Speaker Biographies

Keynote Speakers

Speakers

Siim Kallas

Vice President and Commissioner for Transport, European Commission

Since February 2010: Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for transport
November 2004-February 2010: Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for administration, audit and anti-fraud
May 2004-November 2004: Member of European Commission
2003-2004: Member of Parliament and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament
2002-2003: Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia
1999-2002: Minister of Finance of the Republic of Estonia
1995-1999: Member of Parliament and the Defence Committee of the Parliament
1995-1996: Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia
1991-1995: President of the Bank of Estonia
1989-1991: Chairman of the Estonian Central Association of Trade Unions
1986-1989: Deputy Editor of the Estonian daily newspaper "Rahva Hääl"
1979-1986: Director of the Estonian Central Board of Savings Banks
1975-1979: Finance Ministry of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

Steve Hart

Refining Director Europe, Africa & Middle East, ExxonMobil

Stephen (Steve) P. Hart is Refining Director, Europe, Africa and Middle East, in Brussels, Belgium.

In this position, Steve has overall responsibility for the business performance for refineries in ExxonMobil’s Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME) portfolio. ExxonMobil has 10 refineries in the EAME region and has the second largest refining capacity in Europe.

Steve joined Exxon Company USA in 1977 at the Baytown Texas Refinery and held a number of technical and supervisory positions before taking an assignment in the Supply Department in Houston in 1986. In 1989, he moved to California and held technical and operations management positions at the Benicia Refinery. In 1993, Steve was named Refinery Manager of the Billings Montana Refinery. He then transferred to the UK as the Operations Manager of the Fawley Refinery. Steve returned to the United States in 1998 as Refinery Manager of the Baytown Texas Refinery.

In 2002, Steve was named Vice President of Supply and Distribution in ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Company in Fairfax, Virginia. In 2003, he moved to Houston as Olefins Global Business Unit Vice President in ExxonMobil Chemical Company. In 2006, Steve became Global Vice President of Planning and Project Execution in ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company. He held that position until July 1, 2010, when he was named to his current position as Refining Director Europe, Africa & Middle East.

Steve has a BS in Chemical Engineering from The University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Houston - Clear Lake. He is on the boards of the European Petroleum Industry Association (EUROPIA) and the European Oil Company Organisation for Environment (CONCAWE).

Steve and his wife Vicky have three daughters.

Andrea Debbané

Vice President, Environmental Affairs, EADS and Airbus

Andrea joined Airbus in 2003 as Vice President of Strategy and Strategic Programmes in Airbus’ Public Affairs and Communication Department before becoming VP of Environmental Affairs at EADS and Airbus in 2011.

Previously, Andrea was with The Coca-Cola Company and served various assignments including strategy, marketing and communications in Japan and Asia. Andrea started her career with the Government of Canada, and holds an MBA from IMD, Lausanne, is a recipient of the Government of Japan’s scholarship for post-graduate studies in political science and economics, holds a BA Honours from Concordia University in Montreal, and a diploma in art history from Christies, Paris.

Andrea is also Executive Director of the Airbus Corporate Foundation and is on the board of the United Way in France.

Mathieu Grosch

Member, European Parliament

- Graduated in Germanic languages, University of Liège (1973). Accredited upper school teacher (1974). Teacher of English and German (1974-1981).
- Member of the national bureau of the CSP (since 1986). Member of the EPP bureau (since 1994). Adviser to the Prime Pinister (1981-1984). Member of the provincial council (1984-1985).
- Member of Council, German-speaking Community (1986-1994).
- Government minister, German-speaking Community (1986-1990). Chairman of Council, German-speaking Community (1990-1994). Mayor of Kelmis (since 1991).
- Member of the European Parliament (since 1994).
- Member of the Robert Schuman Foundation. Member of the board of Bierset-Liège airport (since 1996).
- Commander of the Order of Leopold (1999). Merit award of the Meuse-Rhine Euregio (1999). Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class (2004).

Jos Dings

Director, Transport & Environment

Dutchman Jos joined T&E as director in 2004, having worked previously as head of the transport division at CE Delft, a respected environmental policy consultancy. At CE, he focused on EU policy issues and transport pricing strategies, advising national governments and the European Commission.

Languages: Dutch, English, French, German
Education: Mechanical Engineering, Delft University

Marie Donnelly

Director, Renewables, Research and Innovation, Energy Efficiency, DG Energy, European Commission

1. Currently working with the European Commission, in the Directorate General for Energy as Director, New and renewable sources of energy, energy efficiency and innovation, responsible for:
- The development of the policy and actions on energy efficiency supporting the achievement of the target of 20% energy savings by 2020, including the implementation of legislative requirements for buildings, ecodesign and labelling, as well as concrete actions supporting energy saving;
- The development of policies and actions leading to the achievement of the EU 20% target for renewable energy (20% share of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and a 10% share of renewable energy specifically in the transport sector);
- Coordination of the research actions in the field of energy including the development of technologies and innovative solutions for low carbon technologies leading to their widespread market take-up (European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan));
- Actions aiming at supporting the achievement of the 20-20-20 targets - 20 % greenhouse gases, 20 % better energy efficiency, and a 20 % share of renewables - through the Program “Intelligent Energy - Europe”, in co-operation with “the executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation.

2. Previously was working with the European Commission, in the Employment and Social Affairs Directorate General as Director, Resources and Communication, responsible for:
- Management of the strategic planning and work programming of the DG, budget preparation and execution (10% of Community budget); human resource management (recruitment, deployment ad training);
- responsible for the design and implementation of communication policies for both the corporate DG as well as policy areas;
- provision of informatic support for all activities of the DG.

3. Previously Head of units: ESF Policy, Coordination; EQUAL Community Initiative, including
- policy development and horizontal coordination of ESF activities within DG EMPL including the establishment of policy options for the reform of the ESF and the Structural Funds;
- developing a coherent policy for employment development within the European Employment Strategy, building on existing Commission initiatives and experience;

4. Earlier Head of unit within the same DG Equality for women and men, which included
- Responsibility for the Community Framework Strategy, mainstreaming in all policy areas and institutions;
- Legislation on equal treatment and non discrimination (based on sex).

5. Earlier worked in the Directorate General for Enterprise in the area of Industrial policy in Pharmaceuticals - Human and veterinary medicinal products.

6. Immediately prior to joining the Commission, worked as Industry Group Director with the Federation of Irish Chemical Industries in Dublin, Ireland.

Samuel Maubanc

General Manager, AEGPL, The European LPG Association

Samuel Maubanc is the General Manager at the European LPG Association (AEGPL). He joined the AEGPL team in 2011 as Policy Manager and became General Manager a few months later. His main role is to co-ordinate the work of the association and to establish reliable and efficient communication channels with EU policy makers and the wider policy community, on behalf of the European LPG sector. Samuel is engaged in EU-level discussions in Brussels relating to policies that are of direct relevance to LPG, either as a residential, transport or industrial energy source.

Samuel has over seven years of experience in EU affairs and has held numerous positions in Brussels-based public affairs consultancies. He also worked at the European Commission Delegation to Japan in 2006, where he dealt with regulatory obstacles to EU-Japan trade. Samuel is a French citizen and holds a Master’s degree in European Studies from the university of Aalborg, Denmark.

Matthias Maedge

EU Affairs Manager and Head of Brussels office, NGVA Europe

Matthias Maedge has been appointed Head of the NGVA Europe liaison office in Brussels in September 2010 and is responsible for representing the interests of Natural Gas Vehicle related industry at a political level. Matthias Maedge joined the team of NGVA Europe from the very start in 2008. Before making the move to Brussels, he already spent 2,5 years at the association's secretariat in Madrid (Spain). Matthias Maedge has a Master degree in Politics, Media & Communication studies and professional translation (English/German). Prior to his involvement in the gas vehicle sector, he was working for a member of the German parliament (Bundestag) in Berlin.

Dr Manfred Schuckert

Senior Manager, Daimler

Mr Schuckert biography will appear here shortly

Franz-Xaver Soeldner

Deputy Head of Unit for Clean Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility, DG MOVE, European Commission

From 2010: Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, Brussels, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
Main areas:
Policy development and coordination, related to clean and energy efficient transport systems, urban transport, alternative fuels, and climate change, in the field of EU transport policy.

2008-2010: Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, Brussels, Directorate-General Energy and Transport
Main areas:
Policy development and coordination, related to clean vehicles, urban transport, alternative fuels, hydrogen and fuel cells, energy efficiency and climate change, in the fields of EU transport and energy policy.

1999-2008: Principal Scientific Officer, Principal Administrator
at the European Commission, Brussels, Directorate-General Energy and Transport
Main areas:
Policy development related to sustainable development in EU transport policy, with focus on clean and urban transport, alternative fuels, hydrogen and fuel cells, clean vehicles, climate change, energy efficiency.

1993-99: Group Leader at the European fusion energy research project JET in Culham/Oxford, UK.
1976-93: Research positions, Programme Leader, Group Leader at Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany, including extended stays:
1987, 1996 at JAERI Japanese Research Institute in Naka, Japan;
1986 at Princeton University, USA;
1977-82 at CEN-Grenoble, France.

1968-76 Study of physics, master and PhD, at Technical University Munich, Germany.

Richard Mills

Director of Environmental Policy and Strategy for Europe, Boeing

Richard is Boeing’s Director of Environmental Policy and Strategy for Europe. His responsibilities include both building business growth and environmental compliance. Richard is also responsible for facilitating the activities of the European section of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG) – an airline-led group focused on accelerating the development and commercialization of sustainable aviation biofuels. He is a member of Boeing’s environmental team and has spoken on the subject of aviation and sustainability at a number of international conferences.

He has a degree in Chemical Physics and a PhD which explored the role of government in supporting innovation. Richard has worked for the Boeing Company for over eight years. Before that he was a management consultant and focused on assignments related to operations and technology strategy.

Dirk Weigand

Director Future Mobility Projects at Daimler and Representative, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking

Dirk Weigand was born in 1969 in Leipzig, Germany. He studied Electrical Engineering/Automation in Leipzig, Dresden and Paris. In 1995, he joined the former Daimler Benz AG and started his career in the Mercedes Benz development department.

After working as a project engineer in the product strategy department, he focused on energy projects in the transport, environment and economic strategy departments. Later, he worked on CO2-strategies, Euro 5/6 legislation and alternative fuels.

Since January 2009, he has been in charge of Automotive Issues and Future Mobility Projects within Daimler’s External Affairs Unit in the headquarter.

Senan McGrath

Chief Technology Officer of ESB ecars and member of the Task Force Electric Vehicles, EURELECTRIC

Senan McGrath is the Chief Technology Officer with ESB eCars, the division of the leading Irish Utility, ESB set up to establish electromobility and install the associated infrastructure for Ireland. He previously worked as Sustainability Manager for ESB Networks Ltd and has held a variety of senior management positions on the networks and customer side of the electricity industry.

He has worked as a consultant for ESB International in the Far East, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe on a variety of topics including Energy efficiency, Demand Side Management, Electricity Tariff Design, Strategic Marketing and Government Relations.

He is a Project Board member for the EU-funded Green eMotion and Mobi.Europe Projects as well as being a project board member for the UK Government supported Northern Ireland Plugged-in-Places Project. He is a member of the Eurelectric EV Task Force.

He is a Chartered Engineer and holds degrees in both Electrical Engineering and Commerce from University College Dublin.

Jaime del Álamo

Mechanical Engineer, NGVA Europe

Jaime del Álamo. Mechanical Engineer. Master in Automotive Engineering by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain)

His work background includes his experience as technical assistant in the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Air Quality Dept where he was representative in various international technical working groups (EC, ISO, UNECE). Also he took care of the elaboration of reports for the Ministry; main field of activity: transport and environmental sector (DG ENV).
Since 2010, he works as a Technical manager of NGVA Europe, where he is responsible of managing and coordinating the NGVA Europe involvement within EU/UN Working Parties activities (GRSG, GRPE, CEN, ISO…). He is monitoring the development of the European standards & regulations related to NGV and provides the right steps to be taken based on the association member´s and NGV industry necessities.

Marc Billiet

Head of EU Goods Transport, International Road Transport Union (IRU)

Marc Billiet is Head of EU Goods Transport and EU Environmental Affairs at the Permanent Delegation to the EU of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in Brussels since December 2006. He was Head of EU Passenger Transport at IRU from 1995 to 2006. The IRU was founded in 1948 with headquarters in Geneva, counts 170 Member Associations in 73 countries and has offices in Brussels, Moscow, Istanbul and Casablanca. Its objective is to contribute, in the interest of society as a whole, to the development and prosperity, in all countries, of domestic and international road transport,
Before joining the IRU, Mr. Billiet was Secretary to the EU Committee of Enquiry on "Road Freight Transport in the Single European Market". Mr. Billiet has a Masters in Oriental languages and a Masters in International Relations.

Klaus Schierhackl

Chief Financial Officer, ASFINAG & President, ASECAP

Klaus Schierhackl is the Executive Director of ASFINAG (since 2007), where his main responsibilities include financing, accounting, controlling, tolling and international business relations.

Klaus Schierhackl attended the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. He worked as an assistant at the Institute of Transport Economics and Logistics, then joined MAN in Munich before coming back to Vienna where he was appointed head of ASFINAG’s Tolling Department and General Manager of ASFINAG Maut Services GmbH from 2005 to 2007. During his activities abroad he established close contact with ASECAP (European Association of Tolled Motorway, Bridge and Tunnel Concessionaires), where he became President in 2011; he is also member of the IBTTA (International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association) board of directors since 2011.

