Speakers

Tom Brijs is a core member of Boston Consulting Group's Energy and Climate & Sustainability practices. He works with energy producers, industrials, grid/infrastructure owners and operators, investment funds, and the public sector, and drives BCG’s global thinking on energy markets as a member of the firm's Center for Energy Impact.

Tom has 11 years of experience in energy, especially in energy transition topics including power generation, renewables, hydrogen, carbon capture utilization ,and storage (CCUS), storage, grids, and energy markets.

In addition to his client work, Tom was selected to be part of BCG’s leadership team in Belgium, acting as BCG’s recruiting director in 2022-2023. He is currently part of the Career Development Committee. In 2021 he represented the firm’s Energy practice at the BCG Henderson Institute.

Grégoire Dallemagne holds a Master’s degree in business engineering from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He started his professional career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen. From 2000 to 2011, his career focused on the telecommunications sector. He joined the international Tele2 group where he held various management positions in Sweden and Luxembourg, before taking on the role of Managing Director of Tele2 - Versatel Belgium between 2003 and 2007. After the company was sold to KPN Belgium, he was Managing Director of KPN Belgium and a member of KPN International’s Executive Committee. From 2008 to 2011, Grégoire Dallemagne was Executive Vice President Strategy and a member of the Management Committee of Belgacom.
Since September 2011, he has been CEO of Luminus, where he has driven a strategic transformation to meet the challenges of the energy transition. Luminus has since developed into a leading producer of renewable energy and a provider of energy efficiency solutions. Today Luminus is a team of more than 2,500 people committed to the energy transition on a daily basis, building a CO2-neutral energy future that combines preservation of the planet, human well-being and economic growth through electricity and innovative solutions and services. Born on 19th December 1972, Grégoire Dallemagne is married, has 4 children. 

William D’haeseleer was full professor at KU Leuven and director of its interdisciplinary Energy Institute, until his retirement in October 2022, now being professor emeritus ‘with formal duties’.

His education and industrial experience reflect multidisciplinary interest in energy and the drive to understand the underlying physical phenomena. He obtained an MS in Electro-Mechanical engineering, option Electrical Energy (Burg. ir EW-Energie), after which he pursued out of curiosity a second Master Degree in Nuclear Engineering (Burg. ir. Kernwetenschappen) ―both at KU Leuven―. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), he subsequently studied plasma physics, obtaining yet another MS in effectively Engineering Physics albeit (formally) in the Electrical Engineering Department. In 1988 he received his PhD from the UW-Madison, having studied transport phenomena in plasmas for thermonuclear fusion.

Before joining KU Leuven, he spent five years at the Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Munich (Germany) and four years at Tractebel Engineering.

His latest research concentrated mainly on energy systems, energy management and energy policy, with emphasis on multidisciplinary facets, particularly energy-system integration, encompassing energy-scientific/technical possibilities and boundary conditions, ecological aspects and economics. He has taught courses on thermal sciences, energy challenges, renewable energy, and nuclear engineering.

He is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy for Sciences and the Arts, and  he is and has been an active member and/or chair of several Belgian and international organizations, and EU energy advisory committees, amongst which currently being a Board Member of the USA-based (renewables-driven) Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG),  Chair of the Belgian chapter of the World Energy Council and Chair of the Scientific and Technical Committee of Euratom.

Fréderic Dunon is the CEO of  Elia Transmission Belgium. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Electrical Engineering from ULB and a Master’s degree from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. After completing his studies, he began his career at Hewlett-Packard before transitioning to Elia, where he has worked for over 20 years. 

Throughout his tenure at Elia, Fréderic has held various key positions, including roles in national dispatching and as Head of Grid Development. Since 2014, he has been a member of the Executive Committee, serving in multiple capacities such as Chief Customers, Markets & System Officer, and Chief Assets Officer. In December 2023, he was appointed CEO of Elia Transmission Belgium. In this role, he leads the Executive Management Board of Elia Transmission Belgium (ExCo) and is a full member of the Executive Management Board of Elia Group (EGMB). 

Simeon Hagspiel is Luxembourg’s Government Commissioner for Energy, supporting national energy policy by advising the government on technical and economic aspects of the energy sector, compiling energy-related information and statistics, and monitoring energy security. The role also includes regular reports on the reliability and quality of electricity and gas supply.

Prior to this, he worked in Brussels for the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) where he was responsible for establishing the economic studies team. He studied engineering with a specialization in energy technology at ETH Zurich, as well as in Paris and Chicago, and earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne in the field of economics and regulatory design of power systems.

Since 2023, Sigrid JOURDAIN has been director of prices and accounts control at CREG, the Belgian federal regulator for the electricity and gas markets. She holds a double Master's degree in civil engineering in nuclear physics and materials science, as well as a postgraduate degree in management. After nine years in industry, she worked as an advisor to the Belgian Minister of Energy from 2008 to 2011. She also worked at the DG Energy of the FPS Economy and then joined ministerial cabinets at the Walloon and federal levels to advise various ministers on energy issues for several governments. At the same time, she served as administrator, delegated administrator and government commissioner in several institutions in the energy sector.

Antonio Lopez-Nicolas Baza is a senior official at the European Commission working on energy policy. He currently leads the Chief Economist team in the Directorate-General for Energy, where he provides economic, financial, and modelling expertise to support the design and implementation of European energy policy. 

In previous roles at the Commission, he coordinated the preparation of the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, adopted alongside the Clean Industrial Deal, and led interinstitutional negotiations on the Renewable Energy Directive. He has also steered several flagship initiatives, including the Wind Power Package and the Energy System Integration and Hydrogen Strategies. 

Before joining the European Commission, Lopez-Nicolas was Head of the Market Unit at the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), where he oversaw the development of European network codes, market design, and transparency initiatives. 

After graduating from Ecole des Mines de Paris and Paris-Dauphine University, Pierre-Laurent has been devoting his career to the Energy industry. He joined ENGIE at the dawn of European energy market liberalization in 2000 to head a team of quantitative analysts in economics, regulation and finance. He then joined Natran (French gas Transmission System Operator) as head of European affairs, involved in the preparation of gas network codes within ENTSOG (European Association of gas TSOs). In 2012 He joined ENGIE Global Energy Management where he lead the long term gas supply contracts negotiations team. He concluded several key negotiations leading to a structural change in ENGIE’s gas supply portfolio. In March 2019, he joined ENGIE’s Corporate strategy division as Chief Economist of the Group in charge of providing mid and long term guidance on the evolution of energy markets.

Émeline Spire is Co-Director Europe at Agora Energiewende in tandem with Frauke Thies and leads the European policy work since October 2024. Prior to this, she headed Agora's power sector work across different geographies as Director Power System Transformation.

Before joining Agora in January 2024, Emeline Spire was director for markets and energy transition at the French energy regulator CRE (2021-2023) and as such led the implementation of consumer support and retail market measures during the energy crisis. She previously worked in the European energy sector for about twenty years, with a focus on the design and operation of electricity markets and systems to make the energy transition happen. At the Belgian TSO Elia Group (2009-2020), she successively ran the Energy Management, Grid Development and EU Affairs departments. At the French power exchange (2002-2008), she led the coupling of the French, Belgian and Dutch wholesale markets, a European first.

Émeline Spire is an engineer and economist. She studied at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, at the College of Europe in Bruges, and at the London Business School.

Simone Tagliapietra is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, a Professor at the Florence School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute and an Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies Europe of The Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the EU climate and energy policy, and on its industrial and social aspects. He also is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Clean Air Task Force and Senior Associate of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He holds a PhD in International Political Economy from the Catholic University of Milan.

Kurt Vandenberghe was appointed Director General of DG CLIMA on 16 January 2023.  Until then, he was the Green Deal and Health advisor to President Ursula von der Leyen since 1 December 2019. 

He had joined the cabinet of the President coming from DG Research and Innovation where he was Director for Policy & Programming since 1 February 2016 and Acting Director for Research & Innovation Outreach since 1 June 2019.

Before that, he was Director for 'Climate action and resource efficiency' at DG Research and Innovation since July 2013. 

He served in the Cabinet of Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin (1999-2004) and as Head of the Cabinet of Janez Potočnik, who was Commissioner for Research and Innovation (2004-2009) and subsequently for Environment (from 2010). 

Kurt joined the European Commission in 1996 as co-ordinator of the Commission’s Intermodal Transport Task Force and of the Transport Research Programme. 

Before entering the Commission, Kurt worked for 4 years as a manager at Ernst & Young Association Management, where he set up, managed and represented international trade associations. 

After reading French and Italian literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) and obtaining a degree in Public and International Affairs at the University Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL), Kurt gained a Master of Arts degree in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (S.A.I.S.) in Bologna, Italy and Washington D.C., US. 

Markus Wilthaner is a Partner in McKinsey’s Brussels office with 14 years of experience in business building for the energy transition. He works with his clients to develop strategies, reduce product costs, scale up operations and organizations, raise capital, enter new markets, and partner & acquire. He is part of McKinsey’s Global Energy Practice, co-leads McKinsey's global hydrogen team and is a leader in McKinsey’s Sustainability Growth Platform. Markus holds master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Vienna University of Technology.

Georg Zachmann is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, where he has worked since 2009 on energy and climate policy. His work focuses on regional and distributional impacts of decarbonisation, the analysis and design of carbon, gas and electricity markets, and EU energy and climate policies. Previously, he worked at the German Ministry of Finance, the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, the energy think tank LARSEN in Paris, and the policy consultancy Berlin Economics.

Jeromin Zettelmeyer has been Director of Bruegel since September 2022. Born in Madrid in 1964, Jeromin was previously a Deputy Director of the Strategy and Policy Review Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prior to that, he was Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow (2019) and Senior Fellow (2016-19) at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Director-General for Economic Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (2014-16); Director of Research and Deputy Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (2008-2014), and an IMF staff member, where he worked in the Research, Western Hemisphere, and European II Departments (1994-2008).

Jeromin holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT (1995) and an economics degree from the University of Bonn (1990). He is a Research Fellow in the International Macroeconomics Programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a member of the CEPR’s Research and Policy Network on European economic architecture, which he helped found. He is also a member of CESIfo. He has published widely on topics including financial crises, sovereign debt, economic growth, transition to market, and Europe’s monetary union. His recent research interests include EMU economic architecture, sovereign debt, debt and climate, and the return of economic nationalism in advanced and emerging market countries.    

Disclosure of interests