Ana Aguado is CEO of Friends of the Supergrid (FOSG), a group of companies and organisations with a mutual interest in promoting the policy agenda for a European Supergrid.

Ana Aguado holds degrees in Law (University of Valencia, ES), MA in Business law from the University of London and Private International Law from The Hague University.

Prior to joining FOSG she has held positions at the European University Institute as Head of Brussels Office, in ETSO (the European association of transmission system operators) as Secretary General, in EURELECTRIC (the association of the European electricity industry) as Head of Unit for regulation, and the European Commission (DG TREN).

Edvaldo Alves de Santana is born in Aracaju-SE.

First Term start on 12/23/2005, end on 12/22/2009. Second Term start on 12/23/2009, End on 12/22/2013.

Edvaldo Santana is graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC). Master and Ph.D. in Production Engineering from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), is licensed licensee at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).

Works in Aneel since 2000, as Superintendent of Market Economic Studies. Ph.D. in Production Engineering worked for 17 years at Eletrosul in engineering, planning and financial areas. He also served as consultant to the National Department for Water and Electrical Energy (DNAEE), in the tariffs area between 1986 and 1992. With vast scientific production in the field of regulation and electricity markets published national and international scientific journals.

Antonella Battaglini, MBA

Antonella is the Executive Director of the Renewables-Grid-Initiative (RGI), which promotes the full integration of renewable energy sources from distributed and bulk generation and the expansion of transmission capacity in Europe. To reach this target, the initiative brings together transmission system operators and NGOs.

Antonella is a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) where she leads the SuperSmart Grid process, a concept she developed with her team in 2006. It explores investment and technology options for transition to a decarbonized economy and in particular to a 100% renewable electricity system.

Antonella is also Programme Director at SEFEP (Smart Energy for Europe Platform) mainly dealing with the power sector and in particular with grid expansion and renewable energies integration.

In 2011, Pierre co-founded and became the Managing Partner of Bernard EnergyAdvocacy, an advisory firm that specializes in advocacy, dedicated legal advice and strategic business development, all relating exclusively to electricity transmission and distribution. The firm relies on the multi-disciplinary competences of its staff (including engineering, legal, financial and political science) and provides advice to key players in the electricity markets in Europe and in the U.S.A. 

Pierre is also in charge of the business development activities of the Elia Group, one of the leading transmission system operators in Europe. Pierre has been working with the Elia Group for over a decade (having joined the Group in January 2001), including as Secretary General which position he held for several years. In this capacity Pierre successfully led the Elia team in the acquisition negotiations of the German transmission system operator 50Hertz.

Pierre has played an important role in shaping Europe’s electricity legislative framework. He was involved in the preliminary drafting of the current electricity related Directives and Regulations and was also an advisor on various aspects thereof. He played an active role within the team that participated in setting up a regional electricity market for the CWE region (Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Germany and the Netherlands) and for NWE (same but with the Scandinavian countires and U.K.). With his team, Pierre contributed significantly to structuring the first contracts and negotiations regarding the connection of offshore wind farms to the Elia grid and he initiated the UK-Belgium undersea cable project.

Prior to heading its business development activities, Pierre was head of the Elia Group’s legal department. Under his leadership, the legal department was awarded the 2007 Belgian Legal Award for “Most Prominent Transaction” for creating Belpex, the Belgian power exchange. Pierre and his team played a key role in drafting the specific legislation and contracts for Belpex and they also drafted the main grid contracts as well as key parts of the Belgian grid codes and electricity laws and decrees.

Pierre is member of various energy advisory committees and is also a Trustee of the Belgian Governance Institute, Guberna. He is a regular lecturer on energy law at international conferences and in various universities. He holds law degrees from the University of Ottawa, Canada and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and has since completed a number of executive education trainings with Harvard Business School. In 1993 he authored “Action-Export”, a comprehensive review of Belgian and European export programs (published by Roularta and the Fondation Roi Baudouin). He is due to publish a comprehensive overview of the European electricity laws in December of 2011.

Andrea Bonanni is born in Milano on 5 July 1952.

High School degree Classical Studies at Liceo Berchet (1971). 

Joined Corriere della Sera Group in 1972, worked for different publications: Corriere dei Ragazzi (1972-1973), Domenica del Corriere (1973-1975),Corriere della Sera (1976–2002),Worked for Corriere della Sera in different sectors (chronicle, national and international, economy, central desk) and was appointed to different positions, including Deputy Head of the central desk. 

From 1985 to 1988 correspondent for Corriere della Sera in Brussels (at the time of the European Single Market creation).

From 1988 to 1993 correspondent for Corriere della Sera from Moscow (from the beginning of Gorbachev political action till the failed coup d’etat), from the upcoming of Yeltsin till the end of USSR. 

From 1993 to 2002 correspondent and editor for Corriere della Sera in Brussels (in the times when the EURO was created and Italy was included in the Monetary Union).

From 2002 he joined as “European editor” the group l’Espresso of La Repubblica, acting as correspondent and editor for European affairs.

Pierre BORNARD is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Management Board of RTE, the French Transmission System Operator.

RTE's grid consists of over 100,000 kilometres of High Voltage links from 63 to 400 kV, it serves a peak load of over 100 GW and it is interconnected with 7 other European countries.

In 2010, RTE's turnover amounted to €4,400 millions, its EBITDA to €1,500 millions, and its investments to €1,200 millions.

Pierre BORNARD is currently a member of the board of ENTSO-E, the network of European Transmission System Operators established in accordance to the new European legislation (3^rd Energy Package).

Through his own research and that of his team he focuses on the role of ICT in enabling sustainable economic development and European competitiveness.

Specifically he has led a number of internal and collaborative projects aimed at extending the reach of traditional networks and the development of low cost low power platforms for environmental sensing and control in remote and hostile locations.

He also has applied and extended this research in the area of electric vehicle to smart grid integration and mobility management.

Mr. Codazzi has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of CESI, a world leader in the engineering and consulting services for the electrical industry, in May 2009.

For the previous three years, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Country Manager of Enel Romania. After joining Enel in 1999, he held several positions within the company as Executive Vice President – Business Unit Head of the Italian Electricity Sales division, Chief Financial Officer of Market division, Head of Regulatory and Business Development of Distribution division, Head of Business Development for the three Generation Companies (“Gencos”).

He started his career in Finmeccanica (the Italian Power, Defence and Aerospace Company) holding various positions in the Mergers & Acquisition and Financial, Planning & Control areas.

Mr. Codazzi graduated from LUISS University in Rome with a BA in Economics and Business and is an alumnus of Columbia Business School, New York.

Joe Corbett heads the Technical Services division which has direct responsibility for all Engineering, Technology and Asset Management within Mainstream.  This includes Mainstream’s grid strategy and offshore engineering disciplines.

Joe has more than 28 years experience in transmission systems from substation, line and protection design, construction and maintenance through system dynamic studies and utility management. 

He has worked in both a consulting environment, as a Senior Manager with ESB International and utility management, as General Director of an Eastern Europe transmission company and system operator.

Marcello Del Brenna started working in Prysmian (at the time Pirelli Cavi) in 1992 in the R&D department, working with extruded power cables technology.

In 1999 he moved to Australia as Chief Engineer of the local Prysmian affiliate, coming back to the headquarter as Director for Product Marketing for utilities products.

After a 4 years experience as CEO of Prysmian Cables and Systems Finland, he is CEO at Prysmian PowerLink Srl since 2009.

Marcello Del Brenna is also Chairman of the Board Utilities of Europacable and Chairman of the Board of Friends of the Supergrid.

Daniel Dobbeni holds a degree in Industrial Engineering, a diploma in Middle Management from the Vlerick Management School and attended the General Management Program at CEDEP in Fontainebleau, France. He began his career at Belgonucléaire, subsequently moving to Intercontrol (a French company) and Laborelec, the Belgian research laboratory for the electricity sector, before joining Electrabel in 1997 as head of the Generation and Transmission Planning Department. Involved right from the start in the creation of the transmission system operator, he joined CPTE, the organisation that gave rise to Elia, in 1999 as Chief Officer Energy Movements. In 2003, he was appointed CEO and chairman of the Executive Committee of Elia. During his career, he played an active role in various committees for the Electric Power Research Institute, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, UCTE and the Research & Innovation DG of the European Commission. Beginning in 1999, he held various positions at ETSO (European Transmission System Operators), which he chaired from 2005 to 2009. In 2006, he was appointed chairman of Synergrid, the Federation of Electricity and Gas Operators in Belgium. In December 2008, he was appointed as the first President of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), the new association of transmission system operators. Following the acquisition of 50Hertz Transmission in 2010, he became chairman of the board of Eurogrid International, the holding company created by Elia and Industry Fund Management for their joint acquisition. He also chairs the Aufsichtsrat, the supervisory board of 50Hertz Transmission. He is a director of APX Endex, the power exchange operating in Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands, and a director of HGRT, a core shareholder in Powernext, the French power exchange.

Ton Geul has a long experience in the offshore construction industry and maritime contracting,  After several years of experience as a master mariner and eventually project manager he was active in several commercial positions up to its present position as Business Development Manager of VSMC (Visser & Smit Marine Contracting) .

Over the last 10 years he was very much involved in offshore sustainable energy, in particular covering submarine power cable installations. He was one of the initiators to launch VSMC as new company within Visser & Smit Hanab specialised in installation of subsea power cables to interconnect offshore wind turbines and to connect them with the mainland for exporting energy to the consumers.

As a next step in the development of VSMC he is now also very much involved in the development and planning of a Supergrid scheme as a member of the “Friends of the Supergrid”.

Jean-Michel Glachant is Director of the Florence School of Regulation and Holder of the Loyola de Palacio Chair at the European University Institute, Florence.
He is Professor in Economics and holds a PHD from La Sorbonne University, Paris. Jean-Michel  is Member of the EU-Russia Gas Advisory Council of Commissioner Oettinger (EC), he is or has been advisor to DG TREN, DG COMP, DG RESEARCH and DG ENERGY of the European Commission and Coordinator / Scientific Advisor of  several European research projects like THINK, SESSA, CESSA, Reliance, EU-DEEP, RefGov, TradeWind, Secure and Optimate.  He is member of the Advisory Board of the E-Price project and Research Partner of CEEPR, (MIT - USA), EPRG (Cambridge University - UK), and   Chief-Editor of “EEEP: Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy”, a new journal of the International Association for Energy Economics.

Martin Gross was appointed Head of Business Unit Grid Systems in May, 2010 

Prior to this role, Martin served as President of Power Systems Division ABB North America.

Martin began his career at ABB in 1986 as product manager for automation systems with Brown Boveri & Cie in Mannheim, Germany.

During his time with ABB, he has advanced through multiple functions from product management, service, sales, project management to senior management positions within the ABB corporate framework. In 1988,  Martin was appointed the head of ABB's global Power Generation Business Unit. In October 2005, he was named president and CEO of ABB Lummus Global - ABB's downstream Oil and Gas EPC business.

Martin is holding a diploma in Electrical and Automation engineering. Martin is a member of the Power Systems Division Global Management Team.

Mark Johnston is a senior policy adviser on energy & climate issues in the WWF European Policy team.

He has worked in European affairs for nine years and is now responsible for ‘upstream power’ issues of electricity generation and transmission.

WWF’s overall mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. WWF is present in a majority EU member states and has a total of 5 million individual members.

The European Policy team leads WWF’s work to shape the policies, laws and spending of the European institutions.

Christopher Marchant is chartered electrical engineer with more than twenty years experience of design and project management in the power industry.

His working career has been characterised by an increasing focus on measures to protect the environment:

• following graduation from Loughborough University, he worked on Europe’s then largest flue gas desulphurisation retrofit project at Drax 4,000 MW coal fired power station;
• during the height of the economic boom, he lead a London based foreign direct investment fund selecting methane abatement projects in the coal mining regions of China for qualification under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Koyoto Protocol;
• in more recent times, he completed technical due diligence on the first offshore transmission network to receive an OFTO license in the UK.

Christopher is now a regional manager in the power networks business of Parsons Brinckerhoff: the professional services arm of Balfour Beatty.  He represents Parsons Brinckerhoff as a Board Member of the Friends of the Supergrid and is Chairman of our Regulatory Working Group.

Mike McElhinney leads the Energy Markets Unit in the Scottish Government Energy Policy Team on energy markets and regulation, and onshore and offshore electricity grid and infrastructure policy issues.

He has worked across the Scottish Government, including working closely with a number of key Scottish industry sectors, in the First Minister’s Office and with EU Governments in Brussels.

He has also worked extensively at policy and operational level in Government across the UK, at Westminster, and in both Houses of Parliament.

A graduate of Glasgow University, he also holds postgraduate masters qualifications in management and in business administration.

President of CIGRE, the largest worldwide organisation for high voltage power grids.

President of the Supervisory board of the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité, highest electrical engineering school in France.

Chairman of the Board of RTE (French TSO) and ErDF (French DSO).

President of MEDGRID (Consortium to develop exchanges of electricity between Europe and Mediterranean countries.)

First CEO and founder of RTE, the French Transmission System Operator Company.

Former Special Adviser of the European Commissioner for Energy.

Co-founder and Past Chairman of the European Transmission System Operator Association.

Prior to the creation of the Electricity Market in France, André MERLIN got several senior positions in Electricité de France in the field of Transmission and Conventional Generation and Research and Development.

Fluent in three languages, he graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité in Paris. He is the author of more than one hundred papers in the field of power systems.

Director for Energy Supply in Danish Energy Agency, Ministry of Climate, Energy and Buildings. 

His main responsibilities are security of supply, transmission grid development, smart grid, integration of renewable energy and district heating.

Since 2004 he has been chairman of the Nordic Electricity Market Group under the Nordic Council of Ministers. The objective of Nordic energy co-operation is to create the best possible conditions for the development of the Nordic electricity market, and to thereby serve as a model for the rest of Europe. The annual meetings of the Nordic Energy ministers set the course for transnational cooperation.

Since 1981 he has held various positions in the Danish Ministry of Energy.

Founder and Chief Executive, Mainstream Renewable Power in 2008

Dr. Eddie O’Connor was named world energy policy leader by Scientific American magazine in 2003.

He was the Founder and Chief Executive of Airtricity from 1997 until January 2008, when the company was sold to E.ON and Scottish & Southern Energy for approximately €2 billion.

In February 2008, Eddie founded Mainstream Renewable Power. Its core business is to develop, build and operate renewable energy plants in collaboration with strategic partners. The company employs over 130 highly experienced staff and has offices in Berlin, Beijing, Cape Town, Chicago, Dublin, London, Santiago and Toronto.

Eddie is acknowledged as the driving force behind the European Offshore Supergrid.  This vision and activity will, when built, guarantee European energy self sufficiency as well as producing carbon free electricity.

From 1987 to 1996 Eddie was Chief Executive of Bord na Mona, the Irish Peat Board, where he was responsible for the successful turnaround of the company.

In 1970 he began working with the Electricity Supply Board, where he held several managerial positions, until he left in 1987 when he was Manager of Fuel Purchasing.

Eddie holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (1970) and a Master’s in Industrial Engineering (1976) both from University College Dublin and has a doctorate in Business Administration from the International Management Centres, Europe. In June 2008, Eddie was awarded an honorary doctorate in Science from University College Dublin and he was conferred with an honorary doctorate in Engineering from the National  University of Ireland,  Maynooth in June last year.    He is Secretary of the European Wind Energy Association.   

Geert Palmers is co-founder and CEO of 3E. After graduating with master’s degrees in Electro-technical Engineering (KU Leuven 1991) and Environmental Sciences (FUL 1993), he began his career in renewable energy developments as a member of IMEC’s research team on photovoltaic solar cells, focusing on high efficiency multi-crystalline silicon solar cells

One of the leading experts in renewable energy in Belgium, he is very involved in energy strategy projects and is a strategic advisor to several public authorities and multi-national companies active in renewable energy. His 20 year experience in both scientific research and policy has grounded his vision for 3E. Before founding 3E, Geert Palmers managed the European Federation of research institutes in renewable energy (EUREC Agency). He was also a member of the cabinet of the Belgian federal minister of energy and, in this position, was responsible for policy on renewable energy for the electricity liberalisation law, including an offshore wind policy. He is a regular contributor to policy, research and strategy conferences and developments in Belgium and abroad.

Alberto Pototschnig, an economist and econometrician by training, is the first Director of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, established pursuant to Regulation (EC) no. 713/2009.

Before joining the Agency, he was a Partner in Mercados EMI, an international consultancy specialising in the energy sector, where he served as CEO and Deputy Chairman. 

He previously served as Director of Electricity Regulation in the Italian Energy Regulatory Authority (AEEG), as the first CEO of the Italian Electricity Market Operator and as adviser to the Italian Government. 

Since 2004, he has been an adviser at the Florence School of Regulation, where he regularly teaches on energy regulation.

Stephen Sackur, HARDtalk's presenter, has been a journalist with BBC News since 1986.

He was named ‘International Broadcasting Personality of the Year’ by the Association of International Broadcasters in 2010.  

Before taking over on the BBC’s flagship current affairs interview programme, he had been one of the BBC’s senior foreign correspondents for fifteen years. His last overseas posting was in Brussels as the BBC's Europe Correspondent from 2002 to 2005. Prior to this, Stephen was the BBC's Washington Correspondent from July 1997. He interviewed Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton, covered the 2000 US Presidential Elections, the Clinton scandal and impeachment trial. Stephen was the BBC Middle East Correspondent in both Cairo (from 1992 to 1995) and Jerusalem (from 1995 to 1997), covering the peace process, the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the emergence of the Palestinian Authority under the late Yasser Arafat. He was part of the BBC's team of correspondents covering the Gulf War, spending eight weeks with the British Army when the conflict began. He was the first correspondent to break the story of the mass killing on the Basra road out of Kuwait City, marking the end of the war. He wrote a book about his experiences - On The Basra Road - named as one of the Books of the Year by The Spectator magazine. He travelled back to Iraq just after the downfall of Saddam Hussein and filed the first television reports on Iraq's mass graves containing the bodies of thousands of victims of Saddam's regime.

Born in Lincolnshire, Stephen was educated at both Cambridge and Harvard universities. He is married with three children.

Frank Schettler received his Dipl.-Ing. and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany in 1992 and 2003 respectively.

He has been working with Siemens in the field of power transmission for about 20 years. Working on numerous projects worldwide, he gained experience in the fields of power system design, development, application engineering and sales of HVDC systems, FACTS and Grid Access Solutions. He used to be head of system engineering for Siemens' FACTS and Grid Access Solutions before he entered into his current position to be the Portfolio Manager for HVDC and Grid Access technology, where he is responsible for the technology portfolio of Siemens
in these fields.

Frank Schettler is the convener of the European HVDC Grid Study Group (DKE/CENELEC) and of the working group Technological within FOSG.

Catharina Sikow-Magny joined the European Commission in 1997 and is Deputy Head of Unit in charge of "Security of supply and networks" in the Directorate General for Energy since 2009. Her particular tasks include the coordination of the Energy Infrastructure Package and the European Energy Recovery Programme (interconnectors).

Ms Sikow's previous positions in the Commission have included: team leader in charge of the international transport relations team, desk officer responsible for the trans-European network policy, infrastructure charging and internalisation of external costs; and desk officer for strategic transport research. Before joining the Commission, Ms Sikow was team leader and chief economist in LT consultants and Viatek, in Finland, in total for about 10 years. She has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for 2 years. She started her career in 1986 in the Finnish Road Administration.

Ms Sikow holds a MSc in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.

He held previous posts at universities in the UK and abroad, as well as at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank, where he was Chief Economist at both institutions.

Lord Stern was Head of the UK Government Economic Service 2003-7, and produced the landmark Stern Review on the economics of climate change.

He was knighted for services to economics in 2004 and made a cross-bench life peer as Baron Stern of Brentford in 2007. 

His most recent book is “A Blueprint for a Safer Planet”. 

His previous positions within the EIB: Responsible Senior Loan Officer for Mercosur, Latin America and Head of Public Sector and Infrastructure Unit at the Risk Department.

Prior to joining the EIB,  he has held positions at Deutsche Bank A.G., London as Global Industry Manager (Natural Resources), at Citibank, N.A., Madrid as a Risk Manager  for Spain, Portugal, and Latin America and at Citibank, N.A., New York as Financial Auditor Manager  for U.S., Spain, and Portugal. 

Fernando Torija holds Bachelor degrees in Law and in Business with specialisation in Accounting and Finance from the National University for Distance Learning of Spain and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, respectively.  He also holds a Master in Finance from Deusto, Escuela Comercial of Madrid and Bilbao 

Paul van Son has been active in various management and executive positions in the international (renewable) electricity and gas business for over 30 years at Siemens AG (Germany), SEP/TenneT (the Dutch power pool and interconnected grid), KEMA Consulting/ECC (international energy consultants), Chief Executive Officer of Essent Energy Trading, Managing Director of Essent Sustainable Energy and Chairman of the Management Board of Deutsche Essent GmbH in Düsseldorf, being responsible for the German activities of Essent N.V.

