The smarter E Europe Conference Opening - Flexibility Drives Change

Walburga Hemetsberger is the CEO of SolarPower Europe since 2019. She has over 20 years of professional experience in Brussels, working for a utility, trade association, the European Parliament and the European Commission. Walburga spent most of her career in the energy sector, covering in particular renewable energies and hydrogen.

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- Mission: Electrify everything (that can be electrified) with clean and renewable energy. - Bruce Douglas has 25 years' international experience in the promotion of renewable energy and electrification. - He is currently CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance, the single voice for the international renewable energy industry, representing wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, storage and green hydrogen. - Previously he has held the following positions: Director of Communications and Business at Eurelectric, Deputy CEO of SolarPower Europe, Coordinator of the RE-Source Platform - the European alliance for corporate sourcing of renewable energy, founding Chairman of the Global Solar Council (GSC), Chief Operating Officer at WindEurope for 10 years, founding Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Managing Director of FLiDAR, an offshore wind company. - He has a Master degree in renewable energy systems technology and is fluent in English and French.

Greg Jackson is the founder of Octopus Energy Group, the UK's largest electricity supplier and a global energy and technology company that's driving the affordable, green energy system of the future. Launched in 2016, the Group now serves 9 million customers globally (7.3 million in the UK), is present in 32 countries and operates a £7bn portfolio of renewable energy assets. Octopus drives the tech-enabled green energy transition, innovating relentlessly to make energy better for consumers and the planet. Kraken, Octopus's proprietary green tech platform, is at the heart of the Group's growth and is now contracted to serve over 54 million accounts across the globe. Octopus has attracted over $2.3 billion worth of funding from international energy companies, large pension funds and global investors, and has valued the company at around $9 billion. Greg is a serial tech entrepreneur and has built and sold a number of successful businesses before starting Octopus. He is an angel investor in a wide range of start-ups, and is a key thought leader in the UK on issues related to energy transition, energy costs and innovation.

Florian Mayr is a recognized expert in deals strategy, with a particular focus on energy transition and storage. As a Partner at Strategy&, the global strategy consultancy of PwC, Florian guides clients through the complexities of the energy transition landscape. His expertise for renewables and cleantech is invaluable to financial investors, major corporations, and cleantech innovators, offering insights through due diligence processes, value creation strategies, and strategic development. Florian is also active in authoring industry publications and social media content and is a sought-after speaker, especially on topics related to energy storage. Before joining Strategy&, Florian spent two decades in senior roles at cleantech advisory boutique Apricum, RWE, and McKinsey, consistently focusing on the energy sector, particularly on renewables and cleantech. He holds master's degrees both in engineering and business administration from the Technical University of Berlin.

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Raphaël Héliot is Senior Policy Manager at E-Mobility Europe - the trade association uniting the entire European e-mobility ecosystem. Within his work, he advocates for the promotion of legislative and non-legislative European initiatives which aim at supporting the deployment of e-mobility. He is also involved in several expert groups/ forums of the European Commission (EAFO, Sustainable Transport Forum, etc) where he leads the work on charging infrastructure's deployment, EV's roll out and more sectoral issues including fire safety, skills, grid and urban mobility. Prior to that, Raphaël Héliot has worked in consultancies on transport related topics.

Michael is Executive Advisor to the CEO and a member of the leadership team. Alongside his business development work, Michael heads SolarPower Europe's award-winning market intelligence team. He is lead author of the annually published Global Market Outlook and EU Market Outlook, and works closely with Policy Analyst Raffaele operating the Solar & Storage workstream. Michael has been working in solar for over 20 years. After co-founding Photon-Magazine in 1996, he served in various positions within the Photon group, primarily as Editor-in-Chief of Photon International. In 2014, Michael started MISCHCO, a company offering strategy consulting and communication services to solar companies. In 2016, TaiyangNews, a digital news platform for the solar industry that Michael founded, went online. Michael studied Geology/Palaeontology at Bonn University, Geology at RWTH Aachen, and Mineralogy at Frankfurt University. He speaks German and English.

Julian Jansen is a Managing Director at Fluence responsible for the company's activities across Eastern and Southern Europe, as well as new markets in the Middle East & Africa. Prior to this he led the Fluence strategy, market development, policy and marketing teams across the EMEA region, driving initiatives to accelerate the adoption of energy storage. Julian is also a Vice President of the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE). Julian has dedicated his career to the clean energy sector. Prior to joining Fluence, he was an Associate Director at IHS Markit leading the group's consulting activities on clean energy technologies, having previously managed its global energy storage team and before this establishing the energy storage practice at the consultancy Delta-ee. Julian holds a Master of Science in ecological economics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration in European management from Lancaster University, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science in international management from ESB Business School in Germany.

Markus Elsässer studierte Maschinenbau an der Universität Stuttgart. Er arbeitete bei einem deutschen Hersteller von solarthermischen Anlagen, bevor er mehrere Unternehmen im Bereich der erneuerbaren Energien gründete. Markus Elsässer ist Gründer und Geschäftsführer der Solar Promotion GmbH, einer international tätigen Messegesellschaft mit den Schwerpunkten Erneuerbare Energien, Energiespeichertechnologien, Elektromobilität und Energieeffizienz. 1991 gründete er die Intersolar, die weltweit führende Messereihe für die Solarbranche mit Veranstaltungen auf vier Kontinenten. Im Jahr 2014 wurde die ees (electrical energy storage) Messe ins Leben gerufen, die sich zu Europas größter Messe für Batterien und Energiespeichersysteme entwickelt hat. 2018 gründete er The smarter E, eine Innovationsdrehscheibe für Veranstaltungen und Themen, die die neue Energiewelt vorantreiben: erneuerbare Energien, Dezentralisierung, Digitalisierung und elektrischer Transport. Solar Promotion hat derzeit über 50 Mitarbeiter in Deutschland und ist in 14 Ländern vertreten.

Michael Villa is Executive Director of smartEn - Smart Energy Europe, the European business association integrating the decentralized solutions of the clean energy transition. He joined smartEn in 2018 when he led the advocacy efforts as Head of Policy. Before joining smartEn, he worked as Senior Consultant to provide specific advocacy support to clients both in the EU and Middle East in the energy sector. Among others, he led the Secretariat of a cross-sectorial business organisation, the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE), and supported Knauf Insulation as Public Affairs Adviser in Italy. Michael worked also in the European Parliament for a Cypriot MEP and at the Embassy of Italy in Copenhagen during the UN Climate Change Conference COP15. Michael has a Master at the Institute for European Studies in Brussels and a bachelor degree from the Catholic University of Milan.

Chris is the Secretary General at E-Mobility Europe, leading the Europe's e-mobility ecosystem's representation in Brussels since September 2024. Chris has worked in EU trade associations across the electric vehicle supply chain over the last 14 years. He joined E-Mobility Europe after a decade leading public affairs for Eurometaux, Europe's metals association, specialising in critical raw materials.