Navigating risks and enhancing resilience: charting Europe’s energy and climate pathways

Maxime Bleskine is a 32-year-old civil engineer that has worked on big infrastructure projects such as the Paris subway extension before founding VoltR, a battery remanufacturing company, in 2022 with 3 associates, where he now is the CEO.

Monica Frassoni is an Italian politician who previously served as the Co-President of the European Green Party. Prior to that, during her time as Member of the European Parliament, she was Co-Chair of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament. She also served for ten years as an officer of the Greens group in the European Parliament and was Secretary-General of the Young European Federalists. In 2010, she co-founded the European Alliance to Save Energy, an organisation which aims to promote and advocate energy savings and a new energy model.

Manon Dufour is a well-known expert in European climate policy and politics. In her current position as head of E3G’s Brussels Office, she is in charge of the think tank’s reputation, reach and impact in Brussels, by engaging with policymakers and civil society to forge alliances to reach climate neutrality. She previously worked for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London and New York, where she contributed to creating the company’s service offering on global carbon and European power markets.

Berlin-based Lubomila Jordanova is a one of Europe’s leading Greentech entrepreneurs. On a mission to fight climate change, she founded Plan A in 2017, developing ground-breaking software that enables businesses to monitor and reduce emissions, while improving their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESC) performance. Plan A has developed a global network of over 1,500 companies with the yearly target of cutting CO₂ emissions by 1 gigatonne. In addition, she is co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, uniting more than 3,000 stakeholders to harness the power of technology for a sustainable future. She is passionate about wildlife, with a special soft spot for lemurs.

Kim Jørgensen currently holds the position of Director General and Permanent Representative of the European Investment Bank to the EU institutions in Brussels. Previously, he worked at the European Commission where he was Head of Cabinet to Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager. Jørgensen has held various positions within the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as Denmark’s Ambassador to Turkey and Permanent Representative of Denmark to the EU. He also spent two years as State Secretary for Foreign Policy at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

*Consultant at Friends of Europe.

Stefano Lorenzi is the Head of Enel Green Power’s 3SUN Gigafactory, in Catania, Italy. 3SUN’s mission is to produce high-performance photovoltaic modules in Europe, by combining research, innovation and sustainability in order to obtain state-of-the-art products that can support Italy and Europe in the energy transition process.

Stefano joined Enel in 2017 in the role of head of the Global Optical Fiber Infrastructure business line where he supported the launch of Open Fiber and subsequently created another global business line, E-City, within Enel X. Following the Enel Group’s acquisition of the fiber optic network operator UFINET, Lorenzi became its Executive Chairman, and moved to Madrid where he contributed to the company’s extraordinary business development in Latin America. More recently, he was responsible for the launch of Enel Fibra, a new telecommunications operator that was integrated with Enel Energia: it acquired more than 100 thousand customers in just a few months.

Prior to Enel, Lorenzi was the CEO at Sirti, Italy’s leading telecommunications engineering company, with more than 4,000 employees, and for six years he successfully managed its turnaround. From 2008 to 2011 he was also president and CEO of Alcatel-Lucent in Italy and a cluster of Mediterranean countries. Stefano began his 30-plus year career in R&D (Research and Development), moving quickly into management roles of increasing responsibility in various parts of the world, working for Telecom Argentina (TIM), KPN-QWEST, AT&T, and Alcatel-Lucent.

Stephen is a retired officer in the Italian Navy and a graduate with honors in telecommunications engineering. He is happily married with three children, who were born in Belgium and the United States.

Hanna leads Carbo Culture’s global climate policy advocacy and activities in the Voluntary Carbon Market. Based out of Brussels and originally Finnish, she has worked on a wide range of topics in this space, with a focus on foresight, strategy and carbon removal policy.

Her prior experience includes working in strategy and policy at the Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Office in Finland. She regularly contributes to policy discussions within the EU and is the Chair for the High Level Climate Policy Working Group at the Negative Emissions Platform.

Heïdi Sevestre is a French glaciologist, specialising in glacier dynamics, tropical glaciers and ice shelves in Antarctica. She aims to make scientific knowledge more accessible and motivate concrete, effective climate action. Sevestre is the Deputy Secretary of AMAP, an Arctic Council working group that coordinates research on climate, pollutants, contaminants, and human and ecosystem health in the Arctic. Her research on glacier surges, which was featured in Science magazine, strengthened our understanding of climate change’s impact on glaciers. Sevestre regularly leads scientific expeditions to polar and high mountain regions and was notably awarded the inaugural Shackleton Medal for the Protection of Polar Regions.

Xavier Ursat is the Senior Executive Vice-President of New Nuclear Projects and Engineering at the EDF Group. Since late 2023, he has also been responsible for innovation, corporate social responsibility, and strategy. Ursat joined EDF in 1991 and held various positions in hydraulic engineering until 2002. He has also held several leadership positions within EDF and is involved in various industry organisations. Since April 2024, Ursat has held the position of Group Senior Executive Vice President responsible for the Strategy, Technologies, Innovation and Development Directorate.

Prior to his current position as Director General of DG CLIMA, Kurt Vandenberghe was the Green Deal and Health advisor to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Before joining the President’s cabinet, he worked at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), where he was director for Policy & Programming and acting director for Research & Innovation Outreach. Previously, Vandenberghe was Director for ‘Climate action and resource efficiency’ at DG RTD. Before entering the Commission, he worked as a manager at Ernst & Young Association Management, where he set up, managed and represented international trade associations.

Born in 1977, Professor Dr. Andrea Wechsler belongs to a generation that grew up in peace, security, freedom, and prosperity. For her, Europe is a nearly 80-year success story, achieved through deliberate political effort. As an MEP, she is committed to shaping a Europe where future generations can also enjoy these values, while striving for a competitive, innovative, and strong economy within our Union.
From 2013 to 2024, she served as a Professor of Business Law at Pforzheim University, where she also led strategic development initiatives as Prorector. She directed the GründerWERK – Center for Entrepreneurship, guiding future leaders in business creation. Her experience includes serving on the Consumer Commission of Baden-Württemberg and as the Director of the Institute for Mediation and Conflict Management (IMK).
Professor Wechsler has held prestigious fellowships at the European University Institute in Florence and the Schöller Research Center and worked with the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. Her academic journey includes degrees from Columbia University, the University of Oxford, and Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where she earned her doctorate summa cum laude.

Mechthild Wörsdörfer is Deputy Director-General at the European Commission’s DG Energy, where she is in charge of the coordination of the just and green energy transition. This includes steering the work on REPowerEU, accelerating the deployment of renewables and energy efficiency measures and ensuring EU’s security of supply. Wörsdörfer is also responsible for the relations with the Energy Community, and steers the bilateral relations with Ukraine, Moldova, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Prior to this, Wörsdörfer was the director responsible for sustainability, technology and outlooks at the International Energy Agency (IEA); director at DG Energy in charge of renewables, research and innovation, energy efficiency; and director for energy policy, international relations, legal aspects and economic analysis. Previously, she was head of Unit on the 2030 Energy and Climate Framework and served in the Cabinet of Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise Policy and Information Society.  

Prior to his current role as Vice-Minister for Energy of Lithuania, Albinas Zananavičius currently served as vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, working on EU policies and foreign trade as well as economic and energy security policy. Other postings during his 25-year diplomatic career included assignments in Helsinki and Geneva, where he represented Lithuania to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Previously, he was also deputy chief of mission at the Lithuanian Permanent Representation to the EU (COREPER I). In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zananavičius served as head of the Foreign Trade Policy Division and director of external economic relations.