GREENTECH FESTIVAL SPEAKERS

Marcel began his professional career at Drees & Sommer and was involved in setting up the new “Circular Design and Construction” department. Since 2019 he has been team leader and since 2024 managing director in the “Cradle to Cradle® Real Estate” division at EPEA GmbH – Part of Drees & Sommer. He works on solutions to bring material and resource flows into a closed cycle at building and city level. Intelligent water/waste management is just as much a part of his remit as the focus on the development of recyclable, flexible and healthy buildings and infrastructures. Associating these areas with opportunities for the construction and property industry in terms of the circular economy round up Marcel’s scope at EPEA.

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.

Graduate real estate economist (ADI), graduate engineer (FH) urban planner at the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences (HfWU); after working for Drees & Sommer, among others, with the HOS Group since Sept. 2020, initially as a member of the management board and head of project development, since May 2021 Managing Director of HOS Projektentwicklung GmbH, since Feb. 2023 Managing Director (CEO) of the HOS Group (Wendlingen).

Heiko Dünkel is a legal expert in data and unfair commercial practices law at the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e. V. – vzbv) in Berlin, where he leads one of the NGO’s legal enforcement units. Former roles include the German Bundestag and as a lawyer for intellectual property and copyright law. He is responsible for vzbv’s significant court cases against Facebook/ Meta, Google and regularly publishes articles on consumer rights enforcement.”

Tony is a land-use specialist with business, scientific and strategic expertise in agriculture, biodiversity and forestry. He obtained his Bachelor’s in NZ, and PhD at Cambridge University. He has published over 160 research papers. Tony’s experience covers public sector, private sector and academia including Shell Forestry, Oxford University and UK Government ODA. From 1995, he worked at ICRAF (Kenya), and from 2011 was Director General until October 2022. He holds honorary positions at Copenhagen University, and is Lifetime Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy. Tony is passionate about the transformative change that the private sector and private investors can bring to development having established partnerships with BNP Paribas, Astanor Ventures, MARS Inc, Danone, CEMOI, Boehringer, Unilever and many institutional investors.

Lothar is a GreenTech entrepreneur and business builder. With Imhotep, he manages a sustainable water-from-air technology and won the Green Award in Berlin 2022. Lothar brings a long experience in business development of high-tech products and has held executive roles in the machinery industry. With a technical background and a PhD from WU Vienna, he is now an entrepreneur focused on innovation and transformation programs for technology-driven clients worldwide. Skilled in global sales, strategic planning and operational optimization, Lothar has a proven track record in commercial management. He is also actively involved in early stage technology investments and business successions. Outside of work, Lothar enjoys outdoor activities and classical music with his family in Austria.

Marie Jacobs is an experienced professional in sustainability and strategy. Her passion for environmentally friendly mobility solutions and innovative in rail transport led her to Stadler Rail in 2021, where she currently assumes the role as Global Head of Sustainability. In this role, she focuses on integrating sustainability principles into all aspects of corporate management, from the supply chain to the final product. Marie likes to advocate for the rail industry as one of the drivers for a sustainable future and also believes that with small and big changes, corporations can contribute their share towards changing where our environment is currently heading – for example through strengthening circularity principles in our way of doing business.

Dipl.-Kfm. ­Christoph Ritzkat has been at Kieback&Peter since 2017. As Chairman of the Board, he bears overall responsibility for the company. An economist by trade, he has many years of experience as a managing director in renowned German family companies with a focus on the metal and electrical industries. Mr. Ritzkat is an internationally educated manager who worked in Brazil, China, France and the United States. Born in Cologne, he is a member of 1. FC Köln and an enthusiastic marathon runner. He is married and has two children.

Carsten Dierkes has been working on stormwater management for more than 25 years, especially on the aspects of water household and pollutants in the urban water cycle aiming at the impact of polluted stormwater on groundwater and surface water as well as the impact of climate change on urban drainage. A hydrogeologist with a doctorate in civil engineering, he has worked on research projects in Germany, USA, Australia, etc. He held a professorship in water management at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, is a member of the Committee on Stormwater Treatment of the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt) and a member of the DIN mirror committee “Water Recycling – Development of Standards for Rainwater and Greywater Utilization”.

Caroline Drischel leads the Corporate Responsibility department of Lufthansa Group which sets the strategy, framework conditions and drives major cross functional projects throughout the airline group. In her role Caroline drives the company to become carbon neutral by 2050 and secure the achievement of the SBTi validated reduction target until 2030. Under her responsibility the group successfully launched the Green Fares Europe and a broad portfolio of sustainable customer choices. Alongside with a strong rating and reporting strategy which was just recently awarded with an A- score by CDP, Caroline also takes the responsibility for an successful external communications and awareness campaign called #MakeChangeFly. The swiss- located mother of two boys holds several positions in Brand, Marketing & Customer Experience.

