Speakers 2014

Nick Beglinger is Founder & CEO of the Zürich based Foundation FFGS, as well as President of the swisscleantech business association. Since mid 2008 he focuses on the question as to how Switzerland could economically benefit from a Green Economy frontrunner position and how, thereby, the country could also make a contribution to sustainable development on a global level. Nick's current focus areas are economic policy, innovation, as well as strategic and financial planning in the areas of climate, energy, urban planning and mobility. Nick is a frequent author and speaker on his focus areas, an active member of WWF’s Leaders for Nature, and member of a number of boards in not for profit and commercial organizations, including the Global Energy Basel Foundation, Cleantech Capital, Maxmakers, Ampard, and the UBS Clean Infrastructure Fund.

Mark first joined the IKEA Saudi Arabia organization in November 2002, as Project Manager, responsible for the openings of the new IKEA Jeddah store and of the Riyadh store. In February 2005 he took over a new challenge as Project Manager for the new IKEA store in Kuwait City. In November 2006 Mark joined IKEA Ibérica as Project Manager, within Expansion & Facilities and accepted two years later in September 2008 the responsibility as Retail Establishment Manager. Mark is currently holding the position as Expansion & Property Manager for IKEA in Switzerland. As of August 2014 he will join IKEA Investments Co. in Shanghai, China, a country with a vast expansion. Since the very beginning he has been involved in the development and execution of new IKEA stores, relocations and redevelopments. When we (re)develop IKEA stores we have always the operational costs in mind. When we keep our costs low our customers will benefit. The Energy efficiency is therefore a natural link to his profession.

Fredy Brunner studied architecture at the ETH Zurich und worked some time on the job, before he became owner and manager of an SME sized enterprise in the office equipment sector. After selling the enterprise, he was elected as a member of the City Council of St.Gallen (executive branch of government). He took office on January 1, 2005 as head of the Department for technical services (public utilities, waste management, public transport, and environment). Among his responsibilities are the city's energy concept, and projects such as geothermal energy and a fiber-optic network to all households. Furthermore, the city delegated him to the boards of ten companies in the sectors energy, ICT, and transportation; he chairs the boards of SN Energie AG and Kraftwerke Zervreila AG. Fredy Brunner is married; he has three also married children and eight grandchildren.

Sylviane Chassot is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St.Gallen. She analyses renewable energy investment decision-making and the influence of policy frameworks. As her work is based on theories and methodologies of business psychology, Sylviane Chassot spent last year as a research fellow at the Psychological Institute of the Technical University in Trondheim (Norway).

Simona Chirică is partner with Schoenherr in Bucharest specializing in civil, commercial and tax matters. She has experience in real estate transactions, domestic mergers and acquisitions, green field projects, corporate, tax and operational and fiscal leasing matters. She has been advising on a number of transactions in Romania, particularly in the real estate field, renewable energy sector and retail industry. Ms Chirică worked together with the firm’s arbitration and litigation team in several domestic and international arbitration cases in the construction industry. She holds a PhD in legal sciences from the University of Bucharest and is a lecturer at Bucharest’s Academy for Economic Studies. Ms Chirică is fluent in Romanian, German and English.

Since 2006 Leo Condrau is project leader in business development at the Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke Ltd. (CKW). In this position he was responsible for the smart metering pilot of CKW. After his studies in business administration at HWV Leo Condrau worked in the development of applications, as project leader and division manager of the divisions industry and commerce at NCR (Switzerland). During this time he got certificated as Project Management Professional (PMP). Before joining the Centralschweizerischen Kraftwerke Ltd. (CKW) Leo Condrau worked for the city of Luzern as head of consulting and projects, where he got familiar with public administration.

James W. Davis was appointed Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland in April 2005. Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, was a postdoctoral fellow in the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University and was a member of the political science faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany prior to his appointment to St. Gallen. Professsor Davis has published in leading journals on questions of international institutions, foreign policy, military strategy, arms control and bargaining. He is editor and contributing author of Psychology, Strategy and Conflict: Perceptions of Insecurity in International Relations published by Routledge in 2012. His first book, Threats and Promises: The Pursuit of International Influence,was published in 2000 by the Johns Hopkins University Press. In 2005, he published Terms of Inquiry: On the Theory and Practice of Political Science.

