Ricardo Almeida

Ricardo Almeida studied materials engineering at New Lisbon University and holds a master's degree in Energy and Bioenergy by the same university. Currently, he works at the Portuguese Environmental Agency, in the Department of Climate Change, responsible for application of the f-gases legislation in Portugal. He is also the Portuguese representative in the European Commission's F-Gas Committee.

Paul Alway

A highly experienced refrigeration engineer with over 25 years experience in the industry covering manufacturing, consultancy, design and research. The last seven years have been spent working directly for retailers in the UK (Tesco, Marks and Spencer) implementing change programs for the roll out of Transcritical CO₂ systems, maintenance work on existing cascade and LPR CO₂ systems and major energy reduction programmes. Paul is now working as Design Director for AB Group to continue to build on their ongoing success in the use of natural refrigerants.

Micael Antonsson

Micael Antonsson, Director and Cofounder of Green & Cool, a manufacturer of CO₂ refrigeration and heat pump technology, acquired in 2010 by UTC and since 1st. of December 2014 a division within Profroid SA. He has over 35 years of experience in refrigeration and is one of the pioneers with a history of installing Transcritical CO₂ for more fifteen years.

Torgrim Asphjell

Torgrim Asphjell has a Master of Science from the Technical University of Norway (NTH), Institute for Mechanical Engineering. Since 1992, he has worked in the Norwegian civil service on environmental issues, including in the Public Roads Administration, the Pollution Control Authority, the Ministry of Environment, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Climate and Pollution Agency. Mr. Asphjell currently serves as a Senior Advisor for the Norwegian Environment Agency, Department of Climate, and is the main responsible for F-gas matters covering both domestic and international levels.

Javier Atencia Escudero

Javier Atencia Escudero has a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, specialising in the research of solutions and specific control systems for refrigeration applications, air conditioning and energy recovery. He currently coordinates and directs the Tewis engineers’ team, developing projects both nationally and internationally, and creating strategic plans for energy efficiency. During his professional career he has attended and presented at different conferences and training sessions on air conditioning and refrigeration, with a focus on eco-efficient solutions in commercial and industrial buildings.

Katja Becken

Katja Becken is a Senior Policy Advisor at the German Federal Environment Agency. For over 15 years she has been responsible for issues regarding ozone depleting substances and fluorinated greenhouse gases. Her work field consists of policies and measures to reduce F-gas emissions at national and European level, with a special focus on natural refrigerants. She obtained her degree from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, after studying environmental engineering and technical chemistry. She complemented her studies with courses in environmental management at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Mirko Bernabei

Mirko graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Padua with a Master’s degree in Refrigeration. Mirko joined SCM FRIGO at the end of 2001 as a Project Engineer. Since 2004 he has been engaged in the design and development of CO2 systems and since 2009 of NH3 systems. He currently holds the position of Technical Director and R&D Manager of the SCM Group.

Collin Bootsveld

Collin Bootsveld is a Project Engineer at Colruyt Group and responsible for the introduction of natural refrigerants for the cooling of the groups' supermarkets in Belgium. He has a background as a Process Engineer and has developed his career around energy conservation in the process industry, the built environment, green houses and now the retail sector. Refrigeration and air conditioning formed a large part of his work for a Dutch research organisation. Within Colruyt Group he has worked on the introduction of hydrogen for forklift trucks and on electrical and hybrid road transport. 

Julia Both

Julia Both has been managing network activities, events and communications for Refrigerants, Naturally!, a global partnership of companies and NGOs, since 2014. She is also a Communications Advisor at HEAT GmbH, an environmental consulting firm specialised in ozone layer and climate protection.

Anthony Bour

Anthony Bour is and industrial engineer with a Master in Logistics and with 10 years of experience from various industries and roles such as Quality Manager in aeronautics, Project Manager in Power Transformer and Product Expert in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning equipment. Today Bour is responsible for the CryoTech portfolio in Europe at Thermo King, ensuring the development of the product and CO2 filling infrastructure in line with the market needs.

Lorenzo Bulgarelli

Lorenzo Bulgarelli studied Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico of Milan and obtained his degree in 1988. He has worked in Zanotti from 1989, covering various functions including Technical Sales Support and Technical Director. He participated in the Asercom technical committee for Ecodesign programme. He now works on different projects for new business development and new future targets for refrigerating units with low environmental impact.

