Péter Szijjártó was born on 30 October 1978 in Komárom. In 1997, he graduated from the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine Gymnasium in Győr, after which in 2002 he received a degree in Foreign Affairs from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration.

He has been a Member of Parliament for Fidesz since 2002, and in 2018 began his fifth term in Parliament. From 2006 to 2010 he was Fidesz Communications Director, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson from 2010 to 2012, and was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations at the Prime Minister’s Office from 2012 to 2014. In June 2014 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and since 23 September 2014 has served as Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

HE Yury Sentyurin is the third Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum and was appointed in this position at the 19th Ministerial Meeting in Moscow, Russia.

Yury Sentyurin is a diplomat with extensive government experience. He graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Russian Academy of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, specialty – World Economy, and from Russian Academy of State Service under the President of the Russian Federation on the specialty Lawyer.

He has held various high-level positions in the Russian Government, including Director of the Department of Transport Fund for the Development of Russia, Head of Department for Regulation of Natural Monopolies on Transport of Map, Minister of Industry and Innovations, Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region and 1st Vice-Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region.

He was also Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Standing Committee for Energy, Transport and Communications as well as Deputy Minister of Education and Science, and State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Energy.

He is fluent in English, French and Persian.

Torben Brabo is the President of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), Chairman of GIE Board and GIE General Assembly.

Torben Brabo is CEO of the Gas TSO in Energinet, the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and gas – which is an independent public enterprise owned by the Danish state under the Ministry of Climate, Utilities and Energy.

He has 25 years of experience in the energy and gas sector in Denmark and abroad.

Prior to joining Energinet, he took part in European power and gas projects as part of the liberalisation of the Danish gas market in 2002-2004. As the current CEO in Energinet Gas TSO, Torben Brabo is highly involved in European renewable and low-carbon gas projects.

Besides of being GIE’s President, he is engaged in ENTSOG (European Network of gas TSOs) and the European gas capacity trading platform PRISMA, and promoting ERGAR. Moreover, he participates in several decarbonisation projects, such as the Green Gas Initiative and Gas for Climate. He has held a position as chairman of the board of the Danish-Swedish gas exchange ‘Gaspoint Nordic’.

Hrvoje Krhen was elected as the Managing Director of LNG Croatia LLC in April 2020. Before he was the Technical Director of the company. He has more than ten years of experience with gas infrastructure project development. Before joining LNG Croatia he was Director of Development and Investment Division at gas transmission system operator, Plinacro Ltd. He received his Master’s degree in Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Zagreb.

Dr. Vitaliy Baylarbayov is the Deputy Vice-President of SOCAR for Investments and Marketing. Dr. Baylarbayov has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry and holds a PhD in Economics. He is member of Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and held executive positions in the negotiations related to and the management of a number of major oil and gas upstream and midstream projects, including the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oilfields, the Shah-Deniz gas/condensate field, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Southern Gas Corridor Projects, including the expansion of the Southern Caucasus Pipeline, Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). He is also Board member for Sarmatia Project and AGRI LNG project.

As of 1 January 2021, Dora Zombori serves as Ambassador-at-Large for Energy and Climate at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Prior to her recent appointment, Ms Zombori served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Hungary in Washington DC, between April and November 2020 she assumed the role of Chargé d’Affaires ad interim. Ms Zombori has had a variety of assignments in Washington, serving as the First Counselor for Energy and Political-Military Affairs at the Embassy of Hungary. She was also Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellow at the US Department of State from 2015 to 2016.

Prior to her assignment in the United States, she served as head of the Energy Security Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary where she held a variety of postings, including Energy Policy Expert, Desk Officer for Japan and the Asian Development Bank, Energy Policy Coordinator of the Hungarian EU Presidency. She is a member of the Women in Energy Association.

Szabolcs I. Ferencz is the Chairman-CEO of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Ltd. since February 2019.
Between 2011 – 2019 he held the position of SVP MOL Group Corporate Affairs supervising international and domestic governmental relations for Regulatory and Public Affairs, Strategy Development and Corporate Communications. Previously he was CEO and Country Chairman of MOL Romania.

Mr. Ferencz is the member of the Management Board of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG). He is the Chair of the National Committee of the World Petroleum Council, Member of the Advisory Board of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research Foundation. He is funding partner of the SEED School for Executive Education and Development based in Budapest.

Mr Varró has been appointed as Chief Economist of IEA in January 2016. He has worked at the IEA since 2011 as Head of Gas, Coal and Power Markets.

Mr Varró started his economist career at the National Bank of Hungary and from 2000-2005 he served as the Director of Price and Economic Analysis of the Hungarian Energy Office.

Before joining IEA he has worked for MOL Group as Chief Economist and from 2008 as Director for Strategy Development.

Mr Laszlo Fritsch started his professional career in the oil and gas industry at Shell Gas Hungary where he worked in various positions. He joined E.ON Gas Storage as Financial Director in 2006. After the takeover of the company by the Hungarian state in 2013 he has been appointed the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hungarian Gas Storage. From 1 July 2020, he is the CEO and Member of the Board of Hungarian Gas Trade Ltd. (MFGK).

During more than 20 years spent in the oil and gas industry Laszlo Fritsch has gained extensive professional knowledge and is also keen on sharing his expertise as a member of the Board of GIE, member of the Advisory Board of the Fund for Hungarian Oil and Gas Museum as well as a member of the Hungarian Mining Association.

Significantly contributed to the development of competitive gas market of Ukraine by taking the lead in establishment of independent Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, which started operation in accordance with the EU legislation as certified gas TSO on January 1, 2020 after successful unbundling from the vertically integrated company NJSC “Naftogaz of Ukraine”.
Previously responsible for the development of long-term strategy of gas transmission system of Ukraine at JSC “Ukrtransgaz” NJSC “Naftogaz of Ukraine”, he took initiative and managed development and implementation of new Codes of Gas TSO and Gas Storage Facilities, implemented Customs Warehouse Regime to boost attractiveness of Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities for international companies.
As a General Manager of LLC “Gas TSO of Ukraine”, he proceeds with implementation of best practices and standards of European Gas TSOs for full integration of Ukrainian Gas Transmission System into the European gas networks. In addition, he initiated several important projects with various international institutions, such as World Bank, USAID, EIB.
He was also building his career with such companies as Morgan Stanley, Rochester, NY, USA; Deloitte, Kyiv, Ukraine; Microsoft, Kiev, Ukraine on managing positions.
Sergiy Makogon holds a Master degree of Business Administration of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA, a Master degree of Science in Applied Mathematics of National Technical University of Ukraine, Kiev city, holds Certificate in Corporate Governance of Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy, awarded with Certificate of Merit for Significant Contribution in Development of Oil and Gas industry of Ukraine by the NJSC “Naftogaz of Ukraine”.

A graduate of economy of the Corvinus University in Budapest, Attila Steiner was appointed State Secretary for the Development of Circular Economy, Energy and Climate Policy of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology on 16 January 2021. Prior to his appointment, he was State Secretary for EU Affairs of the Ministry of Justice. Previously, he worked as Deputy State Secretary for EU Relations within the Prime Minister’s Office. Earlier stations of his career include the position of a political advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office where his work focused on energy policy. Previously, he served as a political advisor in the European Parliament, also in the field of energy policy. Apart from his native Hungarian, he speaks English and German, and has an intermediate language skill in French.