Professor

Prof. Patricia Werhane

Patricia Werhane is an adjunct teaching professor of business administration and a Center for Professional Responsibility Faculty Fellow. She joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, and also serves as a visiting scholar at the University of St. Thomas. From 2003-2014, she was Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics in the Kellstadt School of Management at DePaul University, during which time she was also managing director for the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. Werhane was also a Fulbright specialist for the US Department of State from 2013-2018. She earned a BA in philosophy from Wellesley College in 1957, and an MA and PhD in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1964 and 1969, respectively.

Head of Regional Representation for South Asia, European Investment Bank

Dr. Nina Fenton

Nina Fenton holds a doctorate (DPhil) in economics from the University of Oxford. She has worked with three of the world’s largest international financial institutions, covering countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. She has extensive experience in strategy and economic analysis, with a focus on emerging markets and developing countries. She joined the European Investment Bank in 2016 and was appointed Head of Regional Representation for South Asia in March 2022. She represents the Bank in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

International Energy Solution Specialist

Lisa Pardini

Lisa is a creative and methodical engineer, passionate in bringing innovative and sustainable
solutions for the decarbonisation of the energy sector. She has over 5 years of experience in the energy sector, both in District Energy, Battery Energy Storage, PV and EV system.

She has strong analytical skills and expertise in low-carbon energy optional analysis, energy strategy, GIS mapping, thermodynamics, techno-economic modelling, socio-economic assessments, and financial modelling. She has acquired her skills and knowledge during her work as a renewable energy developer with Ion Ventures and as an engineering consultant for Ramboll and previously during her study in sustainability and energy engineering in Italy, Denmark, and the US.

She has excellent motivational skills, and she is engaged as a committee member of the EI, and various activities as a STEM Ambassador and WES association.

Senior HR Officer

Dr. Josebe Bilbao-Henry

Josebe Bilbao-Henry is a Senior Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Her works focuses on developing learning and awareness programs and on outreach. She also works with a network of DEI ambassadors and champions to embed the diversity and inclusion agenda across the World Bank Group. In this role, she has been an innovator in platforms and products to increase empathy among different identity groups and as a result, she led the design of VR experiences on sexual orientation and gender identity and on disabilities. Previously, she was the Manager of Language and Culture and lead the intercultural competence program for the WBG. In this capacity, she helped teams in several regions increase collaboration and effectiveness while leveraging diverse cultural mindsets. Before joining the Bank, Josebe was Director of Spanish Studies in LanguageOne, in Washington, DC, where she designed and managed a Spanish curriculum for adult professionals. She led client relations with major law firms and non-profits in the DC area where the company provided language-learning services. She was also a professor at The George Washington University where she designed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses on language and on culture and politics in Spain. She is the author of Transición, a language textbook that uses an innovative approach to building critical-thinking skills in a foreign language. She holds a master degree in History of Philosophy from Deusto University in Spain, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in Philosophy of Language and a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership at The George Washington University.

Associate Professor Of Economics

Dr. Abdullah Khan

Dr. Khan is an experienced economist and educator with passion for innovation in teaching, research, and service. He is particularly passionate in finding innovative ways to reach out to students with diverse learning styles concurrently and effectively. As an educator he always thrives to connect textbook theories with practical applications. This infusion of “real life” into his classroom teaching flows naturally and seamlessly as he draws from his previous work experience gained from serving as an educator and as a manager at various public and private for-profit and not- for-profit organizations. During holiday seasons, he enjoys long drives and taking hiking trips on the wooded trails at various local, state and national parks.

Energy Expert

Dr. SRINIVAS Shroff Nagesha Rao

Dr. Srinivas has PhD in Mechanical Engineering Sciences. He is also a Certified Energy Manager from Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India. He has been working in the development sector for the last 30 years particularly in the areas of, Climate Actions for mitigation – Energy Access, Decentralized/Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Corporate Social Responsibility. Currently, he is providing consulting support to the World Bank, UNDP-India, Administrative Staff College of India and UNWOMEN. He is also involved in development activities with NGOs, as trustee for Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute, mentor for All India Citizens’ Alliance for Progress & Development and President of Pact2Act.

He worked as the Chief Executive Officer of REC Foundation, CSR arm of REC Limited, (one of the 10 large Central Public Service Enterprises in India), Government of India. He was CEO at Clean Energy Access Network, New Delhi, a consortium of 150 manufacturers, NGOs, consulting firms promoting conducive ecosystem for Decentralised Renewable Energy Systems. He worked in the United Nations Development Programme as Programme Analyst – Energy and Climate Change. He also worked in The Energy & Resources Institute, New Delhi and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

He has implemented over 50 projects directly and provided oversight to over 200 projects across the country. He implemented a project of establishing biogas plants on detailed assignment in Egypt. He has published over 100 books, papers, and reports. He has patents, guided over 50 interns for their internship, Masters and PhD. He has provided over 200 plus guest lectures. He worked with over 50 innovations – products, delivery models etc. He has over a dozen recognition for his distinguished contributions. He has visited over 20 countries including for official missions.

Head of ESG, CFM

Claire Cummins

Claire Cummins is Head of ESG at Climate Fund Managers B.V. (CFM) where she has global responsibility for defining and driving the strategy and standards for sustainable investment. CFM delivers meaningful and positive impact through investments in Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as driving the adoption of international standards for managing risk. Claire is based in The Hague, Netherlands and manages a global team. She is a member of IEMA’s Sustainable Finance Steering Group, and a member of the Board of the CFM Foundation. 

Professor

Julie Sievins

As Co-Director and Lecturing Faculty, Ms. Sieving is a mission-driven leader of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) at the University of Utah. In her current position, Ms. Sieving is as a founding contributor to the IAC’s Women for Energy Efficiency. Reflecting a passion for service, Ms. Sieving also has roles in various community positions from The University of Utah’s Engineers Without Borders Student Chapter Faculty Advisor to the City of Salt Lake Mayor’s Transition Team and The Energy Institute for Salt Lake Community College Program Advisory Council. Prior to her current position, Ms. Sieving was a business owner, contributing over 15 years of growth to a nationally recognized, impact driven sustainability and energy engineering firm. Ms. Sieving has a mechanical engineering degree from Colorado State University, where she was also an IAC undergraduate team member and a co-opportunity engineer at DOE’s Golden Field Office located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. She is both a licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Energy Manager.

Senior Energy Specialist, World Bank

Dr. Debabrata Chattopadhyay

Debabrata (Deb) Chattopadhyay is a Senior Energy Specialist at ESMAP’s Power Systems Planning Group. He is a power system engineer and economist with significant experience on energy market design and analysis to address market operation, planning, and policy issues. His work also encompasses a range of other economic issues around electricity supply reliability, design of electricity markets, nodal pricing of electricity, portfolio risk analysis, commercial assessment of carbon capture and storage, cost benefit analysis of smart metering, and analysis of renewable energy policies. Deb has carried out a significant volume of work on the impact of climate change on the energy sector since 1990 and has done extensive work on the marginal cost of carbon reduction, the change in generation mix and impact on alternative fuel prices, and economic assessment of low carbon projects. He is also currently an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering (Power System) at the University of Queensland, and an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Previously, Deb was a Director with leading consulting firms Charles River Associates (CRA) and Deloitte, before becoming an independent consultant in 2012. He also taught electricity modelling and quantitative methods at the University of Canterbury as a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor

Gender Specialist at the World Bank.

Nathyeli Yethzi Acuna Castillo

Nathyeli is Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)’S Gender Specialist at the World Bank. She has worked as a Strategic Alliances for the Americas Consultant in the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Prior to that, she was at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) from 2012 to 2019, where she worked as a Gender and Diversity professional.  Nathyeli focused on gender equality in the sectors of citizen security, digital government, public management, transparency, and urban development. She also co-led the implementation and monitoring of 2011-2013, 2014-2016, and 2017 IDB’s Operational Policy on Gender Equality and its Gender Action Plan. She has also worked as a consultant for gender and urban mobility in climate change adaptation and mitigation projects.

Prior to the IDB, she worked on the design and implementation of public-private urban development projects (in Argentina), and economic empowerment initiatives (Costa Rica and Central America) in rural and vulnerable contexts. She holds an Economics degree from the Costa Rica University and Master´s in Urban Economics from the Torcuato Di Tella University (Argentina).

Head of New Business (Asia Pacific)

Mohammad Arbaaz Nayeem

Arbaaz Nayeem has 14 years of work experience in development consulting. His work experience in strategic and management consulting covers various countries in Asia and Africa. Arbaaz specialises as an energy specialist and client engagement expert – working with Governments and Utilities across Asia to develop demand driven, value for money solutions for the power sector. This includes work for the ADB on the Community and Stakeholder Engagement Plan for the Azerbaijan Private Sector Participation in the Power Sector Project, as Team Leader for a 2 year capacity development assignment in Bangladesh, as the New Technology Specialist for a capacity development assignment for the Nepal Electricity Authority, and currently serving as the Lead Sustainable Energy Specialist for the ADB on KSTA 9608.

Research Associate, Florence School of Regulation (FSR)

Marzia Sesini

Marzia Sesini is a Research Associate in the Gas Area at the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) and Course Director of the Loyola Autumn Research School – LARS. Her research interests span from energy security and security of supply to the decarbonisation of the energy system, renewable gas, and technologies for the energy sector, to cross infrastructure integration and distribution network optimisation modeling.

Before joining the FSR, she has been a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chaire Economie du Climat (Université Paris-Dauphine; Institut Europlace de Finance – Paris), investigating policy-supporting mechanisms to create a market driver for renewable gases (i.e., biogas and biomethane) and to back the decarbonisation of the EU natural gas grid.

An engineer by training, she has accrued extensive experience in the energy industry at the corporate and academic levels. She has worked in Snam’s Corporate Strategy Department as a Gas Advocacy Specialist, dealing with issues relating to the decarbonisation of the gas network at the European and the Italian level, as well as at Bocconi University as an Academic Fellow in the Department of Management and Technology on topics related to energy, the environment, and international corporate strategy. Also, she has been a Doctoral Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES).

She holds a Ph.D. in Process Systems Engineering | Chemical Engineering Department from Imperial College London, with research investigating the costs and political implications of shared and coordinated natural gas storage services within the European Union in case of supply/demand shocks; as well as an M.S. in Sustainability Management from the Earth Institute of Columbia University in NYC and an M.S. in Engineering from Pavia State University.

Research Associate,

Marie, Missao Raude

Marie Raude is a Research Assistant working on the LIFE COASE project led by Simone Borghesi and Erik Jones. This project aims at supporting EU and member states’ policymakers in the implementation and development of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), including its integration with other carbon markets by establishing the first Observatory to assess the EU ETS.

Marie is also a PhD candidate in Climate Economics at EconomiX in Paris Nanterre University and at the Climate Economics Chair in France. Her thesis topic focuses on analysing hedging behaviour of market players in the EU ETS. The goal is to understand the relationships between different actors in the EU ETS and how they impact the functioning of the system. Research topics of interest include network analysis of ETS transactions, identifying different firm behaviour using latent profile analysis and emission market modelling incorporating financial firms and hedging.