Marco Schweer Director – Sector Lead – Renewable Energy SMBC

Marco has 18+ years’ experience in energy and infrastructure financings as an equity investor, senior debt provider and asset manager. Marco joined SMBC Bank International plc (“SMBC”) in 2007. As a director in Global Structured Finance in London he is leading SMBC’s renewables sector where his responsibilities include the origination, structuring and execution of lead arranger roles in clean energy generation and wider energy transition. Previously, Marco headed the smart grids & infrastructure utilities business for SMBC and successfully closed transactions for the provision of more than 11 million smart meters to households in the UK. Marco’s track record covers many landmark and award winning projects in a variety of sectors, including renewables, energy, smart grid infrastructure, EV infrastructure, waste, transmission, PPP/PFI, social infrastructure, transportation, infrastructure fund financing and M&A. Prior to SMBC, Marco worked for Bilfinger Project Investments on equity investments where he was involved in all aspects of the lifecycle of infrastructure assets, from early bid stages through to financial close, construction & operations management and equity sales in the secondary market.

Jonathan Maxwell Co-founder and CEO Sustainable Capital Development

Jonathan has over 20 years’ experience in international finance, infrastructure and private equity and has overall responsibility for the Investment Manager’s investment activities. Jonathan has a 82 strong track record, having worked in infrastructure, sustainable investment, business creation and management for 10 years. Since establishing the Investment Manager in London in 2007, the group now operates across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia and has launched energy efficiency project investment funds in the UK, Ireland, Singapore and New York with a net IRR target of over 10 per cent. Prior to establishing the Investment Manager, Jonathan was at HSBC Infrastructure and managed the IPO of HICL in 2006, the first Main Market, London Stock Exchange listed infrastructure fund, which now has an enterprise value of over £2 billion.

David Swindin Managing Director, Head of EMEA Cubico Sustainable Investments

David Swindin has been Head of EMEA at Cubico since its inception at the beginning of 2015 when the business was spun out of Banco Santander. Cubico is a renewable energy platform owned jointly by the two large Canadian pension funds OTPP and PSP and currently has a portfolio of more than 5 GW in operation/construction or development spread between Wind, PV and CSP. It focuses on operational excellence and tends to hold assets for their whole life investing across the entire value chain from development, construction and operations. Aside from its core existing markets of UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, USA, Brazil, Uruguay & Mexico the company is currently expanding into France, Australia & Colombia.

Previously, David was Head of Credit Markets for Asia Pacific at Santander and was responsible for debt and equity financings across the region. Before moving to Hong Kong in 2011 to assume this role, David was the Global Head of Asset Structuring at Santander, based in London, focusing primarily on equity investments in renewable energy, shipping and aviation transactions. The earlier part of his career was spent advising multinational corporations and Governments in structuring complex financing transactions.

Stephane Tetot Managing Director, Infrastructure BlackRock Real Assets

Stephane Tetot, Director, is a Portfolio Manager with BlackRock’s Global Renewable Power platform which currently manages close to $5bn across more than 150 wind and solar projects across 4 continents. Stephane is responsible for originating, executing and managing renewable power investment opportunities in Europe.

Natasha Luther-Jones Global Co-Chair of Energy and Natural Resources DLA Piper

The independent legal sector rankings from Legal 500 2016-2019 quote Natasha as “a go-to name in the renewable energy space”, “fantastic”, “forward-thinking” and a “no-nonsense deal maker”. She is ranked as a ‘Leading Individual’ in the following categories - London: Power (including electricity and renewables) and Yorkshire & the Humber: Energy.

She has been named one of most influential lawyers in the global wind energy industry in The Legal Power List 2018, being ranked in the top 15 within global private practice lawyers.

Natasha is also listed in The Lawyers’ Hot 100 2017 for Energy and in the Women's Power List 2017 and worked on two of the top 10 global renewable energy deals listed by Inspiratia for 2017 and one in 2018

Mathias Bimberg Head of Infrastructure Prime Capital

Dr Mathias Bimberg joined Prime Capital as an investment manager in 2015, became a managing director in March 2018 and was named Head of Infrastructure in December 2019. The team has since reached a first closing of the Prime Green Energy Infrastructure Fund in June 2020 and realized the first investment of the vehicle. He previously spent nine years with EY (financial due diligence), HQ Capital (private equity) and Lincoln International (M&A).

Mathias holds a PhD from the University of Eberhard-Karls in Tübingen.

Simon Braaksma Senior Director Royal Philips NV

After 8 years in several positions at Citibank, Simon joined Philips in its Treasury department in 1998. Next, he joined a large finance transformation program at Philips and worked at Group Control before joining Philips’ Sustainability team in 2008. Simon’s current responsibilities include the internal and external reporting on Philips’ ESG performance, the relations with ESG investors, and he is responsible for Philips’ Climate Action program. As such, he was responsible for the company’s commitment to become carbon neutral in its operations by 2020 (achieved) and now needs to deliver on the commitment to reduce Philips’ full value chain emissions in line with a 1.5 global warming scenario (so-called Science Based Targets). He has been involved with all Philips’ Power Purchase Agreements.

Rafael Noya Global Head of Global Debt Financing Santander

Rafael Noya leads the Global Debt Financing business since April 2020 withinSantander Corporate and Investment Banking (SCIB). Present in 18 countries andcounting on 420 employees, the GDF business includes Structured Debt (Project andAcquisition Finance, Asset Based Finance, Leveraged Finance), Corporate Debt (DebtCapital Markets and Syndicated Loans), Securitizations and Debt Advisory (CreditRating Advisory). Besides this, he is also responsible for the distribution of the privatedebt through the Private Debt Mobilization team.

Joe Howe Future Energy Specialist Advisor GHD

Howe’s background is in geography and planning, environmental science and environmental engineering.

He has extensive experience in working interchangeably with industry on major environmental projects and initiatives across the UK and overseas. Howe is driven by the opportunities afforded by the green recovery agenda and particularly for industry in energy transition infrastructure projects by 2030.

Howe is at the academic forefront of the UK’s emerging Net Zero and energy transition agenda. He leads on numerous engagement activities including the UK Decarbonised of Gas Alliance, National Grid, chairing the NW Hydrogen Alliance and being the North West academic lead for the UKRI Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre.

He has a particular passion for STEM skills and supply chain development, working closely with the Department for Education on this agenda he is also a Board Member and Trustee of their Arm’s Length Engineering Construction Industries Training Board and on the advisory group of the DfE’s Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

At GHD, Howe is a senior advisor in decarbonisation, with particular focus on hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, and is using his extensive experience to help advise on how best to equip clients in response to the government’s recently announced ten point plan.

Benedikt Messner Senior Vice President Global Origination & LNG Uniper Global Commodities SE

Benedikt Messner is a Senior Vice President Global Origination & LNG at Uniper Global Commodities SE, based in Düsseldorf, Germany. In his role he primarily focuses on renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) – with successful execution of the Spanish Talasol and Talayuela PV projects - and lately Hydrogen related projects and offtake agreements.

Until July 2016 he was the General Manager of Optimization&Trading at Enerjisa, Istanbul, Turkey.

Prior to joining Enerjisa in April 2013 Benedikt Messner was the Director of Origination at E.ON Global Commodities, Düsseldorf.

Before that he held managerial roles at E.ON, amongst others he was the Head of the CEE power trading desks at E.ON and worked as a trader/mid-marketer for Continental European Power at Acton Energy, Frankfurt, and Enron Europe, London. He started his career in 1996 with the liberalization of European electricity markets at Verbund, Vienna.

Benedikt Messner holds a master’s degree from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

Belen Linares Innovation Director of Energy Acciona 

Belén Linares is 22 years professional experience in Aerospace & Energy business. She is an expert in Research, Technology & Product development for Energy & Powerplant Systems.  She is being managing worldwide, international high-qualified engineering teams devoted to the Research & Development oriented to the Business Application & Profitablity in Renewable Energy & Aerospace.

French educated, she started in 1998 her career in Airbus Industry, managing the A400M Military Aircraft Powerplant System Team in Toulouse (France) & Madrid (Spain).  She moved in 2004 to the Energy sector, into Siemens Gamesa, Global Wind Turbine Manufacturer, where she dedicated part of her career to lead the product & technology development team as R&D Director. All her career,  implemented  in a global energy market: India, Mexico, Europe, USA & Brasil. Since 2016, Belén joined the Utility Acciona Energy as Innovation & R&D Director, Acciona Energy is a Global Renewables Company that commercializes the energy & operates more than 9GW Renewable Assets.

Belén is Aerospace Engineer & High Degree Master in Electrical Systems by the Madrid Polytechnic University (Spain). Aspen Institute Fellow, she completed the Advanced Management Program for Executives (AMP) from ESADE Business School (Spain) & the Global Growth Strategy Program from Wharton School in Philadelphia (USA).

She also completed in 2016 the Women Executive & CEO’s High Management Executive Business Program by ESADE Business School & CEOE, in Madrid & Barcelona.

Belén is also, since 2017 the Innovation & Technology Vice President of EJECON:  Spanish Women Executives & Women CEO’s Association.

Joachim Brandt Head of Electric and Autonomous Vehicles Gemserv Limited

Joachim has over 30 years of research and industry experience in telecom, energy and transport. He previously led on complex innovation projects across the Smart Energy and E-Mobility space for E.ON, chairing the Energy UK EV working group (2016-2018) and actively supporting the transition to electric vehicles in working groups, technical committees and the Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce. Joachim works across sectors providing valuable advice as innovation and commitments to a low carbon future drives structural change and opportunities across many sectors including digital integration and artificial intelligence.

Natasha Patel Director Baringa

Natashais a Director experienced in delivering growthand deal strategy. Starting in downstream Oil & Gas, with a short stint inNuclear Power, Natasha is now supporting Energy, Automotive andFinancial Services clients develop their EV strategies, transition their fleetsand deploy funds into the sector. Natasha is also a member of the Dept ofTransports’ Net Zero Transport Board.

Tina Mould Capital Programme Project Manager Oxford City Council

Oxford City Council aims to achieve its goal of becoming a zero carbon council by 2030, reducing its carbon emissions and making a contribution to address the climate crisis. Tina heads up Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) Project Team for the Council. ESO is a pioneering £40M flagship project under the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, demonstrating innovation in the decarbonisation of power, transport and heat to accelerate Oxford’s zero carbon journey. It will showcase a powerful network of rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging, hybrid battery storage, low carbon heating and smart energy management, providing a model for cities across the UK to cut carbon emissions and improve air quality.

The project has been in place for almost 2 years and has continued to work at pace irrespective of the challenges from Covid. With over 20 years of experience in operations and project management including green projects, Tina’s expertise has been key to this project striving forward.

Bruce Chen Of Counsel DLA Piper

Bruce is an Of Counsel in the Energy and Natural Resources group at DLA Piper. He has a particular focus on the offshore wind sector, having advised a range of leading financial institutions, sponsors, funds and other investor groups on the development, acquisition, financing, re-financing and disposal of offshore wind farms in the UK and Europe. 

Olivia Breese Senior Vice President-Head of Portfolio Development & Strategy Ørsted

Olivia is Senior Vice President and Head of Portfolio Development and Strategy globally for offshore wind at Ørsted. Olivia’s currentresponsibilities include strategy, innovation, business development, partnerships & corporate M&A, and Ørsted’s growing green hydrogenbusiness. Olivia has been at Ørsted since 2012, leading the commercial and market development teams delivering Ørsted’s vision of aworld which runs entirely on green energy beyond Europe and into the US and APAC. Prior to joining Ørsted, Olivia held other roles in therenewable energy sector focussed on the development and project financing of renewable energy assets worldwide, at Linklaters LLPand at RES Group

Clément Weber Founder Green Giraffe

Clément is a founder of Green Giraffe and heads the London office, which hecreated in 2011 and returned to after heading the Paris office in 2017-2019He coordinates Green Giraffe’s efforts in floating offshore wind and has led multipletransactions in offshore and onshore wind, both on the equity and debt side. He ledthe Walney offshore wind debt financing (367 MW, UK, 2012) and managed theWalkyrie onshore wind portfolio sale (50 MW, France, 2015), the Rentel offshorewind senior and mezzanine debt raising (309 MW, Belgium, 2016), and the Alizéonshore wind portfolio sale (71 MW, France, 2017). Most recently, Clément closedfour development funding transactions in floating offshore wind in California (700MW, 2018), Hawaii (500 MW, 2018), South Korea (>500 MW, 2019) and Blue Gem(380 MW, UK, 2020)He developed Green Giraffe’s offtake advisory expertise and supervised thesourcing of all its European RE electricity for a large international corporationBefore founding Green Giraffe, Clément worked at Dexia in Paris in 2008-10 withinthe project finance team. He also spent a year in Beijing at AFD in 2006-07He graduated from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and holds an MSc in project financefrom Université Paris X

Olivier Terneaud VP Offshore Wind Total

Olivier Terneaud joined the Total Group in 2019  as VP Offshore Wind at Total Renewables. Prior to that, Olivier spent 10 years  at GDF Suez and then ENGIE in Paris in the offshore wind energy department. He  was notably in charge of the development of offshore wind projects since the  beginning of the French wind energy industry, first with the participation in  the tender 1 as Industrial and Social Program Manager, then, during the tender  2, as Project Manager on the Yeu-Noirmoutier (496 MW) and/or Dieppe-Le Tréport  (496 MW) project which was awarded to the Consortium led by Engie. Over the  years, Olivier has built up extensive expertise in the origination,  development, financing and construction of offshore wind projects in France.  Today, Olivier is Director of Offshore Wind at Total Renewables and is  responsible for the development, construction and operation of Total's offshore  wind energy facilities in France and internationally.

Jean Vercoutter Director, Power & Renewables MUFG

Jean sits within the Power & Renewables team at MUFG in London, covering various sectors across Europe, Middle East, and Africa for power and utilities. He has 12 years of project finance experience advising, structuring and arranging financings across all key renewable technologies. Jean has particularly an excellent level of experience in and familiarity with the offshore wind sector, having been deeply involved over the last 8 years in some high-profile and complex first of a kind transactions. He started his career as an engineer before moving to the finance and renewables industry, and joined MUFG in 2014 after 5 years at Société Générale.