Speakers

Melinda Martinus is Lead Researcher (Socio-cultural) of the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. Melinda’s research interests revolve around smart city initiatives, urban resilience, and institutional framework and policy for advancing climate ambition in Southeast Asia. Melinda co-edits ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute's biannual flagship magazine, ASEANFocus, and two annual survey reports, the State of Southeast Asia and the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook. Before joining ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, she was a program manager at Kota Kita Foundation, Indonesia and researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies (Centropolis) at Tarumanagara University Jakarta. Melinda studied urban planning at Tarumanagra University Jakarta and Columbia University in the City of New York.

Joseph McMonigle officially assumed his position on July 1, 2020 as the fifth Secretary General of the International Energy Forum (IEF), the largest international organization of energy ministers and based in the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He has over 20 years of experience working on energy issues in the public and private sectors.

Prior to becoming Secretary General, Mr. McMonigle was the President & Co-Founder of The Abraham Group, a leading international energy sector management consulting firm based in Washington D.C. as well as a senior energy analyst for Hedgeye Risk Management based in Stamford, Connecticut.

In addition, Mr. McMonigle was Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) during the first term of the Bush Administration (2001-2005) and helped to manage a cabinet department with a $23 billion budget and over 100,000 federal and contractor employees at the time.

He also served two years as the former Vice Chairman and US Representative of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), an international organization of oil consuming countries within the OECD, whose core mission is to work on stable energy markets. He also served as the US co-chair of the US-China Energy Working Group as part of his DOE portfolio.

Before joining the Bush Administration, Mr. McMonigle was a general counsel and communications director to a United States Senator. He was elected by his peers to serve two terms as President of the U.S. Senate Press Secretaries Association, a bipartisan organization of Senate press secretaries and communications directors.

Mr. McMonigle is an attorney and a member of the Energy Bar Association and licensed in the District of Colombia and Pennsylvania state bars. He is also an FAA licensed pilot with instrument rating.

He received his undergraduate degree from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (USA) and his Juris Doctor degree from Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (USA).

Monika Merdekawati is an Officer of Sustainable Energy, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REE) Department at ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) with 5 years of experience in renewable energy. She is also Research Analyst of ACCEPT project, responsible for the engagement with government officials, various studies covering the renewable energy and energy efficiency investment, and ASEAN’s energy policy. Prior to ACE, she was a developer of wind and solar farms in Indonesia. Her research interest includes energy-climate policy and energy economics. She holds a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Southampton, United Kingdom.

Dr Gokce Mete is Head of Secretariat of the Leadership Group for the Industry Transition hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). LeadIT explores how policy, finance and business practices in hard-to-abate industry sectors can be aligned to achieve climate neutrality consistent with Paris Agreement and the latest scientific evidence from the IPCC. At SEI, she also project leads a new initiative co-creating evidence for oil and gas transitions in the North Sea, with specific focus on just transitions, technology relatedness, hydrogen, CCUS and offshore wind.

Gokce has a decade of regulatory analysis, project development and stakeholder management experience focused on energy and industry transitions. She is also the Head of Research and Academic Engagement of the “Women in Energy, Climate and Sustainability Foundation” and Founding Member of the Women in Green Hydrogen Network.

Valentin de Miguel leads Accenture Strategy & Consulting for Growth Markets—in the market units of Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East and Latin America.

In this role, he is focused on helping C-suite executives develop strategies to transform and reimagine their organizations to enable continuous innovation, from idea to execution.

Prior to this role, Valentin oversaw the Accenture practice for the Resources industries (inclusive of Utilities, Energy, Chemicals and Natural Resources industries) across Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. He has advised global utilities and oil companies on large-scale business transformations, mergers and acquisitions, digital journeys, and corporate and business unit strategies.

Valentin joined Accenture in 1989 and became a Managing Director in 2001. Throughout his career at Accenture, he has held a variety of leadership roles. He led Accenture’s Global Utilities practice in Retail and Accenture’s Smart Grid Services, where he was responsible for Accenture’s business in the Transmission and Distribution space for Utilities. He has also led the Accenture’s Resources practice for Spain, Portugal, Africa and Israel, and has served as a member of the Spanish and African Council.

