Beyond Transition: Building Secure, Resilient, Inclusive, and Intelligent Energy Systems
8-11 June 2026 | ADB Headquarters, Manila
ACEF 2026 Speakers
ALL SPEAKERS
Joonho Hwang
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Joonho Hwang
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Bio
Joonho Hwang is the Director, Energy Sector Office, responsible for the East, Central, and West Asia regions of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He has over 25 years of work experience including more than 15 years in ADB where he has progressively assumed various posts. As the Project Administration Unit (PAU) Head of CWEN until 2018, he led and supported the team in processing more than 30 projects and administrating more than 40 projects for a $8 billion portfolio. In 2018-2020, he led the Cambodia Resident Mission team delivering the country operation of all sectors and preparing the country partnership strategy and country operation and business plan. He assumed the current position in August 2020. He holds a Doctorate in Civil Engineering. Before joining ADB, he worked as a licensed Professional Engineer in the United States, and led multidisciplinary teams for projects in oil/gas, power, and transport sectors.
Jose M Layug Jr
DivinaLaw Offices and Developers of Renewable Energy for AdvanceMent Inc (DREAM)
Jose M Layug Jr
DivinaLaw Offices and Developers of Renewable Energy for AdvanceMent Inc (DREAM)
Bio
Atty. Jose “Jay” Layug is a Senior Partner of DivinaLaw Offices and the Co-Head of DivinaLaw’s Power, Electric Utilities and Energy Practice. In 2024-2025, Atty. Jay received two distinguished legal awards: (1) the Asia Business Law Journal’s 2024 and 2025 A List: Philippines Top 100 Lawyers and (2) Global Wind Energy Council’s 1st Raymund Offshore Wind Award for his leadership and innovation in the legal field for renewable energy and offshore wind. Atty. Layug served as Chairman of the National Renewable Energy Board from 2016-2018. He was also the Undersecretary of the DOE from 2010-2012 and handled various units of the DOE, including the Renewable Energy Management Bureau, Energy Resources Development Bureau, Energy Utilization Management Bureau and Oil Industry Management Bureau. In such capacity, he was primarily responsible for the revival of various sectors in the Philippine energy sector with the successful launching of the National Renewable Energy Program (including the filing and implementation of the feed-in tariff system and the net metering program), the Philippine Energy Contracting Rounds for Petroleum and Coal and the Public Transport Assistance Program. Atty. Layug headed by bids and awards committee of the DOE for the Philippine Energy Contracting Rounds for Petroleum and Coal. Prior to his DOE position, Atty. Layug was a Senior Counsel for the Negotiations and Legal Department of the Australian Strategic Business Unit of Chevron Corporation. In such capacity, he served as the Malampaya Legal Manager of Chevron Malampaya LLC located in Manila, Philippines from 2007- 2010. As Chevron counsel, he received the first ever William T. Coleman Award in 2008 – the highest recognition given by Chevron Corporation to a Chevron in-house counsel worldwide – besting all other Chevron lawyers worldwide. Before joining Chevron, Atty. Layug acted as international legal consultant of the Asian Development Bank. He was a Senior Associate at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan from 1996-2006 and handled banking and finance, foreign investments, project development and financing and commercial matters. Atty. Layug currently serves as Dean of the University of Makati School of Law and also teaches Philippine Project Development and Finance, Property, Administrative Law and Sales to law students since 2002 at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law and the University of Makati School of Law. Atty. Layug has published works and is a contributor to the following publications: (a) Asia Business Law Journal, published in Singapore; (b) Capital Asia, published in Hongkong by ISI Publications Ltd. and (c) In-House Briefing, Asia-Pacific, published in Hongkong by Pacific Business Press. He is a lecturer on “Contract Negotiations, Monitoring and Dispute Resolution” and “Power and Energy” for UP’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Program. He has delivered lectures before the National Power Corporation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Government Service Insurance System. Atty. Layug obtained his Bachelor of Science in Business Economics with cum laude honours in 1992 and his Bachelor of Laws (1996) from the UP. He was elected President of the Junior Philippine Economics Society in 1991, President of the UP Economics Society in 1992 and President of the UP Law Student Government in 1996. He finished his Master of Laws degree with honours in 2000 (fall semester) from Cornell Law School in New York, USA. While in Cornell, he was elected as the President of the Cornell LLM Association in 2001. From 2000-2002, Atty. Layug worked as a Foreign Lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, U.S.A. handling mergers and acquisitions, project finance and corporate finance. He is licensed to practice law in the Philippines and New York. Atty. Layug is licensed to practice law both in the Philippines (since 1997) and in New York (since 2000) having passed both Philippine and New York State bar examinations. He is a member of the International Bar Association, Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Cornell Law School Young Alumni Committee. Atty. Layug has been instrumental in ensuring the full implementation of Republic Act No. 9513, known as the “Renewable Energy Act of 2008” (the “RE Law”). As Undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Energy (“DOE”) from 2010-2012, he spearheaded the launch of the National Renewable Energy Program in 2011, led the team that filed the petition for the feed-in tariff (“FIT”) system with the Energy Regulatory Commission (“ERC”) and implemented the Net Metering Program and FIT-Allowance Payment Guidelines. Under his leadership as Chairman of the National Renewable Energy Board (“NREB”) from 2017-2018, a private-public multi-sectoral body created under the RE Law, Atty. Layug led the drafting, completion and endorsement to the DOE, in a record-period of six months, the following complex RE mechanisms mandated under the RE Law: Renewable Portfolio Standards for On-Grid and Off-Grid Areas, Green Energy Option Program, and Renewable Energy Market Rules.
Jørn Haugvaldstad
Jorn Energy Corporation
Jørn Haugvaldstad
Jorn Energy Corporation
Bio
Jørn Haugvaldstad is a Norwegian leader in management, technology, and business development with 40+ years in offshore oil, subsea, and wind. He has delivered multidisciplinary offshore oilfield developments and pioneered technologies such as the MC-7 unmanned wellhead platform and the MC-7 –12 MW offshore wind turbine concept. Founder of UDS (later Hitec Subsea) he has founded and lead Green Entrans AS since 2015 supporting clients like Equinor, Statoil, Aker BP, and Centrica. JEC was founded in 2025 advancing renewable energy projects for offshore wind developments. He holds an MSc in Global Management and degrees in mechanical and maritime engineering and is an active contributor to Norway’s subsea community.
Julian Clarke
Asian Development Bank
Julian Clarke
Asian Development Bank
Bio
Julian Latimer Clarke is the Senior Specialist for Regional Cooperation and Trade (Climate Change and Regional Cooperation) at the Asian Development Bank. Julian was a Senior Economist at the World Bank for 15 years. He previously worked for IMF, IDRC, the OECD and the World Trade Organisation. He has published in academic journals such as the Antitrust Bulletin, the Journal of World Economics, book chapters published by the WTO as well as numerous World Bank reports. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of St.Gallen, a Masters degree in International Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute in Bern, Switzerland and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Sydney.
Junghyun Kim
Asian Development Bank
Junghyun Kim
Asian Development Bank
Bio
Jung is a finance professional with over a decade of experience in infrastructure finance across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. He currently serves in ADB’s private sector infrastructure finance team covering Southeast Asia. Before joining ADB in 2025, he was a Principal Banker in the energy sector at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), following earlier experience in infrastructure advisory at PwC Korea. He holds a Master’s in Finance from London Business School.
Justin Goonesinghe
Justin Goonesinghe
Bio
Justin Goonesinghe is an energy policy and strategy advisor focused on the intersection of energy security, geopolitical risk, market reform and the transition to lower-carbon molecules. He advises governments, donors, utilities and energy companies on how changing energy systems affect national resilience, investment priorities, regulation and commercial strategy. Through Justin G Energy, he brings together two decades of experience across gas and LNG markets, clean gases, energy policy and energy resilience. During his previous role as Director of Natural Gas and Clean Gases at Tetra Tech, Justin spent six years working at the centre of international technical assistance to Ukraine’s energy sector, where he supported energy security, critical infrastructure resilience and gas market reform through one of the most severe wartime stress tests faced by a modern energy system. He continues to support Ukraine as an independent supervisory board member at Naftogaz’s gas distribution company. His wider work includes hydrogen hub development in India and Uzbekistan, green hydrogen auction design in Mauritania and biomethane feasibility work in Europe. As Head of European Gas in the UK Government’s business and energy department, he led the UK Government’s work on gases during the ‘Brexit’ negotiations and contributed to the UK Hydrogen Strategy. He also spearheaded early hydrogen and future-of-gas initiatives at National Grid. Before joining the UK Government, he led the global policy and regulation function at Qatargas, advising the world’s largest LNG producer on international gas market policy. Justin holds a BSc in Geography from Loughborough University and an MSc in Global Energy and Climate Policy from SOAS, University of London.
Justin James Ng
Malaysian Photovoltaic and Sustainable Energy Industry Association
Justin James Ng
Malaysian Photovoltaic and Sustainable Energy Industry Association
Bio
As the Head of Secretariat at the Malaysian Photovoltaic & Sustainable Energy Industry Association (MPSEA), Justin co-leads a dynamic team focused on advancing Malaysia’s solar and sustainable energy goals. His portfolio includes high-impact collaborations with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Suruhanjaya Tenaga, and the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA). Notably, he played a key role in the nationally adopted Data Collection System — a milestone initiative supporting evidence-based policy and utility integration. Justin works at the intersection of industry, government, and global platforms. He coordinates government-to-government dialogues, facilitate multi-agency cooperation, and maintain strategic relationships that shape the national energy agenda. Internationally, he was part of the extended Malaysian delegation to the UNFCCC COP29 and contribute actively to working groups within the Global Solar Council.
Jyoti Maheshwari
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
Jyoti Maheshwari
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
Bio
Dr. Jyoti Maheshwari is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) India, since March 2022. Earlier, she was working as Research Associate at IIMA from July 2008 to Feb 2022. She also served as visiting faculty at the School of Management, Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), Gandhinagar, from 2023-2024. She earned her PhD from the School of Management, PDEU in 2022. Her current research interests include Modelling Policies for GHG Mitigation, Key Policy Analysis, Key Emission Category Analysis, MAC Assessment for Policies, Energy Transition, Just Sustainable Energy Transition, Green Hydrogen, Energy Efficiency and Technology Transitions in Buildings, Demand Side Management, Smart-Microgrid, Demand Response. She is a member of UNFCCC Roster of Expert, nominated by Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Government of India since 2022. She has successfully completed 10 courses (GHG Inventory, NDC tracking, Financial, technology development and transfer, and capacity building (FTC), Impacts & Adaptation) for the BTR review training programme for experts under the Paris Agreement. She has co-authored high-impact peer-reviewed research papers in international journals (Energy, Energy Policy, Energy Efficiency, Climate & Development). She has presented conference papers at leading international conferences (IAMC 2024, IAMC 2025), published policy briefs/news articles, co-authored/contributed to G20 India 2023 reports, and authored several international, national, and state government-funded research project reports.
Kanchana Wanichkorn
The ASEAN Secretariat
Kanchana Wanichkorn
The ASEAN Secretariat
Bio
Kanchana Wanichkorn is Director of the Sectoral Development Directorate at the ASEAN Secretariat, where she oversees regional cooperation across energy and minerals, food, agriculture and forestry, tourism, transport, and science, technology and innovation. Her work focuses on advancing regional economic integration and value creation while building resilience and promoting sustainable transition across key economic sectors in ASEAN. She is also responsible for key regional initiatives including the ASEAN Power Grid, ASEAN minerals development, the ASEAN Blue Economy, Initiative for ASEAN Integration and Narrowing Development Gap (IAI & NDG), and subregional cooperation frameworks such as IMT-GT and BIMP-EAGA. Her current work includes strengthening regional cooperation frameworks and mobilising partnerships with governments, multilateral development banks, and industry to support ASEAN’s energy transition, mineral development, food security and resilience, and broader sectoral sustainability priorities. Prior to joining the ASEAN Secretariat, she served as Vice President at Thailand’s Office of National Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO), where she worked on national innovation and technology policy, talent development, and the internationalisation of science, technology and innovation cooperation. Kanchana holds a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy and an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MA in Applied Economics from University of Michigan, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Minnesota, USA.
Kanni Wignaraja
UNDP
Kanni Wignaraja
UNDP
Bio
Kanni Wignaraja is Assistant Secretary‑General and UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, appointed in 2019. Previously, she served as Acting Director of UNDP’s Bureau of Management Services and Special Adviser to the UNDP Administrator, and prior to that led the UN Development Operations Coordination Office. With over 25 years in UN leadership roles across HQ and field settings, she brings deep experience in sustainable development, spanning policy, programme, management and operations. She holds an MPA from Princeton University and a BA (Economics) from Bryn Mawr College.
Kavita Gandhi
Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore
Kavita Gandhi
Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore
Bio
Kavita Gandhi has an extensive background in environment and developmental sector spanning over last 25 years. Kavita has been involved in multi-dimensional projects like United States Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) and was Instrumental in setting up of Clean Technology Environmental Management Centre (CTEM) in the Singapore Manufacturer’s Association. She has experience working with environmental sector startups and SMEs in her capacity as a manager of the Singapore Association for Environmental Companies (SAFECO). Kavita is the founding Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore and has been leading the team since 2006. She also represents the association in various government and non-government committees related to clean energy. She was instrumental in developing and managing some unique programs like the SME Energy Efficiency outreach as well cleantech incubator. Kavita has an MSc in Environmental Management from Wye College, University of London. Kavita is also representing SEAS on the following: • Advisory Board Member: Ecolabs Centre of Innovation for Energy, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) • Advisory Board Member: Centre for Sustainable Development, Newcastle Australia Institute of Higher Education • Co-convener, Renewable Energy Standards (RECs) working group, Enterprise Singapore (ESG) • Member: Singapore Certified Energy Manager (SCEM) Program, Steering Committee, National Environment Agency (NEA) • Member: Green Skills Committee (GSC), Skillsfuture Singapore • Member: Environment & Resource Standards Committee (ERSC), Enterprise Singapore (ESG) • Member: Technical Committee for Energy, Enterprise Singapore (ESG) • Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) committee, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Keiju Mitsuhashi
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Keiju Mitsuhashi
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Bio
Energy Director, ADB Profile / Bio Keiju Mitsuhashi is Energy Director, covering Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Southeast Asia and the Pacific energy operations. Keiju has more than 25 years of professional work experience, including over 15 years in ADB. He has extensive experience in upstream to downstream activities of project financing covering, power generation, transmission and distribution systems. As a regional energy director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Keiju oversees project pipeline of over $10 billion for the medium term. His current focus includes promotion of regional power trade, clean energy transition, private sector participation, project development and implementation in ADB’s 25 economies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Keiju, a national of Japan, has a Doctorate from the University of Sussex, the United Kingdom.