Péter Szijjártó was born on 30 October 1978 in Komárom. In 1997, he graduated from the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine Gymnasium in Győr, after which in 2002 he received a degree in Foreign Affairs from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration.

He has been a Member of Parliament for Fidesz since 2002, and in 2018 began his fifth term in Parliament. From 2006 to 2010 he was Fidesz Communications Director, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson from 2010 to 2012, and was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations at the Prime Minister’s Office from 2012 to 2014. In June 2014 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and since 23 September 2014 has served as Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Kadri Simson is the European Commissioner for Energy, a position she has held since December 2019. She previously held the position of minister of economics affairs and infrastructure of the Republic of Estonia from 2016 to 2019. During the Estonian presidency of the Council of the EU (from July to December 2017), Ms Simson chaired both the meetings of the energy ministers and transport ministers in the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) Council as well as the meeting of economy ministers in the EU Competitiveness Council. From 2007 to 2016, she was a member of the Estonian Parliament (“Riigikogu”) and was re-elected in 2019. Ms Simson has a degree in history at the University of Tartu and holds a master’s degree in political science from the University College London.

William D. Magwood IV is the NEA Director-General since 2014. Prior, he served as Commissioner appointed by the US President and confirmed by the Senate to the US NRC. 2005-2010, he provided independent strategic and policy advice on energy, environmental and technology policy issues. 1998-2005, Mr. Magwood was Director of Nuclear Energy at the US DoE, where he launched several important initiatives including GIF. He began his career working as a scientist for Westinghouse and Edison Electric Institute. Mr. Magwood holds Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and English from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Fine Arts from University of Pittsburgh.

Gergely Szabó has been leading MET Hungary since December 2014 and was appointed Regional Chairman of MET Central Europe from 1 January 2019. In the newly formed organisation Gergely Szabó is responsible for the overall management and coordination of the regional business operation and local subsidiaries in Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia, where MET Central Europe has more than 7000 long term partners in the industrial natural gas and power segment.

Gergely Szabó started his career at the Gas Division of MOL Group in 2007. He was Executive Director of Origination and Structured Trading at MOL Energy Trade Ltd. between 2010 and 2011, then managed the Swiss subsidiary of MET Group as CEO at MET International between 2011 and 2014.

In addition to his role of CEO of MET Hungary Ltd., Gergely Szabó is Chairman of the Board of Directors of E2 Hungary Ltd., the joint venture energy trading company established by Magyar Telekom and MET Holding, as well as Member of the Board of MET Croatia and MET Slovakia.

Attila Ságodi is a partner and head of the regional Energy Advisory practice group at Impact Advisory. He has more than 20 years of experience in the production, network operation and sales activities of the domestic and European electricity and natural gas sectors. His advisory and expert work focuses on strategy and business development, regulatory, operational efficiency and transaction issues. His client portfolio includes major companies in the energy and utilities sector from the CEE region, as well as Hungarian government entities.

An international relations graduate of Budapest University of Economics (1990) and formerly a law student at Eötvös Loránd University (1992-1994), Zsolt Jamniczky began his career as a Counsellor of the Foreign Relations Office of the Hungarian Parliament. As of 1996 he had held top management corporate affairs positions at Reemtsma and Philip Morris in Budapest, Brussels and Zagreb. He joined E.ON Hungária in 2007 as the Director of Central Affairs, in 2010 becoming company’s Deputy CEO with the responsibility for regulatory affairs, government relations, reputation and marketing communications, legal matters, innovation and business development. As of 2016 he took the board membership for customer solutions in addition to his former tasks. Since 1 July 2020, he has been the member of the Board of Directors of ELMŰ-ÉMÁSZ responsible for sales. Zsolt Jamniczky is the vice-president of the Hungarian Division of Eurelectric since 2011, representing Hungary on the Board of Directors of Eurelectric in Brussels. He is an Executive Board Member of Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary from 2018. In 2019 he was elected as chairman of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum. In September 2020, he was elected as president of Budapesti Elektromos Sport Association, as a member of the Board of Jövő Mobilitása Szövetség (Future Mobility Association) and the Smart Future Innovation Cluster. In 2016 he received the Knight’s Cross of Merit of Hungary.

In May 2018, Péter Kaderják was appointed Minister of State for Energy and Climate Policy. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research (REKK) at Corvinus University Budapest.

In 1998 he was appointed as Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Economic Affairs and started to work on the liberalisation of the electricity and gas sectors in Hungary. In January 2000 he became the President of the Hungarian Energy Office, the national energy regulator. Between 2000 and 2004 he also served as the Chairman of the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA), an association of energy regulatory institutions of countries from Central and Eastern Europe, the CIS and South-East Europe. Since 2004 he has been serving as Training Director for ERRA’s in-house energy regulatory trainings.

He is also directing a postgraduate program in Energy Economics at Corvinus University since 2010. He is a research partner in the “European Energy Institute” at University of Leuven and a regular lecturer at the Florence School of Regulation. He has directed several recent research efforts with regional relevance. In 2011 he was appointed an alternate member of ACER’s (Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators) Board of Appeal.

Born on October 30, 1981, in Korolyov, Moscow Region.
Education
Dmitry Khandoga graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University, majoring in such subjects as Economics and Management.
Professional experience
2002–2012
Employed with LUKOIL.
2012–2013
Head of the International Infrastructure Projects Directorate at the Foreign Economic Relations Department, Gazprom.
2013–2016
Deputy Head of Department – Head of Directorate at Department 512, Gazprom.
2016–2020
Deputy Head of Department 512, Gazprom.
Since February 2020
Head of Department 512, Gazprom.

Jeroen joined ExxonMobil in 2003 with a Master’s Degree in Econometrics from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.  He spent his early career gaining experience in financial reporting, controllership, and corporation finance in various assignments in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States.  Jeroen also led the digital transformation for ExxonMobil’s finance functions world-wide, based out of Houston.

In 2018, Jeroen was appointed as the Planning & Financial Markets Manager for ExxonMobil Corporation at the Corporate Headquarters in Dallas.

In July of 2020, Jeroen assumed the role leading ExxonMobil’s Global Business Center in Budapest, an organization of ~1800 people providing financial, commercial and IT support to ExxonMobil’s businesses in the Europe, Africa & Middle East region and globally.

Mr Varró has been appointed as Chief Economist of IEA in January 2016. He has worked at the IEA since 2011 as Head of Gas, Coal and Power Markets.

Mr Varró started his economist career at the National Bank of Hungary and from 2000-2005 he served as the Director of Price and Economic Analysis of the Hungarian Energy Office.

Before joining IEA he has worked for MOL Group as Chief Economist and from 2008 as Director for Strategy Development.

Dr. Anita Orban joined Tellurian LNG as Vice President for International Affairs in 2017. Previously she worked as Chief Advisor for Cheniere Marketing Ltd.  Between 2010 and 2015 she served as Ambassador-at-Large for Energy Security of Hungary. Previously she was the Director of Constellation Energy Institute, a think tank facilitating cooperation in the Central Eastern European energy sector. She is the author of the book Power, Energy and the New Russian Imperialism (CT: Praeger, 2008). Between 2005 and 2008 she served as the Executive Vice President of the Budapest-based International Centre for Democratic Transition (ICDT). In 2004-05 she was editor of the ’World’ section of the Hungarian political weekly Heti Valasz where she also ran a monthly op-ed column on international issues for six years.

Szabolcs I. Ferencz is the Chairman-CEO of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Ltd. since February 2019.
Between 2011 – 2019 he held the position of SVP MOL Group Corporate Affairs supervising international and domestic governmental relations for Regulatory and Public Affairs, Strategy Development and Corporate Communications. Previously he was CEO and Country Chairman of MOL Romania.

Mr. Ferencz is the member of the Management Board of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG). He is the Chair of the National Committee of the World Petroleum Council, Member of the Advisory Board of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research Foundation. He is funding partner of the SEED School for Executive Education and Development based in Budapest.

Jan Massmann is the Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of MET Holding AG and Head of Group Origination. He is based in Zug, Switzerland.

Mr. Massmann is responsible for major origination projects of MET Group.

He joined MET Group in 2014 as Chief Operating Officer, also assuming the role of CEO of MET International AG during the same year. In 2017 he took over the current role of the Vice Chairman of the Executive Board. Prior to joining MET, Mr. Massmann gained extensive international experience in the European energy industry with a particular focus on gas wholesale in the Central and Eastern European markets.

As Shell’s Global Executive Vice President, István Kapitány is responsible for the largest mobility retail business in the world with a network of more than 45,000 sites and operations in over 80 countries. In his business, 500,000 front-line champions serve more than 30 million customers every day and sell 200 billion litres of fuel, 250 million cups of coffee, 350 million cold drinks and 450 million snacks each year, processing 12 billion transactions (equivalent to more than 1 for every person on the planet).

In addition, Mr Kapitány is Shell’s Downstream Director for Europe and Africa, with responsibility for all Shell’s Downstream activities in these regions. He is also Chairman of the supervisory Board of Shell Deutschland and Director of the Supervisory Board for Brazilian energy company Raízen.

He oversees one of the industry’s largest employee awards programmes and is heading a new global initiative aimed at transforming the quality of customer service across the entire Shell Retail operation. As a key member of Shell’s Brand Executive Committee, he is intimately involved in shaping what the company stands for and an advocate of humanising the Shell brand.

In a 30-year career at Shell – he joined the company in Hungary in 1987 – István has held senior office across Shell businesses and geographies.

Daniel Yergin is a highly respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics, and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He is Vice Chairman of IHS Markit and is chairman of IHS Markit’s CERAWeek conference, which CNBC has called “the Super Bowl of energy”.

Time Magazine said, “If there is one man whose opinion matters more than any other on global energy markets, it’s Daniel Yergin.” Fortune said that he is “one of the planet’s foremost thinkers about energy and its implications.”

His new book The Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations has been described by reviewers as “a page-turner” and “another winner from the master.” The Wall Street Journal says “Daniel Yergin has turned his considerable talents to explaining how the world continues to be shaped by oil.”

Dr. Yergin is the author of the bestseller The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. He is known around the world for his book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. It became a number one New York Times best seller, has been translated into 20 languages, and made into an 8-hour PBS/BBC television series.

Dr. Yergin has served on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board under four presidents. He is a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations and a trustee of the Brookings Institution. Dr. Yergin holds a BA from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

Mark Gyetvay is the CFO and Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at NOVATEK. From 2003 to 2014, he was a member of NOVATEK’s Board of Directors and served as the Chairman on the Strategy and Investment Committee. He was responsible for listing NOVATEK on the London Stock Exchange in 2005 and has led many of the Company’s Eurobond and domestic bond placements.

He has been consistently recognized by Investor Relations Magazine as one of the best CFO’s in Russia and the CIS by winning numerous awards and accolades and was recognized twice by Institutional Investor magazine as one of the Top Five CFO’s in Europe’s Oil and Gas sector. Mr. Gyetvay is the recipient of the Finance Monthly 2015 – 2020 “Best CFO – Russia”, “Game Changer Award – Russia ” 2017 and 2108, the Institutional Investor’s “Best CFO” in the EMEA oil and gas industry for 2017, and Extel’s award as “Best CFO For IR – Oil and gas” for 2019 and 2020.

Prior to joining NOVATEK, he worked at a number of independent oil and gas companies in the United States since 1981 where he specialized in financial and economic analysis matters in both the upstream and downstream segments, as well as was a former partner in PWC’s Petroleum practice based in Moscow from 1995 to 2003. He is an internationally recognized expert in the oil and gas industry and a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences.

Kurt Donnelly is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.  He is currently the Department of State Bureau of Energy Resources’ Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy.  Prior to coming back to Washington, DC, DAS Donnelly served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.  His other assignments include the U.S. Mission to NATO, Afghanistan, Turkey, Hungary, Russia, Germany, the National Security Council, Director of the State Department Office for International Religious Freedom, and Director for Central Asian Affairs. 

Walburga Hemetsberger has been working in Brussels for more than 18 years in different positions, most of the time in the energy sector.

Before joining SolarPower Europe, Walburga headed the VERBUND Representation Office in Brussels and was a Board Member of Hydrogen Europe. Her previous experience includes her roles as Head of the EU Representation Office at VERBUND for nine years; Advisor of Financial and Capital Markets at The Association of German Public Banks and Association of Public Banks (VÖB / EAPB); Competition lawyer at Haarmann Hemmelrath; A Parliamentary Assistant to Austrian MEP and experience in the DG Competition Merger Control Task Force.

