Taavi Aas

Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure of the Republic of Estonia

Taavi Aas, born in 1966, is the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure of the Republic of Estonia as of 29 April 2019. Mr Aas was a member of the Tallinn City Government holding the post of a Deputy Mayor on urban planning and transport in 2005 - 2017. His fields of responsibility were urban planning and architecture, public transport and traffic management, cooperation with local government organisations. From April 2015, he had the position of the Acting Mayor of Tallinn and was elected the Mayor of Tallinn in November 2017. In 2010 - 2019 Taavi Aas was the Chairman of the Board of The Association of Estonian Cities. He has graduated from Estonian Agricultural Academy, specializing in the economics and organization of agriculture (MA). He speaks Estonian, English, Russian and Finnish. Taavi Aas became a member of the Estonian Centre Party in 2002 and is currently a member of the board of the party. Previously Mr Aas has worked as a Financial Director of E-PIIM (1997- 2005), which is a one of the biggest dairy companies in Estonia.

Andrius Smaliukas

CEO, BALTPOOL UAB

Andrius Smaliukas came to energy sector from financial sector with the goal to convert Lithuanian biomass market into highly standardized and transparent market. That goal was successfully accomplished: today wood chips and wood pellets are traded as any other standardized commodity (power, gas or oil) in Lithuania and BALTPOOL intends to develop it internationally.

Andrus Liivand

Chairman of the Management Board, Elektrum Eesti

Andrus Liivand is Chairman of the Management Board of Elektrum Eesti and previously was the Manager of Business Customer Sales Department of the company. The previous experience of Andrus includes the position of the Sales and Marketing Manager at TNT Express Worldwide Eesti AS, and the Sales and Marketing Director at Officeday Estonia, OÜ.

Antti Nummi

Development Director, SRV

Antti Nummi, (M.Sc.) has 15 years of experience in energy industry, mostly in global oil&gas and renewables. He is a strategy and business development expert, who has built new businesses and led transformation processes, managed large-scale energy projects and negotiated major commercial deals in Europe, Americas and Asia.

He has worked for leading energy companies such as Neste (HEL: NESTE) and Renewable Energy Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGI). Currently, he is a Development Director at SRV (HEL: SRV1V), which is one of the biggest construction companies in Finland, as the company is developing carbon neutral energy services business for real estate sector. He has also participated in several M&A and capital market transactions either on corporate side or as an advisor.

His mission is to promote sustainable businesses, low carbon solutions and responsible thinking.

Beatrice Coda

Head of Unit of the Connecting Europe Facility, Energy Programme at the Innovation and Network Executive Agency, European Commission

Beatrice Coda is a Senior expert working in the energy sector at the European Commission for about 15 years. Since 2017, Beatrice is holding the position of Head of Unit of the Connecting Europe Facility –Energy Programme at the Innovation and Network Executive Agency, European Commission, where she is in charge of the management of the programme implementation. In the past, Beatrice has held several positions at the European Commission dealing with energy research, climate policy and trans-European energy networks. She has a Master degree in Chemical Engineer, a PhD in Energy technologies and a postgraduate diploma in Economics.

Harry Boyd-Carpenter

Director, Head of Energy EMEA, EBRD

Harry is the Director of EBRD's Energy EMEA team of 30 professionals promoting the EBRD’s mandate through investments and policy advice across the gas and power sectors in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He has more than 20 years experience in financing and investing in emerging markets and transition economies with a special emphasis on the energy sector. He has been involved in a wide range of power, oil and gas, infrastructure and PPP/PFI projects across Europe, North Africa and the former CIS. He has also led high level policy engagements in a number of countries, with a particular focus on establishing the enabling environmentfor renewable energy.

Before becoming Director in February 2017 he was a Senior Banker in the power team, with particular responsibility for investments and policy dialogue in Egypt and Jordan. He has also worked in EBRD’s Office of the General Counsel and the Institutional Strategy department. Prior to joining EBRD in 2005, Harry was a senior associate in the Project Finance group of Allen & Overy LLP and also workedfor the EuropeanUnion in UNMIK-Kosovo.

Hando Sutter

Chairman of the Management Board, Eesti Energia

Hando Sutter has served as the Chairman of the Management Board of Eesti Energia since December 2014. Prior to this he was the regional manager of Nord Pool Spot power exchange in the Baltics and Russia. He has also previously worked in the management teams of regional companies such as ESS Group (renamed to G4S Estonia), Tolaram Investments and Olympic Entertainment Group.

Janis Eisaks

Head of Corporate strategy division, Conexus Baltic Grid

Janis started energy related activities in 1998 within PHARE program, since 2002 till 2015 was head of the Gas division at national regulatory authority. From 2016, after joining JSC “Latvijas Gāze” was responsible for the unbundling process, preparation of the market design for the gas market opening. After spin-off of the transmission system and storage operator JCS “Conexus Baltic Grid” leads the team of TSO responsible for the regional gas market integration process.

Johan Vetlesen

Deputy Director General, Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy

Johan Vetlesen is Deputy Director General in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. He has had various positions in the Ministry and has currently managing and coordinating EU/EEA and Nordic and Baltic energy matters in the Ministry. He is part of the managing staff of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. He is working on U/European Economic Area (EEA) issues and responsible for the coordination of these matters in the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. This work includes the assessment of all major legislative acts going through the decision-making process in the EU and the EEA. The importance and volume of new legislation has increased in the past year with the union policies. Vetlesen is also in charge of the Nordic energy cooperation through the Nordic Council of Ministers. He is in this competence representing the Nordic Energy Committee of Senior Officials in this event. Vetlesen has also been with the Mission of Norway to the EU and the Mission of Norway to the OECD/IEA.

Vetlesen will give an update of the Nordic energy cooperation and the opportunities in Nordic and Baltic regional energy cooperation. The development of new initiatives within EU energy policies will require more regional cooperation in the future in order to achieve the objectives in energy legislation and policies.

Jeppe Danø

Gas System Director, Gas TSO Energinet

Jeppe Danø is Gas System Director in the Danish Gas TSO Energinet, with responsibility for gas market development, gas system development and system operation. Jeppe joined Energinet in 2013. Previous experience include positions as Director at the Danish Utility Regulator and gas wholesale management at Ørsted (DONG Energy).

Kalle Kilk

Head of Asset Management, Elering AS

Kalle Kilk (PhD) is the Member of the Elering Board and Head of Asset management. He has worked on various positions in Estonian transmission system operator Elering since 1998. He has been the member of the management board since 2007 being responsible for the area of asset management in the company.

Kalle holds the PhD degree in Power Engineering and Geotechnology from Tallinn University of Technology.

Karolis Gudas

General Counsel, Lietuvos Energija Group

Dr Karolis Gudas is the General Counsel of the project of national significance to Lithuania – Vilnius CHP (Lietuvos Energija Group), and a Lecturer in Energy Law at Vilnius university, Faculty of Law. Karolis research interests lie in the fields of energy transitions, cross-border energy trade, infrastructure projects development, energy systems government and markets regulation, state aid and competition. Dr Gudas holds PhD degree from the World Trade Institute, University of Bern.

Liutauras Varanavicius

Strategy Department Director, LITGRID

Liutauras Varanavicius has a master’s degree in business management at International School of Management (ISM), Vilnius. Liutauras is serving in the position of the strategy department director at Lithuanian electricity transmission operator LITGRID since September 2013. He is one of the team members at LITGRID, leading and managing project of Baltic States synchronization with Continental Europe Networks. Liutauras Varanavicius under nomination of Lithuanian energy minister is chairing a national committee on network codes implementation in Lithuania since 2014.

Pawel Sek

Expert, Gas Market Development Division, Gaz-System

Paweł Sęk graduated from University of Warsaw and Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management (Kozminski University) in Warsaw. He has the extensive experience in the oil and gas industry and held various managerial and expert positions in the energy sector.

In 2008 he joined GAZ-SYSTEM S.A., the sole gas transmission system operator in Poland. He has been responsible for the development of the huge energy diversification projects, such as, inter alia, gas interconnectors between Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania and Denmark / Norway (Baltic Pipe project) of value from approx. 500 million EUR to 1.6 billion EUR. He is also actively involved in the matters related to GAZ-SYSTEM relations with the European Commission, including, inter alia, lobbying for development of gas infrastructure projects and the EU financial support, as well as successful applying for funding (TEN-E, EEPR, CEF) with a total amount of awarded grants of approx. 675 million EUR. As part of his duties, he cooperated with the regulatory authorities in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as ACER in order to obtain relevant decisions on cross-border cost allocation (CBCA) for GAZ-SYSTEM projects in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Currently, he is also involved in the business development area, in particular matters of regional gas market integration based on the cross-border gas infrastructure, including LNG facilities, to be developed in Poland and the Baltic and Central Eastern Europe (CEE) regions in the perspective of 2022, as well as creation of narratives supporting the role of gas in the economies tending to decarbonisation and its contribution to the climate policy goals.

Alessandro Boschi

Head of Renewable Energy, EIB

Alessandro Boschi is a manager with 25 years of experience in the power sector at international level.
He currently covers the position of Head of the Renewable Energy (RENEW) Division of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, where he is managing a team of experts in charge of the technical, economic and environmental appraisal of renewable energy and innovative low carbon technology projects applying for EIB financing.
The activities of his team include also technical assistance, project monitoring as well as policy definition, preparation of sector papers and liaising with all key sector counterparts including the EU and other IFIs.
Until 2008, before joining EIB, Mr. Boschi worked for 15 years for an international utility, his last role being the Head of Business Development in Bulgaria. Before Bulgaria Mr. Boschi developed an international expertise in the development of power and gas projects spanning from Latin America to the Middle East. He graduated in Electrical Engineering at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and has an MBA from the Bologna based ALMA-Profingest Business School.

Alex Barnes

Government Relations, Nord Stream 2

Alex Barnes has over 25 years’ oil and gas industry experience, focusing on energy market design and regulation since 2001. He joined Nord Stream 2 AG in 2017. Between 2009 and 2016 he was Head of Regulatory Affairs for Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited, providing advice and analysis of EU energy market regulation, including financial regulation. He also advised Gazprom Group and participated in the EU Russia Gas Advisory Council.
Prior to Gazprom he worked for BG Group and Total in a number of different roles. He has also been a member of various European gas industry expert panels and represented the European Federation of Energy Traders. He has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Anu Eslas

CEO, Estonian Wind Power Association (ETEA)

Anu Eslas is the CEO of the Estonian Wind Power Association.

Christian Holzleitner

Head of Unit, DG Clima

Christian Holzleitner is currently Head of Unit responsible for Finance for Innovation and Land Use at the European Commissions Directorate-General for Climate Action. Previously, he worked as assistant to the Director-General for Climate Action covering all issues related to EU and international climate policy; and at the Directorate-General for Competition in the area of State aid for services of general economic interest in the postal, transport, and health sectors. Before joining the European Commission, Christian worked as senior manager with KPMG Germany on international transfer pricing. Christian is an economist and holds a PhD from the University of Linz (Austria).

David Assaad

Director Marketing and Customer Solutions, EPEX Spot

David Assaad has more than 10 years’ experience in the power market. He started his career in that industry as an analyst at Powernext, the French Energy Exchange. He then joined EPEX SPOT, the European Spot Power Exchange established by Powernext and EEX, where he led the European business development unit of the company. David was then closely involved in all the main projects of European power markets integration, from Day-Ahead to Intraday, with a strong expertise on the technical, commercial and governance challenges associated to these initiatives. He has been working in coordination with the stakeholders groups involving the main European associations of the electricity sector, Regulators and the European Commission. As Director of Marketing and Customer Solutions at EPEX SPOT, David is today in charge of the commercial strategy of the core trading business of the Exchange. David is an Executive MBA graduate from HEC Paris, and holds master degrees in Economics and Political Science.

Erik Rakhou

Partner, Baringa Partners

Erik Rakhou is a specialist in European energy market regulation and policy development, with over 15 years of experience in European markets in both commercial and regulatory roles at the national and EU level. Erik works as management consultant for Baringa Partners, advising on variety of European energy markets topics. He assisted clients on a number of projects, including electricity and gas market design.
Prior to joining Baringa Partners, Mr Rakhou worked at the European regulatory body for energy (ACER). His projects involved gas markets, network code design and preparations for European energy wholesale markets monitoring. His previous roles have also included working for a National Regulatory Authority, a major European energy utility and a regional distributor. Mr Rakhou is a speaker at various conferences; commands 6 languages. Mr Rakhou is an alternate member of the ACER Board of Appeal (2016-2021). Mr Rakhou authored a hand book on EU gas markets (see www.europegasmarket.eu ).

