Speakers 2016

Roland Betschart was responsible for the implementation of the Zurich Group Corporate Responsibility Strategy into the Swiss BU. He is responsible for the Zurich Climate Prize Switzerland & Liechtenstein and the Zurich climate dialogue in the home market. He has worked for the Zurich Insurance Group in various market roles in the corporate segment for years. He was member of the board of the Swiss Insurance Institute of Switzerland from 2002 until April 2013. Please consult the website of the Zurich Climate Price for more information.

Kai has an international private industry as well as public finance background around climate finance, renewables and the utilities sector with a strong focus on frontier and emerging markets. Having held a number of senior positions he was member of KFW’s Climate Finance Expert Centre and advised international policy makers on high-impact public-private financing structures and instruments. Today he is Managing Director of one of the largest independent renewable project developers. Among other areas he focuses on M&A and access to long-term funding on corporate and project level. Regularly liaising with and structuring often complex cross border transactions with private as well as public investors and institutions he has an intimate understanding of the impact of key investment drivers and respective legal, regulatory, country, currency and technical risk mitigation strategies. Kai holds an MBA from Steinbeis University Berlin, has an academic background in accounting and management from Cardiff University and is a proud father of three boys.

Sebastian Carneiro is Director of SUSI Energy Efficiency AG, investment advisor to the General Partner of the SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund and oversees a team developing and structuring energy efficient projects across European countries. Sebastian has extensive experience in structuring project finance deals, having arranged more than €500 m in project finance loans to date. Before joining SUSI, he worked in the Energy & Infrastructure as well as Corporate Development departments of HSH Nordbank AG. After his graduation in Industrial Engineering and Management, he started his career as Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sebastian Carneiro is a CFA Charterholder and studied at the University of Applied Sciences Wedel and the Corvinus University of Budapest.

Dr. Melinda Crane has given speeches and moderated events and discussions for a wide range of international organizations and firms. She is a frequent guest and commentator on German television and radio and regularly analyzes US policy for the news broadcaster n-tv. An experienced TV anchor, she is chief political correspondent at DW TV and also hosts the DW talk show “Quadriga”. In 2014 she was awarded the Steuben-Schurz Media Award for her service to transatlantic understanding. Dr. Crane studied history and political science at Brown University and law at Harvard. She received her PhD in political economy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

As International Affairs Consultant to the discussion show “Sabine Christiansen” she produced interviews with Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and George Bush, among others. Her journalistic experience includes work for the “New York Times Magazine”, ”The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine,” “The Boston Globe,” the “Christian Science Monitor” and German newspapers and magazines.

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.

The focus of Anna Ebers’ research is on evaluation of political risks from the investors’ perspective, especially applied to wind energy projects in Switzerland. At the Chair for Management of Renewable Energies, she is also responsible for the Consumer Barometer for Renewable Energies. Before she joined the University of St.Gallen, Anna Ebers worked at a large commercial bank in Estonia, a solar research institute in Germany, and at State University of New York in Syracuse as a teaching and research assistant, where she also defended her PhD in economics. Her other engagements include an SNSF cooperation project with universities in Estonia and Ukraine, which focuses on the transfer of know-how in the field of energy.

Pascal Egloff is working at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. In his role as a Banking Analyst in the Power & Energy team, he manages the banking side of projects in the Bank’s countries of operations. He is responsible for analysing and assessing the operations’ inherent financial and non-financial risks. His current projects include debt and equity financing of renewable energies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Before joining the EBRD, he worked for Credit Suisse in Switzerland and London. He was mainly active in Credit Risk Management, where he specialised in restructuring the bank’s distressed debt positions. Lately, he was handling compliance and investment specific matters in the Asset Management department. He began his career as a commercial apprentice.

Pascal Egloff completed his Bachelors degree in Business Administration at FHS St. Gallen, and holds Masters degrees from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in International Management as well as in Accounting and Finance. Further, he studied at Aalto University - School of Business, in Helsinki, and is a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM).

Christian Gradel is one of the Managing Directors of re:cap global investors ag, an independent international M&A Advisory and Asset Management company active in the renewables sector.Christian is responsible for leading business operations in Zug as well as the handling of projects and project structures. He has many years of experience in the legal and tax structuring/ execution of transactions, especially in the renewable energy sector.

Before joining re:cap, he worked in Legal and Tax Departments of midsized companies and corporations in Germany and Luxemburg. Christian qualified as a German Rechtsanwalt and received a LL.M. Degree from the University of Cape Town.

Peter Graf, born in 1973, is head of the Energy and Marketing Division and has been a Member of the Executive Management Board of Sankt Galler Stadtwerke since 2002. His responsibilities include the acquisition and sales of electricity, natural and biogas, as well as all Sankt Galler Stadtwerke marketing activities. His areas of responsibility encompass energy data logistics, heating system consultations and customer services including the call centre and personal customer service desk. He is also involved in the development and implementation of the city of St.Gallen energy concept. Alongside his duties at Sankt Galler Stadtwerke he is a member of various Boards of Directors (elog Energielogistik AG, Energieagentur St.Gallen GmbH, Verband der Schweizerischen Gasindustrie) and is president of the Gas Industry Associations in East Switzerland, Central Switzerland and Ticino.

Clemens Hasler (1967) holds a diploma in electronic engineering from ETH Zurich and graduated in business administration.

From 1993-1997 he worked as project manager for Bühler AG, CH-Uzwil, followed by an employment as assistant of the CEO & head corporate development at Elektrizitätsgesellschaft-Laufenburg. After a sidestep into the IT department of Raiffeisen he returned to energy industry as CEO of Kraftwerke Zervreila AG as well as SN Energie AG since 1.1.2005.

James Johnston is the CEO and Co-founder of Open Utility. Open Utility is developing Piclo, the UK’s first online renewable energy marketplace. For the first time in the UK, people can buy and sell electricity at prices they agree. Open Utility has been named one of the top 50 UK Innovators in Bloomberg Business Innovators 2016, Startup of the Year in the Initiate Awards at European Utility Week 2015, and in 2014, announced as one of the 2014 Nominet Trust 100, Green Startup to Watch 2014 by Greenwise Business, and “Rising Star 2014” by Founders Forum for Good. The team of 8 is based in Shoreditch, London, and has raised over €1.1M in grants and investment. Prior to this, James Johnston held positions as founder and managing director of Solar Sketch, in research at University of Strathclyde and Arup, as well as a building services engineer at Arup. He is driven by a passion for decentralisation and sustainability.

Brian F. Keane is President of SmartPower and author of Green Is Good: Save Money, Make Money, and Help Your Community Profit From Clean Energy. Named “The Best Non-Profit Marketing Firm In The United States”, SmartPower is a Washington, DC-based marketing agency dedicated to promoting clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency. SmartPower's clients include major utility companies, state agencies, the federal government, and private companies.

In 2005 Keane was recognized as one of Connecticut’s “Outstanding Forty Under 40.” In November 2014 Keane received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE). Keane has an extensive and cutting edge background in nonprofit management, political organizing and communications. He is a regular panelist on "White House Chronicle", a weekly public affairs television show that appears on over 200 PBS stations. Keane is a 1989 graduate of The American University in Washington, DC.

Mr Hans-Dieter Kettwig was born on the 23rd November 1957 in Emden (Germany). He is married and has three children. He graduated with an MBA degree [Diplom-Kaufmann] from the Emden University of Applied Sciences. Following a brief tenure as an executive assistant in a Hamburg-based company, he joined ENERCON in early 1988, where he was in charge of all commercial matters. Since 1997, Hans-Dieter Kettwig has been the managing director of ENERCON GmbH and other subsidiaries. In addition, Mr Kettwig has been chairman of the board of the Aloys Wobben Stiftung since October 2012.

Christopher Knowles joined EIB in 1982 and has held a number of positions inside and outside Europe. Since January 2006 he has been part of an initiative by EIB to reinforce its activity in sectors of high policy priority for the EU and in which the EIB seeks to develop innovative approaches. In this capacity he has a pan-European responsibility for a diverse portfolio of activities, which includes equity funds for infrastructure and clean energy, carbon finance, and structured finance in the energy and environmental sectors. He represents EIB on various Advisory Committees including that for the Climate Bond Initiative, and chairs the Board of Directors of the Green for Growth Fund. From 2000 to 2005 Knowles led the lending operations team responsible for EIB’s financing in the transport and infrastructure sectors in Spain. He spent the 1980s and 1990s doing broadly similar jobs throughout the Central European region, Finland, Greece and in the African and Caribbean regions. He has degrees in Economics and Management from the University of Durham.

Renato Marioni is senior policy advisor at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy in the division for energy market regulation. His areas of expertise are market liberalization, energy taxes and tariff systems. Mr. Renato Marioni profits from his valuable experiences in the energy field. With BKW he was deputy head of the division Origination, with the Climate Cent Foundation he lead the carbon procurement abroad and at State Secretariat for Economic Affairs he was i.a. a negotiator for emission trading issues under the Kyoto Protocol. The family father studied economics at the university of Berne and graduated with this licentiate thesis “Way out of the wrong incentives of fossil fuels”.

Dr. McInerney is a Finance Lecturer in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Information Systems where she specialises in corporate finance, investments, capital markets and investment appraisal and is co-course director on the Masters in Corporate Finance (the course was shortlisted for best postgrad business course by GradIreland in 2014). She did her PhD on investment incentives and valuation of power assets at University College Cork with an external supervisor at London Business School. Prior to joining UCC, she spent twelve years working as a corporate finance advisor. Her last position in industry was as Director of Corporate Finance at boutique corporate finance advisor Merrion Capital where she focused on the energy sector. Prior to this she worked for Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank in London and New York. She also spent three years working for SWS Group Ireland’s then largest wind farm developer raising both debt and equity to build windfarms.

Since January 2015 Marcel Morf has become a member of the Management Board of the Alpiq InTec Group and the new Head of the Large-Scale and Special Projects division. In addition, Marcel Morf is responsible for the GridSense solution, which is based on decentral intelligence. Prior to this role he has been the Head of Strategic Purchasing at the Alpiq InTec. Marcel Morf is a graduate in both electrical and industrial engineering with many years of professional experience. Prior to joining the Alpiq InTec Group, he was both CEO and Head of Key Account Management at Alcatel-Lucent Schweiz AG.

Peter Pauli is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Meyer Burger Group. He joined Meyer Burger Ltd in Thun as CEO in 2002 and he led the company to its initial public offering (IPO) on the Swiss stock exchange (SIX) in November 2006. In the newly listed company Meyer Burger Technology Ltd, he assumed the role of CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Under his strategic leadership, Meyer Burger has grown to become a leading global technology group spanning three continents. Prior to joining Meyer Burger, Peter Pauli held management and senior leadership positions at Transelastic AG and Siegling in Switzerland and Germany, respectively. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from a Swiss university of applied sciences and has completed postgraduate studies in Industrial Engineering, specializing in Business Management. He also attended the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD.

Rudolf Rechsteiner, economist (PhD), is a lecturer on renewable energy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and at the University of Basel. He is head of his independent consulting company re-solution.ch. Rudolf Rechsteiner was member or the Swiss national Parliament (1995-2010). He was engaged in the opening of the Swiss power sector and successfully boosted the introduction of feed-in-tariffs for renewable energy and of a national CO2 tax and he endorsed the phase-out of nuclear power stations in Switzerland. He published a number of books on energy. As president of power producer ADEV (1998-2010) who owns wind, solar, hydro and CHP plants and, since 2010, as a member of the board of the local utility Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB) he as an insider knows very well the challenges for independent power producers and for utilities.

Gerard Reid has over two decades' experience in equity research and fund management. He is also a leading energy expert as well as lecturer, author and monthly columnist for BIZZ energy today, the German energy industry publication. Prior to founding Alexa Capital, he was Managing Director and Head of European Cleantech Research at Jefferies & Co. Before joining Jefferies, Mr. Reid managed a renewable energy fund. Prior to this he was Head of Research at First Berlin where he expanded the equity research operation to cover 50 companies. Gerard Reid has broad relationships across the institutional and private investor communities as well as amongst government policy makers, utilities and technology providers to the energy area. He has developed a reputation as a leading global expert in renewable energy and the wider energy space through his work in the wind, solar, biofuels, natural gas, utility and European industrials sectors.

After graduating from university, Philipp Schröder founded a consulting company for renewable energy. From 2011 to 2012 he had a managing position in the photovoltaics division of Juwi, a nationwide project developer for renewable energy. In 2012 he became head of sales and business development of sonnen GmbH, market leader for smart lithium storage systems in Germany. He left sonnen in 2014, becoming Country Director Germany of Tesla, where he vastly increased sales and presence of Tesla. In the end of 2015 he returned to sonnen where he became Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.

Jörn Splanemann studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Hannover and began his professional carreer in 1990 as a protection and control engineer with the former AEG. He worked in South America, Central- and Eastern Europe in various responsabilities in the field of energy automation. Via several acquisitions he joined Schneider Electric. From 2011 until the mid of 2015 he was the responsible Marketing and Strategy manager of the energy business in Germany. Since then he is responsible for the business development of advanced utilities solutions in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.

Beat Stemmler works in the sustainability management team at Raiffeisen Switzerland and is in this function responsible for the integration of sustainability into the core business. His area of work includes the professional support for products and services with reference to sustainability in the private & investment clients and the corporate clients segments. Before joining Raiffeisen Switzerland he managed the sustainability management at BKW Energy Ltd. for several years. In addition to developing and implementing the company’s sustainability strategy, he was involved in the development of energy efficiency solutions and the greenhouse gas emissions accounting for business clients and the company’s power generation facilities.

He holds a diploma in Business Informatics (BSc) and after his studies in Environmental Science (MSc) he specialized in energy management solutions and related interdisciplinary cross-cutting issues. In 2009 he completed his MBA at Henley Business School (UK) with focus on Triple Bottom Line.

Christoph Sutter is a Member of the Management Board and Head New Energies at Axpo Power AG. He is responsible for the development, construction and operation of new power plants in the field of renewable energy. In addition, he is leading the M&A activities of Axpo Power AG. Before joining Axpo, he was the CEO of South Pole Group, a company he co-founded in 2006 and that is globally active in the area of project development for climate protection projects. Prior to that he worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company in Zurich. He has done his PhD on the subject of sustainability assessment of energy projects at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Christoph Sutter was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and as Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation.

Jim Watson is Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and a Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Sussex. He was Director of the Sussex Energy Group from 2008 to 2013. Jim has a degree in engineering from Imperial College London and a PhD in science and technology policy from Sussex. He has 20 years’ research experience on climate change, energy and innovation policy.

Prof. Watson frequently advises UK government departments and other organisations. He was an advisor to the Government Office for Science for a Foresight project on energy (2007-08). He has also been a Specialist Adviser with three Parliamentary committees. Jim has extensive international experience and was a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a council member of the British Institute for Energy Economics and a member of the social science expert panel for the UK government’s energy and environment ministries.

Elke U. Weber is the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School and Professor of Psychology and Earth Institute Professor at Columbia University. She is an expert on behavioral models of decision-making under risk and uncertainty, investigating psychologically and neurally-plausible ways to model individual differences in risk taking and discounting, specifically in risky financial situations and environmental decisions. Weber is past president of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, and the Society for Neuroeconomics. She has edited two major decision journals and serves on the editorial boards of eleven journals across multiple disciplines. She is a member of German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), has served on advisory committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences related to human dimensions in global change, and was a lead-author for the 5th Assessment Report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

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.

After his PhD thesis about environmental issues linked to foreign direct investments Dr. Markus Wyss spent two years at the OECD in Paris, looking at environmental issues due to trade liberalisation. Later he stayed 14 years with Winterthur Insurance (now AXA Winterthur); for the last seven years as responsible for the commercial lines business in “non-life” insurance. In December 2008 he has joined Switzerland Global Enterprise, the official Swiss competence centre for foreign trade & investment promotion as member of the executive board. He is responsible for the consulting department and the global network with Swiss Business Hubs in 30 countries.

Markus Wyss owns a private hospital in the region of Berne and is member of the Board of Directors of several companies in the insurance and health industry.

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.

Prof. Dr. Roland Füss is Full Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of St.Gallen and Member of the Board of the Swiss Institute of Banking and Finance s/bf-HSG and of the School of Finance. In addition, he is a Research Associate at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany. He studied economics at the University of Freiburg from which he also obtained his doctoral degree and «habilitation». His main research topics are in the field of real estate finance and economics, empirical asset pricing, risk management, and applied financial econometrics. Prof. Füss has authored numerous articles in economics, finance, and real estate journals such as «Review of Finance», «Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis», «Journal of Money, Credit and Banking», «Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control », «Journal of Banking and Finance», «Public Choice», and «Real Estate Economics».

Dr. Stefanie Hille (born: Heinzle) is currently working as assistant professor 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.

Yuliya Karneyeva is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St.Gallen. Ms. Karneyeva is doing research about the factors affecting investments in renewable energy, with a particular focus on energy policies.

Before joining the Institute for Economy and the Environment, Ms. Karneyeva studied international affairs at Belarusian State University (bachelor level) and University of Bologna (master’s level), where she focused on energy policy development in Eastern Europe. Additionally, Ms. Karneyeva spent a research exchange period at Vilnius University (Lithuania) and attended summer school on renewable energy in Bonn (Germany). In her dissertation, Ms. Karneyeva investigates the impact of local and international policies on expected risks and returns on investments in renewable energies.

Merla Kubli is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St. Gallen, as well as a research associate at the Institute of Sustainable Development at the Zürich University of Applied Sciences. In her dissertation Merla Kubli studies the decentralisation dynamics of regional energy systems, focusing on the long-term interactions between increasing self-consumption and central electricity provision system. Within this topic the investment decision of households for self-consumption concepts and new emerging business models for decentral generation are of major interest.

Merla Kubli holds a bachelor degree in business and economics from the University of Basel and successfully graduated from the European Erasmus Mundus Master program in System Dynamics hosted by the University of Bergen (Norway), the New University of Lisbon (Portugal) and the Radboud University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands).

Moritz is traveling between two worlds. On the one hand, he is working at the Institute for Economy and the Environment (IWÖ-HSG) of the University of St. Gallen. Doing research with a current focus on business models and managerial decision-making, he had visiting positions in Vancouver, London and Los Angeles. On the other hand Moritz holds various responsibilities in an own family business in Germany. Within both worlds he co-­developed and co-­launched new business models: After an early career as a musician, Moritz graduated with a M.A. from TU Berlin and received a doctoral degree in management from the University of St. Gallen.

Emmanuelle Reuter is a lecturer and postdoctoral research fellow at University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. She received her PhD in management from the same institution. Her research focus lies in the fields of strategic management, organizational theory and sustainability. She specifically investigates into the underpinnings of strategic, organizational, institutional and social change with a particular emphasis on the role of individuals in creating change. A primary focus has been on the Swiss private banking and on the European electric utilities’industries as research sites.

Sarah Salm is a Ph.D candidate and research associate at University of St. Gallen’s Institute for Economy and the Environment (IWOE-HSG). In her role as research associate, she holds the function of Programme Manager for the Executive Diploma in Renewable Energy Management (REM-HSG). During her academic studies of finance and power engineering in Munich and Buenos Aires, she focused on capital market related aspects of energy financing. She gained practical experience from large German and non-European companies in the financial sector. Within her research at the Chair for Management of Renewable Energies, Ms. Salm is a specialist for financing renewable energies in the European context. Her research particularly focuses on financial investment requirements of retail, strategic and institutional investors.