Stéphane Ouaki

Stéphane Ouaki, Head of Unit, Connecting Europe - infrastructure Investment Strategies, European Commission

Stephane Ouaki is currently head of unit for the Connecting
Europe Facility and investment strategies in DG Mobility and
Transport. Beforehand, he was Deputy Head of Cabinet of
Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, responsible for employment,
social affairs, and equal opportunities (2004-2010).
Previously, he was part of the Commission's team negotiating
with the Czech Republic its terms of accession to the EU
(2001-03), and then moved on to be part of the team
coordinating the enlargement strategy (2003-04). He hold a
degree from the French Institute of Political Science of
Paris.

Gustaf Landahl

Head of Department, Environment and Health Administration, City of Stockholm

Gustaf Landahl, Head of Department Planning & Environment at the Environment and Health administration, City of Stockholm, has a Masters degree in civil engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. After working for the national government and for a private consultant enterprise, he started to work for the City of Stockholm in 1988. He led the city’s work with comprehensive land-use planning and managed to bring several plans for sustainable development to decision by the city council. In 1995 Mr. Landahl was appointed head of Department Planning & Environment. This department is responsible for environmental control in Stockholm as well as environmental issues in land use planning and traffic.

Mr. Landahl heads Stockholm’s work on Climate protection with emphasis on the city’s work to reduce greenhouse gases and to adapt to a changed climate. Introducing renewable fuels for both co-generation of district heating and power, and for vehicles is an important part of his work.

Mr. Landahl has been responsible for several European projects with funding from the European Commission. He co-ordinated the ZEUS (Zero and low Emission vehicles in Urban Society), a THERMIE/DG 17, project from 1996-2000 the TRENDSETTER-project, a CIVITAS/DG TREN, project from 2002-2006. Mr Landahl also recently coordinated the project BEST Bioethanol for Sustainable Transport (biofuels for cities programme DG TREN), probably the largest demonstration project on alternative fuelled vehicles in Europe ever with more than 10.000 ethanol powered vehicles around Europe.

His department is presently also responsible for the project management of the joint procurement of electrical vehicles in Sweden, a project done in cooperation with Vattenfall AB.

The work on clean vehicles has been awarded with several prizes among others: CIVITAS award 2006, OSMOSE award 2006, The Swedish National Road Authorities Environmental Prize 2006, Energy Globe Award for best National Submission 2008 and nominated to the Energy Globe Prize for the best project in the category “air” 2008. The Greenfleet award 2008 for Public sector Innovation. The City of Stockholm was also awarded the first European Green Capital Award for the year 2010. This year his work was awarded with the Sustainable Biofuels Award.

Juan José Febles Acosta

Project Engineer, European Investment Bank

Christian Egenhofer

Senior Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Function
Senior Fellow and head of the Energy and climate programme; Senior Research Fellow & Jean-Monnet Lecturer, Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) at University of Dundee, Scotland, UK

Area of Expertise
Energy policy and regulation, Climate change policy; EU business policy, Environmental policy, Transport policy, Politics of the EU, Institutions of the EU, Regulatory policy, Sustainable development

Languages
English, French, German

Education
Masters in International Administration, University of Konstanz; Public Law Degree

To view Christian's publications, please go to: http://www.ceps.eu/member/christian-egenhofer

Dafydd ab Iago

Brussels Correspondent, Argus Media

Based in Brussels for over 15 years, Dafydd is the Brussels correspondent for Argus Media. He covers EU affairs with a special focus on energy, climate and transport issues. Dafydd is also European correspondent for Welsh-language monthly Barn and writes a monthly column on European language issues for La Ondo de Esperanto. He was educated at Oxford, Vienna, and Bristol.
Dafydd has also reported on economic affairs and tourism as well as being a news reader for Radio Flanders International. In 1999, he set up and edited Trends International, a Belgian business monthly formerly published by Roularta Media Group.

Jørgen Henningsen

Senior Adviser on Energy and the Environment, European Policy Centre

Jørgen Henningsen is a chemical engineer with more than 20 years of professional experience in Denmark, as a teacher/researcher at the Danish Technical University, as an oil trader in DONG Energy and as a civil servant in the Ministry of the Environment. He joined the European Commission in 1987 as director in DG Environment, in which capacity he was the Commission's chief negotiator on the Climate Convention (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997). From 2001 until retirement in 2006 he served as principal adviser in DG Energy and Transport, among other issues responsible for the Commission's work on alternative motor fuels (2002-03).