Gatis Junghāns

Member of the Board, AST

Mr. Junghans currently is a member of the management board at AST (Latvian electricity transmission system operator) and is responsible for system operation and markets. Mr. Junghans has more than 10 years experience in company management in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and he has been working in the energy industry since 2000. Currently, Mr. Junghans is also an associated professor at the Riga Technical University and a member of the management board at World Energy Council's Latvian National Committee. Mr. Junghans holds Doctoral degree in power engineering from Riga Technical University (2008), executive MBA degree from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (2010), executive education certificate of professional board member and Chair from Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance (2017), and MBA Finance degree from Riga Business School (2018).

Gerhard Bookjans

Chief Operations Officer, IFE Eriksen AG

Gerhard Bookjans has studied law at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg in Germany as well as in Basle, Switzerland. He has started his professional career as lecturer for European and International Law at Concordia International University Estonia.
In 2000 Gerhard Bookjans joined Energis Deutschland as Manager for Legal and Regulatory Affairs and stayed with a German subsidiary of Energis Group plc as corporate counsel and company secretary.
From 2002 to 2006 Gerhard Bookjans has been in charge as Head of Legal and Regulatory at Easynet Germany. In 2000 Mr. Bookjans has joined the IFE team as corporate counsel. At the same time he has been Managing Director of Johanna Solar Technology between 2007 and 2008 until the sale of the company to Robert Bosch GmbH. Since 2008 Gerhard Bookjans is Member of the Executive Board of IFE Eriksen AG as well as shareholder of the company.

Gintaras Buzkys

Chief Business Development Officer, UAB GET Baltic

Mr. Gintaras Buzkys has been working as the Chief Business Development Officer at GET Baltic since 2015. He has more than 12 years' of overall experience in energy and financial industries. Have a proven record managing complex projects within Central and Eastern Europe in a highly regulated environment. Currently in charge of developing Regional Natural Gas Exchange for the Baltic States – GET Baltic.
Mr. Buzkys holds Master degree in Finance from International Business School at Vilnius University.

Gunars Valdmanis

Managing Director, Latvian Association of Power Engineers and Electrical Constructors

Gunars Valdmanis currently is the managing director of the Latvian Association of Power Engineers and Energy Constructors, which is a non-governmental organisation, uniting the largest power industry companies of Latvia, and representing the Latvian power industry in the European industry association Eurelectric.

Earlier, Mr Valdmanis worked as a deputy director of the Energy market and infrastructure department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Latvia, where he was involved in private entrepreneurship. Prior‚to this he worked for several years as a journalist in Latvian media channels. Mr Valdmanis has obtained a master’s degree in environmental science in the Faculty of Power and Electrical Engineering of the Riga Technical University and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Latvia.

Herkko Plit

President and CEO, Baltic Connector Oy

Herkko Plit is the President and CEO of Baltic Connector Oy, a special purpose company established in 2015 to implement the Finnish part of the Balticconnector natural gas pipeline project and connect the gas networks of Finland and the Baltic Countries. Prior to his appointment to President and CEO in October 2016, Mr. Plit acted as the Chair of Baltic Connector Oy’s Board since November 2015. Since 2012, Mr Plit worked as the Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Energy Department. At the Ministry, he was responsible for Nuclear Energy and Fossil Fuels as well as among other duties overseeing the Balticconnector project and the development of natural gas infrastructure in the Baltic Sea region. Mr. Plit holds a M.Sc. (Engineering Physics) from the Helsinki University of Technology (1996).
Mr. Plit has a solid experience in leading financially significant construction projects and has during his career been widely engaged in energy related activities, especially in nuclear. Mr. Plit has acted as TVO´s Responsible Director for Construction in the Olkiluoto 3 project, served as the CEO of the engineering company Fortum Nuclear Services and as the General Manager of Fortum Corporation´s business unit Expert Solutions, which had the responsibility of group overall short-term energy business.
In addition, Mr. Plit has experience in the EU Commission and in fusion energy, while acting as Head of Project control unit in EFDA Close Support unit in Garching, Germany. The unit was responsible for EU preparation of ITER activities. Mr. Plit is a member of Fusion for Energy (F4E) Governing Board and chair of Procurement and Contracts Committee.