Marco Buoni

Ing. Marco Buoni, a European expert in refrigeration and air conditioning, has been the Vice President of AREA (Air conditioning and Refrigeration European Association) since 2010. AREA voices the interests of 20 national associations from 17 European countries, representing more than 13,000 companies, which employ some 110,000 people. Buoni is also an expert in capacity building in refrigeration and air conditioning, leading the training activities related to certification and best practices. He is highly active as the Technical Director of Centro Studi Galileo in the organisation of training and conferences in refrigeration technologies worldwide. Every year he leads over 300 training courses for up to 3000 participants.

Guillaume Burvingt

Guillaume Burvingt

Guillaume is responsible for driving all marketing activities, including product roadmap and communications plans.

Guillaume is based in France, with a background in Engineering, Sales and Project management. He joined Carrier in 1996 and possesses a Master of Science degree from the INSA Lyon and an MBA from the ESC Reims.

Marc Chasserot

Marc Chasserot is a specialist in natural refrigeration with over 15 years of experience in the HVAC&R sector, starting as the Marketing Manager for the Norsk Hydro business unit specialised in CO₂ transcritical refrigeration and heating. He worked closely with several Japanese manufacturers selling the market innovative "CO₂ Ecocute heatpumps".

In 2006 Marc founded the industry leading website for CO₂ cooling and heating experts worldwide, called www.R744.com. This was followed by three additional industry resources for hydrocarbons, water and ammonia (namely: www.hydrocarbons21.com, www.R718.com and www.ammonia21.com).

Marc is co-founder and CEO of shecco, an independent market development company specialised in bringing Natural Refrigerants 'faster to market', working with numerous companies worldwide. Marc has chaired and organised several international workshops bringing together leading policy and industry experts to discuss 'how to bring natural refrigerants' faster to market, known as 'ATMOsphere'. He is also an active member of ASHRAE.

Kim G. Christensen

Kim G. Christensen is the pioneering engineer that co-founded Advansor in 2006 and turned the company into a market leading OEM manufacturer with extensive product portfolio of transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems, supplying a wide range of business segments with high quality, super-efficient CO₂ systems that are 100% environmentally friendly.

José Miguel Corberán

JJosé Miguel Corberán is a professor of Applied Thermodynamics at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain. He is currently Director of the Institute for Energy Engineering. His R&D activity is mainly concentrated on Heat Transfer, Refrigeration Equipment, Heat Pumps, Geothermal Systems, and Energy Systems in general. Professor Corberán has 25 years of experience in leading RTD projects. He has led around 20 R&D projects for Institutions and companies, and has been involved in a number of international cooperative projects of the EU Framework Programme. He is Vice-president of the Commission B2 (Refrigerating Equipment) of the International Institute of Refrigeration and President of the IIR Working Party on Refrigerant Charge Reduction in Refrigeration Systems.

Kai Cui

Kai Cui received his Ph.D degree in Engineering from the University of Warwick, UK. With over 10 years of information technology and appliances industry experience, Dr. Cui held various senior positions in product engineering, strategic planning and standardization management, and led advanced technology research for some of the world's leading equipment manufacturers. He is heavily involved in global standards work, and has been the leading contributor and editor for multiple national and international standard organisations.

Iván Díaz

Iván Díaz currently works as the Manager of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning in Carrefour Spain. Iván previously served for seven years in an installation company as a Project Manager in industrial and commercial refrigeration. In 2014, he joined Carrefour to establish transcritical CO2 refrigeration facilities and air conditioning systems. He is also responsible for proposing alternatives that suit Carrefour's needs, ensuring the quality of facilities and eventually analyzing the results.

Alvaro de Oña

Alvaro is a shareholder and co-founder of shecco as an independent entity. He was instrumental in the early success of shecco’s communication platforms (R744.com, hydrocarbons21.com, ammonia21.com) and market research services. With a background in social sciences and international relations, he has spent the last six years working at the European Commission as an Human Resources expert, overseeing several change projects and helping to set up two new Agencies of the EU from scratch. As of March 2016, Alvaro is back at shecco to help its further international development and lead the media team in its efforts to share relevant stories, news and updates on the global transition towards natural refrigerants.

Vincent Delecourt

Vincent Delecourt is currently the Sales and Marketing director of Cooltech Applications, located in France. The company, owner of over 280 patents worldwide and supported by several significant shareholders, has been industrializing an innovative magnetic cooling device, which will offer gas-free ecofriendly and innovative cooling solutions for various markets, specifically in the refrigeration sector. Holder of an engineer diploma and a MBA from the University of Paris (Sorbonne), Vincent worked in Finance before taking up Sales and Management functions in B2B business during 16 years. Thanks to his expertise in B2B and after 8 years deploying innovative products in a global environment, he joined Cooltech Applications in 2013 to start the commercialization process of Cooltech’s Magnetic Refrigeration Systems (M.R.S).

Eric Delforge

Eric Delforge joined Mayekawa in 2004. Previously he worked for several screw compressor manufacturers managing European activities. At Mayekawa, he handles European sales in industrial refrigeration, gas processing, cryogenics, heat pumps and food processing. The main focus of his work consists of the integration of heating and cooling into smart energy and thermal storage solutions. He advocates natural refrigerant-based technology applications across all industrial markets. He represents Mayekawa in various market sector organizations, actively informing its members on Mayekawa product developments and innovative applications. He also acts as a consultant and business lead with Mayekawa's large global accounts.

Philipp Denzinger

Philipp Denzinger works for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Germany as a project manager within the Program Proklima. He is managing various projects in developing countries on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety(BMUB) as well as for the Ministryof Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Moreover, he is in charge of the www.Green-Cooling-Inititative.org, a global network that aims to promote green cooling globally.

Umberto Di Barbora

Umberto Di Barbora is a highly experienced refrigeration engineer with over 30 years of service in the refrigeration industry.

He has held various roles in the production sector and technical engineering and today he is the Global Product Manager Commercial Coolers at Modine Commercial and Industrial Solutions. 

His task is to define product strategy and roadmaps, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirement, and defining the product vision, all with a specific interest in the future of refrigeration and coming natural refrigerants opportunities like CO₂.

Debora Dias

Debora Dias is the Sustainability Manager for the environmental sustainability strategic pillar of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The CGF brings together leading consumer goods companies to tackle issues such as climate change, reducing waste and improving social and environmental stewardship in global supply chains. In her role, Debora works closely with members to catalyse innovation and sustainable growth through active collaboration, stakeholder engagement and creating strategic partnerships

Wolfgang Dietrich

Wolfgang Dietrich graduated with a diploma in Engineering and he has extensive experience in the use of heat transfer, especially in connection with various refrigeration applications. He has been working at GEA for approximately 10 years, and belongs to the GEA Refrigeration Germany team in Berlin, which manufactures all the GEA Ammonia Chillers. Mr. Dietrich is currently in charge of the product management of chillers, including screw compressor as well as reciprocating compressor-based chillers.

Bart Driessens

Stefano Filippini

Stefano Filippini obtained his Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1996 from Politecnico di Milano, specialising in Energy. Since 1996 he has worked for LU-VE, a European leader in the production of heat exchangers for refrigeration, air conditioning and industrial applications. From 2007, Mr. Filippini has served in the role of Technical Director.

Torben Funder-Kristensen

Torben Funder-Kristensen has a Master degree in Engineering (physics) and he received his Ph.D. in 1994 from the Technical University of Denmark (laser processing). Since 1995, Torben has been with Danfoss in Denmark holding various positions from consultancy within materials science and manufacturing processing to product development of controls components. He has been the Vice President of Product Development and from 2011 the head of Public Industry Affairs for refrigeration and air conditioning controls. He is a member of several internal and external boards and working groups within the industry.

Eva Geilinger

Eva Geilinger is responsible for commercial refrigeration at Topten. Her work includes periodical market studies on best available technology and natural refrigerants. She is the coordinator of the Swiss rebate programme for environmentally friendly refrigerated plug-in cabinets. In 2015 she had a mandate to counsel the Swiss Federal Office of Energy regarding ecodesign and the labeling of commercial refrigerators. She is also the technical expert for the EU Horizon 2020 project "ProCold". Eva Geilinger obtained her Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich in 2008.

Sylvain Gillaux

After working within the automotive division, Sylvain has been involved for the past 7 years in the diversification programme at SANDEN Europe in France. He first coordinated the diversification project team at SANDEN Manufacturing Europe, then established the Advanced Product Management department before starting his current position. Since the recent creation of SANDEN Environmental Solutions branch, Sylvain is responsible for business development in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Sylvain holds a double French-German degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, and a Master of Science from Arts et Métiers ParisTech.

Sergio Girotto

Sergio Girotto graduated from Padova University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In 2004 he founded Enex srl, a company specialising in refrigeration and heat pump systems based on natural refrigerants. Before this, he worked in the field of commercial refrigeration for almost 20 years, covering various technical roles including design, research and development as well as manufacturing.

