Managerial skills:

- General Management, Definition and Implementation of Strategies.

- International Development with Focus on Africa (30 countries), Intercultural Management

- International and Institutional Cooperation, High-level Diplomatic and Political Relational Network, GtoG and BtoG Negotiations, etc.

Technical Skills:

 - Development of Infrastructure Projects, Business Restructuring.

- Sectors of Expertise: Energy, Infrastructure, Diplomacy, International Organizations, Outsourcing, Banking

Ewan Murray , Project Manager (Ceng) in Energy Storage, Hydrogen & CCS , SNC-Lavalin Atkins

Ewan is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has been a core member of the Atkins Energy Systems business for 8 years. Ewan leads the delivery of Atkins works in the clean gas storage sector and our wider capability in renewables. Ewan has a had a career long passion and interest in the renewable sector, and has a strong understanding of technologies, integration and implementation. Ewan recently authored (hydrogen focused) elements of the Atkins Engineering Net Zero report. Ewan represents SNC-Lavalin Atkins in the North West Hydrogen Alliance; which is an industrial consortium aiming to develop the NW region as a low carbon energy hub.

Zac is a director at Southern Company Gas and has been with the company for 6.5 years.  He is responsible for the research and development (R&D) group that focuses on hydrogen, amongst other operational and environmental areas.  Zac has experience in asset integrity management, risk management, and compliance.  He has previously held roles in the private and public sectors and has an educational background in engineering

Frank Wouters

Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for 30 years and played a lead role in the development of renewable energy projects valued at over $5 billion.

He served as Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) from 2012 to 2014. 

Mr. Wouters has served on the board of energy companies in Europe, Asia, the US and Africa and currently serves as Director of the EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, a platform that fosters partnerships between Europe and the Gulf, he is VP Clean Hydrogen at Worley, Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines, Chairman of the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Chairman of the Dii Advisory Board, non-executive Board Director of Gore Street Capital, London and Board Advisor of Vast Solar in Australia.

Frank has authored several books on renewable energy and green hydrogen and lives in Abu Dhabi. He has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University.

Claas Hülsen is Business Development Director for DNV GLs Energy business in central Europe and part of the European Management team of DNV GL Energy.

Being 15 years with DNV GL he holds a degree in business administration and economics from the University of Hamburg and has about 20 years of extensive experience in the energy sector where he has worked with many different customers ranging from ministries, energy related associations to major industry players in the power and gas industry.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis is Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe since 2016. Before he was Representative of Infineon Technologies in Brussels and Member of the European Parliament (2004 – 2014) inter alia in the ITRE Committee (Industry, Technology, Research and Energy) where he could contribute to lay the cornerstone for the first and the second Joint Undertaking on hydrogen and fuel cells. In 2007 he was elected “MEP of the year” by his colleagues of the European Parliament in the category “Research and Innovation”. In 2015 he was appointed ambassador at large for Greece. Mr Chatzimarkakis was born in Duisburg, Germany. He holds German and Greek nationality, a degree in political science from the University of Bonn

Ahmed Badr is the Acting Director of the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Project Facilitation and Support division (PFS), a new division that offers member countries dedicated project implementation support. Mr. Badr took up the position in April 2020 and brings more than 30 years of international experience in the field of banking and finance.

In his role, Mr. Badr is tasked with leading the development of the division, while spearheading the Agency’s implementation of the Climate Investment Platform, a multi-stakeholder platform in established in partnership with SE4All, the UNDP and in coordination with Green Climate Fund to streamline access to climate funding for developing countries and advance renewables deployment.

Prior to joining IRENA, Mr. Badr held several senior operational positions in the field of climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency, water and infrastructure projects in a number of multinational financial institutions, including the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Commission (EuropeAid), and Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Mr. Badr is certified a project infrastructure project manager, with a B.Sc in Civil Engineering and Master’s Degree in Infrastructure Economics from the Universite de Nates, France.

Prof. Dr. Bruno G. Pollet

President of the IAHE Green Hydrogen Division, International Association for Hydrogen Energy 

Bruno is currently a full Professor of Renewable Energy at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Norway, an Associated Professor of Hydrogen at the Hydrogen Research Institute (HRI), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) in Canada, a Visiting Professor of Hydrogen at the South African Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry (SAIAMC) in South Africa, and an active member of Hydrogen Europe. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC, UK) and Board of Directors’ member of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE). In 2020, he was elected President of the “Green Hydrogen Division” of the IAHE.

Nicolas has more than 15 years of experience in solar PV in Europe and worldwide, having worked previously as Senior Performance Engineer at Sunpower EMEA. His experience includes a great variety of projects and technologies from roof-top system to large floating PV systems of hybrid PV + BESS installations.

Dr. Moumini Savadogo has been appointed as WASCAL Executive Director in 2018. He has very rich experience of more than 25 years as a scientist and project & programme manager in environment and sustainable development in Africa, including 15 years at senior management level. He also has expertise in programme development and management (Fundraising, Implementation, Procurement, Monitoring and Evaluation, Budget Management, Human Resources Management and Reporting) and negotiations.

After reporting to Morocco’s Head of State on the significant Atlantic trade winds blowing over the Sahara coastline, he installed the region’s first wind turbine in 1995. He founded the Sahara Wind-HVDC multi Giga-Watt transmission project bridging Africa to Europe in 2002. Together with public grid operator ONEE, he submitted this 5GW-HVDC project to UNDP/GEF/World Bank for funding in 2005. With co-funding from NATO, Khalid commissioned Africa’s 1st wind-hydrogen systems at partnering universities in Morocco and Mauritania in 2011. He also linked the Atlantic trade winds with its induced surface currents to the paleontological deposit of 72% of the world’s phosphate reserves (USGS-Index 2021). Used mostly as fertilizers, these will consolidate today’s broad clean energy transition.

Dr. Badr Ikken received a degree in mechanical engineering and industrial production & solar systems from the Berlin Institute of Technology and wrote his doctoral thesis on production technologies of hard materials. After eight years in the Department for Machining Technology of the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management (IWF) in Berlin, he served as a project manager at Fraunhofer IPK. From 2008, he was the CTO of multinational corporation Lunos-Raumluftsysteme before joining the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) as Director of Integrated Development in 2010. In 2011, inspired by the model of Germany’s Fraunhofer Society, he co-founded IRESEN and has been its Director General since. He serves as well as the vice-president of the new climate economy commission of the Moroccan Confederation of Enterprises.

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Prof Dmitri Bessarabov, was recruited for the position from Canada in 2010. He obtained his Master’s degree in Chemistry in Moscow, Russia and in 1996 his doctoral degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He worked in the Industrial R&D sectors in Canada for Kvaerner Group, Ballard Power Systems and AFCC (Daimler and Ford JV). He is an internationally-recognised visionary with extensive industrial and academic decision-making experience. Current responsibilities include building effective teams with deep technical capabilities and managing these teams, providing leadership and management in the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Programme (HySA). He is also involved in contributing to South African National Hydrogen Road Map. He holds SA NRF rating C1, co-authored more than 150 publications and serves on boards of various scientific committees locally and internationally. He is an expert in the area of hydrogen and electro-catalytic membrane systems for energy applications such as electrolysers and fuel cells. Passionate about LOHC technology for hydrogen storage, electrolysers, PEM fuel cells, membranes, MEAs and catalyst layers structures

Dr Stefan Kaufmann has served as Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 19 June 2020. Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek appointed Kaufmann, a member of the German Bundestag for the CDU party, in the context of implementing the Federal Government’s National Hydrogen Strategy. The Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen is a permanent guest on the State Secretaries’ Committee for Hydrogen of the participating ministries as well as the National Hydrogen Council. He is responsible for coordinating the focus of the BMBF’s research and development activities and the transfer of R&D results into practical application, cooperating with various stakeholders from politics, industry and research who are involved in this process. The Innovation Commissioner is also tasked with introducing promising, innovative approaches and ideas from BMBF-led research on the political stage and in public debate.

Prior to his appointment as Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen, the fully qualified lawyer served as chair of the Study Commission “Vocational Training in the Digital Work Environment” and CDU/CSU spokesperson on the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment of the Bundestag. Dr Kaufmann has served as a Member of the Bundestag and regular member of the Research Committee since 2009. He has always been directly elected to the Bundestag for his constituency of Stuttgart. Dr Kaufmann is a member of the CDU Federal Committee on Education, Research and Innovation as well as chair of the CDU’s Stuttgart district branch.