Jānis Eisaks

Head of Corpоrate Strategy division, Conexus Baltic Grid

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Krišjānis Baidekalns

Deputy CEO, AJ Power

Krisjanis Baidekalns is Deputy CEO of AJ Power Holding – parent company of a group of enterprises that offers a one-stop shop for power industry related solutions including electricity and natural gas trade, development of energy efficiency projects and long term solar power plant lease. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and has a diverse professional experience in management consulting, corporate finance and the energy industry, recently focusing on the development of AJ Power Gas, the natural gas trading subsidiary of AJ Power Holding, and its portfolio in the liberalized Latvian natural gas market.

Kjetil Wilhelmsen

Business Development Director, Northern Lights (Equinor, Shell, Total)

Kjetil Wilhelmsen has worked at Shell for 15 years in New Business Development roles for oil and gas as well as renewables. He has been based in Qatar, the Netherlands and Norway. He joined Shell from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

His degree is in economics from the University of Oslo, Norway.

Kjetil is currently working on the Northern Lights CCS project which is a cooperation between Equinor, Shell and Total. The objective is to develop an industrial scale transportation/shipping and permanent storage solution for liquefied CO2.

Laura Huomo

Energy & Capital Markets Counsel, Roschier Attorneys Ltd.

Laura Huomo has extensive experience in energy-related transactions both from the regulatory, projects and from the financing side. She is specialized in natural gas (both pipeline gas and LNG). She has published internationally, mainly on issues related to project financing of energy projects and energy transitions related topics. She holds a PhD. from the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, Finland (topic: Project Financing of Natural Gas Pipelines – A Study on Natural Gas Pipeline Project Financing under Financial Law and Law of Security Interests). In addition; she was one of the two specialist secretaries in the committee of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment preparing the complete reformation of the Finnish Natural Gas Market Act and she continued to be part of the working group putting together the rules for the natural gas markets (market model rules and virtual trading place structure). Laura Huomo works as an Energy and Capital Markets Counsel at Roschier, Attorneys Ltd.

Märt Ots

Director General, Estonian Competition Authority

Märt Ots has been the head of the Estonian Competition Authority since 2008. Previously he has worked for the Ministry of Industry and Energetics, State Energy Board as Deputy Director General,
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Head of Energy Department AEA Technology PHARE project "Energy planning for local governments" manager in Estonia, Ministry of Economic Affairs as Deputy Head of Energy Department and the Energy Market Inspectorate as Director General. In 2014, Märt Ots was elected as vice chairman of the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA). In 2016 he was elected as Chairman of the ERRA, being re-elected in 2018 for another two-year term. Märt Ots has graduated from Tallinn Technical University (thermal engineering) in 1991 and obtained Master ́s degree of technology in 2002. Since 2016 Mr Ots has a doctoral degree in energy economics.

Magnus Urb

Head of Strategic Planning and Cohesion Policy Programming Unit, Ministry of Finance, Estonia

Magnus Urb is the Head of Strategy and Cohesion Policy programming unit in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Estonia. He is responsible for developing the Estonian positions on the future of cohesion policy, negotiating the proposals at EU level and programming the funds, including the Cohesion Fund in Estonia. His team is also responsible in cooperation with the Government’s Office for preparing a new long term strategy for Estonia – Estonia 2035, which will also serve as a basis for programming cohesion policy for 2021-2027. Magnus Urb has several year of experience with strategic management, cohesion policy programming and implementation both at national and EU level.

Marko Allikson

Partner, Baltic Energy Partners

Marko Allikson has been for last 12 years a partner in Baltic Energy Partners OÜ, an independent power, gas and emissions trader in the Baltics. The group of related companies includes also a portfolio management company Scener OÜ with power/gas portfolio of ca 2 TWh in the Baltic States, and a power/gas retailing in the nearby region. Previously, Marko has been a management board member of Eesti Energia AS and consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Marcin Korolec

President, FPPE Electric Vehicles Promotion Foundation

Marcin Korolec is a lawyer, long-standing advisor, government administration worker, and negotiator. President of Electric Vehicles Promotion Foundation, since September 2016.
Member of the Board of Transport and Environment since April 2019. He was Polish Climate Minister 2014 to 2015, Minister of the Environment from 2011 to 2013 and Minister for
Trade, between 2005 and 2011. Between 2005 and 2015 represented Poland in more than 120 European Union Council Ministers Meetings (Councils: Energy, Trade, Environment,
Climate, Competitiveness,). Marcin was President of the COP 19 in 2013 and also co-led the European Union’s delegation at the 2011 UNFCCC Conference in Durban.

Involved in managing institutions concerned with environment and climate protection, both Polish and international, currently Member of Advisory Board of Baltic Development Forum, he represented Poland in the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF): Board Member – Chair of the Ethics and Audit Committee (2013 – 2015). He established Green Weimar Triangle – cooperation between Environment Ministers from France, Germany, Poland (2013). Member of the UNIDO Green Industry Platform Advisory Board (2013-2015). 2011 he represented Poland in the Council of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Member of the EU-Russia Gas Advisory Council (2010/2011). Marcin Korolec was a member of the Supervisory Board at the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management 2010 - 2011.

In the years 1998-2004 he worked at the Office of the Committee for European Integration in the cabinet of Ministers: Jan Kułakowski and Danuta Hübner, where he supervised preparations for Poland’s accession to the EU in areas of negotiation as free movement of goods and people, agriculture, competition and consumer protection policies.

He is the author of scientific publications about Polish accession negotiations and an academic lecturer. Mr. Korolec is fluent in English and French. He is married to Olga Korolec and the father of four. His hobbies include long-distance running and skiing.

Oleg Sõnajalg

CEO, Eleon

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Meri-Katriina Pyhäranta

Senior Adviser, Finnish Energy Authority

Meri-Katriina Pyhäranta works as a senior adviser at the Finnish Energy Authority and specialises in natural gas. She is currently working on the opening up of competition for the Finnish natural gas market, including the regulatory aspects of the unbundling of the transmission system operator. She holds a Master of Laws from the University of Helsinki (2011) and an LL.M. in International and European Energy Law and Policy (2013). Currently, she is finishing her PhD in European Union energy regulation (topic: A Regulated Land Access and Compensation Model: Towards More Sustainable and Efficient Shale Gas Development in the European Union). Prior to working at the Finnish Energy Authority, Meri-Katriina Pyhäranta worked as an associate at Krogerus Attorneys Ltd, and conducted her research as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Texas at Austin (USA).

Paulius Gineitis

Head Baltic Operations, Division Trading and Sales, ČEZ

Mr. Paulius Gineitis has been working in Energy business since 2009. He has around 10 years of experience in commodity trading business as mainly responsible for power/gas/carbon structured
deals origination and long-short proprietary portfolios. He has a proven record from past trading/origination business related positions in the Swiss energy giant Alpiq AG as well as the Lietuvos Energija Group. Currently he develops the energy business in the Nordic/Baltic market for Czech Republic energy group CEZ. In addition, Paulius is a Member of the Board of Swiss-Baltic Chamber of Commerce where he is working together with local business community for attracting Swiss companies to the Baltic market.

Rota Šņuka

Commissioner, Public Utilities Commission, Latvia

Rota Snuka has been a Board Member at the Public Utilities Commission in Latvia since July 2016, mainly working with energy sector regulation. From 2011 until 2016 she held the position of the Director of the Energy Department at the Ministry of Economics in Latvia. Throughout her career, she has acquired a great deal of experience in developing national and regional energy policy papers and drafting legislation concerning electricity and gas market, namely transposing EU Directives on electricity and gas market.
During the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2015, she was part of the team which organized the Energy Union conference in Riga and she later worked with governance issues as well as revising the first Baltic Energy Market Integration Plan (BEMIP) and achieving a reinforced BEMIP agreement.
Rota Snuka holds a PhD in Economics as well as BSc in Law. In 2016/17 she completed with excellence the Annual training course on regulation of energy utilities within Florence School of Regulation, European University Institute.

