GREENTECH FESTIVAL SPEAKERS 2020

Irene Feige heads the Circular Economy Strategy Initiative and is Co-Head of Climate Strategy of BMW Group since January 2020. Irene is convinced that achieving sustainability leadership means systematic transformation of the company across the whole value chain. Heading the Institute for Mobility Research in Munich, a research establishment of BMW Group, Irene also takes a systematic approach in analyzing future challenges in a cross-sectoral setting in the realm of mobility of the future. Future scenarios for the transport sector in the next 20 years represent the main research area of the Institute. Since this year the institute has a new research focus on sustainability. Before joining BMW Group in 2006 Irene Feige was an assistant professor at the Institute for Public Finance at University of Innsbruck. Irene Feige holds a Ph.D. in economics.

Prior to Salesforce, Patterson served as Chief Executive of BT Group from 2013 to 2019. During his tenure at BT, he led the £15billion acquisition of EE, launched BT Sport, expanded BT’s cyber security practice and championed BT’s social purpose agenda. He joined BT in 2004 as Managing Director of Consumer and joined the board as CEO BT Retail in 2008. Prior to BT, Patterson spent four years at Virgin Media and nine years at Procter & Gamble. He graduated from Cambridge University with a Master of Engineering.

Since September 2018 Annette Maier has been Managing Director, Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Google Cloud. She oversees Google’s Cloud business growth in the DACH region. She supports customers in driving innovation and growth by using Google’s unique network and leading Cloud solutions. She is known for disruption to make a change. Annette looks back at more than 15 years of management and sales successes in the IT sector. Prior to joining Google, she spent six years at VMware, where she most recently held the position of a Vice President & General Manager Germany. Annette drove VMware‘s business growth in the enterprise, commercial and partner ecosystems. She also held the position as Director of Global Accounts in CMEA and led the Enterprise Account Team. Before that, Annette spent more than six years at Hewlett Packard, where she held senior manager positions like Vertical Lead for HP-Software Germany or Interim Country Manager HP-Software in Switzerland. Annette holds a degree in business administration from the University of Cologne. As a mother of three she enjoys running, sailing in summer and skiing in winter with her family.

Born in Italy and raised in the US, Grazia leads Airbus’ ambition to build the future of flight.
She began her career as part of the Eurofighter Consortium before joining Airbus in Germany in 2002 where she has contributed to the A380, A350, A320, and A400M programs as she moved into more senior management positions including Technical Authority for all Airbus aircraft.  Grazia was Executive Vice President and Head of Engineering of Airbus Defence and Space before she was becoming CTO in May of 2018.  As such, she is a member of the Airbus Executive Committee, the first woman to be so appointed.
Today she leads a transnational team that spans the globe with facilities in Europe, China, and the Americas that is leading the transformation to sustainable, electric, autonomous and zero-emission air transportation.

In his younger years, Boyan Slat developed a concept that uses natural oceanic forces to enable passive capture of plastic from oceans. With the invention of the Interceptor, 80% of the plastic can be filtered out. As CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, Boyan oversees the operations, research, and engineering of the organization; by doing so, he has co-authored several scientific papers and holds multiple patents.

Rebecca is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Unilever. She is responsible for driving through advocacy and partnerships, transformational change on priority areas of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan: climate change and eliminating deforestation; sustainable agriculture & smallholder farmers; water, sanitation and hygiene; and opportunities for women.
Rebecca is a Non-Executive Director at WSUP – Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor.

“As a global leader in Insurance and Asset Management, Climate action is a dedicated and long-term goal for us at Allianz. Our approach is to anticipate the risks of climate change, work to protect and care for our customers and enable the transition to a low-carbon economy. We always strive to continually improve the environmental performance of our operations. In combination with our vision to enabling innovation around the globe, the Greentech Festival is a perfect opportunity to not only showcase our dedication but also meet new peers and share experiences.”

Carsten Bether is one of the founders of Kiwigrid and its current Chief Product Officer. He oversees the company’s product and platform development, including the recent changes enabling the opening of KiwiOS X and Energy Manager Voyager.
Before forming Kiwigrid, Carsten was part of several start-ups in the fields of energy, e-commerce and sustainability, mostly focusing on product management and software development.
Carsten has an industrial engineering degree from TU Dresden and a PhD in computer science from TU Berlin. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time in the countryside with his two children and loves to participate in various outdoor sports and recreational activities.

Edward leads Facebook’s Sustainability team, developing and executing Facebook’s approach to efficient and responsible business operations. Beyond operating responsibly, the team leads efforts to support global communities and make a positive impact on the world by minimizing Facebook’s energy, emissions and water impact, protecting workers and the environment in its supply chain, and partner with others to develop and share solutions for a more sustainable world. Prior to joining the Sustainability team, Edward served for over seven years as Director and Associate General Counsel at Facebook, advising on US and international privacy laws, regulations, and industry practices. Before joining Facebook, Edward was Deputy Chief Privacy Officer at Sprint, where he led the Legal Department’s Office of Privacy. Edward started his legal career at a DC-based communications and tech law firm advising clients on privacy, telecom, and other regulatory matters. Edward also serves on the Board of SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders), a small non-profit working to empower LGBTQ youth in the Washington, DC metro area.

Norbert Ruecker is Head of Economics & Next Generation Research at Bank Julius Baer. Within the team, he has an analytical emphasis on commodity markets and specifically energy. Additionally, he focuses on the structural changes in world energy markets and the implications for global mobility, as part of the Next Generation thought leadership. Norbert Ruecker is a member of Julius Baer’s Responsible Investment Committee. He joined the Research department in 2006 after finishing his studies of Economics at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). He started as an equity analyst, specialising in clean energy and oil & gas and has accumulated sound knowledge in this space thanks to personal interest and university studies. Besides banking, he is engaged in a Swiss energy business association and a Swiss foundation for African wildlife conservation.

Ralph Kleinschmidt is CTO in thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG and responsible for the R&D activities in the fertilizer, chemical and polymer business of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, Business Unit Chemical and Process Technologies.
Ralph Kleinschmidt has held different Management positions at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions since 2001.
He received Diploma & PhD in the field of Polymer Chemistry and Catalysis at Max-Planck Institute for coal research, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

“For us at Audi managing a sustainable supply chain is about responsibility.
Responsibility towards our environment and our natural resources.
Responsibility towards the people working in and for our supply chain.
And last but not least responsibility to our customers.
At Audi we are convinced that within and through our supply chain we can make a difference.”

“Sustainable premium mobility is only possible with consistently environmentally friendly production. This is what we are working on with Mission:Zero.”

Since February 1, 2016, Dr. Rüdiger Recknagel has been the Environmental Officer for the Audi plant in Ingolstadt and at the same time Environmental Officer for AUDI AG within the Volkswagen Group. He also holds the position of Management Spokesman of the Audi Environmental Foundation.

Prof. Dr. Christopher Hebling is director of the division of Hydrogen Technologies at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. His division comprises 100 scientists, engineers and students which do research in the field of PEM water electrolysis, PEM fuel cells for the mobility sector and synthetic fuels from green hydrogen and CO2 (Power to Liquid). Next to the research in materials, components and systems, the institute comprises energy system models in order to describe and quantify the various scenarios to reduce the CO2 emissions by at least 80% until the year 2050. Hebling did his physics PhD in the field of Silicon Photovoltaics at the University of Constance. In 1999, he founded and ran the Micro Energy Technology group at Fraunhofer ISE and was then appointed Department Head in 2001 and Director Division in 2011. He is member of various national and international advisory boards such as the ENERGY STORAGE EUROPE and JAPAN or the HySA flagship program in South Africa

“We notice that not only start-ups, but also large corporations, have a lot of know-how on the subject of sustainability and the will for change is increasingly evident. We want to be a stage and playground for thought leaders who act as role models and offer alternatives. The first results are promising, but we’re only at the beginning of this long journey – let’s all set out on it together.”

Karin von Funck is a member of the global Consumer Practice Leadership Team at BCG, which she joined in 2001. She leads the FMCG sector in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. During her years of consulting, Karin von Funck has been leading a broad set of projects mainly in the consumer goods industry. She has experience in a diverse set of topics, ranging from go-to-market to operational topics as well as organization questions.

She holds a PhD in business economics from Trier University, a MBA from EGADE, Tec de Monterrey and a diploma in business administration from Reutlingen University.

Raffaello Cervigni is a Lead Environmental Economist with the World Bank, and the Program Manager of the Bank’s Global Program on Sustainability – GPS and the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) partnership. He has a Masters (University of Oxford) and Ph .D. (University of London) in economics, and over 20 years of technical and management experience leading large multi sector teams on programs, projects and research financed by the World Bank, The Global Environment Facility, the European Union, and the Italian Government, in sectors such as natural resources, agriculture, water, energy, transport, coastal zones/ ocean economy. Raffaello is the author or co-author of over 50 publications and technical papers, including 20 books or book chapters.

Ute Klamert became WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Advocacy in February 2019. In this role, Ms. Klamert oversees the organization’s partnerships and resource mobilization activities with governments, UN agencies, private sector and other partners.
Prior to joining WFP, Ms. Klamert served as Director General for the European, Mediterranean Region, and Central Asia Department with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), a position she held since 2015. In this role, Ms. Klamert, managed complex change processes and oversaw the strategic development for sectoral topics such as the humanitarian-development-stabilization nexus and fostered innovation for delivery modes in fragility, conflict and violence contexts. She mobilized a 25 percent budget increase in the 2016/17 biennial budget for GIZ operations in the MENA region and a substantial increase in EU funding for the Department. In this role, Ms. Klamert managed a budget of approximately 1 billion Euros per annum and around 5,500 staff in decentralized and multi-disciplinary teams across seven divisions and 34 GIZ Country Offices.
Ms. Klamert brings to WFP over 28 years of experience in development cooperation, partnerships, resource mobilization, strategy and operations, including 15 years in senior leadership positions. She started her career in the legal department with GIZ in 1991 and has, among other posts, served as Regional Director for Southern Africa and for South East Asia as well as Director General for the South East Asia, Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean Department.
A German national, Ms. Klamert holds a law degree from the University of Regensburg. She is married with two daughters, with whom she shares a love of skiing.

Holger Rubel is leading BCG’s worldwide Green Energy Sector and is also leading the global sustainability initiative at BCG. He is a core-member of the Energy and Industrial Goods practices at BCG, which he joined in 1997.

In his role he oversees and coordinates the topics and topic leaders for solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, biomass/biofuels, energy efficiency, waste management technologies and carbon related topics. Holger also leads the Circular Economy topic within BCG, thus covering technology aspects, waste value chain elements like waste collection, handling/sorting, processing/re-use and related business models as well as recycling value stream analysis.

Holger studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and Heidelberg University. He holds a M.Phil. degree from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in Semiconductor Technology from the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart. He completed part of his studies in economics and technology management at the University of Stuttgart.

Mark Freymüller looks back on over 20 years of international experience within Sales, Marketing and business development of commercial vehicles.

Before continuing as CEO of Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility, Freymüller has acted as Vice President of Commercial Vehicle Eco friendly Business Development at Hyundai Motor Group.

Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility Based in Switzerland, Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility AG is a joint venture between the Hyundai Motor Company and the Swiss company H2 Energy. HHM is promoting zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell mobility through a unique business case in Switzerland which is about putting fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) on the road and securing the necessary refuelling infrastructure to support them.

Elizabeth’s career has been in financial services. She was CEO of Allianz Global Investors, initially for Europe and then globally, from 2005 to 2016. She continued to act as an advisor to the company in various capacities until the end of 2019. Elizabeth was previously at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (formerly Mercury Asset Management), Coopers & Lybrand, where she was a consulting partner and at Sun Alliance.

She is a non-executive director of Pearson plc, BAE Systems plc and Morgan Stanley Inc.

She is chair of the Impact Investing Institute; a director of the Green Finance Institute; serves on the investment committee of the Leverhulme Trust; is a member of the CFA Future of Finance Council, AQR Asset Management Institute, the Committee of 200 and the 300 Club.

As well as being a trustee of the British Museum, Elizabeth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is also a published author of crime thrillers. She was awarded a CBE in January 2015 and a DBE in June 2019 for services to the economy and financial services.

In 2016 Elizabeth received an honorary doctorate from the London Institute of Banking and Finance (formerly the IFS University College) and in June 2019 she was made an honorary fellow of the London Business School.

“Being at the forefront of electrified and zero-emission mobility over several years, we are clearly committed to further invest and keep our leadership position. One proof point is our IONIQ line-up brand which we announced weeks ago. But Hyundai is going beyond the provision of zero-emission vehicles. We are already taking next steps in becoming a Mobility Solutions Provider. This goes into creating full scale zero-emission mobility ecosystems providing the best possible support for sustainable traveling to our customers.”

Tanja is passionate about helping entrepreneurs establish, grow, and scale their startups and has been an active investor in over 80 Startups since 1998 across various stages. After working for various Funds and a Family Office, she also co-founded and ran Wayra and Startupbootcamp Smart Transportation and Energy, where she helped clients such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Airbus, Cisco, here, Vinci, Kühne + Nagel, SBB, EnBW, Telefónica, Siemens Mobile, and DB on their innovation journeys. Tanja is recognized annually, since 2016 and by EU-Startups, as one of the top 50 most influential women in VC and Startups in Europe and is also an expert advisor to the European Commission fund.

“We have set ourselves ambitious goals at Deutsche Bahn: we aim to be climate neutral by 2050, and to cut CO2 emissions by over 50% by 2030. By 2038, we will have completed the transition to 100% renewable energy in our electric current. To achieve this, we are going full steam ahead with the group’s Green Transformation.”

Laura is a top 30 under 30 journalist and podcast host with Red Bull, previously also working for dpa and Business Insider. Furthermore, she is the co-founder of the “Meet Your Mentor“ interview series whch features leaders such as Jay Shetty, Rutger Bregman, Sophia Amoruso and Andy Puddicombe. She also consults tech companies like Facebook, Uber, Google, SAP and Allianz in the field of storytelling.

Within the management of Huawei Germany, Ingobert leads the public policy team & activities directly reporting to the global management. The focus of his work includes political and regulatory issues regarding digitalization and the expansion of digital infrastructures. In this context, Ingobert regularly contributes to according platforms, e.g. as chairman of the BITKOM “Communication Technologies” committee, speaks at relevant conferences and attends media events for Huawei. Prior to that, Ingobert was a senior consultant at Prognos AG, accompanying infrastructure projects in the energy and gas industry. He holds a master’s degree in International Politics from the University of Edinburgh and bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Philosophy & Economics.

Ezgi Barcenas is the Global Vice President of Sustainability for AB InBev, the world’s leading brewer where sustainability isn’t just part of our business, it is our business.
Ezgi is responsible for AB InBev’s environmental sustainability vision and strategy, particularly the brewer’s plan to achieve its ambitious 2025 Sustainability Goals, which are integrated into the company’s business strategies across supply chain, procurement, and sales functions. She and her team focus primarily on agricultural development, climate action, water stewardship, packaging sustainability and responsible sourcing for the company’s global supply chain, which spans more than 50 countries.
She also oversees the 100+ Accelerator, which identifies and supports start-ups with solutions to today’s greatest sustainability challenges. Additionally, she works closely with the AB InBev’s brand teams on cause marketing initiatives and partnerships, and with the Investor Relations team on Socially Responsible Investor (SRI) outreach.
Ezgi has been with AB InBev since 2013. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, a Master’s degree in Environmental Health from Harvard University School of Public Health and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The WFP Innovation Accelerator was named by Fast Company as Best Workplace for Innovators and Innovative Team of the Year 2020 for its work in identifying, nurturing and scaling disruptive startups and innovations to end global hunger. Innovations include blockchain, agri-tech, supply chain and new businesses to end hunger. In 2019, innovations supported by the Accelerator positively impacted the lives of 1.4 million people globally. Most recently, the Accelerator also runs programmes for external partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in primary healthcare and others.

Prior to starting the Accelerator, Bernhard co-founded the award-winning ShareTheMeal app that crowdsources funding for hungry children, and built-up WFP’s Business Innovation team. Bernhard was previously a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for global tech and industrial goods companies, and holds three Masters degrees from HEC Paris and Vienna University of Business.

“Securing tomorrow’s safe, efficient and sustainable energy supply is one of TÜV NORD’s key visions, as well as my own. With hydrogen, for example, we have finally reached the point where we can see the actual uses, whether as a storage medium, as a driver of clean mobility or as a power and heat supply. So now is the time to bring projects to life! The GREENTECH FESTIVAL offers us the stage to move from talking to action.”

Lena is a Product Designer and the Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of air up, the world’s first drinking-bottle that flavors water just by scent – sustainable and without sugar or artificial additives. Originally, Lena developed the first prototype of air up in her Bachelor Thesis at the University of Schwäbisch Gmünd which led to founding her own start-up in 2019. Since then, over 300,000 drinking systems have been sold which saved over 10 million PET bottles and over 310 tons of sugar.

„The future belongs to clever products and technologies that offer solutions for our health and our environment, without having to sacrifice our needs and desires.”

Stewart Rogers is a journalist, analyst, public speaker, author, startup founder, musician, and “digital nomad.” He is editor-in-chief at Badass Times, managing editor at Grit Daily, and a regular contributor to other publications such as Hackernoon.

Michael Lemke has 28+ years’ experience in wireless and ICT across all aspects of the business (R&D, product management, marketing, business development, technology innovations, government relations, regulations etc.).

After completing his thesis in nuclear physics TU Dresden, Michael joined Siemens in 1992. He worked as R&D software developer as well as product manager for mobile services, internet, and network security and also led the international LTE qualification program on behalf of Siemens.

In 2007, Michael joined Huawei with focus on LTE technology, product management, wireless marketing and mobile broadband business development across Europe. In 2010, Michael joined the Huawei Deutsche Telekom Key Account as head of wireless marketing. Since 2016, Michael has supported the Huawei Germany head-office as senior technology principal for ICT topics like national broadband and digitalization (spectrum regulation, connected car, Industry 4.0, IOT, 5G, artificial intelligence).

Watson covers sustainability-news, talks to experts, looks into businesses and accompanies activists. Sustainability is not just a trend for watson and their readers, it’s a way of life. As watson’s Deputy Editor in Chief Tobias does a little bit of everything, including directing the sustainability section and walking the office dog Bolle.

Each sound in his mind-blowing performances is played by robots. Small motors beat on metal, 3D-printed robo-kalimbas vibrate with deep bass sounds, salvaged parts from old hard drives click and cut. Over several years Moritz Simon Geist committed to build, tweak, test and play all of his DIY robotic instruments.

Kat Borlongan is a specialist in open innovation and the international digital ecosystem. She is the director of the French Tech mission, a government-backed movement bolstering France as one of the best countries in the world to start and scale global tech champions. Beginning her career at Reporters Without Borders and the UN, she co-founded Five by Five in 2013. She also worked with many startups, including as a Techstars Paris and mentor in Google, Numa and Startup Bootcamp accelerators.

Frank is overseeing the largest Space Entrepreneurship network in the world. His team has initiated over 360 industry transfers, supported nearly 1000 start-ups. He supports the exploitation of the ESA patent portfolio and promotes the ESA BA (Business Applications) offer of ESA which have supported additional overt 500 business cases. In the next 3 years ESA Space Solutions will invest 220 million euros in Seed.

“Sustainability has become a central policy prerogative in the leading European economies, supported by forward-looking innovators creating open source, interoperable solutions for a more efficient and equitable market design. Enacting change to benefit the individual and the environment is what we strive to do at Grid Singularity and what the GREENTECH FESTIVALl promotes.”

“The world needs more energy to prosper and cleaner energy to tackle climate change. The task is tremendous – it needs all hands on deck to develop, mature and introduce green technologies to power progress. While start-ups can bring fresh thinking and creativity to the table, large energy corporations can help getting smart solutions to scale so they make their way to the market affordably and thus reach impact that truly matters. GREENTECH FESTIVAL is a fantastic platform to create such coalitions of the willing.”

“The clear commitment of our brand towards sustainability is also reflected in our partnership with the GREENTECH FESTIVAL. We are delighted to be a founding partner, to promote and support sustainable ideas at the Green Awards, which contribute to a better future worth living in. Thereby we would like to encourage innovators to push their ideas even further.“

The technology and bioprocess developed by Solar Foods allow for a whole new kind of nutrient-rich protein to be produced using air and electricity. The Solein protein, which is now in the pilot production phase, is 10-100 times more climate-friendly than any animal or plant-based alternative.

Daniel Egger is an engineer with MSc (ETHZ) in industrial engineering and many years’ experience in Quality Management, Product and Process Development and Marketing & Sales at different industrial companies.

“Companies and their CEOs need courage and perseverance in order to successfully lead the ecological transformation. They must be open to a radical change in mindset as well as a firm willingness to work together. Digital business models that want to have a future must not turn a blind eye to ecological questions. The ecological transformation is a generational question and a feat of strength, which politics and business can only tackle hand in hand.”

“Over the past 10 years, businesses have sprung up to solve problems that didn’t exist a decade ago, and consumer needs and demands have evolved accordingly. This has created a range of opportunities for investors looking for new fuel for their portfolios by investing in a growing pool of thriving, forward-thinking firms and tech-savvy start-ups.”

“Plastic Bank is a social enterprise committed to stopping ocean plastic and fighting poverty while providing meaningful opportunities for brands to demonstrate environmental and social impact.”

Since winning the Formula One World Championship in 2016, Nico Rosberg has embarked on a career as an entrepreneur and investor in green technologies and sustainable mobility start-ups. Nico Rosberg’s drive as an entrepreneur is fuelled by the will to drive positive change for society and mankind. He pursues this approach not only in his business activities, but also as an ambassador for sustainable change in mobility through technological innovation. With his entrepreneurial commitment, Rosberg supports numerous initiatives that address the most pressing challenges of our time and is invested in several companies offering disruptive solutions in the transition to a sustainable economy in line with the UN Sustainable Development goals. In 2019, he co-founded the GREENTECH FESTIVAL. “Green technologies are our future. With the GREENTECH FESTIVAL, we are now making this future tangible and aim to further inspire people around the world to keep developing sustainable innovations.”

“I’m looking forward to hosting the world’s premier environmental event once again with genuine excitement! This is THE cutting edge event where the sharpest minds and corporates gather to discuss and intend to solve issues in climate and environment, – don’t miss it!”