Assistant Lecturer at the Institute of
  Administrative Law at the Johannes Kepler Universität in Linz (Austria) (1997-2001); in
  the legal department of the Austrian energy regulator, Energie Control, including an
  assignment to the Brussels office of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER)
  (2002-2004); as Adviser in the markets unit of EURELECTRIC (2004-2007); and as
  Senior Expert on European issues in Energie Control working on the third energy market
  package (based in Brussels; 2007-2010).
  Ms Hofer holds a law degree from the Johannes Kepler Universität in Linz (Austria) and
  a Masters of Law (LL.M.) degree from King’s College London (United Kingdom).

  Deputy Head of Unit Decarbonisation and Sustainability of Energy Sources, DG ENER, European Commission

• Graham Cooley

  Graham Cooley

  CEO, ITM Power

  Dr Graham Cooley joined ITM Power as CEO in 2009. ITM Power was the first hydrogen related company to be listed on the London Stock Market, and has been developing electrolyser equipment for over 20 years.
  Graham started his career in the power sector in 1989, joining the CEGB and becoming Business Development Manager at National Power plc and then International Power plc, developing energy storage and new generation technologies.
  Before joining ITM Power, Graham was CEO of Sensortec Ltd, founding CEO of Metalysis Ltd, a spin out from Cambridge University, and founding CEO of Antenova Ltd.
  Graham has a PhD in physics, an MBA, and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Metals, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), and of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET).
  Graham is also a member of the UK Government’s Hydrogen Advisory Council, and a board member of RenewableUK.

  CEO, ITM Power

• Guloren Turan

  Guloren Turan

  General Manager - Advocacy & Communications, Global CCS Institute

  Guloren is responsible for the Global CCS Institute’s Advocacy team globally, including its international climate policy activities focused on the UNFCCC and its related bodies. Guloren has extensive experience in the energy and climate fields. From 2015 to 2017, Guloren led the Government Affairs activities at the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. Prior to this she held a number of roles over the course of 9 years at BG Group, including Head of Climate Change Strategy, Head of Business Risk for the Group and Lead Corporate Strategist. Guloren holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, an MBA from Cornell University and BSc Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University.

  General Manager - Advocacy & Communications, Global CCS Institute

• Hélène Chraye

  Hélène Chraye

  Deputy Director Clean Planet - Clean Energy Transition, DG Research, European Commission

  French State Civil Engineer by education, Hélène Chraye graduated then in Economics and Public Law at Sciences – Po / Paris.

  After a stay in the French Administration to build the Energy Observatory and then on State Aids to the industry, she joined the European Commission and worked successively on various domains of the European Transport policy: Inter-modality, Trans-European Networks, Single Sky, as well as dealing with enlargement to 12 new member states.

  After a few years as Head of Operations in the EU Delegation to Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, she joined DG RTD where she built the European Research Council Executive Agency and then managed financially and legally the EU programme NMBP, part of FP7 and H2020. She later on revamped the EU policy on materials and nanotechnologies, also designing the new European system of materials innovation testbeds.

  Since 1St June 2019, she is heading the unit in charge of designing and implementing the European Research policy for Clean Energy Transition within the Directorate Clean Planet.

  Deputy Director Clean Planet - Clean Energy Transition, DG Research, European Commission

• James Watson

  James Watson

  Secretary General, Eurogas

  Dr Watson is the Secretary General of Eurogas, a role he has held since January 2019. Eurogas is the association representing the European gas wholesale, retail and distribution sectors.

  Prior to taking the helm at Eurogas, Dr Watson was the Chief Executive Officer of SolarPower Europe, the European solar industry association. Before joining SolarPower Europe, Dr Watson worked as the Director of Public Affairs for Weber Shandwick, specialising in energy and trade policy. Before coming to Brussels, Dr Watson worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat on a European Commission project on trade and sustainable development based in Ethiopia. Earlier in his career James worked for various UK government bodies in London and worked as a lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Manchester.

  He holds a Ph.D in International Trade and Environmental Law from the University of Leeds, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

  Secretary General, Eurogas

• Klaus Langemann

  Klaus Langemann

  Senior Vice President Carbon Management & Hydrogen, Wintershall Dea

  After studying chemistry at the University of Bielefeld and at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, Klaus Langemann received his doctorate from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Muehlheim an der Ruhr in 1997. After 3 years in research at BASF, Klaus came to Wintershall in Kassel in 2000. There he worked in strategy and coordinated the negotiations on Achimgaz. Back at BASF, he took on the role of Board Executive Assistant before being responsible for business development and M&A at Wintershall. After returning from the United Arab Emirates as General Manager in 2014, he held several positions in the technology area and most recently headed the Digitalization & Technology division before taking over the Carbon Management & Hydrogen division as Senior Vice President in May 2021.

  Senior Vice President Carbon Management & Hydrogen, Wintershall Dea

• Martin O’Neill

  Martin O’Neill

  VP Strategy, GE Gas Power

  Martin is Vice President of Strategy at GE Gas Power and leads activities centered on decarbonization, working horizontally across GE’s global energy business portfolio.
  He has over 20 years of experience in market, product, program and technical leadership roles spanning Power Generation, Marine, Aviation and Transportation sectors. He joined GE in 2010 and since then has split time between the US & Europe. He has a keen interest in the developing power market, technological and commercial disruptors and geo-political factors that are influencing the pace of the energy transition globally.
  Prior to joining GE, Martin held leadership positions in product, engineering and program management at Bombardier and Rolls Royce, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics from Brunel University in London and a master’s degree in Program Management & Systems Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

  VP Strategy, GE Gas Power

• Torbjørg Klara Fossum

  Torbjørg Klara Fossum

  VP Global CCS Solutions, Equinor

  Graduated with an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Trondheim and joined Equinor (former Statoil) in 1997. She currently holds the position as Vice President for Global CCS. Through various leadership positions she has gained insight in Equinor’s unique capability and experience within Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). These capabilities are based on decades of technology development, Technology Centre Mongstad (the world’s largest test centre for developing CO2 capture technologies), 25 years of operational experience (CCS projects Sleipner, Snøhvit, InSalah) and the current development of the CO2 transport and storage projects in the North Sea that are crucial to enable European industries to de-carbonise (Norway’s Northern Lights, Smeaheia and Polaris and UK’s Northern Endurance Partnership).

  VP Global CCS Solutions, Equinor

• Vaitea Cowan

  Vaitea Cowan

  Co-founder & Communications, Enapter

  Vaitea Cowan is one of the three cofounders of Enapter. Sebastian, Jan and Vaitea worked on the Phi Suea House in 2016, which became a lighthouse project for green hydrogen in Southeast Asia. In 2017, they cofounded Enapter and grew the team from 11 to 250 by 20222. Today, Vaitea heads Enapter’s communications and is based in the Berlin office. Vaitea is on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Energy 2020. Among other awards, she supported Enapter in winning the inaugural Earthshot Prize “Fix Our Climate” launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation. Vaitea graduated with a Bachelors in Commerce from Concordia University, John Molson School of Business (Montreal). Her personal mission is to bring green hydrogen to the islands, and to hire more women along the way. Her TED talk on green hydrogen is available in September 2022.

  Co-founder & Communications, Enapter