Climate and Energy Summit

As Chief Energy Modeller, Laura Cozzi oversees the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) outlooks and forecasts. She is in charge of ensuring the consistency of the modelling work and the resulting messages. Cozzi is also Head of the Demand Outlook Division, responsible for producing the annual World Energy Outlook: the IEA flagship publication that is regarded as the gold standard in energy analysis. The Division produces medium- to long-term energy demand, efficiency, power generation, renewables and environmental analysis for this report and other publications.

Hauke Engel is a Partner in McKinsey’s Sustainability and Advanced Industry Practices, where he focuses on climate change and the e-mobility transition. He advises a broad range of clients, including automotive and energy companies, financial institutions and investors, NGOs and governments, on questions of sustainability and strategy. Engel also leads McKinsey’s work on climate change globally and is developing an integrated decarbonisation pathway for the European Union. In addition to his client work, he undertakes extensive research and knowledge-building programmes within McKinsey. He leads a major study on the socioeconomic impacts of climate change and the ways that decision-makers can recognise and prepare for them.

Niels Fuglsang is determined to use his experience to create a strong green agenda for the European Parliament, starting with a commitment to the European Green Deal and a greener common agricultural policy. He represents the Danish Socialdemokratiet party in the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committees, where he sits with S&D. Fuglsang is also the Vice-President of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources (EUFORES) and he is finishing a doctorate at Copenhagen Business School. Fuglsang has previously acted as advisor to former MEP Dan Jørgensen, who currently serves as the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities.

Claudia Gamon is an Austrian Member of the European Parliament for the liberal party Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum (NEOS). She is the NEOS spokesperson for all things European and sits with the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Gamon focuses mainly on digitalisation, science, research, energy and technological progress – topics that feature heavily in the ITRE Committee Own-Initiative Report, which outlines an ambitious EU-wide strategy for energy storage that she was the rapporteur of. Previously, Gamon represented NEOS in the Austrian Parliament.

Olivier Grabette has worked for Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE), the electricity transmission system operator of France, for the past decade and has been Executive Vice-President for more than half of that time. He began his career in the engineering department of Électricité de France (EDF) and now serves as Executive Vice-President and Member of the Board of RTE, where he is in charge of Economy, Research and Development, Expertise and IT. He previously worked for the top management of the company’s National Centre for Grid Expertise. In 2012, he created the Research and Development Department of RTE and he has been responsible for Economy and R&D since 2014.

Thierry Kalfon has more than a decade of experience at ENGIE. Prior to his current position, Kalfon held the positions of Group Controlling Director and Deputy Chief Financial Officer. At ENGIE, he also served as Financial and Legal Director of GRTgaz; Director of Strategy, Economy and Tariffs for France and Financial Director of Renewable Energies Europe. Before joining the company, Kalfon served as advisor to the Minister of Energy and Sustainable Development and Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. He started his career at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

In his current role, Erkki Maillard is in charge of supervising the definition and implementation of EDF’s strategy supporting CO2-free regulations and projects in the EU and abroad. Maillard draws from more than fifteen years of professional experience in European and diplomatic affairs. He previously served as head of the India section at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before joining the EU constitutional treaty task force. As a diplomat, he was posted to a number of countries, including to China and Italy, where he served as deputy head of mission. Maillard also served twice as chief of staff – once of the Minister of European Affairs, then of the Minister of Higher Education.

Helen Mountford is an environmental economist focused on helping governments, companies and civil society address climate change. Mountford previously worked as Deputy Director of Environment for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she headed the work on green fiscal reform, climate change finance and economics, fossil fuel subsidy reforms, water pricing, biodiversity incentive measures, and economy-environment outlooks and modelling.

Lilyana Pavlova is Vice-President and Member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She took up her duties in November last year and is the first Bulgarian national to join the Management Committee. Pavlova is responsible for transport financing and has more than twenty years of experience in the field of management of European funds and projects. She held various public functions in Bulgaria and has been a Member of the Bulgarian Government since 2009. Pavlova was Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2018 – the first time that the country held the rotating presidency.

Next to his position as Head of Public Affairs, Regulation and Antitrust for Europe, Valentino Rossi is also the Head of the Brussels Office in the Enel Europe Unit. Rossi has served as Head of Business Development for Enel Green Power and has been with the Enel Group for more than ten years in a variety of roles, including Head of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions for Enel and Chief Financial Officer for 3SUN.

Before joining the Cabinet of the Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Diederik Samsom was a member of the Dutch Parliament for the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid). He also served as the leader of the Labour Party and has been the party’s spokesperson on environmental subjects. Samsom has a long history in the field, working for Greenpeace Netherlands and as the Chief Executive Officer of Real Energy (Echte Energie), a small green energy trading company.

Maroš Šefčovič is a Slovak diplomat and politician, currently serving as a Vice-President in the von der Leyen Commission. He also coordinates the EU Battery Alliance, a cooperative platform seeking to drive the clean energy transition, and was the Vice-President for Energy Union until 2019. Prior to that, he was Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. Before joining the European Commission, Šefčovič served as Slovakia’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Director General in the European Affairs Department of Slovakia’s Foreign Ministry and as Slovakia’s Ambassador to Israel.

Kadri Simson is an Estonian politician from the Centre Party, currently serving as European Commissioner for Energy in the Von der Leyen Commission. She was previously Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in Jüri Ratas’ first cabinet. During the Estonian Presidency in the Council of the EU, Simson chaired meetings of energy and transport ministers in the TTE Council and ministers of economy in the EU Competitiveness Council. Simson was a member of the 11th, 12th and 13th Riigikogu and was elected to the 14th Riigikogu in 2019.

William Todts heads the leading clean transport campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E), which advocates for cleaner, safer and smarter mobility. Concretely, this means a zero-emission system that is affordable and has minimal impacts on our health, climate and environment. Todts has worked at the organisation for almost a decade, serving as Climate and Freight Director before becoming Executive Director. In that position, he led the campaign to regulate CO2 emissions from trucks for the first time. Todts previously worked at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU and in the office of Member of the European Parliament Kathleen Van Brempt.

As the newly-minted Minister for Energy of the De Croo government, Tinne Van der Straeten wants to work on ambitious climate and energy policies while keeping energy affordable. She has a long history with Groen, one of Belgium’s green parties, and served in the Chamber of Representatives of the Federal Parliament before taking up her current position. Van der Straeten previously worked as a climate and energy lawyer, building a successful law firm which works for many major players in the electricity sector and industry.

Before becoming the Deputy Permanent Representative to the European Union, Katrina Williams served as Director-General in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Prior to those positions, she was Deputy Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, coordinating Whitehall policy and advising the Prime Minister on European matters during the UK’s 2005 Presidency of the EU. In addition, Williams has twice served in the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels.