Speakers

Bio

Nicola McFarlane has over 18 years of experience working in engineering in the oil & gas industry both in Australia and the UK. Nicola’s current position is DNV Principal Low Carbon Lead in Australia supporting Energy Transition and Decarbonisation services and managing key hydrogen related projects in Australia. Nicola is a principal engineer and project manager working in risk management, technical assurance and advisory services. With expertise in safety and regulatory compliance within the Australian Regulatory Regime including Safety Case development and validation and the UK Regulatory Regime. Nicola has a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Australia.

Bio

Nicole Della Vedova is a Senior Manager, whose career has steadily advanced in almost 15 years of activity in financial markets among different industries (Energy, Oil & Gas, Utilities).

After a short experience in a consultancy firm, Nicole began her professional career as Analyst in Capital Markets and Credit Rating at Eni SpA, where she worked for 6 years, dealing with bond issues, market analysis and relations with main international banks and rating agencies. After a prominent experience in Maire Tecnimont SpA as Senior Financial Planning and Advisory Analyst, in 2016 she joined Enel SpA as Head of Group Capital Markets, within Finance & Insurance department. In Enel SpA she is now responsible for Corporate Finance, leading both capital markets activities and public finance. She is recognized as a leading expert in the Sustainable Finance space, and she participated in the drafting of the Sustainability-Linked Bond

Principles released by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA). Born in 1983, she graduated in business and finance at Bocconi University of Milan. Since 2017 she is also a member of the International Capital Market Association.

Bio

Nicolina is an Energy Planning Specialist at SEforAll with more than 6 years of experience in geospatial electricity access planning and energy modelling. She has supported governments across Africa, Asia, and Central America to bridge their access gaps informed by geospatial data and analytics. She has led multiple national electricity access projects and capacity-building programs for client governments to inform the design of country roadmaps’ to scale up electricity access. She has a master's degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering with a minor in Policy and Management from KTH, Royal Institute of Technology.

Bio

Nidhi Gupta’s professional experience of over fifteen years includes advisory on corporate sustainability portfolio, green building rating development and facilitation, performance evaluation & benchmarking, green dashboard development, program development and implementation for scaling up of affordable, energy efficient and healthy strategies, etc. She has worked with several policy makers, architects, developers, and corporations on implementation of sustainability initiatives in the domain of built environment. Currently, she is working towards integrating environmental thinking, approach and processes into government programs and policies in India and Sri Lanka. As a program manager of the USAID/India MAITREE program, Nidhi worked with UNEP to develop the sustainable public procurement framework for the Ministry of Finance Task Force with a focus on room air conditioners. She co-authored a white paper on “Advancing green cooling through sustainable public procurement”. Nidhi has also worked on development of the sustainable public procurement criteria for servicing and maintenance of green room air conditioners. Currently, she is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change towards development of the ecolabelling framework for India, an effort under the UNEP Partnership for Action on Green Economy program. She is also a part of global groups working towards women empowerment in climate technology and energy transition.

Bio

Nidhi's professional experience includes corporate sustainability portfolio advisory, sustainable procurement, green building rating development and implementation, performance evaluation & benchmarking, green dashboard development, program design and implementation for scaling up of affordable, energy efficient and healthy strategies, etc. She has worked with several architects, developers, and corporations on implementation of sustainability initiatives in the domain of built environment. Currently, she is working towards integrating environmental thinking, approach and processes into government programs, policies and public procurement practices, across scales - National, State, City, ULBs. She is also a part of global groups working towards women empowerment in climate technology and energy transition.

Bio

Nidhi is the GESI Advisor for USAID funded South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP). She holds a PhD on gendering urban public transport systems in India and has authored numerous papers exploring gendered differences in urban mobility. As a seasoned development professional, Nidhi has served as a Gender Expert for various stakeholders including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, contributing to impactful projects such as the Chennai Gender project for Greater Chennai Corporation; the Bengaluru Metros Transit-oriented Development and Multi Modal Integration project for ADB etc. Having worked in the transport ecosystem for eight years, she has moved to engendering the energy sector. Currently, as the GESI Advisor for USAID's SAREP, she is spearheading efforts to integrate gender equality and social inclusion across the interventions of this regional program, across six countries of South Asia, with a vision to ensure an inclusive just transition in the energy ecosystem.

Bio

Nidhi Sarin has over 17 years of experience of working in energy, climate change and environment related project. She currently heads GIZ’s Access to Energy Pragramme and has worked on multi-million projects on areas including distributed and grid connected renewable energy, power sector reforms, climate change, and long term energy planning for energy transition. Her experience includes working on support to government on policy development, formulating regulations and standards, private sector development through enhanced bilateral cooperation, primarily in India. She has been actively working with the private sector to provide incubation support and implementing programmes on public private partnerships to improve overall sector environment. She has an experience of working with bilateral, multilateral organizations, corporate sector and non-government organizations. Previously, Ms Sarin has worked with the UK government on Energy and Climate. She was responsible for advising on electricity sector reforms and on climate change programmes for low carbon growth.

Bio

Niharika Tagotra is a Senior Research Specialist in the WRI India Energy Program. Before joining WRI, she was working as Consultant (Energy Security) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India. She is also the NBR Asia EDGE Fellow for the year 2021-22.

Bio

Experienced professional with over 17 years of experience in business consulting and industry. Experienced in the areas of Clean Energy – Hydrogen, Renewables, Bio-fuels, Natural Gas & LNG and Gas Renewable hybrid

Bio

Nina Kolybashkina is Senior Social Development Specialist at the Climate Investment Funds, working on mainstreaming gender and spearheading broader social inclusion agenda through policy and technical assistance, analytical work and capacity-building. Nina has over 20 years of experience in development, with focus on social inclusion and gender, labor, rural development, water management and resilience. Nina joined the World Bank in 2015, leading policy dialogue in Uzbekistan on eradication of child and forced labor in the cotton sector, in partnership with the ILO, as well as developing gender and citizen engagement activities in agriculture, water and energy sectors. Most recently, Nina led multi-GP analytical work covering disability, gender, labor migration and Indigenous People in Russia, as well as supported development of coordination platform for donors and national stakeholders working on conflict recovery in Eastern Ukraine. Prior to joining the Bank Nina worked for UNICEF Somalia on local governance services for women and children and UNDP Regional Center for Arab States, on governance and empowerment of youth and women in Egypt, Djibouti, Yemen, Jordan and Palestine. Nina started her career with UNDP Ukraine, developing and coordinating a portfolio of community-based projects. She also worked with the UN in Turkmenistan and Kosovo, as an M&E consultant in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and as lecturer on social policy at Brunel University in the UK. Nina holds a PhD and MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford, and a Specialist Degree in Economics and Finance from Tavrida National University in Ukraine.

Bio

I Nirod Chandra Mondal joined Bangladesh Civil Services on 28 May 2001. I worked in the field administration in various capacities including Asstt. Commissioner, Senior Asstt. Commissioner, Magistrate 3rd Class to Magistrate 1st Class and as a Speedy Trial Magistrate from 2001-2007. I worked in MCI international as Project Manager under lien from 2007-2009. I worked as Circle Officer in Tejgaon Development Circle, Dhaka and as Deputy Director in Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakha(RAJUK) from 2009-2015. I worked as Deputy Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs. Currently I am working as a Joint Secretary Renewable in Power Division, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. I am also serving as the Focal Point of Bangladesh for multiple international organisation including GIZ, International Renewable Energy Agency(IRENA), International Solar Alliance(ISA) and Bangladesh Advancing Development and Growth Through Energy(BADGE) which is a USAID funded project. I obtained B. Sc. in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology(BUET) and an MBA from South East University. I have received many on the job trainings including Foundation Training on Public Administration, Law and Administration Training, Military Orientation Training and Survey & Settlement Training. I am Passionate about regional and global activities in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. I participated in the numerous workshops and seminars on these topic in many countries including India, Nepal, Bhutan, Japan, China, UAE, Qatar, Germany and USA.

Bio

Nisha Menon, Chief Consultant, DESL, has over 26 years of experience in sustainable energy and climate action. She is a mechanical engineer with a masters degree in energy conservation and management. She has worked in energy management (buildings, industries and urban (municipal) infrastructure and renewable energy (biomass, small hydro power generation and municipal solid waste to energy). She has led market assessment studies, energy strategy studies, due diligence for energy efficiency and waste-to-energy projects, structuring for energy efficiency projects. business planning and drafting policy recommendations, She was also the practice leader for providing commissioning services for green building projects in India. In addition to clients in the private sector, she has managed a number of assignments involving development organizations including ADB, World Bank, kFW, USAID and DfiD in India and overseas.