Valentin is a leader on topics including innovation and technology’s impact on business, and a sought-after speaker at key industry, business and partner conferences. He has published articles in the areas of energy transition, renewable energy, the future of the industry and its transformation towards a distributed and digitally enabled grid.

Valentin de Miguel holds an MPhil degree at Business Administration at the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain), a Master of Business Administration at the University of Birmingham (UK), as well as a Diploma in Strategy and Org Design at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). He has also attained double honours in Law and Business Administration at the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain).

Outside of work, Valentin is passionate about reading (literature, business, history), running and hopelessly trying to improve his golf. He is also an advanced sommelier-in-training. Valentin is currently based in Asia and has called Singapore home for the past five years.

Tom Moody oversees the UK Government’s climate change and low carbon energy strategy in the ASEAN region, and mobilisation of regional policy, development programming, and commercial work to deliver it. This includes directing the UK’s network of climate change and policy attaches across SE Asia, which carry out policy advisory and engagement to lay the ground for a successful COP26 for the region.

Before joining the work in SE Asia at the start of July, he spent nearly 4 years in South Africa, overseeing HMG’s £50m portfolio of Prosperity Fund programmes of technical assistance in the South Africa region. His career to date has covered foreign policy, education, justice, and police accountability and standards.

David Morgado is a Senior Energy Policy Specialist at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) since March 2018. He is responsible for supporting the implementation of AIIB’s Sustainable Energy Strategy, identifying investment opportunities, and assisting with project preparation.

Previously David worked at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Energy Efficiency in Emerging Economies Programme to scale-up of energy efficiency activities that generate economy-wide benefits with governments from major emerging economies including Brazil, India and Mexico.

Before joining the IEA, David worked for the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) in Thailand, as an Energy Specialist and Project Manager, providing technical assistance to governments, utilities and international development agencies including the ADB, World Bank, IFC, UNDP, UN Environment, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. His work covered energy efficiency, demand-side management and renewable energy across Asia-Pacific and Africa.

David Morgado is an Environmental Engineer with MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Muhamad Azfar Ramli is currently the Deputy Director of the Systems Science Department at the Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR.

In this role, he leads a team of computational scientists and engineers that utilize advanced computational analytics, modelling, simulation and optimisation in order to study and understand complex dynamics and behavior of a broad spectrum of urban systems. The research work undertaken by the team involves harnessing data & knowledge-driven approaches in order to uncover deep insight into the nature of these systems.

More specifically, he is currently the overall project manager and co-Principal Investigator for a project team which is developing a city-wide integrated transport and energy modelling of future vehicle electrification in Singapore. In this role, he facilitates close collaboration between the project team and multiple local stakeholder government agencies in order to ensure the simulation studies could directly support policymaking towards Singapore’s planned transition towards 100% cleaner energy vehicles.

Dr. Ramli graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

Education:

• S2 : - London University, United Kingdom, Majoring in Petroleum Engineering, Graduated 1992
• S1 : - Institute of Technology Bandung, Majoring in Petroleum Engineering, Graduated 1988

Jobs History:

• Director General of Electricity, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), February 2019 up to Now
• Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), February 2013 to February 2019
• Head odf Planning and Cooperation Bearau, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), from 2010 to 2013
• Head of Centre of Research and Development of Oil and Gas Technology “LEMIGAS”, Research and Development Agency, MEMR from 2009 to 2010
• Secretary of Directorate General of Oil and Gas, MEMR 2009
• Head Program Division, Research and Development Center for Oil and Gas Technology “LEMIGAS”, Research and Development Agency, MEMR from 2008 to 2009
• Head of Administration Division, Centre of Research and Development Center for Oil and Gas Technology “LEMIGAS”, Research and Development Agency, MEMR, from 2002 to 2008

Valentin Musangwa is Second Secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta primarily tasked with Norway-ASEAN relations. He also covers bilateral relations, notably human rights and foreign policy and security.

He has previous experience from a number of multilateral organisations, including the OECD, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the UN. Valentin holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Oslo, and an MA in International Economic Policy from Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs.