Joanne is Chief Operations Officer of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. She aims to play a central role in the creation of balanced and sustainable economic growth at a time when there is an urgent need to sustainably expand South Africa’s economy. Joanne is responsible for driving the IDC’s planning, project development, business origination and implementation priorities. At the core of delivering sustainable industrial development is understanding and planning for the environmental impact of industrial value chains as well as the climate change impact on these value chains. Joanne was previously Head of Client Innovation at Absa Corporate and Investment Bank. Among other achievements, she defined a shared value strategy for client centricity through sector-based value chain and ecosystem mapping that identified opportunities for differentiation, disruption and creation of positive social and environmental impacts. Joanne also held senior management positions at Absa including Head of Public Sector & Infrastructure and Head of Metals, Mining & Infrastructure. Prior to joining Absa, Joanne was a Director of Global Investment Banking at HSBC. Joanne originally started her career at the IDC following completion of her articles at KPMG.  She was involved in driving transformation funding and industrial development through roles as Head of Project Finance and Structured Finance and Head of Corporate Finance, among others. Joanne holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of the Witswatersrand and is a Chartered Accountant (SA) by qualification.

Mr Baxter was appointed CEO of the Minerals Council in 2015. He has 28 years of high-level advocacy and strategy experience in the business and mining sectors. He was involved in the first mineral policy discussions with the ANC in 1992 and has participated (and often led) discussions on all aspects of mining, economic, investment, transformation and tax policy with government.  He previously chaired BUSA’s Econpol and Growth Task Team. He has played a key leadership role in rejuvenating the brand of the Minerals Council and brings material leadership, governance, strategy, investment and transformation skills to the table. He is a member of the Minerals Council Board, the BUSA Board, the TEBA Trust Board and he chairs the World Platinum Investment Council. He is vice-Chairman of the international Associations Working Group and vice-Chairman of the Mining Industry Association of Southern Africa (MIASA). He was recently awarded the SAIMM Brigadier Stokes platinum medal for his contribution to the South African mining sector.

Prof. Dmitri Bessarabov was recruited for his current position from Canada in 2010. He obtained his Master’s degree in Chemistry in Moscow, Russia and in 1996 his doctoral degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He worked in the industrial R&D sectors in Canada for Kvaerner Group, Ballard Power Systems and AFCC (Daimler and Ford JV). He is an internationally-recognised visionary with extensive industrial and academic decision-making experience. Current responsibilities include building effective teams with deep technical capabilities and managing these teams and providing leadership and management in the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Programme (HySA). He is also involved in contributing to the South African National Hydrogen Road Map. He holds SA NRF rating C1, has co-authored more than 150 publications and serves on boards of various scientific committees locally and internationally. He is an expert in the area of hydrogen and electro-catalytic membrane systems for energy applications such as electrolysers and fuel cells. He is passionate about LOHC technology for hydrogen storage, electrolysers, PEM fuel cells, membranes, MEAs and catalyst layers structures.

Emanuele Bianco is an Associate Programme Officer at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in the Policy and Renewable Energy Market Unit. His areas of interest cover the renewable energy policy issues across the whole spectrum of the energy system, in particular the system integration challenges. Therefore, after focusing on the immediate issues related to system integration of variable renewables, he focused on the fringes of the energy system, namely the hard-to-abate sectors. He is the author of the two recent IRENA’s Green Hydrogen Guides to policy making reports, which outline the main barriers that inhibit green hydrogen uptake and the policies needed to address these. During 2021, he is continuing the analysis of the policies needed to support the green hydrogen sector, focusing on the demand side. Emanuele’s contribution to IRENA’s work also includes analysis on the renewable energy market in Southeast Europe, auction design, heating and cooling policies and power market structures. Before joining IRENA, Emanuele worked in the International Energy Agency (IEA), where he actively contributed to IEA’s analysis on power system integration and renewable energy market evolution, and in the Italian state-owned agency GSE, where he supported national energy policy making. Overall, he has ten years of experience in renewable energy policy analysis. He received an M.Eng. in Nuclear and Energy Engineering from the Polytechnic School of Turin.

Dr. Tobias Bischof-Niemz is Head of Division: New Energy Solutions at ENERTRAG, a German renewable-energy company with activities in wind, solar PV, storage, green hydrogen and grid infrastructure. His division is responsible for all green hydrogen topics at the organization as well as the internationalization. Before joining ENERTRAG in 2017, Tobias successfully established and led the Energy Centre at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He served on the inaugural South African Ministerial Advisory Council on Energy (MACE). Tobias is author of the book “South Africa’s Energy Transition” that outlines a roadmap for a low-cost, decarbonised and job-rich future for South Africa’s energy sector. Tobias studied engineering and public administration in Darmstadt, Berkeley and New York.

Sharon is the CEO of HyPlat (Pty) Ltd.  HyPlat is a manufacturer of PGM-based fuel cell and electrolyser membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) using South African technology.  She is from Vancouver, Canada, and prior to coming to South Africa in 2012, she had over 15 years of experience as a tech startup executive, an entrepreneur and consultant.  She was Vice President, Research for a nanomaterials company working in the fields of batteries, hydrogen storage and petroleum upgrading.  She then co-founded a fuel cell company where she served as Vice President, Technology Development. She founded HyPlat in 2014, licensing technology from UCT and Mintek.  She is also Director, HySA Catalysis, with a staff and student team of over 40 people working in fuel cell and electrolyser catalyst and MEA development.  She holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Giacomo joined EY in 2017 and is based in the Milan office. He is responsible for strategy and transaction projects in Italy, Portugal & Spain and has a strong project management track-record, driving complex cases towards their target. Giacomo has extensive experience in the energy and utilities sector as a Partner at EY in the transaction sector, where he supported most of the leading players in the market, and in the infrastructure sector, where he gathered experience both with companies and institutional investment funds. Giacomo has developed a broad expertise in corporate development business transformation and organization in large complex corporations. Prior to joining EY, Giacomo has worked for more than 13 years at The Boston Consulting Group. He graduated Summa cum Laude from the University in Genoa with a Master’s in Management Engineering and he holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. 

Cosmas holds a Doctorate in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from the University of the Witwatersrand and has more than 15 years' experience in the field of materials fabrication and characterisation.  In his current post as Director: Power, at the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), Cosmas is responsible for the Hydrogen Infrastructure Centre of Competence, the CoalCO2 to X and Energy Storage Programmes.  His main role is to interact with public and private sectors in South Africa in order to develop and strengthen partnerships that are essential in promoting the uptake of emerging low carbon energy technologies, particularly those that beneficiate mineral resources found in South Africa and neighbouring countries. Cosmas’ current interests are in technology roadmap development, innovation management and technology commercialisation in collaboration with both national and international partners.

Reg is a mining and resources executive with over twenty years of experience. Before his appointment at IDC, Reg was the Group CEO of Wescoal Holdings Limited, a coal mining company listed on the JSE. Reg has extensive investment banking experience from his 15-year tenure at Nedbank Limited that covered mergers and acquisitions, BEE structuring, capital raising, mining valuations and more. Before joining Nedbank in 2008, Reg was a commodity analyst at Renaissance BJM Securities, responsible for researching various minerals and metals commodities. He also held various roles including at the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (formerly Department of Minerals and Energy) as an inspector of mines and in academia at the University of Venda as well as at the University of Johannesburg (formerly Wits Technikon). Reg holds a BSc Mining Engineering (Wits) and an MSc in Mining Engineering (Exeter University, Camborne School of Mines).

In 2018, Kevin co-founded AP Ventures. AP Ventures is a venture capital fund with a particular focus on the hydrogen value chain. AP Ventures manages $400m in commitments from twelve Limited Partners. Prior to this, Kevin was with Anglo American for 10 years where he held senior positions in Finance and Corporate Finance and he has extensive experience across Europe, South Africa and the USA. Kevin is a UCT graduate and South African qualified Chartered Accountant. He lives in London with his wife and daughters.

Fleetwood Grobler is an Executive Director on the Sasol Limited Board and is Sasol’s President and Chief Executive Officer. He was appointed on 1 November 2019.Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Fleetwood is a proven leader with 35 years’ experience across many of Sasol’s key functional and business areas. Together with Sasol’s executive team they are transforming the Group to re-emerge as a sustainable and value-based growth enterprise delivering value to all its stakeholders. He assumed the role at a significant juncture in the Group’s history – a point when the Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP) was nearing completion which will triple chemicals capacity in United States. His appointment also came at a time when Sasol launched work to clearly define its sustainability approach. Prior to his appointment, Fleetwood was Executive Vice President of Sasol’s Chemicals Businesses, based in Germany. His focus was on its overall global performance, including the development and implementation of key focus areas in support of Sasol’s value-based strategy. In April 2019, he took on the additional responsibility of progressing the execution of the LCCP – including business-readiness preparation of the project. Fleetwood’s association with Sasol began as an engineering student in the early 1980s when he received a Sasol bursary before joining the Group in 1984. Since then he has worked at most of Sasol’s operating facilities worldwide, acquiring exposure to a broad range of business activities and gaining extensive experience in Sasol’s international businesses. In March 2010 he was appointed Managing Director of Sasol Olefins and Surfactants (now part of the Chemicals Business), based in Hamburg, Germany. Under his leadership, he stabilised the business following a significant turnaround process and set it on a path of solid growth and enhanced performance. He was appointed to Sasol’s Group Executive Committee in December 2013.

Jacek is an Associate Director in the Strategy Practice of Deloitte Consulting South Africa, where he leads the Strategic Sensing and Insight competency. He is a seasoned strategist with considerable experience in strategy assessment, articulation and implementation, market analysis and crafting diversification and growth strategies. Jacek focuses on helping organisations in sensing and interpreting major shifts and changes in their external environment that may result in substantial impact, and positioning organisations to take advantage of emerging opportunities and improve their strategic decision-making.

Itumeleng (Tumi) Kgomo, a mega-project specialist, started his carrier as a hotelier and worked for numerous local and global chains. Being the entrepreneur he is, he left the tourism trade to run a specialist development firm. It was in 2007 that he was approached by the National Treasury of South Africa to become an operational specialist for G20 and subsequently to develop operational plan templates for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, the setting up of the monitoring tools for the tournament and the scope of development thereto. Post the World Cup, Treasury retained him for his project management expertise in mega-project evaluation to further add value to: a feasibility study of the 2015 Rugby World Cup Tournament for and within the bid negotiations and the 2030 Olympic bid; project management for treasury on the Medupi and Kusile Power stations and Ingula Pump Storage Scheme. The mandate was to monitor and evaluate the new build programmes and he was further charged with co-developing and motivating a 50-year energy programme for the country. In 2012, he was retained by the Department of Public Enterprises to monitor and evaluate their mega-project, which were of national interest.  Oversight on the presidential projects known as Strategic Integration Projects (SIPs), were also part of his responsibility. Currently, Tumi is the Chief Executive Officer of EPCM Global, an engineering and consulting firm, that focuses on business innovation enablement, specifically within the energy, nuclear sector and first-of-a-kind technologies.

James Mackay has over 20 years of diverse experience and capability in infrastructure development, including both public and private sector roles. As a multi-disciplined professional, with both an engineering degree and as a SA Chartered Accountant, he brings a unique skill set and capability, including having led a number of public-private partnerships. His focus is now on applying this knowledge to transitioning to new energy world models, driven by new technologies and with new infrastructure needs.  His current role is PwC South Africa’s energy sector lead, focusing on all aspects of energy but with a specific focus on supporting our country’s energy transition from strategy through to execution. James has a BSc Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town and is a registered Chartered Accountant in South Africa. He has completed an Executive Coach and Leadership Programme through Berkeley University and attended the Harvard PPP programme at the Kennedy School of Business.

Peter Mackey joined the Air Liquide Group in 2017, initially based in Frankfurt. As a member of the Group Strategy team he was involved in numerous projects, including acting as co-chair of the Group’s Energy Transition Task Force. In late 2020 he relocated to Paris to take up his current role as VP Strategy & Policy Support for Air Liquide’s Hydrogen Energy world business line. Prior to joining Air Liquide, Peter spent over two decades working as a highly ranked Equity Analyst covering the chemical sector. He worked in London for several institutions, including Exane BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Commerzbank. Peter Mackey is a Mathematics & Economics graduate of the London School of Economics.

Salah leads Howden’s global hydrogen business segment. With over 20 years of professional experience, he has delivered high profile green and blue hydrogen and ammonia, including one of the world’s largest projects in this space in the Middle East. Prior to his current role with Howden, he held senior business and engineering positions in number of global companies such as Worley, Honeywell-UOP, AspenTech and ITM Power. Salah holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Suez University where he is also a visiting lecturer for energy transition studies, as well as a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Surrey in United Kingdom.

Stefano is the Chief Executive Officer of Renergen Limited (“Renergen”), a dual-listed helium and natural gas company with substantial gas reserves in the Free State of South Africa (the “Gas Fields”). He was part of the team which acquired the Gas Fields from Molopo Energy Limited in April 2013 and was instrumental in taking the Gas Fields from a stranded gas asset into production with funding from the US Government and an Initial Public Offering on the Australian Securities Exchange. Along with Nick Mitchell, they pioneered the use of natural gas in heavy duty vehicles in South Africa to help decarbonise the South African economy, which ultimately lead to a joint-venture with Total South Africa Proprietary Limited, and he pioneered Cryo-Vacc ™ to help in the global rollout of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19. Stefano has significant experience in the areas of structured finance and advisory. After completing his formative training with Deutsche Bank, Stefano was recruited by Morgan Stanley in London, where he was ultimately charged with building their sub-Saharan African fixed income capital markets business before leaving banking to start his own financial services firm. Stefano has a BSc Actuarial Science and a BSc Hons in Advanced Mathematics of Finance

Born in Lusaka, Zambia and with a personal understanding of various cultures within the SADC region, Maidei is an experienced Strategist and Investment Facilitator with more than 20 years’ experience working in both the public and private sectors in South Africa. Maidei holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (with a major in Industrial Psychology) from the University of Namibia. In 2009, Maidei completed her Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. She also holds certificates in project management, strategic management and corporate governance from the University of South Africa. Since 2014, Maidei has been affiliated to the Gauteng IDZ, a state-owned company established to oversee the development and operations of the Special Economic Zone at OR Tambo International Airport. In her current role, Maidei is responsible for facilitating the location of investments into OR Tambo International Airport SEZ, a multi-billion Rand development that is part of the broader South African national SEZ programme established to promote economic growth through special arrangements and support systems.

Presidential Economic Advisor, Government of The Republic of Namibia James Mnyupe is a multidisciplinary financial professional with a background in accounting, asset management and wealth management. A graduate of UNAM and Rhodes University, James applied his trade in the auditing field for 3 years before committing a decade to asset and wealth management. He led one of Namibia’s prominent asset management firms for five years and was the founding Chair of the Namibia Savings and Investment Association. James holds the CA, CFA and CFP designations. His involvement in various industry and national bodies has offered him a unique perspective from which to contribute to various dialogues and initiatives that look to deploy capital more effectively across various opportunity sets, both locally and regionally. In September 2020, James was appointed as Namibian President Hage Geingob’s Economic Advisor.

Paul is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He began his career at PwC in 1986 and served as an audit partner for 6 years. Since 2001, he has worked as both CFO and CEO in the listed company environment as well as public sector and in family-owned businesses. He has worked in South Africa across Africa as well as in the Middle East and the USA. From a South African perspective, Paul has served as the CFO of Group Five Limited as well as Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd and was CEO of ArcelorMittal (South Africa) Limited. Paul has diversified industry experience including mining, infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, trading, steel manufacturing and financial services. Paul also has experience as a non-executive director for listed companies in South Africa. Paul has in depth experience within corporates in public offerings and debt raising locally and internationally. He has been involved in turnarounds, restructurings, M&A, programme and project management including recently the overall responsibility for the $1bn separation of ABSA Bank Limited from Barclays PLC. Paul also has regulatory experience in Africa in the energy and financial services industries.

Thomas Roos is a Senior Research Engineer at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research or CSIR, in the Energy Centre located in the Smart Places Cluster.  He holds a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch. His 27-year research career at CSIR has been predominantly in the field of thermodynamics, heat transfer, turbomachinery and energy.  He has been involved in several national R&D roadmap processes, including the energy R&D strategy for South Africa, the original HySA business plan, the Solar Energy Technology Roadmap (SETRM) and the National Solar Research Facility. He has presented at several fora on the economic motivation for the development of a South African renewable hydrogen export market and is involved in several projects developing the evidence base for this economic motivation for clients.

Sifiso Sibiya, Group Executive: Refining and Marketing, holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering, a Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering, a programme in Manager Development and a MBA. His career started at Impala Refineries in 1996 when he was appointed as a Process Assistant in the Base Metals Laboratory. Since then, he has progressed from junior roles to executive roles in projects, production, sales and commercial fields. Sifiso currently holds the role of Group Executive: Refining and Marketing where he is responsible for group refining and sales of base and precious metals. Additionally, he serves as a Director on several boards and is the Chairman of Impala Platinum Japan.

Fahmida is a Chemical Engineer by profession and has been in the PGM mining industry for 25 years. The last 14 years of her career has been focused on market development, particularly on the hydrogen and fuel cell sector. Fahmida leads Anglo American’s market development work on hydrogen in South Africa, where she works closely with the South African Government as well as local and international industry players. Her current focus is on the development of a South African Hydrogen Valley and a heavy duty hydrogen freight corridor.

