Speakers 2018

Dr. Pankaj Agarwal is a cleantech expert, entrepreneur and investor with over 20 years experience in financing, business development and commercialization of new technologies in the renewable energy sector. His focus is on combining innovative business models with solar PV, wind energy, energy storage and smart grids to deliver Smart Energy. He is the founder and CEO of Panitek Power AG, an investment firm, based in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and India and active in the field of cleantech, new materials and deployment of new and sustainable technologies worldwide. He is advisor to several technology companies in Europe and North America. Pankaj has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Florida, Gainesville, MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. Pankaj has published over 40 papers in International Journals has contributed to books and magazines and holds 1 patent.

Dr. Heli Antila, Chief Technology Officer, Fortum Oyj since June, 2012. Heli received her Dr in Control Engineering from Tampere University of Technology, Finland in 1997. She has been working in energy sector management consulting for 15 years. She has served as the Chief Technology Officer for Fortum Oyj since June 2012. At Fortum, her main tasks are to capture and develop technology to enable business opportunities that adhere to Fortum’s vision of a solar economy. Thus, the future technologies her work focuses on are all carbon-free and mostly renewables as well as flexible energy systems and advanced customer solutions. The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) has nominated Heli Antila as ambassador for clean energy.

Alexandra Asfour is in charge of building up and developing the electromobility business for SAK, a leading utility of eastern Switzerland. From fleet electrification to the suitable charging stations, SAK offers customized mobility solutions for all customer groups. Alexandra is already working eight years in the emerging field of electromobility. Before SAK she held a comparable position at EKZ, the cantonal utility of Zurich. Alexandra Asfour holds a Master in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York. Her earlier work experience spans strategic management consulting in Europe, China and Silicon Valley, partly with Roland Berger, as well as many years as business consultant with an IT solution provider for digital business.

Erol Bilecen is product portfolio manager at Raiffeisen Switzerland Cooperative. There he is responsible for the sustainability of products and services in the core business. From 2013 to 2016, he held various management positions within the Raiffeisen Group at Notenstein Private Bank Ltd and Vescore Ltd in the area of corporate communications and marketing. Prior to that, he worked for Bank Sarasin (now Bank J. Safra Sarasin) as an analyst in the sustainability research team and established the Client Services Asset Management department, the competence centre in the field of sustainable investments, in 2001. Since 2008 he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), one of the leading research institutions for organic agriculture. Erol Bilecen holds a master degree in economics from the University of Basel.

Konstantinos Boulouchos holds a diploma (NTU Athens) and a doctoral degree (ETH Zürich) in Mechanical Engineering. After a postdoctoral stay at Princeton University, he joined ETH Zürich as Research Group Leader at the Institute of Energy Technology. In 1995 he became Head of the Combustion Research Laboratory at PSI and 2002 he has been appointed Full Professor at ETH Zürich. His main research area is on reactive thermofluidics in energy conversion. During the last 10 years, he became increasingly interested in modelling and optimization of energy systems. Konstantinos Boulouchos has served as Founding Director of the Energy Science Center of ETH Zürich (2005-2011) and is the Head of the SCCER “Efficient Mobility” since 2014. He serves also as President of the Energy, Environment and Resources Committee of the Swiss Academies of Sciences and is a Member of the Energy Steering Panel of the European Academies of Sciences Advisory Council.

After studying German-French Business Law Geneviève Bubel began her professional career in 1995 at TD.Williamson (Oil&Gas Engineering Company) in Brussels. She moved to France Business Consulting in Frankfurt, where she was initially responsible as Business Developer for Automotive and later on for Renewable Energy companies (Wind & Solar) until 2007 in South France. She joined then a well-known Swiss Solar Company to build up the french subsidiary as Managing Director of TRITEC France. In 2011 she moved to Switzerland to join the TRITEC Group as Business Developer for South Africa where she was responsible to organize the market entry and build up the South-African subsidiary together with a French Solar IPP and a SA Engineering company. Since 2015 she is active as Business Developer M&A and Innovation at ewz. Currently her main focus is in the field of RE-transactions and developing new business models in the energy sector for ewz including applications of Blockchain Technologie.

Tomas is an Assistant Professor at the University of St. Gallen’s (HSG) Research Institute for International Management (FIM), specializing in international business, Asia and Top Teams. As a director at the University of St. Gallen’s Competence Center on Top Teams and academic director of the China Competence Center, Tomas supervises and works on multiple research initiatives. Among these figure research on the Sino-Swiss Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Chinese entrepreneurship and innovation. Tomas also teaches a variety of Asia and China related courses that are centered around the disruptive technologies brought about by the 4th Industrial Revolution. His courses and teaching cases never fail to draw from his hands-on, in-the-trenches business experience. His research is inspired by actual management phenomena, the approaches to innovation and the decision-making patterns he has directly encountered in the Asian business world.

Wei Chuen CHUA is the Regional Vice President, Europe of the Singapore Economic Development Board. In this role, he oversees EDB’s operations in European markets such as France, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. He leads the team in advancing Singapore’s business engagements with European-based companies across a wide range of industries. He was previously Head of Transport Engineering at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). As Head of Transport Engineering, he charted and oversaw the development and growth of the Aerospace industry in Singapore. Prior to joining EDB in 2012, he was a Naval Engineering Officer at the Republic of Singapore Navy, and was responsible for designing and establishing procurement, engineering & logistics support plans for naval platforms. He received a Masters of Engineering (MEng) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (1st Class Honours) from Imperial College London

Maurice provides a multifaceted background from didactics to communications and marketing to ideating focusing behavior change. He holds a Master in Education from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and completed the «Innovating Health for Tomorrow» professional development programme at INSEAD. As a visiting lecturer at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland and as the program lead of his own In-Residence «#Reciprocality» theory work the current focus is on amplified ideating for methods like Design Thinking and Nudge. Maurice is currently a shareholder of the neurocommunications agency UNIT X. His passion is ideating for healthcare performing the true collaborative knowledge gain on site and in the digital space.

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. 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.

Christian Favre is an Energy Economist MAS from the University of Applied Sciences. He has  Experience in - Energy and Product Management, Regionalwerke AG Baden, Baden AG, - Energy Economist, Axpo Trading AG, Baden AG, - Project Management Energy Logistics, Swisspower Services AG, Zürich ZH, - Engineer Process Automation, Emerson Process Management AG, Baar ZG, - Project Management Building Automation and Control, Siemens Building Technologies, Steinhausen ZG. His education was performed at - The University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur Graduate Master of Advanced Studies, Energy Economics, - Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Zürich Graduate Executive Master Business Engineer, Business Administration and Marketing Management, - College of Higher Education, Zug Graduate Engineer in Electronic, Measurement and Control

With a background in electrical energy engineering, Julien was first involved in smart grid works before focusing on photovoltaics. At the young company Sunchain, he is in charge of solar energy activities, alongside the management of customer projects. As digital technologies take an ever-growing place in the energy field, Julien embraces them, all the while offering applied business skills to each of Sunchain’s diverse projects. Sunchain provides blockchain-based solutions to new use cases of solar energy, such as distributed and roaming self-consumption. In particular, Sunchain's solutions efficiently manage local power exchanges between prosumers and consumers. While energy is carried by the physical public grid, a virtual private distributed network is implemented to secure and certify these flows. This service also offers prosumers the opportunity to use one’s own energy in a context of electric mobility – for instance, in order to charge an electric vehicle remotely from home.

Peter Graf has been a member of the Executive Board of St.Galler Stadtwerke since 2002 as Head of Energy and Marketing. He is responsible for the procurement and sale of electricity and natural gas/biogas as well as all marketing activities. He is also responsible for system consulting for Warmth as well as customer service with a call centre and personal contact point. He is involved in the further development and implementation of the energy concept of the city of St. Gallen. In addition, he is a member of various boards of directors (Energieagentur St. Gallen GmbH, Verband der Schweizerischen Gasindustrie, Open Energy Platform AG) and is President of the Association of the Gas Industry of Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland and Ticino.

Dr. Ulf Hahnel works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Consumer Decision and Sustainable Behavior Lab at the Department of Psychology of the University of Geneva. His research applies experimental methods to the study of consumer decision-making, in particular environmental decisions. A primary goal of his research is to identify factors inherent to the decision environment (i.e. nudges) that can be applied to stimulate more sustainable consumer decisions with respect to energy efficient technologies. Ulf Hahnel has a background in psychology, from the University of Mainz, Germany and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He received his Ph.D. from Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Germany for examining the impact of psychological determinants on the adoption of sustainable transportation technologies. He also held a position at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems where he led industry projects on the adoption of sustainable transportation technology.

Prof. Dr. Nina Hampl is professor for Sustainable Energy Management and deputy head of the Department of Operations, 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.

Dr. Julia Hildermeier joined T&E in January 2015 after finishing her PhD on environmental policy in the European car industry. Her research, carried out in Paris, Berlin and Brussels, analyzed the history of CO2 regulation for passenger cars and looked at the politics behind sustainable electric mobility policy. A member of an international network for research on the automotive industry, she was involved in various European projects both as researcher, consultant and coordinator, and keeps publishing on low-carbon cars and sustainable mobility. As part of T&E’s vehicles team, she is working on sustainable electrification of transport and low-carbon vehicles policies. A native of Germany, Julia studied sociology and politics at Humboldt University in Berlin and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, and continued her French-German doctorate studies at Humboldt and the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan in Paris.

Wolfgang Ketter is Chaired Professor of Information Systems at the Faculty of Management, Economics, and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany (since 2017). He also serves as the Director of the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne (EWI) and the Erasmus Centre for Future Energy Business at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

Florian joined Panitek in 2018 as a project manager. He is a technical expert in the area of energy and electrical engineering with focus on sustainable technologies. He has several years experience in project and process management, particularly in high-tech SMEs. Prior to joining Panitek, Florian worked at a Swiss engineering company where his focus was on providing efficient products for fuel cells, heat pumps and process industries. Before that he was a hardware development engineer and project manager at BRUSA, a leading Swiss design and development services company, in electric mobility. At BRUSA, Florian worked on innovative charging and energy conversion solutions for several years. Florian started his career as a development engineer at ABB, a leading industrial technology company. Florian obtained a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich where he also worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of power electronic systems.

Dr. Bettina Knothe is Head of Department for Conflict Consulting at Competence Centre for Nature Conservation and Energy Transition (KNE) in Berlin. As graduated biologist with doctor’s degree in environmental sciences she works since more than 20 years to various topics of socio-ecologic research and sustainable development. As training developer and trainer she was involved in diverse educational projects within the EU-Life-long Learning Programme. As expert advisor she contributed to Federal Consultancy Programmes on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs as well as the Federal Ministry for Family Afffairs, Senior Citizen, Women and Youth. Bettina Knothe is trained mediator and Personal and Business Coach.

Sille Krukow is a Danish Nudge and Behavioral Design Expert, who believes in behavior as the key to drive global change, and a way of introducing healthier, greener and safer everyday decision making for the many. Sille has spent approximately 10 years collaborating with scientists within cognitive psychology, behavioral economics and political science, conducting field studies and designing behavioral interventions to improve public and corporate products and services. Developing more than 100 interventions, 150 field tests and trained more than 500 teams within marketing, communication, design and research. She holds a Master in Visual Communication Design, is a visiting professor, TED-talker and furthermore the founder and Chief Behavioral Designer of KRUKOW - an innovative consulting group specializing in using applied behavioral science to turn CRS and sustainability goals into action. Through her work, she has built up the KRUKOW portfolio and knowledge bank on how to use applied behavioral science and design thinking to optimize consumer behaviors and businesses within FMCG & Finance. Sille is a frequent contributor to academic journals and the author and co-host of a Danish TV show called "The Power of Habits" where she “nudges” Danes to better everyday decisions.

Patrick Kutschera is the managing director of SwissEnergy, a federal program to foster energy efficiency and renewable energies. Prior to this assignment, he was founder and owner of RESiQ AG, a company providing innovative energy solutions in the field of renewables and energy efficiency for Switzerland. Before that he held different management positions at Swisscom (swiss telecom incumbant) and was among others responsible for the strategic planning of the group and the buildup of a new company in the field of electronic health records. He joined Swisscom after his employment as a senior business consultant at Detecon - a branch of Deutsche Telekom. Patrick started his professional career as a consulting engineer at Holderbank (Holcim-Lafarge today) where he was responsible for energy and emission optimization projects (planning, realization and training) in cement plants across the globe. Patrick holds a master degree in chemical engineering from the ETH Zurich and an executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen.

Thierry Lepercq is Executive Vice President in charge of Research, Technology and Innovation at ENGIE since 2016. Graduated from HEC Paris, Thierry Lepercq has worked for 20 years in the financing of technologies, first at Bankers Trust in New York, then at Bank Arjil (Lagardère group), and finally at Oddo & Cie. He created in 1999 NetsCapital, an investment bank dedicated to information technologies, then in 2004 a think tank specialized in innovation in the energy industry. He has then been the president and co-founder of Solairedirect, a world pioneer in competitive solar electricity, acquired by Engie in 2015.

Samuel Leupold, CEO of Ørsted Wind Power A/S (outgoing). He has been the Chief Executive Officer of Wind Power and Executive Vice President of Wind Power at Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy A/S) since 2013 and has previously worked for BKW FMB Energie AG, Bühler, McKinsey & Company and ABB Power Generation. Mr. Leupold is a Qualified Engineer and holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD.

Peter Majer After studying industrial engineering, Peter Majer began his professional career in 1996 at Arthur Andersen Management Consulting in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. In 2001, he left the company as Knowledge Manager and moved to Fichtner Consulting & IT AG, where he was initially responsible as project manager and from 2006 as authorized signatory in merger and reorganization projects for energy and water utilities. After a brief work as an innovation manager at MVV in Mannheim, for which he led i.a. a project for the introduction of smart meters, he joined badenova AG & Co. KG in April 2008. He is Head of Innovation in Business Development and founded in this position the division biomass / biogas and the team climate protection consultancy. Currently his main focus is in the field of electromobility, digitization and in the supervision of start-ups, e.g. in the organization of the portal www.HomeAndSmart.de

Moritz Meenen is Co-founder and CEO of ElectricFeel. The company provides a complete software system that allows cities and companies to create and operate shared electric mobility networks, spanning from A.I.-powered fleet management to mobile apps for users. Today, ElectricFeel’s platform is live in 6 cities and has processed 8M km of quiet, clean mobility. Moritz is passionate about electric mobility and cities. With ElectricFeel, he is focused on leveraging the potential of bikes and light electric vehicles to build future-proof mobility services. Prior to ElectricFeel, he worked at ETH Zürich and co-founded the student entrepreneur club PionierGarage. He holds an MSc. in Business Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and also studied at the Basque University of Bilbao, and MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a member of the Global Shapers of the World Economic Forum.

Since January 2014 Marcel Morf is working for Alpiq in various positions. Since April 2017 Marcel Morf is leading the Innovative Energy Solution Department, which is responsible for the E-Mobility Business, Storage solutions and the Energy Management System GridSense. In parallel he is also the CEO of the InnoSense AG, which is responsible for the GridSense solutions. Prior to this role he has been the Head of Special Projects of Alpiq InTec and was a member of the Management Board of Alpiq InTec.

Dr. Roger Moser is Assistant-Professor of International Management at the University of St.Gallen (HSG) and Director of the ASIA CONNECT Center (ACC-HSG). Dr. Moser has lived and worked in China and India for several years establishing the BMW-Endowed Chair for Sourcing & Supply Management in Shanghai, China, as well as the Airbus-Endowed Chair for Purchasing & Supply Management in Bangalore, India. Dr. Moser’s research activities focus on new business models in emerging markets as well as the intelligence gathering and processing activities of SMEs and MNCs when operating in business environments with high uncertainty and ambiguity. As director of the ACC-HSG he is almost daily in contact with executives from SMEs in the St.GallenBodenseeArea (SG, TG, AR, AI) to coach them on market entry strategies and intelligence gathering in unknown business environments as well as to provide access to networks of local decision makers in Asia.

Prof. Dr. Markus Prandini is Head of Competence Center Asia Business at Zurich University of Applied Sciences School of Management and Law Education (ZHAW). He holds a PhD in Educational and International Management from the University of St.Gallen (AACSB/EQUIS). Markus Prandini has been working for over 10 years in the field of management development at various universities and international companies. He is also the founder of an IT company specialized in e-Learning. At ZHAW he was invited in 2006 to develop the school’s Bachelor’s degree program in International Management. After running it to great acclaim for five years he was appointed Head of the Center for International Business in 2010. From January 2013 on, Markus Prandini is the managing director of the Competence Center Asia Business. His lecturing, research and consulting activities focus on the internationalization process of SMEs (Small and Mid Sized Companies) to and from Emerging Markets with a focus on the Asia Pacific region as well as intercultural training and education. In 2010 Markus Prandini won the Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching at ZHAW.

Abhishek Raju is the Representative of the ASIA CONNECT Center-HSG of the University of St.Gallen in India. Abhishek has been involved in several e-mobility & transportation infrastructure projects in India in the past. He is well connected into ministries, start-ups and multinational companies in this sector and is able to provide an unbiased view on market opportunities in India. Abhishek is also a serial entrepreneur in the space and agritech sector and therefore understands the challenges that SMEs are facing when trying to enter the Indian market.

Marco Reber is CEO of Post Company Cars. He holds an Executive MBA in Controlling & Consulting, and an Executive Diploma in Renewable Energy Management at the University of St.Gallen (REM-HSG). He was also educated in Business Administration at the HFW Bern. During his professional career he worked for Packimpex Ltd. as Director Consultancy Services, at Business Fleet Management AG, a subsidiary for mobility Swisscom, as CEO, and at Managed Mobility AG Sixt, Managed Mobility as Board of Directors, as well as at Swisscom Immobilien AG as Head of Finance & HR. 

Dr. Stefan Rieder is managing director and partner at Interface. He holds a doctorate in economics and political science and has been at Interface since 1994. He has more than 20 years’ experience in conducting and overseeing evaluations. Stefan Rieder is an expert in issues related to energy policy and public administration. As an evaluator and consultant, he helps, in particular, public agencies to plan and implement reforms and with issues related to organizational development. Stefan Rieder is a member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Evaluation Society (SEVAL) and is a lecturer at the University of Lucerne and at various universities on the subjects of evaluation, policy studies and energy.

Fabian Scherer is an electro mobility enthusiast and currently has the joy to co-lead the innovation incubator and corporate start up “SBB Green Class” at SBB. Before that he has been working as an environmental and sustainability manager for SBB for four years, where he was responsible for green innovation, green products, sustainable procurement and the enterprise wide environmental information system. He relies further on four years of start-up experience in the environmental accounting software start up ECOSPEED and holds a ETH Zürich master degree in environmental sciences.

Urs Martin springer (1974) is co-founder and CEO of Blockstrom AG. Blockstrom supports real estate investors in providing solar power from the rooftop of their buildings to businesses and tenants. From consulting to implementation, metering and billing: Blockstrom offers all services for the efficient operation of electricity consumption communities. Urs Martin Springer holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of St.Gallen. After his studies, he worked for a consulting company focusing on environmental and transport economics. The next ten years, he was active for BKW Energie AG, one of the top three electric utilities in Switzerland. In his last position as Head of Trading and Origination, he was responsible for hedging and dispatching power stations with a capacity of more than 3'000 megawatt. Since 2016, Urs Martin Springer is on the board of Meteomatics AG, a provider of meteorological data services and pioneer in the civil use of drones.

Olaf Stehr is a multiple award winning entrepreneur, lecturer, strategist and business developer. For Axpo Trading Olaf is currently leading the activities in the Enerchain consortium, which is driving the development of the first blockchain based energy trading solution for the wholesale market. Besides that Olaf is part of the digital innovation team, driving the ideation and incubation of new business concepts in Axpo’s solution division. Before joining Axpo, Olaf was working as independent IT and business consultant in Germany and lecturing at the International School of Management (ISM). With TradeSpark, a technology company he founded in 2006, he collected several honors and awards for innovative business development. Olaf studied Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Economics in Dortmund as well as Corporate & Business Development Strategies in St. Gallen.

Beat Stemmler is Head of Excellence Center Sustainability and Energy at ISS Facility Services AG.

- CV is coming soon -

Chantal Strotz completed her bachelor’s degree in social sciences and her master’s degree in political science at the University of Bern. The focus of her studies was on energy and environmental policy and policy analysis. In her master’s thesis, she investigated the stakeholders and coalitions involved in Swiss energy policy after Fukushima. She is working in the Environment and Energy department at Interface since September 2014.

Christoph Sutter, Head of Renewable Energies, Axpo Group Christoph Sutter is a Member of the Management Board and Head of Renewable Energies at Axpo Group. 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.

Dr. Andreas Ulbig is co-founder and COO of ETH spinoff company Adaptricity, developing SmartGrid simulation and analytics tools. He is also a part-time lecturer for electric power systems at ETH Zurich and vice president of the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES). He received his M.Sc. from Supélec, Paris in 2006 and his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart in 2007. Previous work positions include the R&D department of RTE, the French transmission grid operator, an academic stay at Caltech and the International Energy Agency (IEA). During his PhD studies at the Power Systems Lab of ETH Zurich, he was an academic visitor at the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and the University of California, Berkeley, both in the USA.

Dr. Chad Walker is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. There he is part of the Achieving Strength, Health and Autonomy through Renewable Energy Development for the Future (A SHARED Future) project. After graduating with a degree in Environmental Policy and Analysis, Chad earned his MA ('12) and PhD ('17) degrees in Geography (Environment and Sustainability) at Western University. As a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow, he studied wind energy policy and local development in rural communities of Canada and has spoken and published extensively on these topics. His expertise and passion for environmental justice is well served in his role at Queen's, where he is working with Dr. Heather Castleden to study Indigenous leadership in renewable energy. He is also currently working with Dr. Jamie Baxter (Western University) and Geraint Ellis (Queen’s – Belfast) as part of their Meaning Of Community Wind Energy (MOCWE) project.

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.

Beatrice Petrovich is PhD candidate at the Institute for Economy and the Environment (University of St.Gallen), as well as a research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (UK).  In her dissertation she studies investment decisions in the energy sector, focusing on non-financial investment drivers and their implications for policy. Her other engagements include a joint project with New South Wales University (Australia) on green certificate trading. Prior to joining the Institute for Economy and the Environment, she worked for 5 years as energy consultant and editor, specializing in energy market regulation and in the design for the European Union single energy market. Beatrice holds a MSc in economics from the University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy) and completed a one-year exchange at the University of Glasgow (UK). While at university, she collaborated on a research project in the field of experimental economics and information in social networks.

Doris Hoevel holds a diploma in German studies and Geography from RWTH Aachen. For ten years she managed the administration of a start up in Germany and Switzerland followed by ten years of experience in the organization of national and international, medical congresses. After serving six years as chief medical secretary in a cantonal hospital, she is now responsible for the organization of #REMforum as well as other projects at the Chair for Management of Renewable Energies of Prof. Wüstenhagen.

Tel +41 71 224 2746
energieforum@unisg.ch