Maroš Šefčovič

Maroš Šefčovič (born in 1966) is a Slovak career diplomat and since 1 November 2014 Vice President of the European Commission in charge of the Energy Union. In this capacity, he leads the "Energy Union" Project Team within the Commission which comprises of 14 commissioners.

In 2014 he was elected as the Member of the European Parliament. From 2010 – 2014 he was Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration. In 2009-2010, he was European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. From 2004 -2009, he was the Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the European Union. As diplomat by profession he served between 1992 and 2004 in Zimbabwe and Canada and as Ambassador to Israel.

He graduated from the University of Economy in Bratislava and the Moscow State Institute for Foreign Relations. He holds a degree as Doctor of Law and a PhD of European Law from the Comenius University, Faculty of Law, Bratislava. He also studied at Stanford University, USA.

He has recently published a book on his first mandate as Vice-President entitled "Driving the EU forward – straight talks with Maroš Šefčovič" (John Harper Publishing, London 2014).

Miguel Arias Cañete

Miguel Arias Cañete is the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy. He has served in the role since 1st November 2014.

Born on 24th February 1950 in Madrid, Mr. Arias Cañete studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid. After graduating in 1974, he joined the Spanish Civil Service working as a State Attorney. In 1978, he became a professor of Law at the University of Cadiz. In 1982 he left his teaching post as he was elected a member of the Parliament of Andalusia until 1986. After serving in the Andalusian parliament, he became a Member of the European Parliament upon Spain’s accession in 1986. He stayed until 1999, heading the Committees on Agriculture and on Regional Development during his time as MEP. Mr. Arias Cañete served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of Spain from 2000 until 2004. He also served as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment in the Spanish Government from 2011 until 2014, before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections.

Commissioner Arias Cañete is married with three children.

Full CV here: http://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/cwt/files/cv_canete_cw_final.pdf

Christophe Gence-Creux

Christophe Gence-Creux holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Toulouse, where he used to teach Economics and Regulation. After a post-Doctorat at the Laval University in Quebec, where he continued his research on the Economic Regulation of network infrastructure industries, he worked as an Economist consultant for the World Bank for the promotion of public-private partnerships in the financing of network infrastructures in the North-African and Middle-Eastern countries (MEDA) region. From 2003 to 2011, he worked for the French Energy Regulatory Authority, CRE, where he was in charge of the market integration process with neighbouring countries, the well-functioning of the French balancing market and its opening-up to cross-border balancing trade and to the participation of demand-side response.

In February 2011, he joined the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators as the Head of the Electricity Department.

Dennis Hesseling

Dennis Hesseling joined ACER as Head of the Gas Department on December 1, 2012. Before joining the Agency, he worked for the Netherlands Competition Authority NMa from 2002 to 2012. There, he worked as Head of Unit in the Competition Department from 2006 onwards, responsible for merger control and antitrust enforcement in the Dutch energy, telecommunications and media sectors. Before 2006, he worked in the Energy Regulation department, with a focus on gas. Next to his work for the NMa, Dennis trained energy regulators and competition authorities in the Ukraine, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Vietnam. He is also a guest lecturer on energy regulation and competition law enforcement at the Florence School of Regulation and at Utrecht University.

From 2000 to 2002 Dennis worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in Brussels, providing strategic and operational advice to postal companies and banks.

Dennis holds a PhD in Mathematics from Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Andris Piebalgs

Andris Piebalgs is an experienced Latvian politician and diplomat, who has occupied key positions in both national and European levels.

He has been Latvia’s minister of Finance and of Education. He served also as a chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Parliament.

He was the Latvian Ambassador to the EU.

He served as a European Commissioner for Energy from 2004 to 2010 and as a EuropeanCommissioner for Development from 2010 to 2014.

He is a Senior Fellow at the Florence School of Regulation and the Chairman of the Board of Appeal of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. He serves as a Member of the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation.

Monique Goyens

As Director General of BEUC, Monique represents 43 independent national consumer associations in 31 European countries, acting as a strong consumer voice in Brussels, ensuring that consumer interests are given weight in the development of policies and raising the visibility and effectiveness of the consumer movement through lobbying EU institutions and media contacts.

As a consumer expert and advocate, and on behalf of BEUC, she is currently member of the EU High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain and a delegate in the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change of the European Economic and Social Committee. She is an effective member of the Euro Retail Payments Board. She has also been appointed to the expert group on “fake news” (2018) and in the expert group on “trade agreements” (2018-2019). She is member of the Advisory Group of Transparency International EU and of the European Advisory Board of the Open Society Foundations.

In her capacity as BEUC Director General, Monique is currently EU co-chair of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) a network of EU and US consumer organisations, and she also represents BEUC at Consumers International, the international consumer organisation.

Apart from championing consumer’ rights, Monique’s passions/challenges are her family, cooking for friends and long walks with her golden retriever.

Frauke Thies

Frauke Thies is Executive Director of smartEn, Smart Energy Europe. As the European business association for digital and decentralised energy solutions, smartEn takes an integrated perspective on the interaction of demand and supply, promoting system efficiency, innovation and diversity, consumer empowerment and the decarbonisation of the energy sector. smartEn’s membership includes innovators in services and technology for energy and data management, finance and research.

Before joining smartEn in September 2015, Frauke held different positions at Greenpeace EU and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association SolarPower Europe. She also worked on secondments in Washington, D.C. and in New Delhi, India.

She holds a Master degree in Environmental Sciences from Lüneburg University, Germany, and an Executive MBA from Vlerick Business School, Belgium.

Laurent Schmitt

Laurent Schmitt is ENTSO-E’s Secretary General since January 2017. Before joining ENTSO-E, he was Global Smart Grid Strategy Leader at General Electric Grid Solutions.

Laurent worked in Europe, the United States and Asia, first on power generation then on transmission and distribution specialising in smart grids solutions. Laurent is a member of strategic committees in CIGRE, IEC, EPRI and European Smart Cities Platform. He took part in expert task forces of the IEA and the European Commission. In 2015, he was named one of the most 40 influential people in the European Smart Grid by the Metering & Smart Energy International Magazine.

Laurent is a French national. He graduated in Power System Engineering from Supélec in Paris and holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD, France.

Leonardo Meeus

Leonardo Meeus is Professor and Partner at Vlerick Business School in Brussels where he directs the Energy Centre, and where he teaches strategy beyond markets. He is also a professor of the Florence School of Regulation at the European University Institute where he directs the online courses on the EU Clean Energy Package and the EU Electricity Network Codes. He is active in EU Horizon 2020 research projects; and publishes in academic journals, such as Energy Economics, and Energy Policy. He is a member of the Academic Panel of the UK energy regulator, Ofgem, and a member of the International Association for Energy Economics. Leonardo is a commercial engineer with a PhD in electrical engineering from KU Leuven.

Pierre Mallet

- Director for R&D and Innovation Enedis

- Diplomed engineer from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.

- Three years with the Commission of the European Union (DG Energy): work on the completion of the Internal Energy Market and on the development of cooperation with non EU countries.

- Eleven years with EDF R&D: in charge of the Transmission Network Economics and Design Group during three years and of the Power System Dynamics and Control Branch during four years.

- Local manager for EDF and Gaz de France during six years, in charge of power and gas distribution and meters management: responsible for power distribution to about 700.000 customers.

- Presently Director for R&D and Innovation in Enedis, in charge of the R&D programme of Enedis and of the development of new solutions for the distribution network operation.

- CIRED: chairman of the Technical Committee and of the French National Committee, member of the Directing Committee

- Advisor of the Board and member of the Technology Committee of EDSO, French member of the Networks Committee of Eurelectric, French alternate member of the International Energy Agency WG on Smart Grids (ISGAN).

Janez Kopač

Career highlights
Dec 2012 - present Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Vienna, Austria
Dec 2008 - Feb 2012 Director General, Directorate for Energy, Ministry of Economy, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dec 2005 - Nov 2008 Procurator, En plus d.o.o., Brnčičeva 31, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dec 2000 - Dec 2004 Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy, Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Apr 1990 - Dec 2000 Member of Parliament, Chairman of Budget Committee, Državni zbor Republike Slovenije, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Apr 1992 - May 1992 Minister of Finance, Ministry of Finance, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Jun 1988 - Apr 1990 Member of the presidency of state youth organisation (ZSMS), Zveza socialistične mladine Slovenije, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Educational background
1996 Master of Economic Science, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
specialisation: economics of international relations, title of the thesis: "Management of Budget Expenditures"

1986 Bachelor of Science, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
specialisation: economic science

Romana Jordan

Chair of ACER Administrative Board

Professional experience
1990 – 2004: researcher, Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
2004 – 2014: Member of the European Parliament
2015 - : Independent Contractor
2015 – 2020: Assistant to the director, Jožef Stefan Institute

Education
PhD in Nuclear Engineering, Faculty of Matematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana (2001)
MSc in Nuclear Engineering, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana (1994)
BSc in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ljubljana (1990)

Training/seminars
I participated at several scientific trainings and seminars as a student as well as a lecturer

Publications
See my bibliography in the attachment or In the public Bibliographic Database:
http://splet02.izum.si/cobiss/BibPersonal.jsp?init=t&code=&type=conor

Jan van Aken

Jan van Aken is the Secretary General of EFET, the European Federation of Energy Traders, which he co-founded in 1999. EFET has presently over 120 members from 27 European countries. The membership list includes most of the large and medium size energy trading companies in Europe. Main objective of EFET is to facilitate and stimulate energy trading throughout Europe by promoting competition, transparency and open access in the European energy sector.

Jan van Aken was involved in the creation, foundation and extension of EFET and EFETnet. He is presently managing the EFET organisation. He coordinated several initiatives such as e.g. establishing a European standard contract for physical delivery of electricity and gas trading as well as promoting a European standard for electronic deal confirmation matching and other IT-standardisation projects to improve efficiency of Trading and exchange of data in the European Energy Industry.

Beate Raabe

Beate Raabe, 54, German, was appointed in 2011 to the post of Secretary General of Eurogas, the association of companies and associations engaged in the wholesale, retail and distribution of gas in Europe. In 1998 she joined the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP), where she became Director EU Affairs and Head of the EU office in 2005. She came to Brussels in 1993, working in EU Affairs at the International Association of Combined Road-Rail Transport (UIRR) and later at the German and Swedish railways (DB and SJ). She started her professional career as a teacher and lecturer of German in the UK, following a master’s degree in technical translation. She lives in Brussels with her husband.

Egbert Laege

Dr. Egbert Laege is President and CEO at Powernext S.A. since April 1, 2015. Dr. Laege as well is Member of Executive Board of European Energy Exchange (EEX) since April 1. He additionally assumes the role as CEO of Cleartrade Exchange Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. Egbert is a Board member of Europex since 2016.

Egbert served as the Chief Commercial Officer of Asset Optimization at E.ON Global Commodities SE and as a Member of the Management Board of E.ON Ruhrgas from 2011-2014. Prior to this he served as Director Prompt and Dispatch Trading at E.ON Energy Trading, Vice President Portfolio Management at E.ON Energie AG and held roles as a Trading Manager at E.ON Sales & Trading.

Egbert has studies in Energy Engineering and Energy Economics at University of Stuttgart / University of Arizona and holds Ph.D in Energy Economics.

Andrea Steinmetz

Andrea Steinmetz is responsible for the integration of renewable energies and, among other things, the legal and subsidy framework of renewables. She deals with electricity market design and represents Austria in the Electricity Coordination Group and the Pentalateral Energy Forum. Currently she is very busy as a member of the Austrian Council presidency team. Her background is economics and business and she used to work in the European Parliament, focusing on Single Market issues and SME policy.

Steinar Solheim

Steinar Solheim is currently President of IFIEC (International Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers) Europe. He is also Vice President and Head of Energy Regulatory Affairs in Yara International . He was Head of Energy Sourcing in Yara International with the responsibility to supply energy to all Yara’s fertilizer plants worldwide in the period 2000 to 2016. Yara International is the largest industrial consumer of gas in Europe. He was also chair of Working Party Gas in IFIEC from 2010 until 2018.

Solheim is one of EU experts in Gas Advisory Council EU – Russia.

He has been Head of Gas Task Force in Fertlizer Europe since 2008.

Jan Ingwersen

Jan Ingwersen became General Manager of ENTSOG as of January 2016. He has been with ENTSOG since January 2014 as Business Area Manager for Market. Jan is seconded from the Danish gas and electricity TSO Energinet.

Jan has been working in the gas industry for more than 25 years, holding positions at Energinet.dk, Gastra, DONG Energy as well as consultancies. He holds a technical MSc from University of Aalborg, Denmark, supplemented with a commercial degree from Copenhagen Business School and a management education from IMD, Lausanne.

Jan has been involved in most parts of the gas sector value chain. He was heading the implementation of the gas market liberalization in Denmark for Gastra/Energinet.dk (2000-2005) – including development of network codes. He has been heading DONG Energy’s storage and offshore transmission activities (2006-2013), was establishing the company’s gas regulatory affairs department.