Speakers

Abhi has more than 15 years of industry and consulting experience and currently leads Oliver Wyman’s Energy and Industrials practice in Asia Pacific. He has worked with energy companies across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with a focus on business transformation, commercial transformation, and portfolio strategies.

He is currently helping industrial operators across sectors plot their next phase in a transitioning economy, as well as new age clean-tech players to maximize their participation in this space.

Abhi holds an MBA across the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chappell Hill. He holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from Delhi University.

Dr Fatih Birol has served as Executive Director of the International Energy Agency since September 2015. He was re-elected in January 2018 for a second four-year term, which will begin in September 2019. Under his leadership, the IEA has undertaken its first comprehensive modernisation programme since its creation in 1974. This effort focuses on three pillars: opening the doors of the IEA to include major emerging countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa who have joined the IEA Family, thus increasing its share of global energy demand from 38% to almost 75%; broadening the IEA’s security mandate to natural gas and electricity as well as oil; and making the IEA the global hub for clean energy technologies and energy efficiency.

Prior to his nomination as Executive Director, Dr Birol spent over 20 years at the IEA, rising through the ranks to the position of Chief Economist responsible for the flagship World Energy Outlook publication. He is also the founder and chair of the IEA Energy Business Council, one of the world’s most active industry advisory groups in energy. Dr Birol has been named by Forbes Magazine among the most influential people on the world’s energy scene and was recognised by the Financial Times in 2017 as Energy Personality of the Year. He chairs the World Economic Forum’s (Davos) Energy Advisory Board and serves on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on ‘Sustainable Energy for All’. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Japanese Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun, the Order of the Polar Star from the King of Sweden and the highest Presidential decorations from Austria, Germany and Italy.

Before the IEA, Dr Birol worked at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna. He earned a BSc degree in power engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul and received a MSc and PhD in energy economics from the Technical University of Vienna. Dr Birol was awarded a Doctorate of Science honoris causa from Imperial College London in 2013. He was also made an honorary life member of Galatasaray Football Club in 2013.

Ms Janice Bong is the Executive Director of Keppel Energy, a key business vertical of Keppel Infrastructure. She is responsible for driving the integrated Power and Renewables businesses, focusing on providing sustainable decarbonisation solutions for customers as well as capturing growth opportunities in the renewables space beyond Singapore.

Prior to this, Ms Bong was the General Manager, Commercial of Energy Infrastructure, where she stewarded the Power and Gas business, which includes the Trading, Commercial and Retail departments. She also possesses a strong background in Finance having held finance leadership positions in various engineering and utilities companies before joining Keppel. Her strong expertise and deep knowledge of the energy market led to her portfolio expanding beyond finance to leading front-line businesses of the Company.

Ms Bong holds a Bachelor of Business (Honours) degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore an Accountancy degree from ACCA.

Thomas BUENO is currently the CEO, EDF International Division, APAC since July 2022. He was the Business Development Director for EDF Andes since December 2017, in charge of originating and developing a portfolio of projects in Chile, Perú and Colombia, comprising Hydro, Pumped Storage, CCGT, Solar, Hydrogen, Transmission, E-mobility and Off-grid.

Prior to this, he spent 5 years in Poland between 2012 and 2017. He was first Project Manager for the environmental program and in particular the Flue Gas Emission Control Units to be installed on the Coal Power Plants fleet of EDF Polska. He was then appointed as Project Director for a greenfield 390 MWth Gas Cogeneration Plant connected to the District Heating Network in Torun, 200 km west of Warsaw. He was also Director of Operations for the entity operating the network and the existing coal boilers. Between 2009 and 2012, he served as a financial expert in Paris, in charge of financing Dunkerque LNG terminal located North of France. In parallel, he was supervising a portfolio of investments shares in clean technologies and energy services in close coordination with EDF R&D.

He started his career in EDF Group in Mexico and Brazil, in 2004-2005, with a position as Business Analyst for the fleet of Combined Cycle Gas Turbines, after which he worked 3 years for the French Ministry of Transportation as head of the financing for the new Airbus A350 XWB program. He is graduated from French engineering schools Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, and holds a Master of Public Administration from SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan.