Lewis Pugh is an endurance swimmer and an ocean advocate.

He swims in the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth to campaign for their protection. He was the first person to undertake a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world. He pioneered the first swim across the North Pole, the first swim along the length of the English Channel, the world’s highest swim (on Mt Everest) and even a swim under the Antarctic ice sheet.

Lewis’s work now focuses on creating marine protected areas. In 2016 he helped establish the largest protected area in the world in the Ross Sea off Antarctica. He has been instrumental in protecting over 2 million km² ocean, an area the size of Western Europe.

Lewis talks about how he undertakes these swims, which many regarded as “impossible”, and the campaigns to get the areas protected. He speaks about creating a clear vision, choosing the right team, meticulous preparation, resilience, and changing when circumstances dictate. And he speaks about purpose – it’s the engine which drives us. TED describes him as a “master storyteller”.

Lewis has received a number of awards for his work. He was awarded South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Ikhamanga (Gold Class). He was appointed UN Patron of the Oceans in 2013. Most recently, he was made a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.

Gwenaelle Avice Huet has been Schneider Electric’s Executive Vice President of Europe Operations since September 4, 2023 and serves on its Executive Committee. She is responsible for Schneider Electric’s full business portfolio across Europe Operations, representing the company’s contribution to the development of the EU’s agenda to accelerate Europe’s green and digital transformation.

Gwenaelle joined Schneider Electric in 2021 as Senior-Vice President of Corporate Strategy, before entering the Executive Committee as Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer.

Before joining Schneider Electric, Gwenaelle worked at ENGIE (formerly GDF SUEZ) in various roles, from Senior Vice-President of European and Regulatory affairs, to leading the Renewables energy business. In her last role, she was on the Executive Committee of ENGIE, serving as the Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE North America and in charge of the Global Business Line on Renewable Energies.

Gwenaelle started her career at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the French Atomic Energy Commission on nuclear energy before joining the World Bank in Washington D.C. as a consultant. She also worked for the service of the French Prime Minister within the General Secretary of European affairs with responsibility for energy and competitiveness matters, and as the advisor on energy and climate change for various ministers.

Gwenaelle also serves on the Board of Air France – KLM. She holds a degree in Physics and Chemistry from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, a post-graduate diploma in Molecular Chemistry from France’s Ecole Polytechnique and an engineering degree from the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées. She has also been nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She is based in Europe.

Maroš Šefčovič (born in 1966) is a Slovak politician and a career diplomat, who since 22 August 2023 serves as Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight. Before that, since 1 December 2019 he served as Vice‐President of the European Commission in charge of Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight. In this capacity, he leads the Commission’s work on the European Green Deal, interinstitutional relations, better policymaking, strategic foresight and the European Battery Alliance. He is also responsible for the European Union’s relations with Western non‐EU countries, notably Andorra, Iceland, Monaco, Norway, Lichtenstein, San Marino and Switzerland. He also cochairs the EU‐UK Partnership Council under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the EU‐UK Joint Committee for the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.

European Affairs have been at the centre of Mr Šefčovič’s career for almost two decades. In 2014, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament. From 2010‐2019, he was Vice‐ President of the European Commission in charge of initially Interinstitutional Relations and Administration, and then the Energy Union. In 2009‐2010, he was European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. From 2004‐2009, he was the Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the European Union, steering the country’s integration in the European Union, such as its entry to the Eurozone and the Schengen area. As a diplomat by profession, he served between 1992 and 2004 in Zimbabwe and Canada and as Ambassador of Slovakia to Israel.

Jordi Hereu Boher (Barcelona, 1965) has been Minister of Industry and Tourism of the Spanish Government since November 2023.

He holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the UPC, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Management (MBA) from the ESADE Business School.

Prior to joining the Government, Jordi Hereu was President of Hispasat and Idencity Consulting, as well as patron of the Environmental Forum Foundation and advisor to BCL Barcelona Logistics Centre.

Between 2006 and 2011, Hereu was Mayor of Barcelona, where he had previously held the positions of Deputy Mayor for Citizen Participation, Solidarity and Cooperation, Councillor-President of the Area of Security and Mobility, Councillor of the District of Sant Andreu, Councillor of the District of Les Corts and Manager of the District of Les Corts.

Previously, Jordi Hereu was also National Marketing Director at CILSA, Centro Intermodal de Logística S.A, and marketing manager of the ZAL Port 200 Project.

He is married and father of two children.

Olivier Sala was appointed the Group Vice President of Research & Innovation at ENGIE in July 2021. Passionate about energy & carbon transition challenges and how technologies can contribute, Olivier is an experienced VP with a demonstrated history of working in the Energy and Services industry.

In 1993, Olivier Sala graduated from the University of Technology in Compiègne with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering, and in 1996 from ESSEC. He began his career at Air Liquide before moving into consulting at A.T. Kearney, followed by the Boston Consulting Group.

ENGIE is a leading world group that provides low-carbon energy, and aims to meet the challenges of climate change by achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2045. Guided by its objective statement, ENGIE reconciles economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet, using its expertise in four core businesses: renewable energy, energy solutions, networks, thermal generation and energy supply.

Joan Groizard holds a degree in Energy and Environmental Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a Master’s degree in Corporate Social Responsibility Management. He has worked in the renewable energy sector in several countries and as a consultant in the field of low carbon energy.
He has been Director General of Energy and Climate Change in the government of Illes Balears, where he promoted the first comprehensive energy transition regulation of the archipelago. In 2018 he joined the IDAE as director of Renewable Energies and Electricity Market, and since September 2019 he is the general director of the Institute. Among other functions, from IDAE he has led the development of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan in the field of energy transition and its negotiation with the European Commission, the design and deployment of PERTE ERHA and the management of the associated NextGenerationEU funds; he has participated in work on the design and development of Spanish energy regulations as well as the development of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030 and the various roadmaps that make up the Strategic Energy and Climate Framework.

Julia is a Partner at SET Ventures. Her mission is to reduce the climate impact of the energy sector through digital innovation, together with industry-leading entrepreneurs. She is deeply experienced in finance, energy, and cleantech. Since 2016, Julia has been instrumental in strengthening SET’s European network and visibility, as well as spearheading new investments.

Previously, Julia was active in corporate finance and investment advisory in cleantech and energy, amongst others at merchant bank Kempen & Co. She advised on M&A transactions, IPOs, investments, and fundraising processes at European energy companies. She was also involved in establishing new energy projects, business cases, structured financing, and advising on growth strategies. Julia holds a Master’s degree in Environmental & Resource Economics from University College London. She is a board member and trusted advisor at Flexidao, Trunkrs and Sensorfact, and formerly at Depsys (acquired). She was also a board observer at Energyworx, GreenCom Networks (acquired) and Greenflux (acquired).

Dr. Philipp Matthes is a senior investment manager at Siemens Financial Services and has over 15 years of experience in the energy industry. With his background in different roles such as strategy, business development and M&A he is now promoting sustainable investments to drive the energy transition and industrial decarbonisation. He has established a successful cooperation between Siemens Financial Services and InnoEnergy and facilitated several co-investments. In addition, for the past 5 years he was managing director of WUN H2, one of the largest operating green hydrogen plants in Germany which he successfully drove through development and construction into operations. He has a diploma as well as a PhD in business administration from the University of Regensburg, Germany and a MBA from Murray State University, USA.

Franck Neel studied Energy at the University of Rouen and received an Engineer Degree and then followed a Master of Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University in United Kingdom. Later on, he earned an Executive Degree from the London Business School. He spent 25 years working for the Group Engie. Thus, he started his career at Gaz de France in the engineering department for 7 years and then moved to the Marketing and Sales with different functions in different countries such as France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Italy and UK before joining OMV Petrom. He was appointed member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board as of July 1, 2018.

Ewelina Daniel is Policy Officer in European Commission, Directorate General (DG) Climate Action working on development of auction for renewable hydrogen as well as batteries instrument under the Innovation Fund. She also coordinates the Innovation Fund large-scale calls for proposals and works on the use of Innovation Fund for financial instruments. Previously she was team leader in DG Energy on energy system modelling for setting the 2030 energy and climate targets and she also worked in DG Internal Market on regulatory standards for vehicles. She has master degrees in political science and in economics.

Vice President for Development of Boryszew S.A. Capital Group and President of Boryszew Green Energy & Gas Sp. z o.o. Responsible for investments in new technologies in the energy sector and greening of industrial production. Member of the team of the European ELEXIA project under the direction of the Norwegian Research Center (Digitised energy system integration across sectors enhancing flexibility and resilience towards efficient, sustainable, cost-optimised, affordable, secure and stable energy supply). The ELEXIA project is carried out by a consortium of 22 participants from Norway, Portugal, Finland, Greece, Spain, UK and Poland.

Benoit Lemaignan is the co-founder and CEO of Verkor, a venture launched to accelerate the production capacity of low-carbon batteries in southern Europe, in collaboration with EIT InnoEnergy, Schneider Electric and the Groupe IDEC. Prior to the launch, EIT InnoEnergy brought Benoit on board to build synergies with the European Battery Alliance.

An aerospace engineer by training, Benoit is a serial entrepreneur. He previously founded and financed Waga Energy in 2015 and Aniah in 2019. He was also Managing Director of OSER ENR from 2015 to 2019 – a public-private partnership supporting the development of renewable projects. Earlier in his career, Benoit was a strategic advisor at Carbone 4 where his passion for energy and climate-related initiatives took root. From his time at Airbus, Benoit retains a strong drive for innovation and team work.

Olivier Brosse is an accomplished automotive industry professional with over 25 years of international experience. He began his career at Renault in 1996 occupying several Engineering responsibilities in marketability or chassis design. Later on, he held various leadership roles, including overseeing regional strategy development in Eurasia and small car programs supporting the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles. 

In 2020, he joined the strategic team working on Renault’s ambitious Renaulution plan which he later on, lead, as engineering project leader becoming part of the Renault management committee in 2021. Passionate about automotive electrification, Olivier serves since the creation of Ampere as the Platform Global Leader for AmpR Medium, where he focuses on developing the most competitive C-Segment electric vehicles. 

Jef Caers received both an MSc (’93) in mining engineering / geophysics and a PhD (’97) in mining engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Currently, he is Professor of Earth and Planetary at Stanford University, California, USA. Jef Caers’ research interests are decision making under uncertainty in developing the critical mineral supply as well as geothermal energy required to transition to 100% renewable energy. Jef Caers is founder of Stanford Mineral-X , a community building effort to strengthen stewardship for a prosperous future for all, powered by Earth’s minerals. Jef Caers has published in a diverse range of journals covering Mathematics, Statistics, Earth Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science. Jef Caers has received several best paper awards and authored or co-authored five books entitled “Petroleum Geostatistics” (SPE, 2005) “Modeling Uncertainty in the Earth Sciences” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), “Multiple-point Geostatistics: stochastic modeling with training images” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015), “Quantifying Uncertainty in Subsurface Systems (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), “Data Science for the Geosciences” (Cambridge UP, 2023). He was awarded the Krumbein Medal of the IAMG for his career achievement.

Dr. Mihir Sarkar is Head of AI at ENGIE where he applies Artificial Intelligence to help lead the zero-carbon energy transition. Mihir received a PhD from MIT in Media Arts and Sciences where he founded and led an international innovation program to empower organizations and communities around the world to design and build solutions to solve their own problems. Mihir co-founded two startups in applied AI in Silicon Valley and previously worked in the finance, consumer electronics, semiconductors, automotive, education, health, media, and music industries. Mihir is a pioneering figure in AI and sustainability, and recently launched the ‘Powered by AI’ conference, a talk series for a sustainable future. He previously contributed to the development of several technologies such as online creation and remote collaboration, infotainment and telematics systems, audio compression, voice control, and online trading systems. Mihir currently lives in Paris where he speaks about and teaches AI, sits on technology startup boards, and helps new ideas emerge by bringing people together.

Lucas Arangüena is global head of Green Finance for Grupo Santander and global head of ESG for Santander CIB. Previously, he was head of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (SCIB) for Continental Europe since May 2018 after being Chief Financial Officer of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking. He was also member of the Global Executive Committee, the Risk Admission Committee and the Group’s Liquidity Committee.

As CFO of the Division, Lucas was responsible for managing credit, liquidity and capital risk. Lucas looked after the Active Credit Portfolio Management Unit (ACPM), Capital unit, XVA desk and Financial Control.

Lucas joined Santander Corporate & Investment Banking Division in 2010 as global head of Strategic Planning. Subsequently he was appointed head of Global Transaction Banking in the UK. Prior to joining Santander, Lucas was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Co in the Corporate Finance practice, where he focused primarily on Corporate & Investment Banking and M&A for large blue chips and private equity investors. He also worked for Goldman Sachs.

Lucas holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, an MSc from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and an MSc from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

 Alessandro Izzo, born September 5, 1973 in Rome. Holds a Bachelor Degree in Law (International Law) from the Università La Sapienza di Roma (1996), Masters of Law (LLM) from University of East Anglia, UK (1996). Admitted to the Italian Bar (Avvocato) in 1999 and admitted to the Rolls of Solicitors in England and Wales (Solicitor) in 2002. He specialized in international corporate and development finance in London (LLM – University College 2001) and Brussels (MSc – Solvay Business School 2005). Started his professional career in 1996 working on M&A, corporate and project finance as well privatizations with international law firms (Gianni Origoni – Linklaters, Rome and Herbert Smith LLP, London) working first in Rome and subsequently in London to then move into corporate investment banking (Credit Suisse London, Sanpaolo IMI Internazionale). Joined the EIB in September 2004 in Luxembourg first in the legal and then in the lending directorate focusing on infrastructure finance, project finance and PPPs in different markets (Italy, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Malta). From 2014 to 2017, he has been responsible for the Public Sector, Infrastructure and PPP Unit of the EIB Regional Office covering Italy, Malta and Western Balkans to become then Head of Division for Project Finance and Regulated Business activities of the EIB in Western Europe (France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg). He was appointed Director of the Equity, New Products and Special Transactions Department of the Lending Operations Directorate of the EIB in September 2021 becoming responsible for the equity, growth capital and project finance activities of the Bank in the EU. 

Miguel Rodrigo holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Salamanca, where he also carried out research work and obtained the Diploma of Advanced Studies in the “Chemical and Environmental Engineering” program. He has also completed the Executive MBA developed by the School of Industrial Organization (EOI).
He joined the IDAE in 2008, where he has held positions as project technician, project manager, department head and, now, area director. He has previous experience in the private sector and in other public administrations, such as the Industrial Environment area of the Ministry of the Environment, or the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where he led working groups at European level on best available techniques.

Simone Accornero is FlexiDAO Co-founder & Chief Product Officer. Energy Engineer formed at 4 different universities and graduated from the EIT InnoEnergy MSc Energy for Smart Cities. Expertise in electricity markets (wholesale and local), smart distribution systems and blockchain. Driven by the strong believe that the only aspects of the smart grid that can be truly smart are the consumers within it.

José Antonio de las Heras is the CEO of FertigHy, a new player in low-carbon fertiliser production, launched to accelerate decarbonisation of the food value chain. He brings more than 25 years of c-level executive and non-executive corporate and venturing experience, many of them in the fields of green hydrogen, renewables and natural gas. Combining his engineering background and commercial mindset, he previously served as CEO of Sunrgyze, a green hydrogen technology start-up owned by Repsol and Enagas as well as developed national markets working for Enagas and Renovalia. 

Carina Krastel works at EIT InnoEnergy, a European public-private partnership, as the Managing Director  of the European Green Hydrogen Acceleration Center (EGHAC) – an initiative supported by Breakthrough Energy.
The EGHAC will focus on supporting and accelerating large scale industrial green hydrogen projects to reduce CO2 emissions in value chains like steel making, fertilizer production, synthetic fuel production, shipping etc.
Carina Krastel is a sustainable energy engineer with experience in engineering, business and innovation. Since 2009, she has worked in the construction and the industrial gas industry on sustainable energy, air quality and innovation topics. Prior to joining InnoEnergy, Carina worked as the Director for New Offers for the Energy Transition for the Large Industry Business of Air Liquide, a French industrial gas company, focusing on offers for green hydrogen and carbon capture solutions.

For more than 20 years, José Noldin has been leading industrial projects with high innovation and decarbonisation challenges. After starting his career at Tecnored, a company developing a revolutionary new ironmaking technology owned by iron ore giant Vale, he then spent a decade in Belgium in leadership positions at Lhoist, a major player in the lime, dolomite and minerals industry. More recently, José Noldin was the Head of Technology Strategy of one of the largest steel production companies in Latin America, Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, in Brazil, where he was in charge of decarbonation issues.

Besides her academic career in the fields of knowledge management, collaborative innovation and entrepreneurship, Elena Bou developed her professional career in the field of management consulting in both private and public companies. In 2010 she co-founded EIT InnoEnergy, the innovation engine for sustainable energy across Europe supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

She contributed to create InnoEnergy’s trusted innovation ecosystem which operates in more than 26 countries. In Elena’s Innovation Director role, she led the development of major efforts in creating and accelerating new start-ups and scale-ups in the energy field, including the investment process in such ventures. As a result, the company has now supported nearly 500 start-ups, including two unicorns.

Diego Pavía is a serial entrepreneur, having created seven companies in his lifetime. His main endeavour is to innovate, create – and implement operationally – all with the objective of creating value.

He is an electrical engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, with a major in electronics and automation. In 1988, he was as co-founder and CEO of a start-up, Knowledge Engineering, dealing with industrial controls systems using artificial intelligence and neural networks. Three years later he joined Sema Group, and started a long career with private companies. In SchlumbergerSema, Diego headed multicultural working groups all over the world in the field of energy, with revenues of $650M. Between 2002 and 2010, Diego was the CEO of Atos Origin, a leading international IT service provider, where he was responsible for Spain and South America, about 9,000 employees, and an annual turnover of €450 million.

Since 2010 and under Diego’s leadership, EIT InnoEnergy has become the largest global organisation supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable energy, having directly deployed €650M to nearly 500 innovative products and services.

Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen has extensive experience with R&D in the telecommunication and software technology sector as well as in raising venture capital, university-industry collaborative research and spin-off creation.

Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen held a number of technical and management positions in the software industry. He started as a software architect with AT&T Bell Labs in the USA and was director of software technology at Alcatel.

In 1998 he joined Tellium, a US based start-up company in optical network technology, as the VP of Software Engineering. Tellium had a successful IPO on NASDAQ in 2001. He then returned to Europe in 2001 as the CEO for Tellium EMEA.

From 2010 to 2015 he was the Director of the Incubation & Entrepreneurship at iMinds, the leading digital incubator and business accelerator in Flanders. The iStart incubation programme of iMinds was ranked number 4 in UBI’s global ranking of university accelerators in 2015.

Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen was head of the EIT Digital Professional School with the ambition to lead the innovation of professional development and executive education for companies, organisations and individuals going through a digital transformation.

Since 2017 he has been the Education Director at InnoEnergy.

Currently he is also a professor of software technology entrepreneurship at the University of Ghent.