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.
KEEP READINGJefferson Edwards is Vice President in Shell Energy, accountable for fundamental analysis of global gas, LNG, power and low carbon energy markets. Shell Energy is responsible for the marketing and trading of gas, LNG, power and environmental products within Shell Plc. He leads a team of professionals located in Houston, London, the Hague, Dubai, Beijing and Singapore, focused on the analysis of global energy markets and sits on the leadership team of Shell LNG Marketing and Trading and Shell’s internal global energy forecasting leadership team. He is the Shell representative to the Governing Board of the Gastech conference and the Programme Committee of LNG2025.
Previously, he was General Manager for Shell Energy with responsibility for Shell’s global policy and advocacy efforts related to natural gas market development. Prior to that role, Mr. Edwards has held various commercial and strategy roles within Shell’s Exploration & Production and Integrated Gas businesses, based in London, the Hague and Singapore.
Prior to joining Shell, Mr. Edwards was Director of Asian Energy Research for Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). He holds a MS in International Business Diplomacy from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., focused on energy security.
Gergely Szabó has been leading MET Hungary since December 2014 and was appointed Regional Chairman of MET Central Europe from 1 January 2019. In the newly formed organisation Gergely Szabó is responsible for the overall management and coordination of the regional business operation and local subsidiaries in Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia, where MET Central Europe has more than 7000 long term partners in the industrial natural gas and power segment.
Gergely Szabó started his career at 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.
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, as well as Member of the Board of MET Croatia and MET Slovakia.
KEEP READINGDr. Vitaliy Baylarbayov is the Deputy Vice-President of SOCAR. Dr. Baylarbayov has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and holds a PhD in Economics. He is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and has held executive positions in the negotiations and management of a number of major oil and gas projects, including the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oilfields, the Shah Deniz gas/condensate field, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and the Southern Gas Corridor Projects – the expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline and the establishment of the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). Dr. Baylarbayov heads the Southern Gas Corridor Gas Value Chain Integration Team, is a Chairman of the board of SOCAR-UNIPER LLC, Chairman of BoD of the South Caucasus Pipeline Company Ltd., Chairman of BoD of SOCAR Midstream Operations LLC, the International Pipeline Company Sarmatia, a board member at the AGRI LNG project and the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company – AGSC, a marketing vehicle of the Shah Deniz Consortium.
KEEP READINGMaria Rita Galli is the CEO of DESFA. Previously, she held the position of the Executive Vice President Business Development & Asset Management at Snam S.p.A, a leading global energy infrastructure company and was the Chairman of the SENFLUGA Energy Holdings S.A., a consortium controlling 66% of DESFA’s share capital.
Ms. Galli started her career at Eni in 1997, as a graduate in nuclear engineering from the Milan Polytechnic University. At Eni, she went through various roles within the International Business Development Department, joined relevant international projects and was involved in M&A activities. As a member of Eni’s Board of Directors, she also oversaw the operations of some of the Group’s companies abroad (Galp, Distrigas, eni Gas&Power Trading BV, eni Gas&Power France, GVS GmbH, etc.)
Since 2006, she has been in charge of the International Business Development unit and, from January 2010, she has been in charge of the International Business Development and Assets Management department.
In October 2016, she joined Snam as the Head of Business Development and International Asset Management.
KEEP READINGMr. Sifnaios started his professional career at Mobil Oil Hellas in 1987 as a Strategic Planning analyst. He continued in several positions within Sales and Marketing reaching the post of Sales Manager for South & Western Greece. He was then transferred to Mobil Oil International in London and Madrid where he assumed posts in supply and trading. In 1997 he moved to BP International, in Brussels, to work on the European restructuring of the company. He returned in Greece as General Commercial Sales Director for BP Greece (2000 – 2002) to then resume his international career within BP’s European supply chain till 2007. From June 2007 to the end of 2021, he worked in Copelouzos Group initially as New Projects Manager, gas sales Commercial Manager and then as Group Energy Director in the sector of Gas. He also managed the development of the Alexandroupolis LNG Terminal Project to its Final Investment Decision.
Since January 2022, when FID was taken on the Alexandroupolis LNG Project, he was appointed Managing Director of Gastrade, the owner and operator of the Terminal.
Mr. Sifnaios graduated from the school of Mathematics and Applied Sciences of the University of Athens having completed a special program on studies, methods and applications of Linear Programming and Network Flows. He went on to work as a research and faculty assistant at Columbia University, New York, U.S. where he received a Master of Science (MSc) in Operational Research and Applied Business Administration.
Mr. Sifnaios was born in Athens in 1960 and originates from the island of Lesvos. He speaks Greek, English, French and Spanish.
KEEP READINGTeodora Georgieva has more than 20 years of experience as a strategic manager, leading significant projects in various economic sectors. Currently, Ms. Georgieva is the Executive Director of the Bulgarian side of the project company ICGB and is also a member of its Board of Directors. ICGB is responsible for the overall management and development of the gas pipeline between Greece and Bulgaria and will soon be an independent transmission system operator.
From 2012 to 2014 Teodora Georgieva was Managing Director of Nabucco Bulgaria, and before that she worked at OMV Bulgaria for 13 years, 8 of which she was Managing Director of the company, holding cluster positions for Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. Georgieva was the coordinator for Bulgaria of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), in 2009 and 2010 she was awarded as Manager of the Year and is in the list of the top 10 Bulgarian managers.
She graduated from the University of National and World Economy and has a master’s degree in Finance. Married, with two children
KEEP READINGDuring more than 20 years spent in the oil and gas industry Mr. Laszlo Fritsch has gained extensive professional knowledge from various fields of the energy sector. He started his career at Shell Gas Hungary where his professional expertise has been broadened in various positions held in several European countries. Later he joined E.ON Gas Storage as CFO and from 2013 to 2020 he held the position of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hungarian Gas Storage. In order to gain in-depth knowledge also in the technical operation Mr. Fritsch has successfully completed a reservoir engineering course in Houston. Since 2020 he is appointed CEO of MVM CEEnergy (formerly Hungarian Gas Trade). With his extensive knowledge of the energy and natural gas industry, Mr. Fritsch actively contributes to the domestic and international development of the sector as the chairman of the Hydrocarbon Mining Section of the Hungarian Mining Association and a member of the International Gas Union (IGU).
KEEP READINGFranck studied Energy at the University of Rouen and received an Engineer Degree and then followed a Master of Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University in United Kingdom. Later on, he earned an Executive Degree from the London Business School. Franck spent 25 years working for the Group Engie. Thus, he started his career at Gaz de France in the engineering department for 7 years and then moved to the Marketing and Sales with different functions in different countries such as France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Italy and UK before joining OMV Petrom. He was appointed member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board as of July 1, 2018 and President of FPPG as of January 30, 2019.
KEEP READINGSzabolcs Ferencz is the Chairman-CEO of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Ltd. since February 2019.
Previously, 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. Beforehand, Mr. Ferencz was the CEO and Country Chairman of MOL Romania, a key MOL Group subsidiary. Between 2003 – 2009 he held the position of Vice President for Corporate Communications of MOL Group and was in charge of the overall communications activities of the fast growing Group.
Since 2015 Mr. Ferencz is the Chair of the National Committee of the World Petroleum Council. He is also member of the Advisory Board of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research Foundation. Mr. Ferencz is an Associate at the European Round Table for Industry since 2011. He is founding partner of the SEED School for Executive Education and Development based in Budapest.
Mr. Ferencz received his MA in Economics from the University of Regensburg and pursued postgraduate studies in political science.
