Jean-Baptiste Djebbari

Chairman
Hopium

France

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari is a well-known figure with a track record of excellence in the mobility sector. He started his career as a pilot before gaining executive positions in air carriers. In 2017, he was elected member of the French Parliament.

In 2019, he was appointed to French government and was cabinet minister for Transport for nearly 3 years. He currently is the executive Chairman of Hopium, a French scale up that develops high-end hydrogen vehicles.

Jean-Baptiste graduated from Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile and Ecole Polytechnique.

United States

Alicia Eastman is the President of InterContinental Energy, a green fuels developer/owner focused on 25GW+ integrated upstream wind and solar, midstream hydrogen, and downstream ammonia projects located in coastal deserts of Australia and the Middle East.

Before co-founding ICE in 2014; Alicia led investment and strategy in global markets for 20 years, managing private equity funds, market entry and finance for multinational companies and institutional investors across Australasia including the Middle East. She has focused on infrastructure, project finance, renewable energy, specialty chemicals/pharma, technology, and telecom. She was a founding partner of multiple growth private equity funds and a project finance advisor in the Persian Gulf. Alicia led international strategy and acquisitions at Elan Biopharmaceuticals and was Vice President of Prudential Asia Infrastructure Mezzanine Capital Fund.

Alicia currently sits on the Steering Committee of Hydrogen Council, the Advisory Board of SEC Hydrogen, the Board of Directors for the Ammonia Energy Association and represents ICE as member of Dii Desertec and Global Maritime Forum’s Getting to Zero Coalition. She is also a Board Director of multiple charities focused on poverty and education for children in developing or war torn countries and is a frequent speaker and moderator at clean hydrogen, ammonia, and sustainability events.

Alicia holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Dr. Prof. Katsuhiko Hirose

CEO & Chief Consultant
HYWEALTH CO.

Japan

Dr. Prof. Katsuhiko Hirose is a former Toyota Engineer currently working as an independent consultant.

As an engineer, he was working at the front line of Toyota engineering for advanced Engine, Hybrid System and Fuel Cell Vehicle but also working as a planner to develop world strategy of hybrid and fuel vehicle deployment. He is recognized as a leader for having develop the first Hybrid Vehicle Prius for emission and fuel economy and later, the FCV Mirai first FCEV.

Dr. Prof. Hirose is also working to initiate several government industries infrastructure program such as German and UK H2Mobility. From 2016, he initiated building the world Hydrogen Consortium “Hydrogen Council” as a founding member secretary and as co-chairman to create several key reports.

After his time at Toyota in 2019, he has been an active independent consultant for Hydrogen Energy System and Advanced Mobility. He appears to promote hydrogen in many conferences all over the world.

Katsuhiko Hirose is currently a member of the scientific council of Engie SV, advising several companies including Toyota Motor and Mitsui & CO. Ltd. He is also working as a visiting professor to develop methodologies to implementing environmental technologies into the society in I2CNER Kyushu University.

Mr. Roland Kaeppner

Executive Director – Hydrogen & Green Fuels
ENOWA – NEOM

Saudi Arabia

Roland Kaeppner is the Executive Director for Hydrogen & Green Fuels within ENOWA.NEOM which will be the catalyst of the energy transition, using circular design and groundbreaking technologies to realize NEOM’s ambition to be powered by 100% renewable energy, with smart networks distributing high-standard water and green energy to all of NEOM, whilst exporting clean industrial resources and solutions, such as green hydrogen to the world.

Roland has almost 20 years’ global experience in hydrogen and green fuels and has ever since been an advocate and pioneer for a future hydrogen economy. Prior to joining ENOWA.NEOM, he was Executive Vice President for Energy Storage and Hydrogen at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, where he established and led their electrochemical green hydrogen production and redox flow battery technology businesses.

Kaeppner was previously Executive Member of the Board and CEO of Germany and Asia Pacific at McPhy Energy S.A., developing their innovative hydrogen portfolio and preparing the company for an IPO. Before that, he spent 13 years with Siemens Industrial Solutions, leading their technical solutions activities in North and South America before he initiated and developed their Hydrogen PEM Electrolyzer business.

Roland holds engineering and commercial degrees from Polytechnic Aalen, the University of Manchester and the Management Center St.Gallen.

Mr. Paul Lucchese

IEA Hydrogen TCP Chair
COMMISSARIAT À L’ÉNERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ÉNERGIES ALTERNATIVES

France

Paul Lucchese is currently working for the CEA – a French public research institute on low carbon technologies. He is an energy systems analyst and is in charge of low carbon energy prospective. He is also chairing the IEA (International Energy Agency) Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Programme, gathering 25 countries and many sponsors including Hydrogen Council. He was part of the team of the IEA “Future of Hydrogen” report, delivered to G20 leaders in June 2019.

Mr. Lucchese is an international expert on Hydrogen and energy system, involved in many international organizations and European Programmes, creating the Hydrogen Europe Research in 2007. He has been a member of the Governing Board of the European Program FCH JU for 9 years.

He was also representing France at the IPHE (International Partnership on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy) and chair of the IPHE ILC committee.

He was the Former Deputy Director of Capenergies, an industrial private/public cluster in South of France. For many years, he led the R&D CEA programme on new technologies for energy, including PV, Hydrogen and fuel cells, biofuels, batteries and energy efficiency programme.

Paul Lucchese graduated from l’Ecole Centrale de Paris, with a degree in nuclear engineering.

Mr. Raphaël Schoentgen

CEO
HYDROGEN ADVISORS

France

Raphaël Schoentgen is a private entrepreneur which passions and expertise are technologies, energy, climate change, international business and international policy.

In 2018 he created Hydrogen Advisors, a consultancy firm active both in the private sector – energy / transport / industry / investors – as well as in the public sector – international bodies / national governments / cities councils / financial bodies.

As former Chairman of Hydrogen Europe and Chairman of the Board of the European Fund for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (FCHJU), CTO of ENGIE and former personal advisor to a G8 minister of energy and industry, he wishes to advocate the development of this new green energy vector that he calls “a revolution” and help his clients get rapidly the “helicopter view” they need on the topic.

He builds on his personal network and own varied past experiences in 7 countries, with permanent interactions with high level leaders, both as a civil servant and a business man, and on issues of regulation, finance, regional development, technologies, infrastructures and industrial development.

In 2020 he also started investments in the field of hydrogen (providing growth equity to developing companies) and is for instance an early investor (prior to their listing on the DAX and on the NASDAQ) in Enapter and Hyzon Motors.

Raphael is an engineer by training, holds and has held several board positions (French Institute for Petroleum and New Energies, European Trade Chamber in China, …) and received several international awards (Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Young Global Leader of the World Cities Summit, …). He is married and has two daughters.

Ms. Elise Zoli

Partner – Energy & Climate Solutions
WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI

United States

Elise Zoli is a partner in the energy and climate solutions practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she focuses on advancing strategic alliances in the clean energy, water, agriculture, and de-carbonized sectors.

Elise has worked extensively on a variety of groundbreaking technologies, transactions, and projects, including with nuclear, solar, wind, fuel cell (PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) and SOF/EC (solid oxide fuel cells)), storage, micro- and smart-grid, CCUS, de-salination, and water technologies, as well as the associated securitization and markets for carbon, fuels, land, and ecological attributes. In conjunction with her transactional work, which focuses on strategic alliances, Elise has pioneered the use of novel P3 (public-private partnership) instruments, including U.S. Department of Energy grants, loan guarantees, and incentives.

Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Elise was a partner and the global head of the Future of Energy, Renewables+ and Sustainability initiative at Jones Day. Previously, she led the energy practice and was a partner at Goodwin Procter.

Elise is a co-founder of the Alliance for a Climate Resilient Earth and serves on the board of directors of the Stimson Center, a leading, nonpartisan global think tank. She is currently obtaining her global M.B.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Prof. Ifatch Yacoby

Professor
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

Israel

Iftach completed his B.Sc., M.Sc. in Biology and Biotechnology in 2001 and 2003. He received his PhD in Microbiology and Biotechnology from Tel Aviv University (TAU) in 2007. As a doctoral student, he became a Dan David fellow under the supervision of Prof. Itai Benhar where he invented and developed a means of immuno-targeting photogenic bacteria and cancer using filamentous phages.

As a postdoctoral EMBO fellow with Shuguang Zhang (2008-2011) at MIT he invented and worked on the development of fusion proteins of the hydrogen producing enzyme, hydrogenase. He went back to TAU as an independent PI in 2012.

Since 2019, Iftach is an associate professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Plant Sciences, and Food Security. He teaches undergraduate students the beauty of photosynthesis and metabolic diversity in microbes. In the lab, Iftach enjoys fixing broken equipment that the students constantly provide and helping with every project.

He is passionate about converting photosynthetic organisms into chemical factories for producing high value products and energy carriers such as hydrogen gas. Since its establishment in 2012 his lab published more than 35 papers in top high ranked journals.

The most recent discoveries and developments of his lab, are a microalgal mutant which allows continuous hydrogen production under extremely simple “agri-friendly” method, for which scale up studies are being carried up.

Dr. Ahilan Ahilan

Chief Energy Transition Officer
ABL GROUP ASA

United Kingdom

Ahilan is a well-known and highly respected technology and business leader with over three decades of industry experience, more than 25 years of which has been at board level, including leadership positions at LOC, DNV GL, GL Garrad Hassan and Noble Denton.

With expertise in hydrodynamics, he has led projects which have set standards and safety factors in jack-up site assessment, mooring systems and marine transportation.

He has been an expert witness and technical advisor to lawyers in Norway, UAE and the UK on many technically complex cases related to marine operations, drilling rigs and FPSOs. He is Chairman of the charity Marine Technology Trust which supports industrial placements in the marine industry for UK university students. In addition to this, he is an Advisory Board Member of WavEC Offshore Renewables and was Non-Executive Director of a vertical axis wind turbine company.

Ahilan has also acted as global director of LOC Renewables, having established it as an umbrella brand to consolidate the group’s expertise and portfolio across the marine renewables’ landscape. Under his direction, LOC Renewables rapidly developed its project experience across offshore and floating wind, floating solar, wave and tidal energy.

He holds a BSc (Leeds) and MS (Caltech) in Civil Engineering, a PhD (Cantab) in Engineering Fluid Mechanics, an MBA (Imperial) and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Laurent Antoni

Co-lead, H2 Production Analysis Task Force
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELLS IN THE ECONOMY (IPHE)

France

Dr. Laurent Antoni is Public Affairs manager and Senior Fellow for hydrogen at CEA, the French research and technology organization developing alternative energies.

Laurent Antoni is since 2016 President of Hydrogen Europe Research, the European research association on hydrogen and fuel cells gathering more than 120 universities and research institutes, member of the Governing Board of the European Clan Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.

He is also President of the Technical Committee of Fuel Cells at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC/TC105) and a national representative in different working groups of international organizations (IEA Advanced Fuel Cells, IEA Hydrogen TCP, International Partnership for Hydrogen and fuels cells in the Economy – IPHE).

At the IPHE, Laurent Antoni is co-leader of the task force on the development of a methodology for determining the GHG emissions for hydrogen.

Mr. Andy Fuchs

General Manager
TOYOTA MOBILITY FOUNDATION EUROPE & AFRICA

Germany

Mr. Andy Fuchs started his career as a trainee at Audi in Ingolstadt, then held various positions in sales and marketing for the Scandinavian regions, Eastern Europe, UK and Spain. Between 1997 – 1998, he was in charge of establishing Audi in Argentina.

In 1999, he moved to Toyota Motor Europe headquarters in Brussels and was head of marketing for Lexus in Central Europe. He later took over the responsibility for marketing, public relations and business development for the Toyota Formula 1 team in Cologne in 2004.

Mr. Fuchs was the Head of the Toyota Group Representative Office in Berlin, between September 1, 2011 and December 2016, where he was in charge of Governmental Affairs and advanced technology programs – including hydrogen – for Toyota in Germany, as well as the Head of Press and Public Relations at Toyota Deutschland GmbH in Cologne between September 1, 2013 and November 2014.

In January 2017, he was assigned the General Manager Toyota Mobility Foundation, establishing the foundation in Europe and Africa. He develops, with multiple stakeholders, sustainable mobility solutions based on a digital platform design (SMART VILLAGE) and the integration of renewable energy into the energy mix (Hydrogen Society).

Mr. Andy Fuchs has a Degree in Business Administration specializing in Marketing and International Management from The University of Mannheim.

