Hydrogen Conference 2024

Hector Arreola

Principal Analyst, Hydrogen & Derivatives

Wood Mackenzie

Hector is a hydrogen-focused senior research analyst within Wood Mackenzie’s Energy Transition Practice. Hector is responsible for building asset valuation models, interpreting policies, developing long-term demand and supply outlooks, and conducting price analyses to enable the adoption of low-carbon technologies across different sectors and markets. Before his current role, Hector participated in and led numerous consulting projects across the energy spectrum with an extensive focus on Energy Transition and decarbonization strategies and initiatives. His project experience includes commercial due diligence for hydrogen production and infrastructure, energy transition scenarios and risk analysis, market studies and competitiveness analysis under different energy transition scenarios, and facilitating corporate strategies related to carbon emissions. Hector holds an MS in Energy Finance and Economics from The University of Texas at Austin and obtained his BS as Chemical Engineer from Tec de Monterrey (ITESM). He is based in Wood Mackenzie's Houston office and is fluent in both Spanish and English.

Bridget van Dorsten

Senior Research Analyst, Hydrogen and Emerging Technologies

Wood Mackenzie

As a hydrogen-focused senior research analyst within Wood Mackenzie's Energy Transition Practice, Bridget leads the production, transportation and storage cost modelling for hydrogen research and plays a key role in global supply and demand forecasting. They have expertise in complex, top-down Excel models specific to green hydrogen technologies as well as development of bottom-up market forecasts for emerging hydrogen technologies. Prior to this role, Bridget consulted at Power Advocate specializing in hydrogen asset modelling, strategic sourcing and category management for energy utilities in North America. Their additional client experience has involved market research to determine savings potential, along with RFP sourcing, negotiation and execution, all within the energy industry. Before PowerAdvocate, Bridget worked within the H2Europe division of AirLiquide in Grenoble, France, overseeing optimization of H2 refueling processes. Bridget graduated from Brown University with an A.B.E.T. accredited B.S. in Environmental Engineering, pursuing the Renewable Energy track. Throughout their college education, Bridget worked on several initiatives with FirstElement Fuel, the largest H2 refueling station retail business in the US.

Flor de la Cruz

Principal Analyst, Hydrogen & Emerging Technologies

Wood Mackenzie

Flor is a subject matter expert in hydrogen and emerging technologies for Wood Mackenzie's Energy Transition Practice. She works on modelling hydrogen markets, tracking deployments, policy, investments, technology trends, and analyzing the adoption of hydrogen in industrial processes including ammonia, methanol, heating, blending, midstream logistics and the power and storage sector. Before joining Wood Mackenzie, Flor led the innovation team at IDOM working on developing low carbon and circular economy projects for green/blue hydrogen, advanced biofuels, hydrotreated vegetable oils, plastic recycling, and carbon capture. At IDOM she also worked as a process engineer on LNG projects in Brazil, Colombia and Poland and a natural gas processing facility in Morocco. Before IDOM, Flor worked as a Health Safety & Environment engineer at Tecnicas Reunidas (TR). At TR she worked on the Al-Zour Refinery for Kuwait and a Nitric Acid plant for Yara in Norway. Flor holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While at MIT she worked as a researcher at the Metabolic Engineering Laboratory on a project for Novogy Inc (now Total) to investigate yeast’s ability to convert low-cost feed stocks into lipids to produce inexpensive biodiesel.

Tim Cesarek

CEO

Synata Bio

Tim Cesarek, CEO of Synata Bio, has over 30 years of business development and private equity experience, with over 20 years in leadership roles in renewable fuels, chemicals, and energy. He was Chief Commercial Officer at Gevo, leading commercial development and project origination. At Enerkem, he served as Senior Vice President of Global Business Development. As Managing Director at Waste Management, he focused on waste conversion into biofuels and renewable chemicals. Tim also led Koch Genesis Company LLC, specializing in early-stage investments. He has served on over 20 boards and holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.

Melany Vargas

Vice President, Head of Hydrogen Consulting

Wood Mackenzie

Melany leads the Global Hydrogen Consulting Practice at Wood Mackenzie. She has supported a number of established energy companies and new developers as they grow their footprint in or enter low-carbon H2 markets, including developing market entry strategies, screening for regions and opportunities, developing analysis and reports for policy and regulatory advocacy, and performing commercial due diligence and capital raise efforts across the hydrogen value chain. She has also supported the development of Wood Mackenzie’s proprietary hydrogen modelling capabilities across low-carbon hydrogen supply, demand and technoeconomic analysis. Melany has extensive experience solving strategic problems for clients across the energy value chain, including oilfield service companies, E&Ps, IOCs, gas and NGL infrastructure and logistics, chemicals, utilities and mining. Since 2015, she has focused her career on applying her deep expertise in fossil fuel value chains to solving Energy Transition issues, and supporting clients as they evaluate the technologies needed to achieve decarbonization targets. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie Melany worked in Accenture’s Energy Strategy practice in Houston. In 2016, she was selected to serve as the project manager and lead author for the World Energy Council’s World Energy Scenarios 2060 (published in 2016), a process that involved engagement with senior executives and policy stakeholders across all regions and parts of the energy value chain and evaluated a broad spectrum of potentially disruptive technologies. She is also currently working on a hydrogen study for the DOE on behalf of the National Petroleum Council, leading the Task Group on Integrative Economics and partnering with MIT on the modeling efforts required for all chapters of the study. Melany holds a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with a specialty in Energy Management and Policy. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Maryland.

Murray Douglas

Head of Hydrogen Research

Wood Mackenzie

Murray is responsible for Wood Mackenzie’s Global coverage across the hydrogen value chain. Murray brings more than 17 years of experience working in a variety of roles across the energy industry. Prior to his current role, Murray led Gas and LNG Research for the EMEA region at Wood Mackenzie. In this role he was regularly sought out to speak at industry-leading events for his expertise in European gas markets. Murray has also held positions leading Wood Mackenzie’s Global Supply and Modelling Research team and the Energy Markets Research team. These teams were responsible for developing the company’s long-term oil and gas supply outlooks, and global inter-fuel analysis. Prior to joining the Energy Markets team, Murray spent over five years covering the LNG industry where he relocated to Houston to establish Wood Mackenzie’s LNG practice in North America. Across his roles at Wood Mackenzie, Murray has provided expertise to a variety of consultancy projects advising on corporate strategy, resource monetisation, market fundamentals, project financing, asset valuations, opportunity screening and competitor intelligence.

Carmen de Pablo

Chief Financial Officer

Cepsa

Carmen de Pablo has 25 years of experience in corporate executive management and investment banking. In 2022, Carmen joined Cepsa as Chief Financial Officer and she is a member of the Management Committee. Her responsibilities include all finance related functions as well as ESG, Strategy, M&A and IT. Carmen began her career at EY in 1995 and subsequently worked at JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and McKinsey. She also worked at Morgan Stanley for more than a decade as Executive Director of Investment Banking and responsible for the energy and renewables sectors in Spain and Portugal, where she accumulated significant corporate finance, M&A and capital markets transaction experience. In 2013, she joined Gestamp, holding several positions such as Head of Investor Relations, M&A, and Corporate Development. She led the IPO of Gestamp and latterly was appointed CFO and member of the Management Committee. Carmen served as independent Director at the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Viscofan until December 2023. She holds a degree in Business Administration from CUNEF and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Hervé Morvan

Chief of Future Platforms & Global Chief of Hydrogen Technology, Aviation Futures

Rolls-Royce

Prof. Hervé Morvan leads the company advanced concepts team at Rolls-Royce, working for the Group Engineering, Technology & Safety (ETS) directorate and reporting to the Group Director for R&T, on issues in the ‘beyond business as usual’. He also feeds into activities led by the Group Chief Strategy Officer, on topics pertaining to the future such as energy transition and future markets. Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Hervé spent 15 years at the University of Nottingham where he led the Institute for Aerospace Technology (IAT), receiving a personal chair in 2014 and being elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) back in 2016.

Andrew Beard

President, Hydrogen

Shell

Andrew Beard was appointed as President of Shell Hydrogen in August 2023 to look after all aspects of the hydrogen value chain, including production, storage, transport via pipelines, shipping of hydrogen and end-customer solutions. Shell is part of several key projects, in varying stages of development, aimed at scaling up production of hydrogen and showcasing the viability of hydrogen for industry and mobility, including the construction of Holland Hydrogen 1, one of Europe’s largest renewable Hydrogen plants. Prior to taking this role, Andrew served as the Head of Shells Aviation’s HSSE, Operations & Technical activities globally. Responsible for one of the most extensive refueling networks in the world, serving customers in more than 60 countries, with customers ranging from; the world’s largest airlines, to the military, to private pilots. Andrew has 17 years’ experience in the Energy industry, covering; Finance, Trading, Supply, Aviation, Digital Transformation and Alternative Energies. He is also a qualified accountant, has a Master’s degree in Logistics, Trade and Finance and a Master’s degree in International Strategy & Diplomacy.

Rumaitha Al Busaidi

Business Development Manager

Hydrogen Oman – Hydrom **

Rumaitha Al Busaidi is an Omani scientist and environmental advocate working on sustainable solutions to climate change. Her 2021 TED talk examining women as the key to our climate future has garnered over a million views. Rumaitha currently serves as Business Development Manager at Hydrom, the orchestrator of green hydrogen development in Oman. She is also an executive board director of the only environmental NGO in the country, Environment Society of Oman. She actively works with the Omani government on sustainable diversification and energy transition strategies. Internationally, she has advised the Biden administration on developing a climate resilience standard for US foreign aid focusing on empowering women as a form of climate mitigation, the government of Greenland on creating a framework for sustainable tourism in Greenland, and the Arab League on empowering Arab youth in climate change negotiations spaces. Her work on climate change has been recognized by the United Nations, the EU, and NATO, to name a few. Rumaitha is named in Reuters’s climate hot list and subsequently was recognized in their ‘Top 25 Women in Climate Change’ list, was named on the BBC 100 Women list, and most recently as one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Hailing from Muscat, Rumaitha is the founder of WomeX; a platform teaching negotiation skills to Arab women, a member of the first-ever Arab Youth Council on Climate Change, and co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Lab, where she co-authored the youth recovery plan featuring policy recommendations from over 2 million young people across the globe. Rumaitha holds degrees from Harvard and Oxford, and is coined as the first female soccer analyst in the Arab World and the youngest Omani to step foot on the South Pole.

Aylan Aliyeva

Hydrogen Policy Lead

Shell

Paro Konar

Director, Hydrogen and Industrial Carbon Capture

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)

The Hydrogen and Industrial Carbon Capture Directorate leads on the hydrogen economy programme for the UK government. The directorate is responsible for policies on low carbon hydrogen production and demand as well as transport and storage to deliver on the hydrogen ambitions in the British Energy Security Strategy. The directorate is also jointly responsible for the delivery of the CCUS programme, leading on CCUS enabled Hydrogen and Industrial Carbon Capture. Paro spent most of her career in the civil service working on Energy Policy. An analyst by background, Paro has worked on electricity and gas markets, leading analytical teams to develop the evidence base for the Electricity Market Reform, Capacity Market, Low Carbon Auctions as well as developing the evidence base for large infrastructure policies such as new nuclear investment in the UK, and received an OBE in recognition for her contribution to energy analysis. More recently was director for Industrial Energy responsible for standing up and delivering the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and the Industrial decarbonisation strategy.

Fatemeh Rezazadeh

Group Vice President - Hydrogen and e-Fuels

VARO Energy

Dr Fatemeh Rezazadeh is the Group Vice President of Hydrogen and e-Fuels at VARO Energy. With over 20 years of experience in the energy industry, she is an experienced commercial leader with a track record in P&L management, sales and marketing, business development, strategic planning, and commercialization. Based in Zug, Switzerland, Fatemeh is dedicated to building and expanding VARO Energy's hydrogen business across Europe and beyond. A thought leader in the global Hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) community, her focus is on the optimal development of the hydrogen economy and the applications of CCS in the energy industry to achieve net-zero targets.

Nicolas Jensen

Director for Regulatory Affairs

TES – H2

Deniese Ramsundarsingh

Development Director HYRO

Octopus Energy Generation

Deniese has more than 23 years experience in the Energy sector in programme and asset development, new markets, project finance, programme management and strategy with a strong emphasis on relationship and stakeholder management in an uncertain and complex Global context. She started her career of as a Chemical Engineer working on Ammonia, Urea, Hydrogen production, Carbon capture &Utilisation. After completing her MBA she worked in EDF Energy, SSE, Orsted, Fortescue Energy and now Development Director for HYRO at Octopus Energy. She is globally skilled with a strong systems engineering mindset that incorporates complex people, commercial, financial and technical issues to think strategically about risks and opportunities.

Brian Davis

CEO

C2X

Brian Davis is the Chief Executive Officer of C2X and has 35 years of global experience spanning the entire energy value chain, encompassing oil and gas, chemicals and electricity sectors and a track record of driving growth within complex business environments. C2X is aiming to make a significant contribution to a fossil-free future by accelerating the availability of green methanol in large quantities. C2X will develop, own and operate green methanol production facilities in strategic locations, which in turn will serve to de-fossilise the chemicals, aviation and shipping sectors. Prior to joining C2X, Mr Davis enjoyed a 32-year international career at Shell, as SVP of Global Energy Solutions, Head of Corporate Strategy for the Shell Group and SVP of Shell Chemicals. After leaving Shell he served as EVP and Chief Commercial Officer for Marathon Petroleum Corporation based in San Antonio, Texas. Brian has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia. He has lived and worked in in Australia, the UK, the USA, Turkey, The Netherlands and Barbados.