Dr. Peter de Haan van der Weg (*1969) is head of the climate and energy efficiency group within the Department for resources, energy + climate at Ernst Basler+Partner. He also is a lecturer at ETH Zurich for Energy and Mobility. He is an expert in the modeling of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions of transport, explores strategies for the market penetration of energy-efficient technologies and predicts the effects of incentive systems for new vehicles. He advises the federal government and cantons on energy labels for new cars and motor vehicle taxes, and supports the German Ministry for the environment how to contain rebound effects. For the electricity industry, Dr. Peter de Haan analyzed future household electricity demand and potentials in demand side management. He headed the 2013 TA-Swiss study on the opportunities and risks of electric mobility in Switzerland.

Prof. Dr. Karl Frauendorfer is full professor for Operations Research at the University of St. Gallen. He heads the Institute for Operations Research and Computational Finance ior/cf-HSG. At the same time, he is Dean of the School of Finance SoF-HSG. He focuses his research activities on stochastic optimization and on design and implementation of management models in the energy and financial sector. He was awarded the Latsis price of the University of St. Gallen in 1995.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Gassmann is Director of the Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG), which is one of the founding institutes of the new Center for Energy Innovation, Governance and Investment (EGI-HSG), and holds the Chair for Innovation Management at the University of St. Gallen. He is an instructor for the University of St. Gallen’s executive MBA programme and is a member of several company and editorial boards. Prof. Gassmann is author and editor of 18 books and over 300 international publications on technology and innovation management. He is a consultant to various Fortune 500 companies, including some in the energy sector. Between 1996 and 2002 he was Head of Corporate Research at Schindler. His research focuses on success factors of innovation; specifically he is interested in business model innovation, open innovation, and global innovation processes. He is one of the ten most cited management professors and has been named one of the top 50 researchers worldwide by IAMOT in Orlando, FL.

After studying environmental systems science at ETH Zurich, Bastien Girod obtained his PhD at the institute for Environmental Decisions (ETH). Besides, he continued his mandate in the municipal council and as member of the national council since 2007. After a year spent at the University of Utrecht, Bastien Girod has been working as a senior researcher at SusTec, ETH Zurich. In 2012, Bastien Girod was elected Vice President of the Green Party of Switzerland.

Gerhard Günther is the managing director of VLOTTE GmbH (Vorarlberg Electric Vehicle Planning & Consulting), a subsidiary of illwerke vkw. He studied mechanical engineering at the HTL Bregenz and electrical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. After working in USA and Singapore, he worked for Siemens Power Generation where he was responsible as a construction manager for the construction of power plants in Asia and Europe. Since 1997, Gerhard Günther heads the department on energy technology and - service at the illwerke vkw, the provincial supplier in Vorarlberg (Austria).

Peter Hettich is Director of the Research Center for Information Law (FIR) and holds the chair for market regulation, environmental law and spatial planning law at the University of St.Gallen. He is of Counsel with Vischer AG, a major law firm in Zurich. He graduated at the University of St.Gallen (Dr.iur.) and the Columbia Law School (New York, LL.M.). He participated in several expert opinions on energy law, such as a study on data protection and data security in the smart grid, a study on the introduction of smart meters in Switzerland, and the energy strategy of the canton Basel-Landschaft. His research interests are the law of regulated markets (economic constitution, trade regulation and antitrust law, common market law, energy law, telecommunications law, postal law), the law of public enterprieses, environmental law, and spatial planning law.

Nicole Hölscher has worked for over 15 years in the photovoltaic industry and since 2011 she is the Director of Marketing and Brand for SolarWorld AG, where she is responsible for international marketing in Germany and Europe. She took over as Director of Marketing and Brand for the photovoltaic manufacturer parallel to her managing partner activities at Kreativ Konzept GmbH, an advertising agency with offices in Bonn and Berlin, where she is responsible for the management of design and consulting.

Dr Josef Janssen is Head of Trading and Origination with the Swiss utility BKW Energie AG in Berne. In 2005, he started as energy trader for non-standard products (“originator”) at BKW. Before that, he was partner of the consulting firm ETSG AG in St.Gallen, which was specialized in emission trading. Mr Janssen holds a degree in economics of the University of Konstanz and a PhD in economics of the University of St.Gallen (HSG).

Since September 2013, Heinz Karrer is president of the Swiss business foundation economiesuisse. Besides, Heinz Karrer is member of different board of directors, such as Kuoni Reisen Holding AG and swisslectric, as well as member of the board of trustees of Hasler foundation in Berne. Between 2002 and 2014, he was active as CEO of Axpo Holding AG. In his earlier career, Heinz Karrer held different board and senior management positions, for instance at Intersport Holding AG, Ringier Switzerland and Swisscom.