Johanna Gloël

Johanna joined the environmental consultant HEAT in 2013. She works mainly in the area of research and data analysis as well as project management, and is actively involved in several projects promoting the use of natural refrigerants. She has experience in the topics of GHG emissions mitigation strategies and in the calculation of baseline scenarios and inventories of energy consumption. She has contributed to several reports and studies on energy efficient and climate friendly refrigeration and air conditioning technologies. Johanna holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia, UK.

HEAT has been advising the GIZ since 2013 on the implementation of the transport refrigeration project in South Africa and has initiated several activities, such as the establishment of a thermal test chamber and the development of a R290 transport refrigeration unit.

Juergen Goeller

Juergen Goeller was elected to the Steering Committee of EPEE and as the Chairman of EPEE for a term of two years by the 2014 Annual General Assembly of EPEE.

Juergen Goeller joined Carrier in January 2008 as Director Research, Development & Engineering for Carrier Commercial Refrigeration Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and was then appointed to the position of Director Marketing, Key Account Management and Communications for Carrier Commercial Refrigeration EMEA in October 2008.

Next he held consecutive positions as Director Sustainability and Communications for Carrier EMEA, Director Sustainability for Carrier EMEA and Carrier Transicold EMEA and Director Sustainability for UTC Climate, Controls & Security EMEA before he was appointed to his actual position of Director Sustainability for Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems in November 2013.

Prior to joining Carrier, Juergen held successive management roles with growing responsibility in Operations, Engineering and General Management in the Refrigeration and Material Handling Division of the Linde Group and the Alexanderwerk AG.

Juergen holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt/ Germany and a post-graduate degree in business administration from the Open University of Hagen/ Germany.

Vicente Guilabert

Vicente Guilabert is currently the Vice General Manager leading R&D and Quality at Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L. He has an Industrial Engineer degree from the “Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya” and a PDD from the IESE Business School. He has made an extensive professional career within the HVAC&R sector. Mr. Guilabert is currently the head of the R&D team at Huayi Compressor Group for light commercial refrigeration compressors. He has an outstanding knowledge of the hermetic compressor technologies, combined with great expertise in light commercial refrigeration market trends. He has also participated as a speaker in international conferences.

Before joining Huayi Compressor Barcelona 15 years ago, he worked for Hitachi Air Conditioning for 5 years as the Technical Customer Service Centre Manager. His responsibilities were linked to the technical assistance of customers worldwide.

Frédéric Guy

Frédéric Guy has acquired a long experience in the refrigeration world. For the last 25 years, he has been working for Tecumseh developing his knowledge from fractional compressor applications to heat pumps and refrigerating coolers. Currently he serves as an Application Engineer in charge of Tecumseh's technical support, working with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and supporting them in the developemnt of their new systems with Tecumseh products.

Armin Hafner

Professor Dr.-Ing. Armin Hafner has recently started at NTNU Department of Energy and Process Engineering in Trondheim, Norway, as a professor in refrigeration technology. During the past two decades Armin has been working at SINTEF with research topics related to CO₂ refrigeration technology applied in various applications.

Sascha Hellmann

Sascha Hellmann grew up in the refrigeration business in his father’s company. He joined “Linde Kältetechnik” in 1999 as a trainee for refrigeration plant mechanic. He worked for several years as a service technician for commercial refrigeration (HFC refrigerants), then spent years in the industrial department on ammonia systems. In 2006 he graduated as a “Master Craftsman for Refrigeration Systems” - the highest skill level of a professional technician in Germany, and in 2010 obtained a diploma in Mechanical Engineering in Refrigeration System Technology.

In 2010 he began working in the Carrier Research & Design Center for commercial refrigeration as a Development Engineer for mechanical systems. Since 2013, he has held a position as a Project Leader for mechanical systems, mainly responsible for natural refrigerants such as CO₂ or hydrocarbons, and increasing energy efficiency of transcritical CO₂ systems.

Bob Hurley

Bob Hurley is dynamic and experienced Senior Manager with many years of experience. He joined Tesco as a Commissioning Engineer 25 years ago, moving to the role of Refrigeration Design Engineer at HQ after 6 months. In 1996 he became the Engineer for C.E, incorporating Refrigeration, Mechanical and Electrical, as part of a rapid expansion into Central Europe. With significant development in Poland, he lived there for two years as Head of Engineering and continued to mentor the other countries. After his return to the UK and a period in Refrigeration, Bob became the Engineer for the rapid expansion of the convenience format-Express.

