Péter Sztáray was appointed State Secretary for Security Policy in July 2018. Prior to this role, he served as Permanent Representative of Hungary to NATO in Brussels from 2013.

He started his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993 as Desk Officer for NATO and WEU. Between 1996-2000 he served as Political Officer at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to NATO. Mr. Sztáray was appointed Deputy Director of the Western Europe Department in 2000. In 2002 he became Director of the Department for the Americas. From 2002 to 2003 Mr. Sztáray was Head of the NATO Section, then he served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Hungary to NATO until 2007. He was appointed Deputy Director for Security Policy and Non-Proliferation Department in 2007 and he became Director of the Department in 2009. Mr. Sztáray served as Political Director, Deputy State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2013.

In 1993 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University. Between 1993-1994 he studied at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy.

Barbara Dorić, PhD is the Managing Director of LNG Croatia, responsible for development of LNG Terminal in the Republic of Croatia. Prior to her appointment as a Managing Director of LNG Croatia two months ago, she was president of the Management Board at Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency, responsible for supervising oil and gas production activities and oil stocks in the Republic of Croatia. She has a rich experience in development and implementation of energy policies and strategy related to primary energy resources production, gas market, petroleum market and EU third energy package.

Prior to the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency, she worked for the Centre for Monitoring Business Activities and Investments in the Energy Sector and A.T. Kearney, management consulting company, where she gained significant experience in energy practice in South East Europe.

She gained bachelor’s degree in economics at Webster University in Vienna, Austria in 2004, accomplished executive MBA studies at IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia in 2008 and gained PhD degree at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2017.

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.

Gergely Szabó has been leading MET Hungary since December 2014 and was appointed Regional Chairman of MET Central Europe from 1 January 2019, to manage the joint operation of MET subsidiaries in Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia.

MET Central Europe has more than 4000 long term partners in the industrial natural gas segment of the region.

In addition to his role of CEO of MET Hungary Ltd., Gergely Szabó is Chairman of the Board of Directors of E2 Hungary Ltd., the joint venture energy trading company established by Magyar Telekom and MET Holding.

Mr. Szabó joined the Gas Division of MOL Group in 2007. He was Executive Director of Origination and Structured Trading at MOL Energy Trade Ltd. between 2010 and 2011, then managed the Swiss subsidiary of MET Group as CEO at MET International between 2011 and 2014.

After obtaining a master’s degree in Private and Corporate Law, he held several positions in Government and in international organizations (NATO, International Energy Agency). Subsequently Marcel spent his entire career in international energy companies on different continents.

Over the past 15 years, he held a range of senior executive positions in the international gas industry and he has an extensive personal executive network in this field.

He currently works internationally as an independent consultant, company director and advisory board member on strategy, policy and project management in the field of energy and infrastructure.

He is also President of the Energy Delta Institute, an international energy business school, which supports the development of young executives through a wide range of industry courses and networking events.

Marcel Kramer is a frequent public speaker on energy topics and lectures in several executive education programs associated with universities in Europe and Russia. He is an active longstanding member of the Council of the International Gas Union (IGU), for which he also reports to the IGU President as ‘Regional Coordinator’ for Russia, the Black Sea region and the Caspian.

Yury P. Sentyurin is the Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, GECF. Prior to joining the GECF, he was State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation. He also served as State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Education and Science; Deputy Head of Committee on Energy, Transport and Communications of the State Duma; First Deputy Governor of the Nizhegorodsky Region and Head, Department of the Ministry on Antimonopoly Policy and Business Support

Dr. Sentyurin was also Co-chair of several intergovernmental Commissions between the Russian Federation and Bolivia, Afghanistan and Congo respectively, and also Chief negotiator on cooperation in gas and oil, with India, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil, Venezuela, Vietnam, Cuba, Syria, and South Africa.

A recipient of several Awards including the Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation, First Class Medal of the Order of Merit for the Motherlands, Dr. Sentyurin who speaks Russian, English, French and Farsi, has a Ph. D. in Political Science, Master’s degree in Law and another Master’s degree in Economics.

Dr. Anita Orban joined Tellurian LNG as Vice President for International Affairs in 2017. Previously she worked as Chief Advisor for Cheniere Marketing Ltd. Between 2010 and 2015 she served as Ambassador-at-Large for Energy Security of Hungary. Previously she was the Director of Constellation Energy Institute, a think tank facilitating cooperation in the Central Eastern European energy sector. She is the author of the book Power, Energy and the New Russian Imperialism (CT: Praeger, 2008). Between 2005 and 2008 she served as the Executive Vice President of the Budapest-based International Centre for Democratic Transition (ICDT). In 2004-05 she was editor of the ’World’ section of the Hungarian political weekly Heti Valasz where she also ran a monthly op-ed column on international issues for six years.

She earned her PhD degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston in 2007. She holds a Master Degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School and a Master in History from Tufts University. She earned her Bachelor degree in economics from the University of Economic Sciences in Budapest in 1997.

Alla is a lead LNG Originator with considerable experience of the entire LNG value chain, specialising in negotiations of LNG sale and purchase agreements and Greenfield LNG to Power Projects. Currently part of BP’s Integrated Supply and Trading business based in London with responsibility for LNG Origination in Europe and North Africa and leading negotiations of long term LNG sale purchase agreements for a greenfield project in South America. Since joining the LNG business in 2006 with BP, Alla has gained extensive experience in negotiating and closing complex LNG trading transactions involving key terms agreements, heads of agreements, sale and purchase agreements and direct agreements for project financing as well as the development of innovative commercial strategies and pricing structures. Alla graduated from the Moscow State University and later Judge Institute in Cambridge.

Mr. Gyetvay worked in various capacities at a number of independent oil and gas companies in the United States where he specialized in financial and economic analysis for both upstream and downstream segments of the petroleum industry, as well as a former partner in PWC’s Petroleum practice based in Moscow from 1995 to 2003.

From 2003 to 2014, Mr. Gyetvay was a member of NOVATEK’s Board of Directors and served as the Chairman on the Strategy and Investment Committee.  Since July 2010, he became Deputy Chairman of NOVATEK’s Management Board.   He has been consistently recognized by Investor Relations Magazine as one of the best CFO’s in Russia and the CIS by winning numerous awards and accolades, and was recognized twice by Institutional Investor magazine as one of the Top Five CFO’s in Europe’s Oil and Gas sector.  Mr. Gyetvay was recently the recipient of the Finance Monthly 2015 and 2016 “Best CFO – Russia” and “Game Changer Award – Russia ” 2017.

Michał is a member of the Warsaw Energy and Natural Resources Practice Team. Michał specializes in particular in issues relating to the development of the EU’s internal market in electricity and gas and the implementation of the Second and Third EU Energy Package in Poland.

He advises in complex cases including investment and M&A projects in generation and transmission infrastructure (FIDIC standard and tailored EPC contracts), both within and outside the EU, grid access and operation, and market strategies with regulatory components. He develops models for trading in energy commodities on regulated markets and in cross-border transactions.

He has advised and represented energy sector enterprises before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Commission, Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), national regulatory authorities in Poland (URE), Austria (E-Control) and the Czech Republic (ERU). He is often involved as expert advisor in dispute avoidance and dispute resolution cases including arbitration.

Péter Kaderjak was appointed Minister of State for Energy and Climate Policy in May, 2018. Presviously he served as a Director of the Regional Center for Energy Policy Research at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He received his MSc in economics from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1987. In 1998 he was appointed as Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Economic Affairs and started to work on the liberalisation of the electricity and gas sectors in Hungary. In January 2000 he became the President of the Hungarian Energy Office, the national energy regulator. Between 2000 and 2004 he also served as the Chairman of the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA), an association of energy regulatory institutions of countries from Central and Eastern Europe, the CIS and South East Europe. Since 2004 he has been serving as Training Director for ERRA’s in-house energy regulatory trainings. He is also directing a postgraduate program in Energy Economics at Corvinus University since 2010. He is research partner in the “European Energy Institute” at University of Leuven and a regular lecturer at the Florence School of Regulation. He has directed several recent research efforts with regional relevance. In 2011 he was appointed as alternate member of ACER’s (Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators) Board of Appeal.

Monika Zsigri works for the European Commission in EU energy policy in the area of gas security of supply. She has been working on the development and implementation of the EU LNG and storage strategy, as well as the preparation, negotiation and implementation of the new the Gas Security of Supply Regulation. Currently she’s focusing on methane emissions in the oil and gas sector as part of the wider discussion on the future role of gas, assessing the need and effectiveness of policies in this area.

Before joining the Commission, as management consultant she worked on different assignments in the energy and telecommunications sectors helping clients optimizing their business processes or developing successful business strategies. Ms Zsigri holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Dr. Andrew Walker is responsible for the Strategy and Market Outlook of the marketing arm of Cheniere, located in London reporting into the President of Cheniere Marketing Ltd. Until recently (October 2015) he was Vice President for Global LNG, and prior to that Head of LNG Strategy, at BG Group, where he worked for over 20 years before joining Cheniere. During his career in LNG he as been located in Singapore, Egypt, the USA and UK and has worked on numerous LNG projects including Atlantic LNG in Trinidad and Tobago, Egyptian LNG, and Dragon LNG in the UK.

Szabolcs I. Ferencz is the Chairman, CEO of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Ltd. since February 2019.

Between 2011 – 2019 he held the position of Senior Vice President of Group Corporate Affairs supervising international and domestic governmental relations for Regulatory and Public Affairs. Formerly he was also responsible for supervising Strategy Development and Corporate Communications. Before that, Szabolcs Ferencz was CEO and Country Chairman of MOL Romania, a key MOL Group subsidiary. Previously he held the position of Vice President MOL Group Corporate Communications and was in charge of the overall communications activities of the fast growing Group. Before joining MOL Group Szabolcs Ferencz worked in government and political communications.

Mr. Ferencz is Member of the Supervisory Board of INA d.d. and also Member of the Supervisory Board of Slovnaft a. s. Between 2015 – 2018 he was Member of the Board of Directors of MET Group.  Szabolcs Ferencz is the President of the National Committee of the World Petroleum Council and 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.

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.

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.

Jean-Pierre Dessart is a Digitalization Strategy Evangelist within Tieto Oil & Gas, focusing on digitalization in the LNG, hydrocarbon production and dispatching domains. He has 20 years of experience in both technical and functional roles, serving LNG marketing companies around the globe in their end-to-end business processes. Over the last 5 years, he has developed Health Check services that target improving processes as well as technicalities of LNG business systems. As a digitalization evangelist, he works on global co-operation, process automation and data analysis strategies to leverage business processes and data quality, targeting higher revenue at lower cost.

Johannes is a director in the Economic Advisory practice of Deloitte France. He is responsible for economic analyses of the energy sector. Before joining Deloitte, Johannes held positions at the International Energy Agency, where, in his last role, he led the forecasting of gas and coal market trends for the World Energy Outlook and at EWI, an energy consulting firm, where he advised, among others, the German government on the nuclear phase out and the implementation of the energy transition. He holds a PhD in energy modelling from the University of Cologne.

Borbála Takácsné Tóth has worked with REKK since its creation in 2004. With REKK she has been leading several international and national consultancy projects, with many using the European Gas Market Model as the primary analytic tool. Her main fields of expertise include: regional co-operations; security of supply issues; energy geopolitics; major infrastructure initiatives in the gas sector and incentives for investments; competition cases in the gas market; storage and LNG markets. In 2001 she received an M.A. in International Relations and European Studies at the Central European University in Budapest. Borbala was educated as an economist and received her degree from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1998. Before joining REKK she spent 5 years as a civil servant in government administration mostly in the field of energy regulation. Between 2001 and 2003 she was Head of the President’s Secretariat responsible for international relations of the Hungarian Energy Office.

Wouter Koopman is EU Affairs Manager Gas and LNG for Royal Dutch Shell, based in The Hague. Mr. Koopman is responsible for Shell’s European policy and advocacy efforts related to natural gas market development. Prior to his current role, he has held various commercial and strategy roles within Shell’s Exploration & Production and Integrated Gas businesses, based in London, The Hague and Nigeria. Most recently, Mr. Koopman served as the strategy lead for Shell’s refreshed Integrated Gas strategy. Prior to joining Shell, Mr. Koopman was Finance Director at the global airline company AirFranceKLM holding different responsibilities including positions in the fuels department. He holds a MSc degree in International Business Economics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and a MSc degree from the Free University of Amsterdam.

Mr. Ajay Kumar is the Chairman and Managing Director of Fox Petroleum Group; one of the leading companies in India operating in the oil and gas industry with a special focus on energy infrastructure, power generation and distribution.

Fox Petroleum is currently involved in exploration, production and trading LNG and refined petroleum products. The company started out as an American trading company that later moved its operations to the Middle East and finally settled in India in 2009, established its headquarters in New Delhi and operates Asia’s largest LNG terminal in Karawar.

Over the past ten years Mr. Kumar held various senior executive positions within Fox Group and gathered substantial experience in the field of energy and infrastructure. Under his chairmanship Fox Petroleum has undertaken crucial projects such as, the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) LNG terminal in Karnataka, India or the Oman–India multipurpose energy pipeline transporting natural gas to India via the Arabian Sea. Mr. Kumar was appointed Ambassador-at-Large by the Academy of Universal Global Peace. He is a Doctor in Philosophy and holds an MBA in International Business.

Maciej Jakubik, graduated from the Institute of Political Science and the Centre for East European Studies, Warsaw University.  He holds also MA in European Studies from the College of Europe. Completed various courses on energy sector and energy security organised by NATO and Collegium Civitas University.

He has been a diplomat and civil servant for several years and gained experience in working in Polish public administration, EU institutions and international organisations. Prior to CEEP, worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw where he was responsible for Common Foreign and Security Policy. He also served in the Embassy of Poland in Moscow. Previously dealt with foreign and energy affairs in the Chancellery of the President of Poland. Involved in various activities dealing with energy security and energy diplomacy.

Neil has 20 years’ experience of working in the oil and gas industry in various roles and currently heads up the Oil & Gas team at the EIC. The team support EIC Members in identifying business opportunities in the global oil and gas market. Neil is the product owner of the EIC’s market intelligence tools, EICDataStream and EICAssetMap, and leads a team developing further new products with the aim of increasing the visibility of the UK supply chain to major players in the global energy markets. Prior to joining the EIC Neil spent nine years at IHS.

Mr. Ságvári was appointed as Ambassador-at-large for energy security of Hungary in 2016 and he is also director general for emerging security issues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Prior to his current positions he was director for energy policy in the Ministry of National Development between 2011-14 where he was repsonsible for working out Hungarian energy strategy. He was also coordinating regional energy market development projects such as North-South Energy Corridor, Hungarian-Slovak gas interconnector, Nabucco, South Stream, CEEGEX, CEEE Forum, V4 Gas Forum, Electricity Market Coupling. He started his career in the private sector. He also held different key expert positions in GDF SUEZ Hungary in the field of natural gas and electricity supply.

Esther Ang is the manager of MET International AG’s LNG business, and has years of experience working across the LNG value chain with a focus on midstream LNG trading and origination.

The LNG portfolio at MET International AG has grown considerably since the LNG desk’s inception in mid-2016. This year, the desk has delivered more than 1 mtpa of volumes in Asia and Europe. Of which, approximately 20% of the LNG volumes were procured, imported, regasified and sold as natural gas within MET Group’s European gas portfolio.

Esther graduated from the National University of Singapore and is currently pursuing postgraduate studies at Said Business School in Oxford University.

Michaela Spaeth is Director for Energy and Climate Policy, Economic Affairs and Human Rights, International Labour Rights and Issues at the German Federal Foreign Office. Michaela is a career diplomat. Her professional path has focused on economic and global issues and climate policy. She has worked at German missions in Dhaka, London, Beijing, Warsaw and Vienna, the office of Tom Koenigs, Member of the German Bundestag and Deputy Special Representative for Civil Administration of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London. Michaela holds Masters’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge. Degree in Economic and Social History, Political Science and Early Modern and Modern History at the University of Freiburg and the Institut d’études politiques in Paris.

Dan Milstein has been Director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s European Regional Office since 2014.  Dan was based at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria before relocating to the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic in 2018. In his previous job with DOE, Dan was an International Relations Specialist in DOE’s Office of International Affairs, where he was the “desk officer” for much of Europe and Southeast Asia. Dan joined DOE in 2008 as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF).

Dan joined DOE after earning his Masters in Public Policy in 2008 at the University of California-Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, where he specialized in energy policy. He previously earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia with an interdisciplinary major in Political-Economy. As an undergraduate, Dan also studied at the University of Economics in Prague in 1998.