Marcel Keiffenheim worked for 20 years as a journalist, among others for Frankfurter Rundschau and the Greenpeace Magazine, joining Greenpeace Energy as a press officer. Having studied Political Science and International Law, he is now Head of Policy and Communications at Greenpeace Energy, the largest independent energy co-operative in Germany. The company supplies over 110,000 customers, including around 9,000 businesses, with clean electricity and the green natural gas product "proWindgas".

Sergei Kuzmitch is Managing Partner of the Energy Engineering and Consulting Company ENECA (Belarus) and one of the founders of the company. Currently ENECA is the biggest private owned engineering and consulting Company in Belarus in the energy sector. Mr Kuzmitch is experienced in consulting the investment projects in Renewable Energy sector in Belarus. Previously, he was leader of the Department of Foreign Relations at Belinterenergo Company, which is a part of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Belarus. He supervised the preparation of potential investment projects portfolios in the frame of Kyoto protocol. At present, Mr Kuzmitch is also a Project Planning Manager of one of the product lines of Alstom in Switzerland.

Jürgen Ludwig has gathered more than 30 years of experience as a business consultant and specialist in renewable energies in Germany. Based on this and Romania’s accession to the European Union, he founded in 2007 TTM in Braşov, which organizes the transfer of technology in the areas of energy from renewable sources and energy efficiency mainly from Germany into Romania. Since then TTM has developed and built wind-, solar, biomass- and biogas-power-plants for national and international investors – many of which are operated today by TTM. TTM is since 2008 organizing the Energy Days Braşov – one of the most important energy conferences in Romania.

Dr. Eric Martinot has worked in the renewable energy field for 25 years and is an internationally recognized writer, scholar, and teacher. He is author of the pioneering REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report, and was lead author from 2005-2010 of the annual REN21 Renewables Global Status Report. He is currently senior research director with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo and adjunct lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He lived in Beijing for three years as senior visiting scholar at Tsinghua University, and was formerly a senior energy specialist with the World Bank.

Hans-Jörg Mathis graduated in Electrical Engineering with a focus on high voltage technology and electrical system at the Graz University of Technology in 1992. After his studies he worked as a high-voltage engineer at Baur - testing and measurement technology in Sulz, Vorarlberg. Since 2000, Mr. Mathis is leading the division electricity (power plant, electricity distribution and grid operation) at the Stadtwerke Feldkirch. He was responsible for the smart metering pilot of the Stadtwerke Feldkrich in 2006. Since 2007, Mr. Mathis manages the area-wide rollout of smart meters, which should be successfully completed by the end of 2016. In May 2014, 70% of the service area of Stadtwerke Feldkirch will be equipped with smart meters.

Since December 2011, Stefan Merz is part of the executive board of Helion Solar Ost AG (part of Helion Solar Group). Before his studies in business informatics at the FHS St. Gallen Stefan Merz did an apprenticeship in civil engineering with technical Higher School Certificate. After his studies he had vocational training in flat roof construction and structural-facings sector with status as a foreman. After further education in business management at ZHAW he took over the management of Merz Solar. As qualified energy adviser for building envelope he is active as a board member of an energy cooperative.

Immanuel Möbius is CEO of SBU Rhein Main GmbH, a company with core business PV plant construction that he has built up since 2001. From 2008-2010 Immanuel Möbius was CEO of Sunovation, a producer of customized PV modules. He developed the business unit system technology and plant construction. As an electrical engineer Möbius worked in different positions at Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg. PSI Aschaffenburg, Lichblick in Hamburg, Suntechnics in Hamburg and United Solar Ovonic in Frankfurt.

Jan Nikolaisen is co-CEO of ROMO Wind AG, a Swiss startup with operations in Denmark, Germany and Spain that optimizes wind turbine performance through an innovative wind measurement technology. He studied law at the University of Oslo and holds an MBA from IESE in Barcelona. Previously, he worked as Senior Business Strategist for COFRA Holding AG in Zug, Switzerland, and as a fund manager for Good Energies. Jan also worked as a management consultant for Bain & Company in Amsterdam, as a commercial lawyer for the Norwegian law firm Thommessen, and in the group legal department for the Norwegian company Storebrand.

Mrs Anca Elena Opriş is a career diplomat with extensive experience in both the central Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as international. Prior to her appointment as ambassador Mrs. Opriş was Director and Deputy Director for Western and Central Europe, deputy ambassador to France, Advisor to the Romanian Embassy in Paris. Before joining the diplomatic corps Mrs. Opriş was head of the Office of International Relations at the Romanian Academy and Associate Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Bucharest.

Manfred Josef Pauli (born 1969) studied spatial planning in Dortmund and Vienna from 1991 to 1997 and obtained a doctorate in 2006. From 1998 to 2003 he was a scientific researcher at the Institute of fundamentals of planning in Stuttgart. From 2003 to 2010, he worked as a freelancer in the field of urban participation processes on various projects in Stuttgart and Switzerland. Since September 2010 he is a senior researcher at the Mobility Academy in Berne. He is also responsible for the guidance of the buildup of the national competence center “Swiss Forum for Electric Mobility”, which deals with projects includ ing the “SwissRoad Map Electric Mobility”, the “Mythbuster electric car” and the research project on market and user research MANUEL, provides guidance to the Committee “VillE” and is responsible for the info webpage www.forum-elektromobilitaet.ch

Ulrich Reiter is head of the project development group for new renewable energy technologies at Repower AG, focusing on the acquisition and development of wind and solar projects in Romania, Germany and Switzerland. After a diploma in environmental engineering at ETHZ, Ulrich Reiter completed his studies with a PhD at the Paul Scherrer Institute, analyzing the European energy sector under climate change scenarios. He joined Repower AG in spring 2010.

Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Robert Schwarz, born in 1970, graduate of industrial engineering and management, joined BTO Management Consulting AG, Berlin in January 2012 as Partner. He started his professional career at Roland Berger, Siemens Business Services and PriceWaterhouse, worked ten years as an executive manager on a large number of projects with strong energy focus. He managed numerous national and international privatizations, mergers and acquisitions in the Utility Industry. For two Years he supported the PwC Global Utility Leader in an operational Management Role. As a Senior Project Manager at Fichtner he was focused for three Years on strategic planning for business development and expansion for utilities, from June 2011 to November 2013 he was responsible as Vice President for New Business at Centrosolar Group in Munich.

Dr. Detlef Steck is Region Division Manager Central Europe of the division Discrete Automation and Motion at ABB. Before that, he was working in different leadership positions at ABB. Further, Detlef Steck is member of the board of trustees of the Technopark Zurich Foundation and board member of the Hightech Centre Aargau AG.

After studying Precision Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences of Ulm he obtained his master degree at the University of Reading, UK, in the field of technical optics. During his studies he was awardee of the “Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung” 1999 he joined the department of Technical Informatics at the University of Mannheim. After receiving his PhD he started working with tesa scribos GmbH, a University spin-off company. He began as a development engineer and was later promoted to head of the department ‘New lithographic systems’. 2008 he left the company and started working as innovation manager for Carl Zeiss Vision GmbH. There he was responsible for the department Innovation and Patents. In 2010 he joined MVV Energie AG, where he is coordinating the E-Energy project ‘Modellstadt Mannheim’. The task of the project is to investigate the energy system of the future based on a decentralized and cellular structure. Moreover he is also responsible for activities concerning decentralized energy storage systems. He was also responsible for the excellence cluster application “StoREgio” concerning stationary batteries.

Prof. Rolf Wüstenhagen is Director of the Institute for Economy and the Environment (IWÖ-HSG) and holds the Good Energies Chair for Management of Renewable Energies at the University of St. Gallen. He graduated in Management Science and Engineering (TU Berlin) and holds a PhD in Business. His thesis was on “Venturing for Sustainable Energy”. In 2005, 2008 and 2011, respectively, he held visiting faculty positions at University of British Columbia (Vancouver), Copenhagen Business School, and National University Singapore. He embarked on an academic career after retiring from one of the leading European energy venture capital funds. From 2004-2010 he was a member of the Federal Energy Research Commission (CORE). Since 2011, he is a member of the advisory board for the Swiss government’s energy strategy 2050. Professor Wüstenhagen is the academic director of St. Gallen University’s executive education programme in Renewable Energy Management.

Urs Leuthard is managing editor of the “Tagesschau” on Swiss radio and television (SRF). Since 2002 he also chairs the voting and election broadcasts on Swiss television. From 2008 to early 2012 Leuthard moderated the political and economic magazine "Rundschau". From 2002 to 2008 he was managing editor and moderator of the political discussion "Arena". Previously, Urs Leuthard worked at Cash-TV, TeleZüri and Tele24 (deputy editor in chief). Urs Leuthard studied psychology, journalism and social and preventive medicine. After his first work as trainer in healthcare and editor in the communication of a major bank he went into journalism in 1997.

