Mr Dietmar Preinstorfer, Director of International Relations at the Austrian Energy Regulatory Authority E Control, can draw on extensive professional experience in the international energy arena.

He concluded his university education with a master’s degree from renowned Karl-Franzens University in Graz and immediately started to work at the Austrian Parliament, where he soon advanced to the position of assistant to the Vice President of the Austrian Parliament. At that time, he specialised from his sound economic knowledge basis into energy policy and eventually took up work at E-Control. He was appointed as Vice President and Treasurer of the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) from 2002-2004. After being seconded to the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) as national expert, he returned to E-Control in 2005 to establish the International Relations department.

Since then, he has been working to professionalise E-Control’s international work, structuring the authority’s cooperation and support of CEER, ERGEG (European Regulator’s Group for Electricity and Gas), ECRB (Energy Community Regulatory Board), ACER (Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators), ERRA (Energy Regulators Regional Association) and other partners within and beyond European borders. Through his activities, Mr Preinstorfer has acted as project leader in several EU-funded Twinning projects (www.e-twinning.at). Mr Preinstorfer is Austria’s alternate member in the ACER Board of Regulators.

Ms Maia Melikidze is an executive MBA graduate from Harvard University in the field of Global Strategic Management. Furthermore, she has academic education in International Economic Law at Georgian Technical University and currently is working on renewable energy issues at Business & Technology University (Silicon Valley Tbilisi); In July 2017, Ms. Melikidze was appointed a Commissioner at Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Commission for a 6-year term. Prior to this involvement, she had worked for the President of Georgia Mr. Giorgi Margvelashvili as an economic advisor. Earlier, Ms Melikidze had gained an extensive experience while working in a private sector for 12 years, inter alia at: International Audit Company “Ernst & Young” as a senior auditor; JSC Bank of Georgia – Tax Analyst; JSC Liberty Bank – Head of National Bank of Georgia and IFRS audit cooperation department.

Simultaneously Ms Melikidze is involved in educational process and encourages prosperity of the new generation. She is an associated professor at Business and Technology University, which ensures unique educational expertise by integrating business into technology and facilitating innovations. She supports Silicon Valley Tbilisi and works hard in order for Georgia to become an exporter of education in the region.

Ms Melikidze is currently doing her PhD on renewable energy issues; she published several researches on enhancement renewable energy sources usage in Georgia and established Renewable Energy Resources Laboratory working on legal and economic assessments of renewable energy generation in Georgia.

Ms Melikidze is also an author of several publications at Forbes focusing on diminishing unemployment and ensuring economic growth; involvement of Finance Institutions in mobilizing a public wealth.

Mustafa Yılmaz was born in Nizip/Gaziantep in 1966. Pursuant to his secondary education in Nizip, he completed his higher education in İstanbul University Law Faculty between years 1984-1988. He became a free-lance lawyer in İstanbul in 1989. He worked as a lawyer in the energy sector between the years 1993-2004. In this period, he contributed to the activities of some non-governmental organisations.

He was appointed as the Board Member of EMRA in February 2004. He was assigned as the Second President with a Decision of Council of Ministers in January 2010 and was re-appointed as the Second President in February 2010. Yılmaz was assigned as the President of EMRA in February 2014 for the rest of his term of office. Finally, he was appointed as the President of EMRA on 1 March 2016 for a period of 6 years. Mustafa Yılmaz is married with three children.

Dr Jan Rosenow is a Principal and Director of European Programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), a global team of highly-skilled energy experts advising policy makers across the world on clean energy. Jan has several board appointments including the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy and the Coalition for Energy Savings. Jan also has a passion for energy research. He is an Honorary Research Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. In recognition of his work within the field, Jan was named one of the world’s top 5 energy influencers and has been appointed Special Advisor to the House of Commons as part of their inquiry into decarbonising heating. He is a regular commentator in the national and international media and has been an expert witness to the European Parliament and the House of Commons on many occasions.

Kıvanç Zaimler studied at Istanbul Technical University and Berlin Technical University and held various managerial positions in the private sector in different fields between 1992-2008.

Mr. Zaimler joined Enerjisa in 2008 and held several roles in natural gas trading and as General Manager of distribution and retail companies before serving as the CEO of Enerjisa. In 2018, Mr. Zaimler carried out the IPO of Enerjisa, one of the largest IPOs in that period.

As of July 2018, Mr. Zaimler was appointed as President of the Energy Group at Sabancı Holding. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Enerjisa Enerji and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Enerjisa Üretim. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Sabancı Climate Technologies, which was established in June 2022 to accomplish Sabancı Holding’s investments abroad in the field of energy and climate technologies, and Sabancı Renewables, which was established in the USA.

In addition to his duties in the energy business, Mr. Zaimler has been the Chairman of SabancıDx since 2020; serves as the Chairman of Dx Technology Services and Investment BV (SabancıDx BV), the digital-focused global technology company of Sabancı Holding, established recently in the Netherlands.

Mr. Zaimler is also taking an active role in non- governmental organizations. He serves as the Vice President of the World Energy Council- Türkiye, Member of the Board of Sabancı University Istanbul International Energy and Climate Center (IICEC), Member of the SHURA Advisory Council and Chairman of the Board of ELDER.

Dr. Eren Çam is an Energy Analyst for Electricity at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and is the project manager of IEA Electricity Market Report Series. His work includes the analysis of electricity markets across the world and providing outlooks on electricity demand, supply and emission. He is also an academic lecturer at the University of Cologne, where he teaches energy economics and system integration of renewable energy sources.

Prior to the IEA, Eren Çam led the energy commodities research and consulting team of the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne. He has extensive experience in advising companies in the energy sector, government institutions and industry associations.  He holds a PhD in Energy Economics from the University of Cologne, MSc degree in Energy Science from ETH Zürich, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU).

Zoltán Pataki has been heading the regulatory affairs function in the Hungarian E.ON group of companies since 2021, where he leads an expert team covering wide range of regulatory matters of an integrated energy company both in power and gas. Before E.ON, Zoltán spent 13 years as head of legal in an investment company interested in green energy generation, energy retail, and district heating where he provided legal support to green field project development, acquisition, litigation, contracting and also gained experience in corporate finance and capital market matters.

Dr Jan Rosenow is a Principal and Director of European Programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), a global team of highly-skilled energy experts advising policy makers across the world on clean energy. Jan has several board appointments including the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy and the Coalition for Energy Savings. Jan also has a passion for energy research. He is an Honorary Research Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. In recognition of his work within the field, Jan was named one of the world’s top 5 energy influencers and has been appointed Special Advisor to the House of Commons as part of their inquiry into decarbonising heating. He is a regular commentator in the national and international media and has been an expert witness to the European Parliament and the House of Commons on many occasions.

Zoltán Pataki has been heading the regulatory affairs function in the Hungarian E.ON group of companies since 2021, where he leads an expert team covering wide range of regulatory matters of an integrated energy company both in power and gas. Before E.ON, Zoltán spent 13 years as head of legal in an investment company interested in green energy generation, energy retail, and district heating where he provided legal support to green field project development, acquisition, litigation, contracting and also gained experience in corporate finance and capital market matters.

Dr. Eren Çam is an Energy Analyst for Electricity at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and is the project manager of IEA Electricity Market Report Series. His work includes the analysis of electricity markets across the world and providing outlooks on electricity demand, supply and emission. He is also an academic lecturer at the University of Cologne, where he teaches energy economics and system integration of renewable energy sources.

Prior to the IEA, Eren Çam led the energy commodities research and consulting team of the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne. He has extensive experience in advising companies in the energy sector, government institutions and industry associations.  He holds a PhD in Energy Economics from the University of Cologne, MSc degree in Energy Science from ETH Zürich, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU).