Julian Soles joined Anglo American in 2018 as Head of Technology Development, Sustainability and is currently leading Anglo American’s hydrogen development efforts. Prior to joining Anglo American, Julian worked in the oil & gas services sector for over 17 years with Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor. Julian received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering from University College London. He earned his MBA from the University of Houston and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Vinay Somera is the founder and CEO of Isondo Precious Metals. He has 30 years of experience within the platinum and associated industries and spent 25 years within the Impala Platinum group of companies working across many functional areas, and finally serving as the Implats Group Executive: Market Development and Strategy. While at Implats, he helped create and build Impala Refining Services (IRS), a subsidiary of Implats, from a zero base into a 1-million-ounce platinum refiner with a multi-billion-rand turnover. A strong proponent of beneficiation of metals in South Africa, he left Implats in 2013 and founded Isondo Precious Metals to help create a precious metals beneficiation industry. Vinay has a BSc degree in Mathematics and Chemistry, as well as a BCom (Hons) degree. He also holds an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

Monica runs a number of international hydrogen supply chain initiatives. Her focus is on initiating and building strategic coalitions worldwide to help create the hydrogen supply chains and corridors  of the future, working with a team of highly motivated colleagues to achieve this. One of her key countries is South-Africa. Other regions under her care are the Americas, Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Areas of expertise: Hydrogen and Power-to-X fuels shipping corridors, Port development for Green Transition and Digitization of ports. Port of Rotterdam is among the top 10 ports of the world and the largest port of Europe. It is the  gateway port for many traded goods into Europe, reaching > 500 million consumer within 24 hours. It is also a major Energy hub for Europe, receiving some 13% of the total energy consumption for Europe and reaching some 40% of EU Industry end users for their energy needs. It is known for its high quality hinterland logistics, its deep water accessibility, its efficiency and port infrastructure. Port of Rotterdam, on request, provides port advisory services to governments and public/private port companies, in some cases opting to co-invest. As the hydrogen hub for its region, it is looking to connect globally to ensure supplies of hydrogen are connected with the customers in the demand areas Rotterdam services.

Dr Daniel Teichmann is co-founder and CEO of Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies. The engineer conceptually developed the industrial application of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC)-based hydrogen storage as part of his doctorate at Friedrich Alexander University (Germany, Erlangen/Nuremberg). After his first professional position at BMW AG Research and Technology, he decided in 2013 to set up the start-up with professors Peter Wasserscheid, Wolfgang Arlt and Eberhard Schlücker; the successful path from research to commercialisation then began. Today, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH with its storage and release systems is a leading player worldwide for easy-to-handle, safe and efficient hydrogen infrastructure solutions and has been honoured with awards such as the "German Industry Innovation Award” and has been named one of the “Global Cleantech 100” every year since 2018. Together with strategic investors AP-Ventures, Royal Vopak, Mitsubishi Corporation, Covestro, Winkelmann Group and Hyundai Motor Company, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies is driving the scaling of its LOHC technology in projects worldwide.

Dr Pierre Voges is presently the CEO: Atlantis Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Company, a green-tech, catalytic infrastructure, state-owned enterprise of the Western Cape Government. His qualifications include a B Comm, Accountancy and Economics (University of Stellenbosch), Honours in Economics (University of Stellenbosch), M Comm, Economics (University of Stellenbosch) and a Doctorate in Urban Planning and Economics (University of Pretoria). He is a member of the South African Planning Institute (SAPI). Pierre is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Mandela Bay Development Agency responsible for urban renewal through infrastructure projects in Port Elizabeth. Prior to his present position, Pierre was a Director with Grant Thornton International Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors in Cape Town where he worked on infrastructure projects in the Middle East (Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar) and gained extensive experience in managing the finance of infrastructure projects in terms of both public and private sector finance. During this period, he gained experience in public sector finance, project feasibility studies, urban planning and infrastructure project implementation to ensure sustainable urban development. Initially, his work at Grant Thornton was based in the tourism sector, but it later expanded to include government-related work, such as public/private partnerships and urban planning ensuring sustainable urban development projects. From 1994 to 1996, Pierre was an Advisor (RDP Office) in the office of former South African President Nelson Mandela, where he dealt specifically with development aid finance and public finance and the utilization of this type of finance in infrastructure development. Prior to this position, he was in the South African Foreign Service, serving inter alia in The Hague, The Netherlands and Berlin, Germany. Over the years, Pierre has developed an energetic and unconventional style of thinking when it comes to change management and institutional turnaround strategies in an urban and infrastructure development environment.

Jenny is a highly-respected industry analyst and leads SFA (Oxford)'s demand research team. She has a wide-ranging technical background and significant industrial experience. Jenny and the team are responsible for evaluating and forecasting the automotive and industrial markets for the strategic metals; this includes assessing how technological shifts, legislative changes and environmental issues will help develop or place at risk the markets for these strategic metals over the short, medium and long term. Jenny is also SFA (Oxford)'s expert on the ruthenium and iridium markets.