Prof. Dr Stasys Paulauskas

President, Lithuanian Wind Energy Association

Prof. Dr Stasys Paulauskas is an electronics engineer, Doctor of Philosophy (Applied Sociology), and a Professor of Innovation Management, Smart Energy, Wind Energy, Maritime Management. He is the Founder of the innovation group ‘Eksponente’, a CleanTech International contact point and a member of the Lithuanian CleanTech cluster. Stasys is also the author of virtual modelling methodologies Virtugeny, Antropogeny, Sociogeny and Technogeny; Circular Economy 3.0, and the Blue Growth Index. He is the Funder and Head of the Strategic Self-Management Institute (from 1991), participating in four Leonardo da Vinci and 10 ERDF South Baltic Programme projects related to smart energy innovation. He is the initiator and developer of the Lithuanian Wind Energy branch (580 MW), Founder and President of the Lithuanian Wind Energy Association (from 2002), and an investor in advanced energy projects.

Sohvi Rajamäki

Managing Director, Schneider Electric, Baltics

Sohvi Rajamäki is the managing director of Schneider Electric in the Baltic countries. Schneider Electric is leading the digital transformation of energy management and automation in homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries. Native Finn with a Master’s degree in both engineering and business administration, Sohvi has a passion for innovation and technology as enablers of high quality of life, healthy business and a sustainable future for our planet. For the first 20 years of her career Sohvi witnessed the revolution of communications technology and its impact on how we interact with each other and the world around us, working in global and regional leadership positions for the communications solutions provider Nokia. She joined Schneider Electric in 2015 and currently focuses on helping the customers tap the potential of IoT and digitalization.

Simon-Erik Ollus

Vice President, Trading and Asset Optimisation, Fortum

Simon-Erik Ollus is Vice President, Trading and Asset Optimisation in Fortum and responsible for Fortum’s power trading and dispatching operations in Nordic countries, Baltics and Poland. He joined Fortum in 2009 as the Group Chief Economist and build up Fortum groups Industrial Intelligence and Investment Analysis unit. In 2016 he took over Trading and Asset Optimisation business unit. Prior Fortum Simon-Erik worked as an advisor at East Office of Finnish Industries and as an economist at the Monetary and Research Department at the Bank of Finland. He has published several articles on natural resource economies and Finnish-Russian economic relations. He holds a master degree in economics from the University of Helsinki.

Tapio Tuomi

Executive director, Finnish Clean Energy Association

Finnish Clean Energy Association is powering Finland with clean energy. Our goal is to make renewable energy use as easy as possible for Finns as well as to help clean energy industry to grow. Our focus is on renewable energy, smart energy solutions and energy efficiency. In his personal life Mr Tuomi is a prosumer: his house is powered by electricity from solar panels, heat from solar thermal collectors and heat pumps.
Earlier Mr Tuomi worked for The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and before that he made a long career in ICT working with international consulting firm Capgeminii.

Stefan Querfurth

Head of Power Markets, VSB Holding

Stefan has 10 years European Power Trading experience and is the Founder of the energy consultancy and decentralized energy platform. He is currently the Head of Power Markets at VSB, responsible for PPA structuring and negotiations.

Vija Pakalkaite

Analyst EU Power & Carbon Markets, ICIS

Dr. Vija Pakalkaite has been working at ICIS since January 2017 with the main focus in the Nordic, Baltic and central-eastern European (CEE) power markets. She specialises in renewable energy regulatory frameworks, as well as renewable energy auctions and guarantees of origin across Europe. Her PhD thesis at Central European University (2017) focused on the impact of the European Union natural gas policies on the CEE gas sectors. Prior to this, she was a visiting researcher at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), as well as completed a traineeship at in the cabinet of Maroš Šefčovič, the Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of the Energy Union.

Vytautas Ruolia

Commercial Director, Amber Grid

From 2003 to 2006 Vytautas worked in various positions at the Ministry of Finance. In 2006-2007 he worked as Manager of the Finance Management Division of AB Lietuvos Dujos. In 2008 – 2013 he was Head of the Planning Division of AB Lietuvos Dujos. Since August 2013 he has been the Commercial Director of AB Amber Grid, and since October 2016, a Member of the Board of BALTPOOL UAB.