Hans Christoph Curtius is doctoral candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St.Gallen and Program Manager of the Executive Diploma in Renewable Energy Management (REM-HSG). He studied geography, economics and politics at the University of Heidelberg. At the Chair for Management of Renewable Energies he analyzes the diffusion of solar photovoltaics, consumer preferences and peer effects. In teaching Hans Curtius organizes the Climate Change Strategy Role Play, a course that simulates the UN Climate Change negotiations.

Karoline Gamma is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at University of St.Gallen. She is writing her Ph.D. thesis on the topic of customer acceptance of smart grid products and services. In her thesis she investigates how one can improve adoption and usage of smart grid solutions through making use of psychological interventions. Besides working on international and interdisciplinary research projects in the field of smart grid, Karoline Gamma is closely cooperating with energy providers and other industry partners on different projects. Karoline Gamma studied business administration with a specialization in marketing at the University of St.Gallen. Before joining the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St.Gallen as research associate in 2011, she worked for sales and business development focusing on the energy industry at IBM Switzerland Ltd.

Dr. Stefanie Hille (born: Heinzle) is currently working as PostDoc at the Institute for Economy and the Environment (IWÖ-HSG) at the University of St.Gallen. From 2012-2014, she worked as policy officer on sustainable transport for BEUC - the European Consumer Organisation. During her PhD, she was several years a research associate at the IWÖ-HSG, was a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore and completed both a traineeship in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Consumer Affairs and in the European Parliament. Her research interests lie in sustainable consumption, energy labelling and sustainable mobility.

Gieri Hinnen is co-responsible at Swiss Int. Air Lines for Environment- and Economic Policy and simultaneously writes his PhD at the Institute of the Economy and the Environment at the University of St. Gallen. His research focuses among others on path dependency in the transport sector. In his work at Swiss he deals with Biofuels, Emissions Trading and Intermodality.. He has studied Business Administration and International Affairs at the University of St. Gallen, the London School of Economics and the Schulich School of Business in Toronto.

Yuliya Karneyeva is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St.Gallen. She is writing her Ph.D. thesis on the topic of renewable energy development in Eastern Europe. Yuliya Karneyeva got her bachelor degree from Belarusian State University (Belarus) and her Master’s from the University of Bologna (Italy). During her studies at Bologna University, Yuliya Karneyeva specialised in energy policy topic and wrote her Master’s thesis about energy policies in Eastern Europe. While doing her research, she went on exchange to Vilnius University (Lithuania) and attended summer school on renewable energy in Bonn (Germany). At the Institute for Economy and the Environment Yuliya Karneyeva studies institutions forming energy governance in Eastern Europe, investors’ perspective on the energy policies, and issues related to competition of renewable energies with nuclear energy for getting public support.

Paul Maidowski focuses on investment trends in solar PV markets in his studies at HSG. He studied International Relations (B.A.) in Dresden and Beijing, and International Energy Policy (MALD) at Fletcher School, Tufts University. Previously he worked in energy and climate change negotiations, among others for the German political foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Algeria, for the UN Mission of Nauru, the EU Commission in China, and for the crowdfunding startup crowdEner.gy in Berlin.

Ramona Miron is a PhD candidate at the Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, Romania and research associate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment, University of St.Gallen for a Sciex project. In her dissertation, she is analyzing the economic impact of renewable energy policies on a regional level. Currently, she is working as an intern at the environment and energy department of St.Gallen, where she is involved in the implementation of the energy concept.

Dr. Maximilian Palmié is Director of the Energy Innovation Lab at the Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG), which is a member of the Center for Energy Innovation, Governance and Investment (EGI-HSG). The Energy Innovation Lab conducts research in the fields of business model innovation, stakeholder management, and organizational structures in the energy sector. Maximilian Palmié received his PhD from the University of St. Gallen for work examining the effects of organizational structures on innovation processes.

During his academic studies of Political Science and Public Administration in Constance and Lyon, Adrian Rinscheid specialized in climate change and energy politics. He attained some work experience in the social-ecological GLS Bank in Bochum, in the department of Sustainable Development of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, and in the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture. In his dissertation he will scrutinize political long-term strategies and the societal and political prerequisites for long-term governance. In doing so, the scope of application will be energy policy issues. Since 2013, Rinscheid is a research associate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St. Gallen.