Dr. Priyantha D.C. Wijayatunga is currently the Senior Director, Energy at the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Priyantha has over 35 years of professional experience including 15 years in ADB. He served as the Director, South Asia Energy Division and Chief of Energy Sector Group prior to assuming the current position in June 2023. Before joining ADB, he served as the founder Director General of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka and a Senior Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa. He has extensively contributed in the areas of energy policy and regulation, energy planning and clean energy development.

Priyantha holds a Doctorate in Power Systems Economics from the Imperial College London had been a regular Academic Visitor at Imperial College London during the period 1993-1998. He was a Chairman of the South Asia Forum for Infrastructure Regulators (SAFIR) and was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Electricity Board and Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority. He was an Advisory Board member of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), a Chartered Electrical Engineer and a Member of the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET), UK. He is a Past President of the Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association.

Mr. OZKOC is the Director of the Mediterranean Energy Regulators (MEDREG). He leads MEDREG in developing activities, tools, regulatory standards and good practices to promote a functioning, interoperated, compatible and sustainable regulatory framework in the Mediterranean region.

Prior to MEDREG, he occupied the position of Sector Manager for Energy at the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, managing reform process, implementation and follow-up of pre-accession developments, monitoring and coordinating the programmes/projects under the EU Financial Assistance to Turkey between July 2010 and March 2018.

In 2006, he worked as Senior Gas Expert (Head of Hydrocarbons) for the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna, where he contributed to the development of strategies for gas market structures in the South-Eastern European Countries and monitored the compliance of Members with the EU’s internal energy directives.

He worked for the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) from its establishment in 2001 until 2009. He was involved in the preparation and implementation of the implementing legislation of the Natural Gas Market Law. Following his graduation, he joined Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS) in 1994 as a natural gas engineer and specialised on natural gas and LNG sales and purchase agreements as well as gas infrastructures.

He received a BS in Metallurgical and Materials Science Engineering and later an MS from the Middle East Technical University (METU).

Adrian Kelly is a Senior Principal Project Manager at EPRI Europe working in the Grid Operations & Planning team.

He leads research and projects in EPRI in the area of transmission real-time operations situational awareness, in particular developing research for the control center of the future. His research interests and projects include HMI and display design, alarm management and artificial intelligence application in real-time system control, operations security standards and the interface between the real-time system and protection. He was a key member of the research group developing the Learning to Run a Power Network (L2RPN) challenge working towards a reinforcement learning based co-pilot for network operators. He has developed a framework for developing AI/ML use cases for the transmission sector and leads the AI.Grid Interest Group at EPRI, including the development of the AI/ML Use Case Register.

Previously, Adrian worked for 9 years in the Operations and Planning departments of EirGrid, the transmission system operator in Ireland, including working as a real time grid, balancing and market operator.

Adrian received a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from University College Dublin in 2007. He is a chartered (professional) engineer with Engineers Ireland and is an active member of CIGRE and IEEE. He lives in Dublin with his wife and two children.

Lucy Yu is CEO at Octopus Energy’s Centre for Net Zero, a research unit that delivers pioneering research to make the future energy system a reality.

Lucy has nearly 20 years of experience in technology, policy and regulation. She has led teams in the UK government’s Cabinet Office, Department for Transport, and Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), and at the UN’s International Telecommunication Union. Her work has focused on future mobility and cities; sustainability and renewable energy; and AI, data, and digital technologies. 

Outside government she has run operations, public policy, research and strategy functions for some of Europe’s brightest startups including SwiftKey (AI); Voi Technology (micromobility); Cucumber (software development); and Five (autonomous vehicles). She has been named a Financial Times Top 100 Most Influential BAME Leader in tech, a Diversity UK Top 100 Asian Star in UK Tech and Top 5 Star in GreenTech.

Lucy is a Non-Executive Member of the Board at the Connected Places Catapult and E3G, and an Associate Fellow of Technology and Public Policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. She is a trained scientist and holds a degree in chemistry from Imperial College specialising in computational and physical chemistry.