Speakers

Bio

Mr. Mikael Jakobsson is the CEO of NXITY, a district energy advisory firm with offices in Beijing, Bangkok, and Stockholm. In 2017, Mr. Jakobsson initiated the establishment of the Asia Pacific Urban Energy Association (APUEA), a sector association supporting cities across Asia-Pacific accelerating the development of sustainable urban energy. Mr. Jakobsson is the President of APUEA. Furthermore, Mr. Jakobsson is official District Energy Advisor to Qingdao Development and Reform Commission, and member of the World Economic Forum’s International Energy Community China. Mr. Jakobsson has a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Mr. Jakobsson has 20 years of experience within Energy Management, Project Management and Energy Engineering, with specialist knowledge in Design- and Operation optimization, including thermal and hydraulic steady-state and hydraulic transient-state analysis, of complex District Energy systems. Mr. Jakobsson has developed and optimized some 100 District Energy systems globally, whereof 70 across Asia-Pacific.

Bio

Mikael has 20 years of experience from both the private and public sector with a focus on international cooperation and sustainable development. Prior to joining SEforALL, Mikael spent 13 years with the European Union Delegations working in the field of economic and energy cooperation across several countries in Africa and the Eastern Caribbean. In September 2017 he joined the Sustainable Energy for All working with leaders in government, the private sector and civil society to drive further, faster action toward achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7- access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030 – in line with the Paris Agreement on climate. He is currently leading SEforALL’s work on access to clean cooking.

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International relations expert with extensive global experience in sustainable development and energy transitions. Currently working in partnership with the United Nations and leaders in government and the private sector to accelerate action towards sustainable energy – in line with SDG 7 and the Paris Agreement on climate.

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Mike Lichtenfeld is Founder, President and CEO of Solar Pacific Energy Corporation. Based in the Philippines, Solar Pacific develops, owns and operates solar and battery storage projects throughout Asia Pacific. It is a subsidiary company of Alternergy, a publicly listed renewable energy company that also develops and owns wind power and run-of-river hydro power projects. Solar Pacific was the first solar project developer in the Philippines to build and finance a utility-scale project under the PPA model; the first to finance an aggregated portfolio of commercial rooftop solar projects in the Philippines; and the first company to bring utility-scale solar plus battery storage to the Republic of Palau in the Western Pacific. Mr. Lichtenfeld co-founded Solar Pacific with former Philippine Energy Secretary Vince Pérez in 2012. Mr. Lichtenfeld has over 20 years of experience in clean energy project development, technology, and finance. He has held previous leadership positions in solar development companies MMA Renewable Ventures, Fotowatio (FRV), and at SunEdison where he served as Director of Utility Solar Development before founding Solar Pacific in 2012. His background also includes investment banking with UBS, and environmental conservation financing at The Nature Conservancy (Indonesia). Mr. Lichtenfeld holds an MBA and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.

Bio

Mr. Liu Mingbai, Vice General Manager Of The Department Of International Green Finance & Cooperation of I&G, deputy director of the PMO, 20 years experience in green finance business.

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With over 33 years of experience in energy, finance, and sustainability, M.K. Balaji is a senior management professional and Specialist Leader at Deloitte Consulting. He currently serves as Director-Advanced Energy Systems at USAID's SE Asia's Smart Power Program (SPP), and previously led off-grid electrification for USAID Power Africa's Nigeria Power Sector Program and was also Chief of Party of USAID-Private Finance Advisory Network-Asia (PFAN) program. Balaji has held C-Level assignments in manufacturing, energy, project development, and private equity. He has worked on various assignments in the climate finance and energy sectors, supporting project development and raising financing for clean energy projects. Balaji is a Chemical Engineer and holds an MBA in International Business and certificates in Solar Technologies and Blockchain Technologies.

Bio

Lingshui Mo is Vice President of China Carbon Technology (Hubei)Ltd, responsible for leading the team to develop digital products for carbon accounting& management, and green finance management; and to provide solutions for clients including net zero strategy, climate investment and climate financing, green finance product innovation, ESG management & investment, carbon asset management etc. She also serves as a committee member of the ISO Technical Committee on Sustainable Finance and a reviewer of the China Expert Group of the China-EU Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT) of the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPFS). Her extensive experience includes the carbon markets, climate change mitigation projects, climate finance, clean energy policies and financing mechanisms, green etc. She used to be an international consultant for the Asian Development Bank TA projects on carbon market, climate finance, clean energy policy and finance, and to worked in UK-based carbon asset consultancy, government in PRC. She holds master's degrees in both economics and international finance

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Ms Modini is a Senior Consultant with DNV currently based out of Singapore and is leading the energy storage business for DNV in India. She has 10 years of experience in renewable energy projects and energy storage space. She has carried out several investor due diligence and technology reviews spanning from battery manufacturing in India, the Philippines, South Korea the UK, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Australia, and the USA etc. Her recent projects include the commissioning of 285MWh Lithium ion-based BESS in Jurong Island, Singapore as Owner’s Engineer on behalf of Sembcorp. She was selected as Mentor in the GWNET and The World Bank’s administered Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) Women in Energy Storage (WES) Mentoring Program 2022-23. Her educational background includes a Master’s degree from IIT Kharagpur and a bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from NIT Warangal.

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I am currently working as the Head of Corporate Financial Services Division looking after the Corporate Asset & Liability Portfolio. I have around 19 years of financial services experience and held various senior management positions in credit & investment, corporate finance, retail finance, SME finance, credit administration and corporate liability.

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M. Azim Hashimi is the Director in the Office of Markets Development and Public-Private Partnership with the principal responsibility of developing Transaction Advisory Services for Central and South Asian markets covering Energy, SOEs, Social Sectors, Transport, Urban Infrastructure, and Utilities. He has a proven track record of developing, structuring, and closing PPP Projects in multiple sectors and countries. Previously, he was a senior banker for 12 years with ADB's Private Sector Infrastructure Finance team, covering infrastructure investments in Central and South Asian markets where he developed and closed projects in Energy, Power (including large-scale hydros, renewables, and off-grid), and Transport (ports and roads) in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Georgia, and India. He also served as the head of the private sector unit at the ADB Pakistan office from 2006 to 2013, responsible for growing the infrastructure portfolio from $50 million to over $500 million, predominantly in energy and power, including working on the country’s first hydro and wind IPPs. Prior to ADB, he worked with the Aga Khan Foundation, the World Bank, and a US-based venture capital-backed business incubator responsible for starting up companies in bioinformatics, plastics, and e-commerce. He holds a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

Bio

Monali Zeya-Hazra is working as the Regional and Clean Energy Specialist in USAID/India. With over 25 years of experience, Monali has managed several clean energy projects on regional energy connectivity, renewable energy integration, renewables, distribution reforms, etc. Prior to joining USAID, Monali managed the Industry and Environment unit of Centre for Science & Environment

Bio

Mona recently completed her term as Chairperson of the Philippine National Renewable Energy Board (NREB). She was appointed to office on 28 March 2019 and, during her two (2) years as NREB Chair, she steered the performance of the Board in fulfilling its mandate under the Renewable Energy Act in reviewing and updating the Philippines’ 20-year RE roadmap known as the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), and firmed up the implementation of the other programs under the RE Act.

As of 1 April 2021, she has resumed working full-time as Senior Partner in PJS Law (www.pjslaw.com). She also continues her role as CEO/founder of UNAWA Asia (www.unawa.asia), an inclusive regtech startup formed as collaboration among PJS Law, Amihan Global Strategies and Talino Venture Labs SG.

Mona is also professor at the Ateneo de Manila Law School and an incoming member of the faculty at the Ateneo School of Government to teach courses under the Energy Transitions Programme.