Speakers 2024
Martin serves as the Sustainability Policy & Partnership Lead in the
European Union, where he leads Boeing’s efforts towards
sustainability in the aviation sector, coordinating with partners,
regulators, stakeholders and policy-makers. Martin brings his
experience in consultancy, where he advised international transport and energy
companies on strategic advocacy and stakeholder engagement.
Previous to his activities in Brussels, Martin worked for Société Générale Investment Bank
and the Spanish Embassy in Paris, focusing on regulatory analysis of energy markets and
companies.
Martin holds an MBA in “Energy and Sustainability management” from IPAG Paris
Business school and a BA in Political Science from the University of the Basque Country
Robert serves as APAC Regional Sustainability Lead for Boeing.
His role comprises leading on global policy issues, including ICAO,
and also representing aviation as Sector Champion, for the World
Economic Forum, First Movers Coalition.
Prior to joining Boeing, Robert spent nearly 10 years at the International Air Transport
Association, ultimately as Head, Energy Transition and Policy. He led the global trade
associations work on industry decarbonization including sustainable aviation fuel.
Robert has served for 10 years as a member of the United Nations ICAO Fuels Task
Group, and served 4 years on the Board for the Round Table on Sustainable
Biomaterials. Robert’s studies include a Master’s in Economics from the University of
Queensland. Prior to joining IATA Robert was the Principal Economist for Virgin Australia Airlines.
Dr. Valentin Batteiger
Strategic Research Coordinator Future Aviation Fuels
Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V.
Valentin Batteiger coordinates the research on future aviation fuels at Bauhaus Luftfahrt, a think tank with a long-term focus on future mobility and future air travel. His current research interest is on various alternative fuel pathways that potentially enable large-scale renewable fuel supply for aviation.
He co-authored a frequently cited background paper on the perspective of power-to-liquid pathways for aviation (http://bit.ly/2cowOyf). On the biofuel side, he coordinates the EU Horizon Europe project CIRCULAIR that develops technologies to convert agricultural residues into jet fuel via a coupled advanced biofuel and power-to-liquid pathway (www.project-circulair.eu). Valentin represents Bauhaus Luftfahrt in the aireg initiative (aireg – Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany e.V., https://aireg.de) and serves in the Technical Advisory Board of the Aviation Climate Taskforce (https://aviationclimatetaskforce.org/).
Jean is a cofounder of the SAF+. He has over 30 years of experience in developing and managing renewable energy projects in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South-East Asia, North and Latin America. After launching businesses in Spain and Canada, he became Director of Business Development for one of the world’s leading energy consultants.
Subsequently, he became director of the hydroelectric generation department and senior director of business development for one of the largest independent power generators in Canada. Jean cofounded SAF+ in 2019 to bring his deep expertise to the development of a large commercial SAF project in Canada. Jean holds an eMBA from the John Molson School of Business and a degree in Civil Engineering (B.Sc.) from Concordia University.
Phil began his career in television where he spent five years as a reporter with Sky based across the North of England and Scotland before moving into the world of aviation to take on the role of Media & Public Affairs Manager at Newcastle Airport. After spending three years at the north-east airport, Phil then moved to Leeds Bradford Airport firstly in the role of Aviation Development & Corporate Affairs Manager, before progressing to become the airport’s Head of External Affairs.
Phil led the airport’s public affairs strategy, including lobbying on aviation strategy and capacity and was heavily involved in the airport’s aeronautical and commercial operation, aimed to put customer experience at the heart of the business strategy while boosting the airport’s international connectivity.
He joined Teesside International Airport as Commercial Director in 2019 before taking on the role of Managing Director in 2020. He is responsible for overseeing Teesside International and its current transformation to ensure the airport is ready for the increase in passenger numbers resulting from securing new domestic and holiday services. He is also driving forward the redevelopment of the airport masterplan utilising its land and assets, including its new cargo handling facility, the creation of a £200million business park and plans for the airport to be net zero by 2035.
Vincent de Haes, MSc is sustainable aviation consultant at To70 with expertise on future fuels in aviation, sustainable airports, and carbon as well as non-CO2 emissions. Vincent started his career in aviation conducting research on stakeholder engagement regarding hydrogen infrastructure at the Royal Schiphol Group. He has gathered knowledge and data on current and future aviation developments, including biofuels, synthetic fuels, hydrogen and electric aviation. Within To70, Vincent has developed multiple net zero roadmaps for airports, and has contributed to Dutch sustainable aviation policy, as well as to the Dutch sustainable aviation round table. He is a task lead on Sustainable aviation fuels within the EU Horizon 2020 Green deal Stargate project, and project lead on the EU Non-Co2 MRV framework. He takes the initiative and communication is one of his key assets to engage and collaborate. With skills in stakeholder engagement, socio-technical analysis and project management, Vincent works tirelessly to support the transition of the aviation sector. His goal is to support clients to develop solution focused and innovative strategies for global problems from both business and governance perspectives.
CEO in Nordic Electrofuel since February 2016.
Have successfully developed the company and funded it with seed capital. Have negotiated and secured important contracts together with his team, which includes off-take, utilities, CO2 supply, long term renewable Power, Oxygen deliveries / distribution.
Have built up the organization with a very high qualified management team.
Brought the company through Basic Engineering and ready for construction.
Secured a maximum grant award of €40 million from the EU Innovation Fund in July 2023, were the company also scored highest of all Mid-sized projects achieving 82.5 out of 90 points.
Background and synopsis:
Corporate and investment finance professional with 31 years of Investment banking experience. Very extensive experience from fundraising and M & A Activity. Leading and participating in huge amount of Placements.
Previously top rated and high profiled Investment analyst both domestically and internationally.
Has shown high entrepreneurship through founding and developing an Investment Bank from 2 to 50 employees and going from NOK0 to NOK80 in Revenues in five years.
Co-founder of two investments banks and CEO of both. Have advised many companies which under his guidance have grown to large companies. Have in all jobs been a significant contributor for the Companies where he worked.
Co-Founder and previous board member of Norge Mining and CEO of Norwegian subsidiary Norge Mineraler a company which has reported one of largest mineral discoveries in the world in the recent years.
Since September 2022, Michiel has been serving as the Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice President of AFKL Cargo, and he is also the Strategic Sustainability Lead for Cargo. He joined AFKL 2019 as Management Trainee. During this period, Michiel worked on several assignments. At Inflight Services, he conducted research on the knowledge level of crew and passengers about sustainability. After that, he laid the foundation for the AFKL Cargo SAF program. He then served as a team manager in the cargo operation and gained commercial experience at KLM Netherlands. Ultimately, he became program manager of The Sustainable Flight Challenge for KLM.
Jonathan is based in the English countryside and currently works as the Fuel Consultant for Star Alliance Services GmbH, as well as running his own consultancy company, Penthurst Ltd.
Jonathan joined Star Alliance in June 2017, and works on behalf of 26 airlines globally on joint initiatives including any SAF and fossil fuel purchasing requests or other fuel related issues.
Jonathan previously worked for Virgin Atlantic for 26 years from 1990 until September 2016 and worked in Treasury and Fuel Procurement. In addition to his treasury duties and managing their global fuel exposure throughout this time he helped Virgin operate the first commercial biofuel test flight in 2008.
Jonathan Chaired the IATA Commercial Fuel Working Group for five years, organising these meetings and steering the group through some troubling times. He also represented all the visiting airlines on the Hong Kong Management Association for eight years where he worked on the industries behalf to improve fuel services at the new airport in the most cost-effective manner. On his home front he has always been very active in regard to the supply and storage of aviation fuel into the UK airports and continues to participate in fuel related working groups at Heathrow.
Thomas Fowler is Director of Sustainability & Finance for Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline.
Thomas is a qualified ACCA accountant
Thomas has been working with Ryanair for 20 years, having joined in June 2003. He has held a number of roles in finance – with a particular focus on fuel purchasing, fuel hedging and fuel efficiency.
With his appointment as Director of Sustainability, Thomas is responsible for developing and leading Ryanair’s environmental strategy and its implementation of its pathway to Net Zero.
Daniel leads IATA's Fuel team, focusing on efficiency and reliability of fuel supply – including the ramp up of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) – and advocating for a competitive market and fair access to infrastructure. After being part of the fuel team at LAN (now LATAM) in 2005-2007, he led fuel, safety, MRO and procurement projects at ALTA. Before joining IATA in 2018, he served as Co-Lead in ICAO’s group developing the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) for fuel monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) procedures for CORSIA.
Sarah Wilkin is founder & CEO of FGA, a Booking.com grantee in 2018 when herself and Professor Shiju Raveendran at University of Amsterdam, chemical engineer and catalyst specialist, gained a sustainable travel grant to work on the R&D of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) which was a milestone for SAF awareness, being the first time the tech had been given attention outside of the aviation industry.
Previously she worked in digital, advertising and market research before switching careers in 2018, and brought this knowledge to sustainable aviation developments to push innovation and carbon reduction in the area as well as bring a new perspective.
Sarah went on to introduce and pioneer the concept of turning SAF into a credit/unit in 2019 for access for and cost sharing with the business travel sector, gaining approval from global certification body Gold Standard. She also supported Amex Global Business Travel to bring their work to market and this spurred a host of work on the access of SAF for business travellers through a ‘unit/credit’ which has lead to other mechanisms being developed by industry SAF leaders as well as the Book & Claim approach.
Sarah is now developing work with the business travel and sports sectors through FGA Futures & FGA Sports to speed up the acceleration of the energy transition in travel through consultancy, education, and development of new businesses models.
This year she is a judge for the Business Travel Sustainability Awards and FGA is launching their membership, sponsored by aviation insurers Convex.
Amy Hebert is the CEO and founder of Arcadia eFuels, a company with the mission to combat climate change by producing sustainable fuels with a net-zero carbon footprint. In a project full of firsts, Amy and the Arcadia team have worked to create a first-of-its-kind commercial efuels that is becoming a reality with their first location set to be built in Vordingborg, Denmark.
Amy brings more than 25 years of global industry experience and 12 years of executive leadership positions in the refining, chemical and polymer markets. She has experience in all aspects of business management including developing and executing long term business strategy while managing overall financial wellbeing; experience with JV’s, new plant construction, and plant expansions from idea, through design and startup. Most recently she held the position as Deputy CEO/Chief Commercial Officer for Haldor Topsoe, and previously Vice President Europe with Celanese and Global Vice President Catalysts with Albemarle.
She holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Amy is also a supervisory board member, nomination and audit committee member of IMCD.
Dr. John R. Hannon started his career in oil exploration with Schlumberger and then moved to renewable fuels and chemicals with Mascoma Corp. and Vertimass LLC. His expertise is in process economics, scale-up, technical due diligence, and identifying critical technical areas for cost improvements. He has also served as an independent technical due diligence expert for investment firms in renewable energy space. He holds a PhD in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University. As the Chief Operating Officer of Vertimass LLC, Dr. Hannon directs, administers, and coordinates internal operational activities to include successful advancement and scale-up of the technology, plant operations, partnering, and coordination. He assists the CEO in the development of Corporation’s goals that cover operations, financial performance, and growth of the business.
Susan van Dyk is an expert in the field of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and biofuels with 15 years experience. As a consultant, she helps companies, governments and international organisations to develop and implement sustainable biofuel solutions.
Susan’s expertise includes an in-depth understanding of the technologies for SAF production, their potential and challenges, and research and commercialisation trends. She is also experienced in feedstocks and pretreatment processes, co-processing of biobased feedstocks in petroleum refineries, refinery integration, policy, and sustainability.
She is the author and co-author of numerous influential reports focusing on the application of biofuels and SAF in transportation sectors. These reports were commissioned by organisations such as the International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 39, the International Renewable Energy Agency, Natural Resources Canada, and Transport Canada. She has also published many highly-cited academic papers.
She has worked on several SAF projects funded by Boeing, Suncor, Noram Engineering, the Parkland refinery and other companies, and she acts as a reviewer for the US Department of Energy.
Susan holds a Doctorate in Biochemistry and a Master's degree in law. She works as a consultant and is also a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia.
Laurent is Deputy Managing Director of Airlines for Europe (A4E) where he oversees sustainability policy. A4E is Europe’s largest airline association, based in Brussels. With a modern fleet of over 3,200 aircraft, A4E airlines carried 75% of Europe’s passengers market last year. As an initiator of the European aviation Destination 2050 roadmap, A4E and its members committed to support the European Green Deal and achieve Net Zero carbon emissions for their operations by 2050. Since 2016 Laurent leads A4E’s members’ work on industry decarbonisation, including carbon markets and sustainable aviation fuels. For over 14 years, he has worked with blue chip companies, trade associations, governments and NGOs in the fields of transport, energy and climate change. He holds a master’s degree in political economy from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a BA in international relations from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). Laurent speaks English, French, Spanish and is improving his Icelandic.
Mishal Almutlaq
CIO Alfanar Projects
Alfanar
Ausilio is a partner at ERM in the Sustainable Energy Solutions team where he leads the low carbon fuels and sustainable chemicals sector. He was previously founder and director of sustainable energy strategy advisory firm E4tech. He is a leading expert in low carbon fuels with over 25 years’ experience, and works with a broad range of clients on projects covering technical and commercial due diligence, business and policy strategies, and project and supply chain formation.
He participates in advisory panels for a range of organisations, including the UK Department for Transport Advanced Fuels Fund, the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), the IEA and the Climate Bonds Initiative.
• André is Nuseed’s EU representative, based in Brussels. With more than 15 years of experience, he drives the company’s EU policy advocacy strategy, steering Nuseed Bioenergy Platform and Carinata Programme development in Europe.
• Prior to joining Nuseed, André spent +7 years at the EBB-European Biodiesel Board, the association representing European biodiesel & HVO producers. As Head of EU Policy, André led the EBB’s advocacy work, developing common policy positions and working on joint positions with external stakeholders and coalitions. He also represented the industry in EU expert groups and conferences. He focused on the implementation of the post-2020 EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), the Fit-For-55 package (RED III, aviation, maritime, etc.), multiple European Green Deal proposals and trade matters.
• Before the EBB, André spent +4 years as a consultant at a public affairs agency in Brussels, advising clients in the energy, environment, and transport sectors, with a strong focus on biofuels issues. Prior to moving to Brussels, André worked for various law firms in Portugal focused on public law and policy.
Rahul Malik currently lead the Biofuels and E-Fuel Consulting Study at S&P Global for EMEA Region, as a principal consultant in Oil, Midstream and Downstream department. Being part of S&P Commodity Insights division, Rahul Malik involves in consulting assignments in the Energy sector primarily focusing on due diligence, corporate strategy development and decision making, investment analysis, Decarbonization strategy and market fundamentals analysis.
Also, He had years of technology and technical consulting experience in Refining and Petro chemicals downstream Industry with Axens (IFP Group Technologies) & UOP (A Honeywell Company) Technology companies, with an experience of leading downstream projects in 16 different countries.
He is a Petroleum engineer by background with an additional master’s degree in Energy Management.
Helena Rodriguez
SAF Expert & Sustainability Consultant
NACO - Netherlands Airport Consultants
Helena conducted research on SAF implementation strategies at airports. She specialized in investigating what role airports could play in the context of SAF, which is being developed in a white paper. She has extensive theoretical and practical knowledge on sustainable innovation and sustainable development. She collaborated in the implementation of a CO2 modelling tool for a company to monitor and reduce their footprint in their operations. She has supported an EU 'bridge' project for Horizon 2020, specifically aiding in research for users of smart grids. Additionally, she has experience in sustainability consultancy on industry and buildings sector and is currently working in the aviation sector on sustainability matters.
Douglas Phillips
Senior Policy Advisor, Advanced Fuels
Department for Transport UK
My name is Nadine Braun, a Policy Environmental Advisor at AIRE, specialized in Sustainability and Environmental Law. I am a lawyer and political scientist, and I also hold a Master's degree in European Integration focusing on bioeconomy and environment. Additionally, I am undertaking a VUB Programme specialization focused on ways of Greening the EU Economy. Prior to joining AIRE, I worked in the EU Parliament as well as in international law firms in the fields of corporate and competition law. My role at AIRE includes leading on environmental policy issues such as Refuel EU Aviation, EU ETS, and CORSIA, as well as representing and informing its member airlines of all regulatory developments concerning environmental issues.