Speaker 2023

Bio

Mark is Director of First Energy Asia Pacific.

Bio

After starting out in corporate finance, Mark specialized in energy efficiency almost 20 years ago and has become a leading advocate for expanded energy efficiency deployment. During that time he has been involved with EE industry advocacy in Australia, worked on grassroots projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and lectured in postgraduate sustainable energy courses. After a stint with ADB in the Philippines working to facilitate and scale up climate technology and energy efficiency investments in Asia-Pacific, Mark led the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency, the global energy efficiency hub of Sustainable Energy for All that aims to double the rate of global energy efficiency improvement by 2030. In January 2020, Mark was appointed Chair of the Efficiency Valuation Organization (EVO). Mark has a Master’s Degree in Social Science (Environmental Policy) from RMIT University. He is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Bio

Mr. Marlon Joseph Apañada is Strategic Advisor to Allotrope Partners, a California-based boutique advisory firm and concurrently the Southeast Asia Engagement Lead at the World Resources Institute (WRI), one of the world's biggest think tanks.

Mr. Apañada brings 16 years' in-depth experience in the clean energy & sustainability spaces, which includes leading business development of successfully commissioned renewable energy projects, advising Global Fortune 500 companies in their renewables procurement roadmaps, successfully developing the first bank-financed solar projects in the Philippines, and pioneering climate finance practice locally and regionally.

A certified Green Finance Specialist, Marlon is pursuing his MBA with Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, his MBM on Climate Finance with the Berlin School of Economics and Law, and finished a certificate course on Sustainable Finance at the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and Environment in the United Kingdom.

Bio

Mary Burce Warlick is the Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). A retired career diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, Ms. Warlick has held a variety of senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of State, National Security Council and Department of Defense, serving in Washington and abroad. From 2014-2017 she served as the State Department’s Principal Deputy and and Acting Special Envoy for International Energy Affairs and represented the U.S. on the IEA Governing Board Ms. Warlick holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy.

Bio

Ms. Gabis has over eight years of experience in the electricity and renewable energy (RE) industry as part of the Philippine Department of Energy (DOE). She began her career at DOE’s Power Bureau, where she led the formulation of the Power Development Plan 2016, 2017, and 2020 editions. In 2022, she became a Senior Researcher at DOE’s Renewable Energy Bureau and led the crafting of the National Renewable Energy Program 2020-2040. Currently, she is an Executive Assistant at DOE, providing technical guidance on accelerating RE growth and energy sector decarbonization. Ms. Gabis graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of the Philippines, and earned her Masters in Energy, Resource, and Environmental Policy at Korea University under a full scholarship. She is also a United States Energy Association’s Female Leaders in Energy Program mentee who has worked on the gender aspects of the clean energy transition.

Bio

Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020. Prior to joining ADB, he served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experiences that cut across both domestic and international fronts. In the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, Mr. Asakawa, in his capacity as Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Taro Aso, took part in the first G20 Leaders’ Summit Meeting in November 2008. He was instrumental in orchestrating a globally coordinated financial package to abate the financial crisis, including a $100 billion loan from Japan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Then in 2016, in his capacity as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, he took on a leading role for the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Sendai under the Japanese presidency, where a sustainable and inclusive development agenda was extensively discussed. Most recently, he served as Finance Deputy for the G20 meetings under the Japanese presidency, playing a pivotal role for the success of the G20 Osaka Summit as well as the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Fukuoka. Some of his outstanding achievements in Osaka include endorsement by the G20 Leaders of the “G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment” and the “G20 Shared Understanding on the Importance of UHC Financing in Developing Countries”. Before these, he had occupied various prominent positions within the Ministry of Finance, including director positions in charge of development policy issues, foreign exchange markets and international tax policy. Mr. Asakawa’s professional experience extends beyond the realms of the Japanese government. Most notably, he served as Chief Advisor to ADB President Kimimasa Tarumizu between 1989 and 1992, during which time he spearheaded the creation of a new office that focuses on strategic planning. Also, he had frequent engagement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in such positions as Chair for Committee on Fiscal Affairs (2011-2016). Furthermore, he was a senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF (1996-2000). In the meantime, he gave lectures as Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University (2006-2009), and at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (2012-2015). Mr. Asakawa obtained his BA from University of Tokyo (Economics Faculty) in 1981, and MPA from Princeton University, USA, in 1985.

Bio

Based in Jakarta, Mathieu is Director Asia at HDF Energy, a french Independent Power Producer dedicated to hydrogen power. Mathieu has over 14 years of experience in Renewable Energy through various positions within IPP, EPC and key supplier companies. Prior to joining HDF Energy in 2018, Mathieu managed the development of the North African and East European subsidiaries of a French developer and EPC. Then for 4 years, he was Business Development Manager at ArcelorMittal Exosun.

Bio

Mats de Ronde is a senior consultant, project manager and team lead with a broad overview of the energy system. He combines technical expertise across different energy value chains with an understanding of the market in which technologies operate, performing techno-economic analysis, roadmapping, feasibility studies and due diligence throughout Europe and Asia. His primary focus is on technologies that aid in both short and long term decarbonization such as renewables, hydrogen, storage & CCS but combined with a fundamental understanding of existing fossil fuel markets and dynamics.

Bio

Mats Marquardt is a development economist at the NewClimate Institute, primarily working on modelling transition risks associated with the decarbonization of international trade flows. Mats' current work focuses on the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and its potential economic impacts on emerging and developing countries.

Bio

Dr. Michael Renfrew is a development professional working in Cambodia’s clean energy space. In his capacity as EnergyLab Cambodia’s Program Lead, he oversees the implementation of programs related to the kingdom’s energy ecosystem development, inclusive of technologies, processes, and stakeholders. Michael received his PhD in Macroeconomics from the University of Glasgow (2021) working on international trade and FDI in the context of trade agreement characteristics, with a focus on the ASEAN region. He has worked in Cambodia since 2016, leading projects in the public policy and research space covering topics relating to health, education, economic development, and social cohesion.

Bio

Dr. Michael Abundo is a green (and blue) techno-preneur who specializes in Marine Renewable Energy (with pilot projects in small island developing states and ‘tropical’ solutions) and other technology-enabled, innovation-infused sustainability transitions. He has over 15 years of experience in various roles in the Innovation and Research, Development, & Demonstration (RD&D) Ecosystems of the Asia-Pacific Region working with academe, industry, and government. He has contributed to the inclusion Marine Renewable Energy into South East Asia’s Energy mix at various scales (e.g. energy harvesting, micro-grid, grid-tied/large scale)and for a spectrum of applications (e.g. vessel, ports, aquaculture, etc). Michael is handling R&D/Project collaborations between industry, academe, and government focusing on Digitalization, Data Processing and Management, Autonomous Vehicles (land, air, sea -surface and underwater), Internet-of-Things (IoT), Human Factors, etc in applications such as robotics, food security, resiliency, energy, defense, traffic management (air and vessel), sustainable operations, and the wider Blue Economy. He has successfully initiated, executed, and handed-over a community-based energy intervention programmes especially for accelerated post-disaster recovery with a sustainability plan involving various stakeholders (e.g. NGOs, Academe, Industry, local gov’t).

Bio

From 2012 to 2022, Mr. Michael Schiffer was a senior advisor and counselor on the Democratic Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2009 to 2012, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. Before joining the Department of Defense, he was a program officer at the Stanley Foundation, responsible for the Foundation's Asia programs as well as a range of other U.S. national and global security issues and in 2004-2005 was a Council on Foreign Relations Hitachi International Affairs Fellow in Japan. From 1995 to 2004, he worked on the staff of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), including as her senior national security adviser and legislative director. Prior to that, he was director of international security programs at New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media and was co-manager of the Poipu Bed and Breakfast Inn in Poipu, Kauai. Mr. Schiffer received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and New York University.