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.

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.

Senior Energy Specialist

Dr. Zuzana Dobrotkova

Zuzana Dobrotkova is a Senior Energy Specialist in the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank where she leads Solar Scale-Up Program and contributes to various renewables and energy storage initiatives. Before joining the World Bank, Zuzana worked for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and for the International Energy Agency (IEA). Zuzana’s areas of expertise include renewable energy markets and policies, power sector modelling, energy accounting and statistics. In recent years Zuzana’s main focus has been solar energy and energy storage, including the preparation of several large-scale solar projects with storage in West Africa. Zuzana is from Slovakia and she holds an MSc in Mathematics from Comenius University in Bratislava, and an MA and a PhD in Economics from the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education in Prague. 

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

Senior Energy Specialist Team Leader

Dr. Ashok Sarkar

Ashok Sarkar is a Senior Energy Specialist Team Leader working on clean energy operations at the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice in Washington DC for the past 15 years.  During his professional career spanning 25+ years including earlier in the Asian Development Bank, USAID, RMA (USA) and BHEL (India), Ashok has led and participated in energy efficiency and clean energy operations in over 40 countries, valued cumulatively at over $2.5 billion. At present (in 2020), he is involved in demand side energy efficiency, Super ESCO, DSM/demand response, solar PV, electric mobility and sustainable cooling projects in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Sao Tome & Principe, and leads two MENA regional advisories on “Clean Energy Transition and Employment Impacts” and “Unlocking the Electric-Mobility Opportunities, Strategies and Solutions”.  A mechanical engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, India, he has a Masters in Energy Planning and Policy from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and a Ph.D. from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

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.

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).

Programme Officer, IRENA

Celia García-Baños

Celia García-Baños is a Programme Officer, in IRENA’s Knowledge Policy and Finance Centre in Abu Dhabi.

Celia is a chemical engineer from the Industrial Engineering School of the Technical University of Madrid. She holds a masters in Water and Environmental Engineering from Masdar Institute.

Within IRENA’s Policy Unit, she works on a diverse range of subjects, in topics related to policy assessment and socio-economic impacts of renewable energy, including gender. In this regard, Celia’s efforts focus on producing up-to-date and authoritative renewable energy gender data and on identifying best practice within the renewable energy sector to achieve an inclusive global energy transition. 

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 Project Officer (Energy), ADB

Nazmun Nahar

With 14 years of working experience in the Energy and Power Sector of Bangladesh, Nazmun is currently working in Asian Development Bank (ADB) Bangladesh Residence Mission as a National Energy Expert. She administers projects in the electrical power, primary energy (natural gas and LNG) and renewable energy sub-sectors that serves as key infrastructure in Bangladesh.

Before ADB, she worked in Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH or GIZ for 2 years as a Senior Advisor in its Renewable Energy Component in Sustainable Energy for Development (SED) project in Dhaka, Bangladesh she authored a $20 million investment project proposal to Green Climate Fund (GCF).

From 2005 to 2014, Nazmun worked in the private sector and served renewable energy sub sector. As a Manager in Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Limited, she handled Solar irrigation pump projects with IDCOL, exported and installed Solar PV street lights in 7 African countries, developed new products and customized solutions.

She is an IVLP alumnus of US State Department. She holds an Engineering Degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) and Technology with several international and national training.

Research Fellow, Monash University

Dr. Susmita Saha

Dr. Susmita Saha completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 2015. Her PhD study was basically a part of the ‘Bionic Eye’ project conducted by Bionic Vision Australia. Afterwards, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Brain Inspired Computing team of IBM
Research Australia from Sep 2015 to Sep 2017. She joined as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Medical Image Analysis team at CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in 2018. Currently she is working as a Level B Research fellow at Monash University, Melbourne, and leading a global brain and spinal cord MRI analysis study. She is very passionate about innovative research/entrepreneurial activities in Biomedical Engineering, Neuroimaging, Neurophysiology, Clinical Applications, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics related fields. Susmita has been elected as Assistant Secretary of IEEE-Victorian section committee in December 2021.

Civil Engineer, BCPCL

Nazia Amir

Nazia Amir is a Civil Engineer and now working in a Power Generation Company.
Earlier she predominantly worked in Multinational Telecom companies and have
almost 10 years total job experience. Nazia has been featured on global news
media for her choice of career and breaking the gender norms in place of Nazia
has been featured on global news media for her career in energy sector.

Nazia has contributed in telecom industry while working at a global company.
She graduated from Rajsahi University of Engineering and Technology in 2006.
She is now working as a Sub Divisional Engineer (Civil) in BCPCL for the
Construction and Installation of a 2×660 MW (1320 MW in total) Coal Fired
Thermal Power Plant Project in Payra Port, Patuakhali District, Bangladesh.