Speakers 2017

Mr Asanache is Head Business Development at Enel Green Power Germany. In 2007 he joined Enel Green Power Romania as Project Developer as part of the Business Development Department. Since then he has been involved in the development, acquisition and implementation of renewable projects in Romania, Turkey, and currently Germany. He graduated at the Transilvania University of Brasov (Romania), where he specialized in Mechatronics.

Diego Antonio Bonetta is Head of Strategy of the M&A Power Grids at BKW Energie AG, a SIX and BX listed international company with more than 5,000 people. In this function he also leads the M&A activities of the Division. Backed up with his long-term experience in informatics (ICT), automotive engineering, entrepreneurship and strategy consulting, he is passionate about the digital future of the energy utilities. Additionally, he is part-time lecturer for Strategy and Business Modelling at a business school.   He holds bachelor degrees in automotive design engineering and business informatics, as also a master degree in corporate finance and a MBA (CH/USA). Before joining BKW Energie AG, he was managing business consultant for strategy & corporate development, M&A, and digital transformation, after retiring from twenty years entrepreneurship in engineering and ICT industries, and having founded his first company with the age of 28.

Swiss born and raised, Burgener started his career as a truck repairman and truck driver. His professional development includes a college degree in automotive engineering and an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen. Until 2003, he acted as head of security and engineering at the Dynamic Test Center in Vauffelin. Hereafter, he was appointed as CEO of auto-schweiz, the association of Swiss car importers. He holds several mandates, such as vice-president of the board of directors of the Dynamic Test Center and Orthotec, member of the foundation board of Auto Recycling Switzerland and the Foundation Cerebral in Bern.

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. Professor 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.

Mr. Gall works as a self-employed architect and deals with energy-saving housing construction as well as the construction of heating plants and local heating pipes. In 2008 Mr. Gall was co-founder of the first local heating cooperative in Southern Germany: “WeilerWärme eG” and works there as one of three members of the board. In the committee of energy-experts in the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative Society Mr. Gall is engaged in the development of energy cooperatives. A continuous further development of an energy cooperative is important for the acceptance of the members and for a successful energy transformation. The cooperative WeilerWärme eG expanded its business scope beyond the supply of heat and now supplies the members with electricity products and mobility via e-mobile car sharing. Mr. Gall lectures on local heating systems, electromobility and coorperative models at home and abroad. He is married and has three children.

Prof. Dr. Nina Hampl is professor for Sustainable Energy Management and deputy head of the Institute for Production, Energy, and Environmental Management at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt and head of the Energy & Strategy Think Tank at the Institute for Strategic Management at WU Vienna. Before she was a research associate at the Good Energies Chair for Management of Renewable Energies at the University of St. Gallen.

Currently Dr. Cornelia Kawann is Head of Division Market Surveillance at the Federal Electricity Commission ElCom – the Swiss Regulator where she was before the Deputy Head of Division Networks and Europe. Until 2012 she was Head of the Department "Financial Supervision Affairs" of Alpiq Trading & Services and at the same time Deputy CEO of Alpiq Swisstrade AG. Before working for a trading company she was Head of “Strategy and Regulatory Affairs” at the national TSO Swissgrid. During her business activities in Austria she was in charge of the set-up of the Austrian Energy Exchange EXAA and the Austrian Emission Registry ECRA. For both company she was delegated the power of attorney. Dr. Kawann holds a PhD from the Graz, Technical University and a MBA from the Carlson School of Management. In 2014 Dr. Kawann published the book “Energie im Wandel - Frauen gestalten die Schweizer Energiezukunft”(Energy in Transition- Women shape the Swiss Energy Future).

Prof. Dr. Theo Lieven founded VOBIS Microcomputer AG during his studies and served as Chairman of the Board until the company was sold. He then studied economics and business administration at the Open University Hagen. This was followed by Doctorate (2009) and Habilitation (2015) at the University of St.Gallen. On February 1st, 2017, he was appointed titular professor for marketing at the Institute for Customer Insight at the University of St.Gallen.