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.

Thomas Logisch studied mechanical engineering, medical technology and business administration. As a passionate sailor, he is familiar with the challenges of life on the water, and he knows the value of precision, reliability and the selection of the right materials to make reasonable, economical offers in the diverse and sometimes confusing world market of yachting solution providers.

On a mission to make electric mobility accessible to everyone, Toussaint founded Upway in 2021 to offer an unparalleled selection of affordable, thoroughly inspected, and professionally repaired e-bikes, delivered at home under warranty. Upway is available in 7 countries across Europe and the US, and has already refurbished over 20,000 e-bikes across its workshops in Berlin, Paris, New York and Mechelen. Before launching Upway, Toussaint worked at Uber for 8 years, where he led Uber Eats for the UK and Northern Europe markets.

Ms. Quijano-Evans is the Deputy Head of the Crimes that Affect the Environment Programme of UNODC. She has more than 19 years’ experience with UNODC both at HQ and in the field, managing technical assistance programmes for criminal justice agencies in various areas of transnational organized crime and border security. For the past five years she has been managing a programme to address illegal deforestation and timber trafficking through enhancing cross-border cooperation and improving capabilities to detect, inspect and investigate forestry and timber crimes. Prior to joining UNODC, Ms. Quijano-Evans worked for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. She holds a PhD in Criminology, a Master’s degree in political science and a Master degree in Criminology.

Dr. Martin Henrik Baier is the Head of Sustainability of Siemens Smart Infrastructure (SI), a position he has held since July 2022. In this role, Martin is responsible for three sustainability-related action fields. First, sustainability business development, including portfolio and strategy, communications support, and sales force enablement. Second, implementation of the Siemens DEGREE program with a particular focus on reducing the CO2 footprint of SI. Third, compliance with and leverage of sustainability reporting requirements, including EU Taxonomy and CSRD. Martin is a member of SI’s executive leadership team, reporting to the CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure and he has a dotted line to the Siemens Global Head of Sustainability.

Annika Hauptvogel has been Head of Technology and Innovation Management at Siemens since June 2021. In this function she is responsible for the strategy of Siemens Technology. She reports directly to the CTO of Siemens AG. Annika began her career at Siemens Mobility GmbH in 2015. In her former position she was responsible for the development of digital services for rail systems. Annika Hauptvogel holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Munich and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from RWTH Aachen University.

Adam is a sustainability leader with 18+ years of experience in driving positive transformational change for some of the world’s most influential companies. As Google’s Head of Sustainability for EMEA, he works at the intersection of the physical, digital, and natural worlds. He coordinates with Google’s real-world and digital infrastructure teams, from real estate and supply chains to data centers and products, ensuring the company is taking advantage of opportunities to strategically advance sustainability. Previously, Adam held senior sustainability roles at Amazon and M&S, where he developed and delivered sustainability strategies and programs that enhanced their environmental and social performance. He is a Chartered Environmentalist, a Fellow of both IEMA and ICRS, and an Executive Fellow at King’s Business School.

In 2019, Maya Leinenbach launched her Instagram channel with the idea of building her own community to fulfill her dream of writing her own cookbook. Today, she inspires over 6 million subscribers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest as @Fitgreenmind. The company’s mission: to inspire people to integrate a sustainable lifestyle into their everyday lives and provide access to vegan food and products. Fitgreenmind shows that plant-based eating is easy, fun and tastes good to many cultures and generations around the world.

Mr. Walti has been an entrepreneur for most of his adult life, having started eleven companies in addition to working with hundreds of entrepreneurs as EIR, mentor, consultant, and investor. He was the Founding CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), one of the world’s leading clean technology centers, and is currently the CEO of the Network for Global Innovation (NGIN). NGIN assists cleantech entrepreneurs in more than two dozen countries by providing entrepreneur assistance programming, connecting them with investors/customers, and enabling local cities/states to develop their innovation ecosystem. NGIN is the Implementation Partner for UNIDO’s Global Climate Innovation Program, operating in a dozen developing nations. Mr. Walti was named to the Techweek100 as one of the most impactful technology leaders in 2014.

With over 20 years of experience in the software and energy industry, Sebastian Weber is a visionary leader who drives digital transformation at E.ON. Since July 2021 he is CIO overseeing the IT strategy, operations, governance, and the development of digital customer solutions. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and The Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. Previously, Sebastian was responsible for the digital retail transformation within the German Sales organization of E.ON. Before joining E.ON in 2019, Sebastian held management positions at Microsoft, focusing on advising companies on their transformation in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. His understanding of the dimensions of digital transformation has been rounded up in various startups and BCG.