Mr. van Son has been instrumental in developing of clean biomass for large scale power supply, wind power development and marketing of green power (an invention of Essent in 1998).

During 2008/9 Mr. van Son was Executive Director of Econcern, NL (renewable energy and energy efficiency). He is Founder and Chairman of the Energy4All Foundation (www.energy4all.org / www.nice-international.com), a non-profit organisation promoting decentralised energy and communication systems in Africa. In addition, Mr. van Son is Co-Founder and President of the European Federation of Energy Traders (www.efet.org), which has been a pioneer in energy market opening and (renewable) energy trading in the European Union and beyond.

In 2009 Mr. van Son was appointed CEO of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii GmbH) a consortium of over 20 international companies and over 32 associated partners for enabling large scale investments in renewable energies in the deserts.

Johan VANDEN LANOTTE is Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Economy, Consumer Affairs and the North Sea, Belgium since 2001.

Mr. Vande Lanotte was born in 1955 and has 4 grown-up children.

He has been President of the Flemish Socialist Party from 2005 to 2007.

He is Professor at the University of Ghent, Law Department since 1991. He is author of several publications.

He has been Auditor at the Council of State in Belgium from 1989 to 1990.

He is Belgian Senator since 2007 and Minister of State (honorary title) since 2006.

He has been member of the Belgian Federal Parliament since 1991 and was several times Vice Prime Minister (Internal affairs 1994- 1998; Budget 1999- 2003; Budget 2003-2005; Economy 2011).

Chairman of NEWES, New Energy Solutions, a company acting in the field of renewable energy in Europe. Consultant to several international organizations (European Commission, World Bank) and national authorities. Member of the Advisory Board of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Invited Professor at the Technical University of Lisbon (MIT-Portugal Programme). Member of the Administrative Board of ACER (Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators) nominated by the European Parliament. Special Advisor to EU Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

First chairman of the Portuguese Energy Regulatory Authority (ERSE - July 1996 to December 2006). Co-founder and first chairman of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER – March 2000 to December 2005). First chairman of the European Regulators’ Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG – October 2003 to December 2005). Co-founder of the Ibero-American Association of Energy Regulatory Authorities (ARIAE). Founder and member of the Executive Committee of the Florence School of Regulation (a joint venture between CEER, the European Commission and the European University Institute). Prior to the regulatory experience, he worked for the European electricity utilities (EURELECTRIC) in Brussels, for AEG in Frankfurt and at several universities in Portugal, Germany and Italy. Member of several national and international advisory committees on energy matters, including scientific organizations, the World Energy Council, the World Forum on Energy Regulation, the City of Lisbon Energy Agency, etc. Author and editor of several books and articles. He graduated in power systems from Porto University and got the Dr.-Ing. degree from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Jean-Arnold VINOIS, 58, Belgian, practiced as lawyer before joining the European Commission in 1987.

Since 1992, he occupied, within the Directorate General for Energy and Transport, several management posts dealing successively with human and financial resources, trans-European networks, transport research, railway transport and interoperability.

In April 2006, he became Head of the Unit responsible for Energy policy, security of supply and networks. 

Since July 2011, he is acting as Director of the internal energy market within the Directorate General for Energy, covering in particular the wholesale and retail electricity and gas markets, security of energy supply and energy networks

Sir Graham Watson MEP is the Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar and Chairman of the Climate Parliament, a global network of MPs and MEPs from all mainstream political parties campaigning to increase government investment in renewable energy and electricity supergrids.

He is President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party and was the leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament from 2002 to 2009.

His Knighthood was announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2011.

From July 1999 to 2002 he served as Chairman of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs.

Michael Weinhold worked from 1983 – 1988 as Electrical Engineering at Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany) and Purdue University, West Lafayette (USA); from 1989 – 1993 as Research Assistant for Power Electronics at Ruhr-University.

Since 1993, he works for Siemens AG :
1993 – 2002: System Planning Engineer
2002 – 2004: Commissioning Engineer High Voltage Systems
2004 – 2007: CTO Power Transmission and Distribution
Since 2008:  CTO Siemens Energy

In 1997, he was the Siemens Inventor of the Year.

Since 2008, he is the Siemens TOP Innovator.

Since 2011, he is the Adjunct Professor at Danish Technical University (DTU).