GREENTECH FESTIVAL SPEAKERS

Dr. Philip Lettmann, born in 1965, studied Business Administration in Cologne, Paris, Oxford and Berlin. Before joining WALA (https://www.wala.world/en/) in 2004 Dr. Philip Lettmann held a senior position within a private equity firm in Germany, specialized in the financing of midsize growth companies. With Dr. Hauschka / WALA Group he started as the director of the Infrastructure & Supply Department, which included overseeing the areas of finance, planning, logistics and IT. Until 2020, he was CFO of WALA. In July 2020, he became a member of the Board of Directors of WALA foundation (https://wala-stiftung.de/en/), the owner of the WALA Group. Since 2021 he holds the chairmanship of the Excecutive Board of WALA Heilmittel GmbH.

During his studies at the Technical University of Munich, Philipp Glonner gained extensive experience in engineering and management. He worked independently on automotive projects for alternative drive systems and had successful exits in the start-up sector. As co-founder and CEO of ARTHUR, a mobility company in Munich, he has led the development of one of the most advanced hydrogen buses offering integrated virtual twin and planning services for the transport industry.

Raised on an organic farm in northern Germany, Philipp Schröder, was Country Director of Tesla Germany & Austria and managing director of sonnen. He now heads 1KOMMA5° as CEO and Co-Founder, closed the largest CleanTech Series A in Europe in 2022 and is on track to build a vertically integrated one-stop-shop for Photovoltaik, heat pump and electric charging to revolutionize the energy market.

Pierre Paslier is a London-based Innovation Design Engineer who has spent his career exploring the intersection of design and technology. He started his career as a Packaging Engineer for L’Oréal. His passion for innovation led him to study design at the Royal College of Art. Pierre is now the cofounder and CoCEO of Notpla a startup that creates sustainable packaging materials from seaweed to replace plastics. Notpla won Prince William’s £1,000,000 Earthshot Prize in 2022. Pierre has a Masters degree from the RCA’s Innovation Design Engineering program and INSA de Lyon. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of Imperial College London Dyson School of Design Engineering.

Rachael Ross is a Forest Carbon Scientist at Renoster, with a focus on using remote sensing to evaluate and monitor carbon projects. She holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Science from Yale University, where her masters thesis focused on analyzing land use and biodiversity trends in northern Tanzania to evaluate the efficacy of conservation initiatives. Rachael is passionate about increasing the quality and transparency of forest carbon projects. She has over 10 years experience spanning carbon markets, NGOs, and major research institutions.

Regina is the Head of the SDG2 Acceleration at the United Nations World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator. She is leading the Sourcing, Bootcamp and Sprint Programmes with focus on innovations to disrupt hunger. Before joining the Accelerator, Regina was a Partner with a focus on Consumer Goods & Retail at a leading Strategy Consulting firm. She supported customers in more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America in developing, innovating and growing their businesses. She has a broad understanding of the different topics along the food value chain.

Ricarda Lang became party leader of the German Green Party (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN) in February 2022. Prior to her work in the Green Party, she was Speaker of the Green Youth (2017-2019). She went on serve as deputy chairwoman and Speaker for Women’s Policy of the Green Party (2019-2022). In September 2021, she was elected as a Member of the German Bundestag, where she sits on the Committee for Family Policy.

Robert is the Coordinator for industrial cooperation at DLR in Munich, DLR´s largest site focused on space applications. His transfers scientific developments into business. Typical domains are Robotics, Earth Observation, Satellite Navigation, Communication, Sensors and Big Data, AI. Verticals served are ITC, Automotive, Transport, Aircraft, UAV/UAS, Geospatial/GIS, Utilities, Energy, General Industry, Medical, Public Sector and Environmental. Additionally DLR forsters own deep tech start-ups and is partner of ESA Business Incubation. Robert holds a master diploma in Economic Geography from both Munich Universities, and has a background in Business Strategy, Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship.
Prior to joining DLR in 2009, Robert gained experience during 10 years in Siemens’ GIS/Geospatial Division. Robert is co-inventor of patents in Automated Driving and HD Mapping.

Rolf Stahlhofen is a renowned musician, UN Ambassador for Sustainability, and founder of the “Water Is Right” foundation. With a successful music career as a founding member of the German band “Söhne Mannheims” as well as a solo artist, Stahlhofen leverages his artistic talent to draw attention to urgent global challenges and inequitable distributions and to inspire action. Since the establishment of the Water Is Right foundation in 2011, it has already provided access to clean water and sanitary facilities for over 5 million people. With his tireless commitment, Rolf has set a goal to provide clean drinking water to 100 million people in the next 10 years. He has been appointed by the UN as a “Messenger of Truth”.

Romi Sumaria is an entrepreneur, dedicated mentor, and investor, uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology, social change, and environmental sustainability. He is committed to advancing frontier technologies, ensuring equitable access, and leveraging these innovations for the good. Currently he’s the Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Terra Quantum, one of the leading quantum technology companies globally. Working across all major sectors he is responsible for the scaling and commercialisaiton of solutions in quantum algorithms, compute and security whilst also supporting the growth of robust ecosystem.  His diverse career path has seen him making significant impacts across multiple sectors, including founding The Oblique Life a community of impact focussed business leaders and working in investment banking at HSBC.

Rowena, Team Lead Interior Design at Drees and Sommer studied and began her career in Australia before coming to Germany over 20 years ago. Her key focus is workplace design, having completed projects for local and international clients both here and overseas. She’s passionate about sustainable design – beyond certification, beyond measuring and offsetting carbon footprints. Creating healthy, beautiful spaces that people want to spend time in with materials that don’t just maintain the status quo on sustainability but actively improve their quality. She aims to inspire clients and coworkers to approach sustainability with integrity and optimism as every step counts.

From farm roots to food science – Sandra’s journey from a farm upbringing to a doctoral thesis about milk proteins reflects her deep connection to dairy. After finishing her studies in Kiel, she was exploring plan-based dairy alternatives for Nestlé in Switzerland. Understanding the limitations of plant proteins, Sandra was seeking for a more disruptive approach to revolutionise the dairy industry. She joined Formo in 2019 as first employee and started to build up the food R&D knowledge, team and facilities. Today, Sandra is leading the Food R&D Department at Formo and is aiming for animal-free cheese that consumers and the environment love.

Sandrine Dixson-Declève is an environmental scientist and an international climate change, sustainable development, sustainable finance, and complex system thought leader. She is Co-President of the Club of Rome and divides her time between leading the Club of Rome, advising on non-Executive corporate and academic Boards, lecturing, and facilitating difficult conversations. She is a TED global speaker and was recognised most recently by Reuters as one of 25 global female trailblazers and by GreenBiz as one of the 30 most influential women across the globe driving change in the low carbon economy and promoting green business.

Saqib is a highly accomplished market research professional and a data storyteller in the international energy industry. With over a decade of experience in the field, he currently serves as the Chief Product Officer at PTR Inc. His expertise lies in the power grid and e-mobility equipment sectors. Saqib has overseen numerous global market research studies throughout his career and provided valuable insights to key decision-makers at various Fortune 500 companies. He is a member of the editorial board for Transformers Magazine and a member of the Advisory board of CWIEME Berlin and Middle East Energy. In addition to his market research career, Saqib has worked as an Electrical Engineer in the manufacturing sector.

Sarah is Head of Start Up Innovations & Ventures at the Hochland Group and coordinates group wide activities in Hochlands efforts to find new sustainable raw materials for future food developments. Sarah holds a PhD in biotechnology from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. Before joining Hochland, Sarah worked as an international key account manager for a biotech company with customers from the food industry, headed a biosafety and biosecurity project for the German armed forces in Georgia and as a lobbyist for the German chemical industry association raising awareness for biotechnological topics with government representatives.