Mrs. Nadine Hölzinger

Managing Director
SPILETT NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Germany

Nadine Hoelzinger is of German and French nationality with a degree in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin (Dipl.-Ing.) and in Environmental & Resource Economics from the University of New Hampshire in the USA (B.Sc.). She is co-founder and has been a managing director of Spilett New Technologies GmbH since 2008. Her competences and work focus on system analysis, concept development and project development in the fields of energy and transport sector transition for actors from industry, politics, and society.

Nadine Hoelzinger has been leading the “PDA project development assistance for regions” initiative of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership since 2019, being responsible for the support of 5+ regions as well as the PDA observer networks. As project leader and team member of the HyStarter project, funded by the German Ministry of Transport, she has provided direct support to seven German regions in steering their H2-Roadmap processes in 2019-2021. Since 2018 she has been contracted by the Toyota Mobility Foundation to design and develop an online decision-support tool for decision makers in hydrogen valleys (scenario calculator).

From 2008-2018 she supported the coordination team of the Clean Energy Partnership and led the concept development activities to transfer the former PPP into an industry initiative in 2017.

Ms. Anne O’Donnell

CEO
GIBSON WATTS

United Kingdom

Anne O’Donnell is the CEO and Founder of Gibson Watts, a global executive search and recruitment firm with a strong focus on clean-tech, sustainability, and hydrogen. Anne and Gibson Watts’ mission is to connect forward-thinking businesses to their future leaders, build world-class teams, and drive positive change.

Anne has had an expansive career, spanning nearly thirty years, in which she has created and led many successful businesses in recruitment and consulting. Anne’s businesses have all shared a focus on sustainability, the energy transition, and collaborating with sustainable, innovative organisations.

On a personal level, Anne is passionate about the clean-tech and sustainability sectors, particularly hydrogen. In her own words, “Since beginning my journey within green hydrogen, I have always been passionate about the technology, what it can do and the part it plays in the energy transition”.

Her continuous hard work within the field is echoed by her recognition as the Most Inspirational Woman in the West, along with her inclusion in Women in Green Hydrogen’s expert database.

Dr. Dina Barbian
CEO
eco2050 Institut für Nachhaltigkeit – Institute for Sustainability GmbH

Germany

Dr. Dina Barbian holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (specialising in manufacturing technology) and a doctorate in Sustainability Economics. She wrote her doctoral thesis entitled “Economics and Sustainable Development – Developing an Approach to Implementing Sustainability” back in the 1990s. This makes her one of the first to deal with the topic of sustainability in the German-speaking world.

She lectures on “Sustainable Development & National Strategies”, “Digitalisation & Sustainability” and “Supply Chain Management”. From 2011 to 2014, she was Visiting Professor at the Summer University in Aarhus (Denmark) as well as in Sofia (Bulgaria) with the lecture “Sustainable Development and National Strategies”. In 2018, she was Visiting Professor at the School of Science and Technology in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) with the lecture “Digitalisation & Sustainability”.

Her research areas concern sustainable digitalisation, technological sustainability, sustainability management, national sustainability strategies, climate neutrality strategies, decarbonization technologies, sharing economy, energy and resource efficiency, circular economy, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), cyber-physical systems as well as interdisciplinary interface topics from the fields of production, logistics, digitalisation and sustainability. She is author of books and several scientific articles.

The Netherlands

Dr. Gokce Mete is Senior Expert in heavy industry transition and low-carbon hydrogen at South Pole and co-leads the Hydrogen for Net Zero Initiative (H2NZ) together with Perspectives Climate Group. H2NZ aims to unlock carbon finance for hydrogen projects by developing the first methodologies for the voluntary carbon market. She also leads the policy and advocacy efforts of South Pole in the low-carbon hydrogen space and is responsible for developing new low-carbon hydrogen business opportunities.

Gokce is co-founder of the Women in Green Hydrogen Network, author of over 30 publications, and has over a decade of policy and regulatory analysis, public affairs, project development and stakeholder management experience focused on climate change, just transition and sustainability in the energy, heavy industry and minerals sectors.

Previously she was Head of Secretariat of the UN Leadership Group for the Industry Transition hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute which explores how policy, finance and business practices in hard-to-abate industry sectors such as steel, cement, heavy duty transport and chemicals can be aligned to achieve climate neutrality. At SEI, she also project led initiatives focusing on oil and gas transitions, green trade and green public procurement in road transport and construction sectors.