Walburga holds a degree in Law and Business Administration from Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck. She speaks German, English, Dutch and French .

Mr. Kriston has become CEO since 1 July 2020. He has been deputy CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Hungarian Gas Storage since 1 Oct 2013. Previously, he worked for MVM Hungarian Electicity Plc. among others as Head of Business Development. Before joining MVM Group Mr. Kriston worked in financial advisory and audit for almost 10 years at Deloitte and KPMG both in Hungary and in Germany. Mr. Kriston holds an MSc. degree in Business Administration and graduated from Corvinus University, Budapest.

Sander van Rootselaar has been involved in the TurkStream Project since 2017 as Deputy Head of Communications. He manages the team responsible for communication activities in Russia, Turkey and the European Union. This includes public affairs, media relations, engagement with the energy expert community and local project related communication.

Previously, Mr. van Rootselaar has worked at NAM, a joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil. NAM is primarily active in gas production in the Netherlands. He also held a position in communications at EBN, the Dutch state participant in oil and gas production.

Kevin Book heads the research team and covers oil, natural gas, refined products and coal policy.

Mr Book appears frequently within print and broadcast media, contributes to policy forums convened by government and private organizations and meets with top Washington decision-makers. Mr Book has also testified before several House and Senate Committees.

Mr Book is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a member of the National Petroleum Council, a self-funded advisory body to the Secretary of Energy, and a nonresident Senior Associate with the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Prior to co-founding ClearView, Mr Book worked as a senior energy analyst for a national investment bank. He holds an M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. in economics from Tufts University.

Since May 2015 Mahdjouba Belaifa has been the Head of Gas Market Analysis Department of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). From August 2014 to May 2015 she was Acting Head of Energy and Gas Market Analysis Department. Before, she has been Energy Economics Analyst at GECF.

Ms Belaifa has more than 20 years’ experience with SONATRACH, the National Oil and Gas Company of Algeria, in projects management, studies, planning, economic evaluations, modelling and simulation, negotiations for shareholder agreements as well as technology licensing negotiations, partnership in oil and gas industry and petrochemical industry. She held the various positions in the company including Business Development Director, Head of International Affairs Department, Principal economic studies engineer.

Ms Belaifa was awarded Japanese scholarship (MONBUKAGAKUSHO) and holding a Master’s Degree in Econometrics from the Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University, Japan (2000-2003). She also has a Master in Operations Research from University of Sciences and Technology of Algiers.

Ms Belaifra is the member of the Women in Energy Association (WONY), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), the Association Algérienne de l’Industrie du Gaz (AIG) as well as the American Chemical Society (ASC).

Mr Laszlo Fritsch started his professional career in the oil and gas industry at Shell Gas Hungary where he worked in various positions. He joined E.ON Gas Storage as Financial Director in 2006. After the takeover of the company by the Hungarian state in 2013 he has been appointed the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hungarian Gas Storage. From 1 July 2020, he is the CEO and Member of the Board of Hungarian Gas Trade Ltd. (MFGK).

During more than 20 years spent in the oil and gas industry Laszlo Fritsch has gained extensive professional knowledge and is also keen on sharing his expertise as a member of the Board of GIE, member of the Advisory Board of the Fund for Hungarian Oil and Gas Museum as well as a member of the Hungarian Mining Association.

Mr András Biczók graduated from Leibniz University, Hannover, in the field of economics. He started his career at the Hungarian banking and financial services corporation ’Takarékbank’, then continued at BNP Paribas in corporate finance. Since 2005 he has been working in the energy sector. After holding managerial positions at Nabucco Gas Pipeline International and MET Croatia Energy Trade, from 2014 he acted as Deputy CEO for trade at the Hungarian National Gas Supplier (FŐGÁZ Zrt), while, at the same time, served as CEO for the first national North-South Regional Gas Supplier Company (ENKSZ Észak-Dél Regionális Földgázszolgáltató Zrt). Following his position as Chairman and CEO for the Natural Gas Storage Company (MMBF Földgáztároló Zrt) from 2018, he has been the CEO of MAVIR Hungarian Independent Transmission Operator Company Ltd. since 15 July 2019.

Balázs Felsmann joined the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research as a senior research associate in January 2016. As a researcher, consultant and former state officer he has wide range of experiences on the institutional and competitive framework of the utility industries. As a former state secretary he participated in the preparation of several policy documents including the new Energy Policy of Hungary (2007-2020), the Strategy for Increasing the Share of Renewable Energy Sources (2008-2020), the Unified Transport Development Strategy (2008-2020) and various major pieces of the legislation regarding electricity, natural gas, renewable energies and transportation.

As a consultant Mr Felsmann has worked on various projects on the field of energy sector for governmental organisations, NGOs, market leading industrial companies and international financial institutes. He actively participates in the work of various scientific and business organisations of the utility area and on national and international conferences regarding energy policy and utility management topics.

She is responsible for URENCO’s relationships with its customers and business development in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

Debbie has been with URENCO for more than 8 years and was previously responsible for managing deliveries of enriched uranium to Japan, Germany, Sweden and South Africa. Prior to working for URENCO, Debbie’s experience includes working in the Financial Services Industry and UK Music Industry.

Urenco (UK): is a leading international supplier of enriched uranium and associated technologies. URENCO’s principal activity is the provision of a service to enrich uranium to provide fuel for nuclear power utilities.

Pál Ságvári was appointed Vice President Vice President for International Relations of the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (MEKH) on 3 November 2020. He was recently appointed as the Vice-Chairperson of ERRA for the term 2020-2022. Before he was Ambassador-at-large for Energy security of Hungary since 2016 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He was director for energy policy in the Ministry of National Development between 2011-14 where he was responsible for working out Hungarian energy strategy. He was also coordinating regional energy market development projects such as North-South Energy Corridor, Hungarian-Slovak gas interconnector, Nabucco, South Stream, CEEGEX, CEEE Forum, V4 Gas Forum, Electricity Market Coupling.

He started his career in the private sector. He also held different key expert positions in GDF SUEZ Hungary in the field of natural gas and electricity supply.

Dr. Veronika Czako has been working on clean energy transition related topics at the European Commission since 2011. She completed her PhD in Environmental Sciences and Policy at Central European University, including a visiting research and teaching period at the London School of Economics. In 2011-2014 she provided scientific support for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive as post-doctoral researcher at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy. In 2014-2017 she managed European Union research funds in the field of energy efficiency in Brussels. Currently working at the Joint Research Centre’s Netherlands location, her research focuses on employment, education and skills related aspects of the clean energy transition.

Dr Graham Cooley joined ITM Power as CEO in 2009. ITM Power was the first hydrogen related company to be listed on the London Stock Market and has been developing electrolyser equipment for over 20 years. Graham started his career in the power sector in 1989 joining the CEGB and became Business Development Manager at National Power plc and then International Power plc developing energy storage and new generation technologies. Before joining ITM Power Graham was CEO of Sensortec Ltd, founding CEO of Metalysis Ltd, a spin out from Cambridge University and founding CEO of Antenova Ltd. Graham has a PhD in physics, an MBA and is a Fellow of the Institute of Metals, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM).  Graham also sits on a number of industry bodies and is a member of the UK Government’s Hydrogen Advisory Council.

Claudia Patricolo is the Editor-in-chief of CEENERGYNEWS, the only english-speaking news portal entirely dedicated to the energy industry in Central and Eastern Europe.

Trained as a journalist in Italy, she worked for different media outlets covering foreign policy, business, investments and macro-economy. After starting her career in Rome she moved to Paris, where she worked at Le Monde. Now she lives in Budapest from where she covered the CEE region as Deputy Editor of Emerging Europe, a UK-based news, intelligence and community platform.

Her areas of expertise include energy, climate change and business in CEE.

Kata Jaksity has been working in the media since 1998, mainly in political and news programs. She was working on TV2 news as a reporter and presenter. From 2008 to 2019 she worked for Atv. She has been the presenter of the morning political show and the evening news for years. Besides she is the managing director of her own production company. Her movies are focusing on the third world. Her flagship production, “Faces of the World” raises important issues like child soldiers, sex trafficking, refugees in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Her documentaries have been presented in several film festivals and one of them at Cambridge University. She received the following awards: Press Award from National Association of Hungarian Spokespersons, Charity Award of Foundation for Africa, Charity Award of African Hungarian Union.