Desert Power: Getting Connected

Jorge Salas is Vice President for Water Business Development of Abengoa, joining the company in 2002. He has more than 20 years of experience in the water sector, based on a solid international training in USA and UK. Jorge has shown a great commitment to the water sector, participating in several events and publications during his professional career.

He has held different high-level posts in Abengoa, as Head of proposal and business development department, and also leading from the Desalination Department some of the main references of the company at international level, as the projects developed Algeria, Skikda and Tlemcem desalination plants, and the first desalination plant constructed in India, Chennai desalination plant.

Mr. Altmann gained his experience by working for more than 25 years for top ranking engineering and construction companies including Bechtel and Fluor in technical as well as managerial positions. Before joining ACWA Power he held an EVP position at ILF Consulting with global responsibility for Energy & Desalination business and was MD for ILF Business Consult. Prior to that he served as VP at Bechtel Intl. in the Power Generation business unit with global responsibility for Desalination based in the UK and USA. Mr. Altmann served as a Director of the International Desalination Association (IDA) and the European Desalination Society (EDS). Furthermore he served on the Research Advisory Council (RAC) of the Middle East Desalination Research Centre (MEDRC) in Oman. Mr. Altmann holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and was granted two patents.

Daniel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Alcazar Energy, the largest independent developer and power producer in Jordan, and second-largest solar PV developer in Egypt. The company has created more than 4,200 direct and indirect jobs across its portfolio.    

Prior to Alcazar Energy, Daniel worked at Masdar as the Head of Origination and Investment Management, where he played a leading role in deploying USD 7bn in wind and solar projects.  He also worked at General Electric for 10 years in various M&A and Principal Investments roles across Asia, Europe, North and South America.

Daniel has developed and co-developed various renewable energy projects, including the first and second privately held utility scale wind farms in the Middle East; two of the first solar PV plants in the UAE; the first solar CSP plant in the Middle East; the world’s first CSP Tower project with salt storage; and the world’s largest off-shore wind farm as of 2014.

He holds degrees in industrial engineering and finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Cum-Laude) and an MBA from London Business School.

Dr. Manar Al Moneef is the President and CEO for GE Renewable Energy in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey region. She leads a broad renewable portfolio that include on-shore wind, off-shore wind, hydro and concentrated solar power.
She is responsible for driving the growth and operational excellence for GE Renewable energy, bringing together Technology, services and digital solutions across the entire spectrum of Renewable energy development.

Prior to that, Dr. Manar Al-Moneef was the Chief Growth Officer for GE in MENAT.
She was responsible for driving the growth strategy for GE by creating and executing on growth Initiatives; identifying and developing new business opportunities; building capacity and capability’s. Prior to that Dr. Al-Moneef held various commercial and operational leadership roles globally and regionally.in healthcare, Global Growth Organization, and Oil and gas. Prior to joining GE, Dr. Manar Al-Moneef was the Director General of Health Care & Life Sciences at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA).

Dr. AlMoneef was leading all health care and life Sciences investments in Saudi Arabia and positioning Saudi Arabia globally as a premier investment destination. Dr. Al-Moneef has a Doctoral Degree in Molecular Oncology from Leicester University and a Master Degree in Molecular Medicine form Cambridge University, United Kingdom. Dr. Al-Moneef boasts numerous publications in the field of Molecular
Medicine, health care and life science strategies.

Paul van Son, based in Essen (Germany and Dubai (UAE), joined innogy SE (previously RWE) as its Country Chairman for MENA (West Asia and North Africa) and Turkey in January 2015. innogy SE, is a leading company in the field of renewables, grids and retail of power and gas, with annual turn-over of over 40 bln€.

Paul has been active for over 35 years in various supervisory board, executive and operations management positions in the international renewable energy, grid infrastructure and gas business. In his present function he reports to the Chairman of innogy’s Executive Management Board.

His leadership experience is marked by pioneering positions and developments, such as: control system development at Siemens AG (Germany), system operator of the unbundled Dutch national power system at TenneT (previously TenneT) and power system control centre consultancy at DNV/KEMA. From 1998 onward he has been the managing director of Essent Sustainable Energy (Nl), CEO of Essent Energy Trading, and Chairman of the Management Board of Deutsche Essent GmbH in Düsseldorf, building up these innovative and international key activities of Essent N.V. (the largest Dutch energy company).

In 2009 Mr. van Son was appointed CEO of Dii GmbH (Munich), known as “Desertec Industrial Initiative”, an international industry consortium for facilitating a market for renewable energy in the deserts of MENA, including international interconnections. Presently, besides his role as innogy Chairman for MENA & Turkey, he is leading the Dii industry group in Dubai, focusing on solving financial, technical and regulatory challenges for renewable energy and hydrogen projects and interconnected system integration.

Mr. van Son is the founder and honorary President of the European Federation of Energy Traders (www.efet.org). He is Chairman of the Energy4All Foundation (www.energy4all.org ), a non-profit organization promoting decentralized energy systems in Africa. He is among others a member of the Board of DEWA/innogy’s Joint Venture in Dubai, member of the Board of Ghorfa (German-Arab Chamber of Commerce) and the Board of the German-African Business Association. He graduated as an electrical engineer at the Technical University Delft and in Corporate Governance at Nyenrode University, Netherlands

Dr. Li Yalou, senior member of China Society of Electrical Engineering(CSEE), doctoral supervisor , serving currently as deputy director of state grid simulation center in China Electric Power Research Institute(CEPRI). 

He has engaged to the research on power system analysis method and software developing over fifteen years. He had successfully fulfilled several key research projects funded by Ministry of Science and Technology(MST) or State Grid Corporation  of China(SGCC).He have published 65 theses and 2 monographs. He won national scientific and technological advance first award for one time, China electric scientific and technological advance awards for 5 times.

Peter Davies is the CEO & Founder of Verv. Verv has created an AI-based IoT hub which forms the basis of its peer-to-peer energy trading platform on the blockchain. He is an engineer, software architect and tech enthusiast on a mission to create positive social change through innovative technology. After graduating university with a degree in Computing, Electronics and Communications Engineering, Peter went on to found a LabVIEW engineering consultancy Austin Consultants and became one of only four Certified LabVIEW software Architects in the UK. Peter won Innovator of the Year at the 2016 Business Green Technology Awards.

Ad van Wijk is sustainable energy entrepreneur and part-time Professor Future Energy Systems at TU Delft, the Netherlands. He also works for KWR Waterresearch Institute to develop and implement the research program Energy and Water.  And he is a member of the Northern Netherlands Innovation Board to realize the energy transition.

In 1984, van Wijk founded the company Ecofys, which eventually grew into Econcern. Econcern developed many new sustainable energy products, services and projects. Examples include the 120 MW offshore wind farm Princess Amalia in the North Sea, several multi-MW solar farms in Spain and a bio-methanol plant in the Netherlands, which is the largest second-generation biomass plant in the world.

Van Wijk achieved many important prizes for excellent entrepreneurship. Amongst others he was Dutch entrepreneur of the year in 2007 and Dutch top-executive in 2008.

At TU Delft van Wijk will focus on the energy systems of the future. Especially he will do research on hydrogen and fuel cell cars and at the same time will realize ‘’the Green Village’’. www.thegreenvillage.org

Van Wijk has published a very readable book ‘How to boil an egg’   ISBN: 978-1-60750-989-9. And he has written the books ‘Welcome to the Green Village’ ISBN 978-1-61499-283-7, ‘Our Car as Power Plant’ ISBN 978-1-61499-376-6 and ‘3D printing with biomaterials’ ISBN 978-1-61499-485-5, ‘The Green Hydrogen Economy in the Northern Netherlands’ ISBN 978-90-826989-0-9, ‘Solar Power to the People’ ISBN 978-1-61499-832-7 (online)

As the CEO of Enerwhere, Daniel Zywietz, is building the world’s first distributed utility, based on Enerwhere’s modular solar-hybrid power solutions.

Daniel has a decade of experience in management consulting, banking and entrepreneurship in Europe and the Middle East, with a focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability topics.

Prior to founding Enerwhere, Daniel held roles at led Ambata Capital’s Middle East operations, and was a member of Booz & Company’s Low Carbon & Sustainability group in the Middle East and A.T. Kearney’s Utility practice in Europe.

Aiming to promote the growth of the clean energy industry in the Middle East, Daniel is a regular public speaker on renewable energy topics, and serves on the Board of the MENA Clean Energy Business Council.

Daniel holds a master’s degree in International Business from Maastricht University and is the co-author of several studies on the potential for renewable energy in Europe and the Middle East.

Deger Saygin works as the director of the SHURA Energy Transition Center. In his former role at the International Renewable Energy Agency, Deger developed and led the global renewable energy roadmap programme between 2013 and 2017. This programme has assisted the world’s 70 largest energy using countries in accelerating the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies to operationalise the goals of the seventh Sustainable Development Goal and the Paris Agreement. Prior to joining IRENA, Deger worked as a researcher at Utrecht University carrying out projects for intergovernmental organisations, countries and the private sector about more sustainable uses of energy and resources in the manufacturing industry. It is also where he received his PhD. He received his undergraduate degree in environmental engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.

Frank is a Member of the Dii Advisory Board. He has over 25 years of banking and consultancy experience which includes positions as Managing Director and Head of Project Finance & Advisory at First Abu Dhabi Bank, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, Global Co-Head of Project & Capital Advisory at Deutsche Bank as well as Investment Manager at KfW-Group. Frank’s core expertise is in advising on, structuring and lead arranging of debt & equity investments in infrastructure, energy (incl. renewables) and PPP related projects. He advised several governments (European Commission, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) on infrastructure, renewable and PPP projects and frameworks.

Frank holds a Master’s in International Management (MIM) from the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) and a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cologne.

Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for over 28 years. He has played a lead role in development of renewable generation projects valued at over $5 billion. These range from small scale PV solar electrification in Uganda to the 100MW Shams I Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in the UAE, and strategic equity investment in the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind project.

As Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the first global intergovernmental organisation dedicated to all renewables, he managed a US$350 million IRENA/Abu Dhabi Fund for Development project facility for RE. He appraised over 80 projects a year and recommended projects for funding, including solar PV projects in Africa.

Mr. Wouters has served on the board of several energy companies, including Torresol, where he developed three CSP plants, among which the Gemasolar central tower project with molten salt storage.

He currently serves as Director of the EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, a platform that aims to foster clean energy partnerships between Europe and the Gulf, he chairs the Dii Advisory Board, he is advising the World Bank on solar energy around the world, he serves as Sr. Director New Energy at Advisian, he is Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines, he is a non-executive Board Director of Gore Street Capital, London and serves on the Investment Committee of the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund.

Frank lives in Abu Dhabi, is married to Vivian and has three children. He has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University. He is fluent in English, German and Dutch.

Dr. Hassan Qasem has been the CEO of the Alternative Energy Project Company (AEPC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Projects Company holding, since 2016. AEPC is one of the rising renewable energy developers in the MENA region with current potential pipe line of more than 500MW.

Dr. Qasem have been developing and managing solar related projects and research in the area of photovoltaic technology for the last 14 years. His experience is in the PV outdoor characterization of the performance (soiling) of PV and standard testing. One of his core work was on soiling effect on PV and its relation to the attenuation of the solar spectrum. His research finding contributed to many other related works in the area of PV and have been developed into research activities and commercial projects.

Dr. Qasem participated in developing the soiling workshop which is an annual activity that has been going on since the last years and is part of the PV Quality Assurance work force voluntary group (managed by NREL). Dr. Qasem have also managed many different PV related projects where one of them he managed the PV part of the Shygaya renewable energy park project. Also, he was the developer of KISR PV indoor characterization laboratory and DEWA’s indoor and helped in developing the outdoor laboratories as part of the DEWA Research and Development center in Muhammad Bin Rashid Solar Park in Dubai.

Dr. Qasem held many positions throughout his career where he worked for Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory. He also joined KISR as Associate Researcher in the area of PV. He then joined DEWA as a Senior Researcher and the head of the solar research team as part of DEWA R&D center. Dr. Qasem has many publications in ranked journals and international conferences. He chaired many sessions in international conferences (IEEE, EUPVSC…etc) and workshops. He is also a senior member in the International Electrical, Electronic Engineering association as well as being a committee member in the Device Society chapter in the IEEE.
Dr. Qasem hold a PhD in Electrical and Electronic engineering from Loughborough University in UK and Master degree in Electrical System engineering with emphasis in renewable energy from Arizona State university. His Bachelor degree is in electrical engineering from Arizona State university.

Director in the renewable energy sector with an industrial engineering background and more than 18 years of experience in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. I have created and managed technical teams that have helped in raising more than 9bn$ in funds to build 4,000MW of renewable energy projects including 1.5 GW of CSP, 1.5 GW of PV, 1GW of wind and biofuels projects. Experience in renewable energy planning, IPP, engineering and construction and operations improvement.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Yellow Door Energy, Jeremy is leading the expansion of the distributed solar industry in the MEA region. Jeremy co-founded Yellow Door Energy with Adenium, where he previously acted as COO and helped build the region’s most successful renewable energy investor, deploying over $250 million in solar. He founded his first solar venture in Canada developing and financing $40 million of rooftop solar projects. He has also run a power utility and phone company in Honduras, built wind farms in the USA, and worked as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company. 

Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Waterloo in Canada and an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Jochen Kreusel, born in 1963, is Senior Vice President of the ABB group, Zurich, and market innovation manager of the group’s Power Grids division. He studied electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), where he was also granted his doctorate. 1994 he joined ABB, where he held managing positions in marketing and technology Before his current position he was heading ABB’s Smart Grids sector initiative from 2011 to 2016.
Jochen Kreusel is Vice President and member of the Executive Committee of T&D Europe and member of several committees of the European Commission and the German government on aspects of the future development of power systems.
Moreover he is honorary professor at RWTH Aachen University, where he is teaching power economics in liberalized electricity markets.

Dr. Kaifeng Yu is an Environmental Engineer, Senior Manager on energy interconnection at GEIDCO branch in Dubai. His expertise includes environment, climate change, and energy & resources research in African and MENA countries. At GEIDCO, he is leading and working on projects including energy cooperation, low-carbon energy solutions, environment and sustainable development in West Asian countries, and cooperation with government ministries, international organizations, research institutes, energy companies, financing parties, and think-tanks. Before joining GEIDCO, Kaifeng Yu was a research fellow at RWTH Aachen, and the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), dealing with Geographic Information System (GIS) & Remote Sensing techniques, and hydro-resources in the arid realm. He has consulted for UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and gave lectures in several universities on sustainable development and global climate change. Kaifeng Yu holds a doctorate in natural sciences from RWTH Aachen, and is an Engineer in environmental protection from the State Grid Cooperation of China (SGCC). He has professional experiences in China, Germany, Ethiopia, UAE, and is fluent in German, English and Chinese.

Dr. Karoline Steinbacher is a Managing Consultant on energy policies at Navigant in Berlin. Her expertise includes electricity sector regulation and policy  instruments for renewable energy, energy efficiency and e-mobility. At Navigant, Karoline is currently managing and contributing to projects including improved planning for distribution grids, energy cooperation between Germany and the Gulf countries and energy efficiency policies in the MENA region. Before joining Ecofys, Karoline Steinbacher was a research fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs working on energy policy and e-mobility. She has consulted for GIZ, the German development agency, on sustainable energy in several European countries and has worked as a junior expert in gas market regulation for the Austrian energy regulator. Karoline Steinbacher holds a PhD in energy policy (summa cum laude) from Freie Universität Berlin and has carried out field research with extensive energy industry and public sector outreach in Morocco, South Africa, and California. She also holds a Master in economic policy and a Bachelor in social sciences from Sciences Po Paris, and completed postgraduate training in energy regulation at the Florence School of Regulation/EUI.

Kushal Shah is a Partner at Roland Berger’s Dubai office and a Managing Partner for the Middle East. He joined the firm in 2011, leading the telecommunications business in the Middle East and also working with several large telecommunications clients across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. Kushal is a Member of the Investment Committee of the region’s largest venture capital company. Prior to joining Roland Berger, he spent 12 years with a leading consultancy in London and Dubai. He studied Economics at Cambridge in the UK.

Nick Carter is a Director and Senior Advisor with PWC in the Middle East. Previously he worked as a Director for Baringa Partners LLP, a London Based Management Consultancy. He is also a Convenor with the EU-GCC Clean Energy Network concentrating on market trading and interconnections. In addition he undertakes assignments for the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) based in Budapest.

Nick joined the water and electricity market reform team for Abu Dhabi in 1998 as an advisor and in 1999 he was appointed Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Distribution Company – for water and electricity. From 2001 – 2015 he served as Director General of the Regulation and Supervision Bureau (RSB) in Abu Dhabi, creating a world-class regulatory body.

Prior to his UAE roles he held senior executive positions with Southern Electric PLC (now SSE) and London Electricity PLC. In London Electricity he played a pivotal role as Strategy Manager during privatisation in the early 1990s and was subsequently appointed General Manager for Networks.

Nick is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a member of the UK Engineering Council. Educated at University College London with a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and at INSEAD and London Business School.

Pierre is the Managing Partner & CEO of innogy International Middle East (innogy IME). innogy IME’s vision is to become a leader of the Smart Living Transformation. The company focusses on two business lines Consulting and Venture development and start-up investments.

After starting his career as a Software Developer, Pierre went into the field of Management Consulting in the Energy industry, advising global clients on strategic and implementation projects. Before taking over the responsibility for innogy’s Middle East business, Pierre became the youngest Partner at Europe’s Number 1 inhouse strategy consultancy innogy Consulting GmbH (former RWE Consulting), responsible for major enterprise wide strategic transformation and integrations programs, market design, strategy and commodity trading related projects. Under Pierre’s leadership innogy IME has been engaged in major Consulting Projects like the “Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050” for the Dubai Surpreme Council of Energy, the digitalization of DEWA’s mobile workforce management and kick-starting innovative Venture Projects like the Manarati Smart City project and several Blockchain and AI initiatives. Pierre is a member of the board of directors of Advizzo Ltd – an innovative UK-based  startup focusing on using behavioral science and machine learning to revolutionize customer engagement of utilities.

Pierre holds an MBA in General Management and a Bachelor in Information Technology.

In addition, he holds several decorated Executive Certificates from MIT Sloan (USA), London Business School (UK) and INSEAD (France).

Raed is currently the managing director for the Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) in Dubai and is a senior advisor with the Apricum Group with over two decades of international experience in the energy sector, having worked with Multinational corporations as well as technology startups and R&D organizations.  Recently, Raed was at First Solar where he was Vice President for Sales and Business Development for the MENA region, he was responsible for establishing and overseeing First Solar’s commercial footprint in the region, market setup, origination and strategy development for partnerships and project execution. 

Upon moving back to the ME in 2009, Raed joined the core team that built the Economic Development Division at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where he was responsible for creating the institution’s successful Industry Collaboration Program.  During his four year stint at KAUST, he also created a demonstration and testing program for solar and other clean energy technologies, advised several Saudi governmental and industrial entities and mentored startup companies.

Prior to that, he was part of successful Startups in O&G industry in California USA, and previously spent nine years in various roles at Siemens AG in Germany and the US. Raed holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Science from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Jordan, all in Electrical Engineering.  Raed is an accomplished inventor and entrepreneur with a strong track record in the energy space.

He is an experienced executive managing director and chartered engineer in the water, wastewater and electricity utilities sectors of the UAE and the UK.

Nick joined the water and electricity market reform team for Abu Dhabi in 1998 as an advisor reporting directly to a member of the Royal Family.

In 1999 he was appointed Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Distribution Company – for water and electricity.

From 2001 – 2015 he served as Director General of the Regulation and Supervision Bureau (RSB) creating a world-class regulatory body including the formation of separate customer facing offices namely; Power-wise and Waterwise. Prior to his UAE roles Nick held a number of senior executive positions with Southern Electric PLC (now SSE) and London Electricity PLC. In London Electricity he played a pivotal role as Strategy Manager during privatisation in the early 90s and was subsequently appointed General Manager for Networks. Nick is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a member of the UK Engineering Council. Educated at University College London with a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and at INSEAD and London Business School.

Currently he is also a Registered Expert and lecturer for the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) based in Budapest.

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