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Eur Ing Dr Innocent Uwuijaren is a European chartered Engineer and holds BEng degree, MSc degree and Engineering Doctorate degree in Subsea Engineering from University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. He has over 22 years after graduation industry experience in engineering and management of multi-billion dollars project within the energy industry.

In pursuit of his interest for contributing to government initiatives on reducing carbon emission, he co-founded Cheranna Energy Limited and heads the management team at the company’s headquarters in Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Cheranna Energy Limited is a well-established green energy production company with great vision of “Producing Green Energy to help bridge Energy transition gap and meet global Energy demands". This vision which also aligns with the UK Government initiative and current drive to invest in technology that will help harness the green energy potentials and skill-set domiciled here in the UK.

Cheranna Energy is leveraging on the framework already established by the UK Government to develop business initiatives for producing sustainable low carbon energy and this strategy will be exported to African continent and other continents of the world to help explore the green energy potentials in these continents.

Eur Ing Innocent Uwuijaren will be driving this business strategy on behalf of Cheranna Energy and developing SMART technology for implementing it.

Eur Ing Dr Innocent Uwuijaren is currently serving under the African Hydrogen Partnership as Board member and Secretary General of the organization. The African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP) is the only continent-wide African umbrella association solely dedicated to the development of green hydrogen, green hydrogen-based chemicals, fuel cell technology and related business opportunities in Africa. The AHP represents the whole African continent and all African nations. The AHP is a diverse, international, and democratic African organization governed by its members.

Previously, he worked with various multinational companies in various continents of the world, including America, Europe, and Africa. These include ExxonMobil, Chevron, FMC Technologies, Aker Solutions, Cameron, where he held different positions, such as Engineering Management and Senior Executive Management positions.

He is the co-founding Engineering Director of Global Energy, a UK registered company established in 2011 to provide engineering services for Deepwater explorations and production operations for fossil energy. Under his management leadership, this company grew extensively, providing high quality engineering and technical services to clients.

Mohammed GHAZALI, currently Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and the Environment and former Secretary General of the Department of Communication (2014-2018), has a rich academic background: Mechanical Engineer from the National Superior School of Electricity and Mechanics in Morocco (1996), Master of “Public Services Management” from the Higher Institute of Commerce and Business Administration in Morocco and from the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences in France (2004), and Executive MBA from the Toulouse Business School (2011).

Mr. GHAZALI is an expert accredited in customs modernization by the World Customs Organization, and by UNIDO in the area of industrial infrastructure.

Professional background: Mr. GHAZALI held positions of responsibility at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Upgrading of the Economy (1997 - 2005) and at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (General Treasury of the Kingdom and the Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes) (2005 - 2014).

It should be noted that Mr. GHAZALI has contributed, throughout his professional career, to the design and implementation of strategies and information systems and to the strategic management of organizations, in particular overseeing the strategies of West African customs administrations.

Cosmas holds a Doctorate in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from the University of the Witwatersrand and has more than 15 years' experience in the field of Materials Fabrication and Characterisation. In his current post as Director: Power, at the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), Cosmas is responsible for the Hydrogen Infrastructure Centre of Competence, the CoalCO2 to X and Energy Storage Programmes. His main role is to interact with public and private sectors in South Africa in order to develop and strengthen partnerships that are essential in promoting the uptake of emerging low carbon energy technologies, particularly those that beneficiate mineral resources found in South Africa and neighbouring countries. Dr Chiteme’s current interests are in technology roadmap development, innovation management and technology commercialisation in collaboration with both national and international partners.

Mr. Stefan Hediger, Principal Project Manager in KfW Development Bank is responsible for the development of a project portfolio in Southern Africa to promote investments in green hydrogen. Prior to that he was Deputy Director of the KfW Office in India responsible for KfW programs in the energy sector. He started his carrier by working for Credit Suisse in the Corporate Banking Division. He holds a Master Degree in Economics from the University of Basle and a Master in International Cooperation from ETH Zurich.

Sharon is the CEO of HyPlat (Pty) Ltd. HyPlat is a manufacturer of PGM-based fuel cell and electrolyser membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) using South African technology. She is from Vancouver, Canada, and prior to coming to South Africa in 2012 she had over 15 years of experience as a tech startup executive, an entrepreneur and consultant. She was Vice President, Research for a nanomaterials company working in the fields of batteries, hydrogen storage and petroleum upgrading. She then co-founded a fuel cell company where she served as Vice President, Technology Development. She founded HyPlat in 2014 licensing technology from UCT and Mintek. She is also Director, HySA Catalysis, with a staff and student team of over 40 people working in fuel cell and electrolyser catalyst and MEA development. She holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from Simon Fraser University, Canada

I was born, grew up & educated in Cape Town. Studied Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering. I have over 50 years experience in a wide variety of engineering & business activities. Including electrical contracting and marine and industrial instrumentation support services. I moved to Johannesburg in 1978 as Branch Manager for Dresser Wayne – an American company well known in the petro-chemical & mining industries. I started RTS Africa Engineering in 1989. (RTS) The company is active in the application of imported specialised engineering technologies; including hydrogen generation equipment and a specialised self cleaning air filtration system - among others. RTS has been Sub Saharan Africa sales/service agents for NEL Hydrogen since 1996

Torsten Schwab has been with GIZ for over 15 years and is currently deployed as director of the “International PtX Hub” in Berlin, Germany. Before he took on this assignment in August 2020, he managed the project “Climate Neutral Alternative Fuels (ProQR)” in Brazil which represents BMU’s first PtX project within its PtX Action Program. He has always been promoting the use of Renewable Energies, first in Rural Electrification, then in Energy Planning for specific technologies (solar, wind, bioX), later as a source for clean aviation fuels, and most recently as the basic concept for complete defossilisation. He holds MSc degrees in both Engineering Cybernetics and WASTE („Water, Air, and Solid Waste Treatment Engineering“), both from the University of Stuttgart.

is a member of the International PtX Hub Berlin committed to fostering international networks for creating and sharing knowledge, about green hydrogen solutions. He is in particular focussing on the design and implementation of sustainability standards and certification schemes for Power-to-X value chains producing and using climate-neutral synthetic e-fuels and feedstocks. Thereby contributing to the achievement of broad sets of sustainable development goals at local, national and global scale. The PtX Hub is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and is managed by the Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). For three decades Heino von Meyer was with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). His professional focus is on economic, environmental, agricultural as well as regional transformation and development policies. He is Senior Policy Advisor to the Ecologic Institute in Berlin. He also serves as Member of the Board of Transparency International - Germany.

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Mahandra Rooplall is presently a Senior Industry Development Planner at the IDC in the Industry Planning and Project Development Department and presently serving as the secretariat of the Green Hydrogen Panel of South Africa. Mahandra Rooplall was previously a Senior Project Development Manager in the New Industries department at IDC. Before joining IDC, Mahandra Rooplall spent 8 years in engineering and project management consulting, advising State Owned Entity Clients, Lenders to Power Projects and Independent Power Producers in an Owner Engineering, Lenders Technical Advisory, Programme Management and Risk Management capacity. Mahandra worked at Sasol for 8 years undertaking investment analysis and risk management on major investments, business development on green field projects, project management on multidisciplinary projects and design of plant optimization systems. Mahandra’s career began at Eskom where he obtained operations and maintenance experience driving engineering projects at a power plant. Mahandra has a degree in Electronic Engineering and an MBA. Mahandra is registered as a professional engineer (PrEng) and as a project management professional (PMP).

AfricaPower’s CEO and Managing Director, Dr Alastair Livesey (PhD) has 30 years’ experience in alternative and renewable energies and has co-authored two patents. At Shell in the 1990's, he predicted the rise of battery powered vehicles in its 10 yearly study of what else might power a car and predicted the likely characteristics of hydrogen fuel cell cars subsequently proven by car manufacturers in demonstration vehicles. His involvement helped form Shell Hydrogen. In the USA, at Energy Conversion Devices, he worked on novel fuel cells; hydrogen storage (hydrides), thin film flexible solar cells and advanced batteries (NiMH). Returning to the UK , he supported (as CTO and CEO)  the  development and installation of ammonia powered fuel cell power systems for cell phone sites in South Africa and Namibia, Alastair successfully led 3 R&D programmes between 2008-2011 in excess of USD 10 million. He is currently founder and CEO of Africa Power, providing renewable off-grid power systems for rural communities in Africa.  

Shamini is a seasoned climate change expert who holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science with a specialisation in climate change management.

She has nearly two decades experience in the field, having begun her career as a researcher at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, before moving into a corporate environment focusing on climate change management.

At Sasol she is the Vice President for Climate Change where she leads a diverse team focusing on reducing emissions, transforming operations and shifting the company’s portfolio. In December 220 she was appointed by the President as a Presidential Climate Commissioner.

For five years she negotiated international climate change policy, as the first business representative on South Africa’s negotiating team at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She was previously Co-Chair of the National Business Institute’s Environment Committee and Chair of the South African Petroleum Industry Association’s Climate Change Committee. She is the current BUSA Environment and Just Transition Committees Chair, representing business at NEDLAC.

Shamini remains active in South African and international climate change policy development processes and is a sought-after speaker on the topic at local and global conferences.

Joanne is Chief Operations Officer of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. She aims to play a central role in the creation of balanced and sustainable economic growth at a time when there is an urgent need to sustainably expand South Africa’s economy.

Joanne is responsible for driving the IDC’s planning, project development, business origination and implementation priorities. At the core of delivering sustainable industrial development is understanding and planning for the environmental impact of industrial value chains as well as the climate change impact on these value chains.

Joanne was previously Head of Client Innovation at Absa Corporate and Investment Bank. Among other achievements, she defined a shared value strategy for client centricity through sector-based value chain and ecosystem mapping that identified opportunities for differentiation, disruption and creation of positive social and environmental impacts. Joanne also held senior management positions at Absa including Head of Public Sector & Infrastructure and Head of Metals, Mining & Infrastructure. Prior to joining Absa, Joanne was a Director of Global Investment Banking at HSBC.

Joanne originally started her career at the IDC following completion of her articles at KPMG.  She was involved in driving transformation funding and industrial development through roles as Head of Project Finance and Structured Finance and Head of Corporate Finance, among others.

Joanne holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of the Witswatersrand and is a chartered accountant (SA) by qualification.

Dr. Maged Mahmoud is a sustainable energy expert and the Technical Director of the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE). He has multidisciplinary expertise and solid accomplishments in the fields of sustainable energy transition in the Egyptian, Arab and African arenas. Dr Mahmoud played a key role in helping Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East to formulate renewable energy (RE) strategies and to introduce implementation mechanisms for increased reliance on private sector. Dr. Mahmoud contributed to shaping concrete regional initiatives endorsed by the Arab Ministerial Council of Electricity. He is continuously assisting several Arab countries to prepare and execute national sustainable energy action plans and introducing several business models and instruments to support both utility- and small-scale developers, and to assess the socio-economic impacts.

Dr. Mahmoud was an official in the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority for around 15 years where he contributed significantly to setting the Egyptian renewable energy strategies, and in the design of the “best-fit” policies for implementation. He deeply contributed to planning and contracting several hundreds megawatts of wind energy projects amounting to more than 700 million USD. Further, he participated in developing the quality infrastructure for testing solar thermal and energy efficiency systems in Egypt.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Mahmoud has managed and contributed to  over 40 research projects and studies in the sustainable energy fields in collaboration with international organizations (WB, IRENA, ESCWA, UNDP, UNEP, etc.), spanning fundamental technology development, systems-level integration, local manufacturing, market assessments and policy issues.

Dr. Maged Mahmoud is Egyptian with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mechanical Power Engineering, from the prominent Cairo-based Ain Shams University, as well as several post-graduate studies from renowned institutions in Germany, Spain, Netherlands, South Korea and other countries. Dr. Mahmoud holds the “Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research Award for Development and Innovations in Renewable Energy” since 2001.  He is also an adjunct lecturer at the British University in Egypt (BUE). He is a certified trainer and author/co-author of over 50 specialized publications and articles.

Dr. Mahmoud is an Advisory Board Member of Egypt PV National Project (2018 to date), Steering Committee Member of Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century - REN21 (2019 to date), IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Executive Committee Member, IEA-SHC (2017 to date), Advisory Board member of MENA-Fuels Initiative (2019 to date), RE&EE Experts Committee, League of Arab States (2012 to date), and the Jury Committee for the Arab Energy Efficiency Day Awards (2014 to date). He is a founding member of the Solar Heating Arab Mark and Certification Initiative, SHAMCI (2013 to date). He was a Member of Experts Consultation Group on Egypt’s Green Projects Taxonomy for Green Bonds, Financial Regulatory Authority (2019-2020), the Advisory Group of Egypt Sustainable Production and Consumption Action Plan (2015-2016), Start-Up Energy Transition Award #SET18 Reading Jury Member, World Energy Council (2018), Advisory Group of Egypt Feed-in Tariff for Renewable Energy, Egypt’s Electricity Regulatory Agency (2014 -2015) and others.

Dana is the Managing Director of LBC Energy Advisory headquartered in London and the Chairperson of Energy & Infrastructure Group EWoB founded by the European Commission and headquartered in Brussel. Having started as an Associate M&A Energy with Lehman Brothers in New York in August 2001, Dana’s sole focus over the past 20+ years has been in Energy, Infrastructure and Renewable Energy Technologies, with Lehman Brothers, McKinsey & Co. (serving Royal Dutch / Shell in New York, London, Amsterdam and Hamburg), UBS M&A Energy and ABN Amro M&A Energy, where she served as Head of M&A Energy. Dana’s truly Global cross-border deal sheet includes BP’s petrochemical divestitures in the USA, UK and Europe, Royal Dutch / Shell’s strategic actions in Europe, a series of Energy IPOs on New York and London Stock Exchanges, various mandates for Middle Eastern and Asian NOCs and others. Since 2016, Dana’s predominant focus has been on Hydrogen Production, Distribution, Mobility and Infrastructure. Currently she works on mandates in Hydrogen Infrastructure and Technologies in USA and EMENA. In addition to her above principal responsibilities with LBC Energy, in her role as the Chairperson, Energy & Infrastructure Group EWoB sponsored by the European Commission, Dana engages both businessmen and women to develop good practices and help corporations develop talents and skills of senior businesswomen to take on decision making positions, and also share best practices at the European level. She has also been serving as the Founder Freeman of the Guild of Entrepreneurs of the City of London supporting the Lord Mayor to encourage the growth of the City.

“Yusuf Macun is a global leader in energy and infrastructure finance. With specific focus on EMEA, throughout his 25-year career, he has been defining how financing supports these sectors. He has closed in excess 40 transactions, often iconic, in both emerging and developed markets.

Founded by Yusuf in 2016, Cranmore Partners has supported, among others, global players on the financing of their strategic infrastructure developments and investments. As a result, Cranmore now systematically achieves significant league table positions with leading industry publications, including Project Finance International (PFI) and IJ Global, and is the winner of the Financial Adviser of the Year 2020 for MENA by IJ Global. Cranmore is also at the forefront of energy transition, and the development of the clean hydrogen industry globally.

As an advocate for sustainability, Cranmore Partners was the first member of the private sector platform of the World Green Energy Organization and is a knowledge partner for several conferences. Cranmore also supports NYU Abu Dhabi’s Water Research Center, where Yusuf is an advisory board member, and is the Scholarship Partner for NYUAD’s CITIES Research Center. As an Associated Partner of the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Cranmore is also strongly committed to accelerating the growth of the clean hydrogen industry globally.

In addition, Yusuf is a Founding Partner of Project Finance Institute, a knowledge community for project finance & infrastructure professionals, who launched the Certified Project Finance Analyst programme.

Prior to launching Cranmore Partners, Yusuf held senior positions with the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company – TAQA, and HSBC.”

Jose M Bermudez works for the International Energy Agency (IEA) as an Energy Technology Analyst, coordinating the analytical work of the IEA in hydrogen technologies. He is also the coordinator of the Clean Energy Ministerial Hydrogen Initiative.

Jose is a chemical engineer by training and holds an MSc degree in Process and Environmental Engineering and a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering. He started his professional career in research, working for the Spanish National Research Council and the Imperial College London, focusing on the areas of hydrogen production and bioenergy. After 10 years in research, he joined the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy of the UK Government in 2017 to work as a technical energy specialist. He was responsible for providing technical and scientific advice for the development and implementation of energy policies dealing with bioenergy, hydrogen and shale gas. During this time, he held an Honorary Research Fellow position at Imperial College London. He joined the IEA in 2020.