Dr Celine McInerney is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at UCC. Prior to joining UCC in 2009 she spent twelve years working as a corporate finance advisor. She was a Director of Corporate Finance at Merrion Capital focusing on the energy sector and raised money for several wind farms in her three years at SWS Group. Previously she worked in mergers and acquisitions at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Lehman Brothers in London and New York. Celine has also held positions at Consensus Economics, Credit Lyonnais, Guinness Ireland and Trinity College Dublin. Celine’s research is focused on climate finance is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, Irish Research Council and European Commission.

Antoine Millioud is currently CEO of aventron, a Switzerland based listed independent green energy producer. The company owns and operates nearly 400 MW in wind, solar and small hydro power plants in Western Europe. Before joining aventron Antoine headed the asset management department of IWB where he led the acquisitions of over 200 MW in wind- and solar power plants and supervised the asset management of the extensive Swiss hydro portfolio of IWB. Further career experiences include positions with Australian private equity company Transfield Holdings, management consultancy AT Kearney and power plant constructor Alstom. Antoine holds an MSc from ETH and an MBA from INSEAD.

Simon Ryser is Vice President BU Energy at Schneider Electric (Switzerland) Ltd. He is currently a member of the Executive Board of Schneider Electric (Schweiz) AG and is responsible for the Energy division in Switzerland and Austria. In the last 17 years he was among others. project manager, marketing and sales manager at home and abroad. Simon Ryser holds an Executive MBA in integrated management and is active in various associations. He co-hosts the focus group "Molbility" within swisscleantech and co-operates in the working group Energy of a political party.

Martin Schröcker is the head of production and trading at Fleco Power AG. The Winterthur based company is committed to accelerate the growth of renewable energy in Switzerland through a comprehensive commercialisation of the entire potential of a renewable generation asset (energy, environmental added value, flexibility). As one example, the company operates the first Virtual Power Plant in Switzerland that provides ancillary services to the energy grid exclusively with new renewable generation. Before joining Fleco Power, Martin was the CEO of GLASSX, a start-up developing energy efficiency products for low-energy buildings. He also worked in management consulting with Bain & Company and in research and development with Inspire, a spin-off from the Swiss Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH). Martin graduated from ETH with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and holds a Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London.

Louise Wilson is a co-founder and joint MD of Abundance which provides mostly long-term debt capital to infrastructure projects and regular capital and income to investors. With a strong focus on renewables both heat and energy and on efficiency, Abundance lets individuals, both local and national, invest directly in specific projects of their choice from as little as £5. Abundance has launched fund-raisings for 17 projects for a total of £17.5m.

As the first crowdfunding platform to be regulated, Abundance is at the heart of the wave of alternative finance which is reshaping our financial landscape. Abundance now offers both a pension (SIPP) and an ISA product.

Before Abundance, Louise helped set up dressipi.com, an online shopping and styling recommendation engine. Prior to this until July 2008, Louise was Head of Equity Capital Markets at UBS Investment Bank. Louise is on the Advisory Board of Imperial College’s newly formed Centre for Climate Finance & Investment.

Joël Baumgartner is in charge of the innovation management at IWB where he captures the creativity of customers and employees at every level of the organization to derive ideas for new business models and products such as “Smart Basil – Das Basler Strom-Derby”. He is also guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland giving lectures on innovation, design management, creativity and sustainable design. Prior to joining IWB, he was a design manager at a biomedical Think Tank and has worked as an industrial designer at various design agencies. He studied Industrial Design at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Oliver Breig advises and supports energy companies in innovation, revenue growth and increased efficiency by increasing their competitiveness, reducing their cost base or by developing new, innovative and profitable business activities. In particular, he successfully started new business ventures and created local energy markets. Moreover, being passionate of digitalization, Oliver repeatedly supported clients master the digital transformation. Currently the managing partner of EnAdvice, Oliver has over 20 years of professional experience including leading positions at Pöyry Management Consulting and Convergence Utility Consultants.

Vicente Carabias-Hütter is coordinating the research area on sustainable energy systems at ZHAW Institute of Sustainable Development. Leading the former Swiss contribution to European projects as well as contributing to FP7 projects at JRC-IPTS, he is experienced in multi-cultural collaboration & networking. Vicente has contributed to the cross-cultural comparative research of ecological behaviour & context analysis, the development of sustainability indicator and assessment systems, as well as to foresight-research and stakeholder involvement over the last sixteen years, amongst others as Swiss expert to IEA DSM Task 24 on Behaviour Change within DSM and co-promoter of the Social Power Project. Furthermore, Vicente serves as journal reviewer, project proposal evaluator to the European Commission, scientific collaborator within the SCCER CREST, Board Member of the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (SAGUF), Swiss research representative within a Smart City DACH initiative, lecturer and coordinator of the ZHAW platform smart cities & regions.

Christian Dupraz got into the world of energy at BKW AG, where he worked during 5 years as asset manager and energy economist in the hydropower division. Besides evaluating projects and  managing acquisition projects, he stood in for the owner interests in hydropower participations. Since a change to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE he works in the hydropower section, whose head he became in 2015. The section is managing the concession and authorization procedures of hydropower plants on the border with neighboring countries and is the competence center for hydropower in the office and therefore handling all kinds of dossiers in relation to hydropower. He is holding a PhD in physics and a diploma in physics and in geography.

Dr. des. HSG Karoline Gamma (born: Kuenzel) is a postdocotoral research fellow at the Chair for Management of Renewable Energies. Her current research focuses on customer acceptance of e-mobility. She is particular interested in the interplay of rational and emotional decision-making processes, psychological interventions and economic incentives to foster the development of e-mobility. In her PhD, Karoline Gamma analyzed customer preferences and drivers of customer acceptance of Smart Grid services and products. From 2014-2016, she was a visiting scholar at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University in New York, US.

Prof. Dr. Nathan Hultman is Director of the Center for Global Sustainability and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He is also associate director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Hultman worked at the White House on the Obama Administration’s climate and energy policy team, where he helped develop the US 2025 climate target. He also worked on U.S. bilateral engagements with China, India, Brazil and others, and participated in the international climate negotiations in Lima and Paris. His research focuses on national climate target-setting and assessment, U.S. emissions mitigation policy, energy technology transitions in emerging economies and international climate policy. He has participated in the UN climate process since the Kyoto meeting, and is a contributing author to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report and Special Report on Renewable Energy.

Domenic Lanz holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of St.Gallen (CH) and a MBA in Finance and Economics from the University of Oregon (USA). Before joining GOFAST in 2016 to help build and operate the best EV fast charging network in Switzerland, he worked in the financial industry in Europe, Asia and the USA.

Dr. Felix Lossin is the head of strategic marketing of BEN Energy AG. After working in energy consulting, Felix studied psychology in Giessen, Salamanca, and Genève. While obtaining his doctoral degree in customer engagement for utility companies from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Felix led a research project in collaboration with the municipal utility company in Zurich, Switzerland. Also, he advised various start-ups on consumer engagement strategies and served as the lead scientist for BEN Energy AG.

Felix is an expert in ICT-based solutions focussing on data analytics and consumer energy behaviour and combines both, ICT skills and deep insights in consumer behaviour, experimental psychology and behavioural interventions.

Since joining Aquila Capital´s Infrastructure and Renewable investment team, Jonas Metzger has been involved in the due diligence and acquisition of investment opportunities. As part of Aquila´s investment team, he further initiated bi-lateral dialogues with European utilities and developers to form long-term partnerships with Aquila´s institutional investors. Metzger is responsible for developing client-relationships with acquisition targets in infrastructure assets. He is also overseeing the firm´s construction activities in the renewable space, with three active renewable power assets under construction at the moment.

Jonas Metzger has invested into the infrastructure sector for the past 20 years. Before joining Aquila, he was with the infrastructure investment arm of ABB and Landis+Gyr, the asset investment and management division of private equity outfit Horizon21. And he also spent four years as a senior advisor to infrastructure investments clients for PwC. He holds an MBA from Stockholm´s University and three other degrees in Civil engineering, Economics and Finance.

Gianni Operto, President, AEE Suisse Besides serving the AEE Suisse, Gianni Operto is Chairman of greenTEG AG and on the supervisory board of Nexwafe GmbH, Caterva GmbH and ProCom GmbH, all three in Germany. Mr. Operto is also chairing the Scientific Advisory Board of the Werner Siemens-Foundation and serves on both the Steering Board of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research in Storage and the Partnership Council of the ETHZ Energy Science Center. He also served at the venture capital firms that pioneered cleantech investing, Emerald Technology Ventures (formerly SAM Private Equity) and Good Energies. Before that he was President and CEO of the Zurich Municipal Electric Utility (EWZ), where he was awarded both the European and the Swiss Solar Prize for pioneering the marketing of green products. He began his career at ABB Power Generation. Mr. Operto has a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from the ETH and has completed the Executive Training Program at London Business School.

Fabia studies Business Administration at University of St.Gallen, focusing on Sustainability Management. She also joined the student organization oikos St.Gallen and in 2016 she became head of the oikos “Sustainable University” project. In March 2017, oikos Sustainable University launched the first edition of the ENRG-Days, a three-day event to sensitize students for saving energy in their apartments. After finishing her Bachelor in Summer 2017, she will be studying medicine at the University of Berne. Fabia finished her high-school diploma in 2013 majoring in biology and chemistry, followed by a volunteering experience in an education and community program in Tanzania.

Antonis Schwarz is the European Community Manager for The ImPact. He is a 3rd generation member of a German family that built and sold a leading pharmaceuticals company. After shifting his personal wealth into impact investing, Antonis has become a sought after peer mentor among Next Gens and Family Offices. His story was featured in the 2016 Toniic millenials report and he is a featured speaker at conferences such as Prestel Family Office Conference and the St. Gallen Symposium. He  started his own foundation (Guerrilla Foundation) for advocacy projects in Europe. Antonis is passionate about strengthening the Next Gen impact investing movement and being of service to other families embarking on their impact investing journeys.

Dr. Max Wirz is a CSR Consultant at Raiffeisen Schweiz and currently focusses on sustainability rating methodology and impact loan products. He supported this year’s Consumer Barometer of Renewable Energy as project lead for Raiffeisen. As co-founder of the real estate SaaS platform Fairwalter, he automates and digitizes real estate administration processes and closely follows everything related to digitization and data analytics. Prior to joining Raiffeisen, Max worked as Manager at Boydak Strategy Consulting, Roland Berger and Pimco. He holds a PhD in Economics from HEC Lausanne and a Master in Finance from Stockholm School of Economics.

Roland Betschart is Senior Advisor Corporate Responsibility and was responsible for implementing the Zurich Group Corporate Responsibility Strategy in the Swiss BU. He launched the Zurich Climate Prize Switzerland & Liechtenstein and the Zurich climate dialogue in the home market. He has worked for Zurich Insurance Group for more than 28 years in various Market functions. Roland was a member of the board of the Insurance Institute of Switzerland from 2002 until 2013 and holds a degree in law from the University of St.Gallen.

Martin Brunner has a Master of Social and Economic Sciences at Vienna University of Economics. His principal subject was Business Transport and Logistics Management. After working as an environmental consultant for several years, he became Market Intelligence Manager at AE&E Group GmbH. Martin Brunner was Manager for New Mobility for Europcar before joining the Wiener Stadtwerke where he is working in the field of e-mobility since 2012

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.

Dana R. Fisher is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Program for Society and the Environment at the University of Maryland.  Her research focuses on environmental policy, civic participation and activism more broadly.  She has written extensively on climate politics in the US and comparatively across nations, including in her first book: National Governance and the Global Climate Change Regime (Rowman & Littlefield 2004). In addition to her five books, she has also published her work in numerous peer-reviewed journals.  Recent publications in Nature Climate Change, Environment & Planning C, and Climatic Change employ social network methods to understand the policy actors engaged in climate policy-making in the United States. Fisher is currently leading the Climate Constituencies Project, which studies climate and clean energy policy networks at the US federal and sub-national levels.  For more information, see www.drfisher.umd.edu

Felix Goedhart is CEO of Blue Elephant Energy AG, which he founded at the end of 2015. With a conservative strategy, Blue Elephant Energy is investing in solar and wind parks that generate safe and predictable returns. The core team has already built a portfolio of more than 500 MW over the past nine years and has successfully invested approximately EUR 1.5 billion in clean energy. Felix Goedhart studied business administration and graduated with the Lic.Oec. HSG at the University of St. Gallen and at the University of Chicago with the MBA (focus on finance). After studying, he worked as a senior project manager at Booz & Co. In 1995, he changed to the Kirch Group and later as a member of the management to Premiere Private Television (today Sky). In 1999, he became CEO of equitrust AG. From 2006 to 2015, he held the position as CEO of Capital Stage AG in Hamburg, which became under his leadership one of the largest SDAX listed operators of solar and wind parks in Germany.

Barbara Jordan is Senior Advisor Corporate Responsibility and since 2017, she is responsible for the Zurich Climate Dialogue in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In her role, she identifies and develops meaningful partnerships to promote the risks of climate change and to encourage climate protection. She has been with Zurich Insurance Group for over ten years. From 2008 to 2015, she was instrumental in developing the thought leadership strategy for Zurich in Australia and in communicating risk awareness topics.

Prof. Stephan Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol. He was an Australian Professorial Fellow from 2007 to 2012, and was awarded a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council in 2011. He held a Revesz Visiting Professorship at the University of Amsterdam in 2012, and received a Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society upon moving to the UK in 2013. His research examines people's memory, decision making, and knowledge structures, with a particular emphasis on how people update information in memory. His most recent research interests examine the potential conflict between human cognition and the physics of the global climate, which has led him into research in climate science and climate modeling. He has published around 150 scholarly articles, chapters, and books, including numerous papers on how people respond to corrections of misinformation and what variables determine people’s acceptance of scientific findings.

Hanne May is specialized in communication concepts and strategic consulting in the energy sector. She has advised public institutions, private companies and associations on various levels. Communication strategies for the energy transition is one of her focus areas, strategic consulting for European energy and climate policy issues another.

Before joining ergo, Hanne was Deputy Managing Director of the German Wind Energy Association and Editor-in-Chief of an international magazine on renewable energy. She started her journalistic career as Editor for a monthly publication on building design and energy efficiency, followed by three years as Editor and Vice Managing Editor for an investment magazine. Since then, she has a focus on investment in the (clean) energy sector. Hanne published a book on “green investments” in 2005 and she is member of the selection committee for New Energy Pioneers (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) since 2013. Moreover, Hanne is actively involved in various networks promoting women in the energy sector.

Ingrid Mignon is an Assistant Professor in Management and Engineering at Linköping University, Sweden. Her work on the diffusion of renewable electricity technologies in Sweden and in Europe focuses on analyzing current policies and suggesting new alternatives. Ingrid has a particular interest in the actors who participate into the diffusion for instance by investing in the technologies or by developing projects. Current research topics include the understanding of investors’ motives for participating in the energy transition, their challenges and the strategies that they develop to cope with obstacles, as well as the role of project developers in driving the technological transition forward. Her research is financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and is published in scientific journals such as Energy Policy, Renewable Energy or the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Alfons Prießner is consultant at McKinsey & Company since 2014 with focus on Energy, Automotive & Agriculture industry. Currently he is also doing his PhD at the Institute for Sustainable Energy Management at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt. His dissertation research focus is the acceptance of electric vehicles. Furthermore, Mr Prießner is the co-organiser of the Clean Energy Design Thinking Challenge, which aims at fostering solution-development for a sustainable energy and mobility system in the Alpen-Adria region. Mr. Prießner holds a master-degree from the Vienna University of Business and Economics.

Dr. Sioshansi is President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm based in San Francisco advising clients on diverse energy issues. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences speculating on the rapid transformation of the electricity sector and emerging business models.
He has over 35 years of experience including working at Southern California Edison Company (SCE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), National Economic Research Associates (NERA), and Henwood Energy, now part of ABB. He is the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter celebrating 27 years of publication with international circulation. EEnergy Informer is regularly featured in The Electricity Journal, Energy Spectrum (UK), Renew Energy (Australia), California Currents (US), Energize (So. Africa), Energy Post (the Netherlands) and the IAEE Forum. He has degrees in Engineering and Economics, including an MS and Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University.
Dr. Sioshansi has edited 10 books published by Academic Press.

Sandra Trittin is a Co-founder and Head of Business Development of Swisscom Energy Solutions AG. Starting her career in business consulting she continued working in different positions with the biggest Swiss telecommunication provider ranging from organizational restructuring to software development, latest in strategy. In between she complemented her Bachelor Degree in Business Administration with an MBA of Mannheim Business School.

Prof. Dr. 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 member of the Federal Energy Research Commission (CORE). Since 2011, he is 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.