In 2006, he returned to Tesco International as Group Engineering and Energy Standards Manager, which also incorporated work on Tesco's Carbon target of -50% from 2006-2020, on which many countries were making great progress. He now works as a consultant in Retail Engineering Services. 

Bob Hurley has a reputation for strategic vision and implementing sophisticated action plans. He has been recognized for leading multiple, culturally diverse teams, to consistently reducing costs and CO₂ emissions, whilst delivering innovative retail engineering solutions to ensure the customer experience and achieve environmental policy in accordance with legislation and corporate responsibility.

Juan Ignacio Fandos

Masataka Imazu

Masataka Imazu holds a degree in Thermal Fluid Dynamics from Tokyo University of Science. He began working at DENSO in 1991 and has experience in areas such as CO₂ refrigeration cycles, air conditioning and heating systems for house and vehicle. Masataka has been based in Europe since 2013 and is focused on non-automotive applications.

Venu Kandi

Venu Kandi has more than 9 years of work experience in HVAC&R industry with various responsibilities in Engineering, Quality and Product Management Marketing. He is currently working as a Product Manager in Refrigeration Marketing at Emerson Climate Technologies, based in the headquarters in Aachen, Germany. Kandi holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Arno Kaschl

Arno Kaschl holds a PhD from Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, Germany, related to research of heavy metal pollution in Middle Eastern soils. After a couple of years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, Arno started working for the European Commission in 2004. Four years ago Arno joined the F-gas Team at DG CLIMA with the objective of drafting and negotiating the new F-gas Regulation. Currently, Arno's principal objectives are implementing the HFC phase-down in the EU and supporting the international negotiations under the Montreal Protocol towards a global phase-down.

Georges Khoury

Since 2008, Dr.-Ing. Georges Khoury leads the development of SANDEN CO₂ systems for the European market. SANDEN is a global first class supplier of automotive air-conditioning systems, vending, commercial refrigeration, and heat pumps. Georges Khoury joined SANDEN in 2006 as a R&D Engineer. Until 2008, He worked on automotive projects with OEMs to improve the Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) environmental impact, to phase out the R134a refrigerant and to create new concepts for thermal comfort in vehicles. He is a Mechanical Engineer and holds a PhD Degree in Energetics from the “Ecole des Mines de Paris”. His thesis, as part of a European project, presented the specific development of high efficiency air-conditioning technologies adapted to the hybrid and electric vehicles.

Timothy Lorkin

Timothy Lorkin is a business oriented (HEC Paris MBA) Chartered Engineer (UK: Institute of Engineering & Technology), who has been based in Paris for over 20 years as a Systems Integration Expert at Bosch. He has obtained Brake-by-Wire patents amongst other systems innovations in the Automotive & Aerospace sectors. Since 2012 he has been actively developing Magnetic Refrigeration as a potential industrial product and supports international standards development since 2014. Mr. Lorkin has also served as Chairman of an IIR-IIF Industry sub-working group since 2014, working to establish common standards for the technology globally via the IIR-IIF members and academia.

Diego Malimpensa

After graduating with a degree in Engineering from Padua University, Diego Malimpensa joined CAREL in 2006 working as a Product Manager for food retail refrigeration field controllers. He is now in charge of the business management of the “CAREL retail sistema” portfolio, coordinating the deployment of CAREL's solution for food retail systems. As a marketer, he is directly involved in product design and the development of emerging technologies. During the last few years, he has been focusing on CO₂ solutions and BLDC compressors applied in commercial refrigeration.

Guillermo Martínez López

Guillermo Martinez Lopez holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Alcalá de Henares. He has built his entire professional career in different positions at the Ministry of Environment of Spain. He currently works in the Spanish Climate Change Office developing measures for reducing emissions in the following sectors: transport and fluorinated gases. He is also the Spanish representative in the European Commission's F-Gas Committee.

Paolo Martini

Paolo Martini holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for 6 years as a Project Engineer in the refrigeration industry designing systems for various applications and developing special expertise on natural refrigerants. Since 2014 he works for Carrefour Group International Support as Manager for Refrigeration and HVAC. With the objective of reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of Carrefour Group, his main tasks as a technical specifier are the international development of sustainable technologies using natural gases and sharing refrigeration and HVAC best practices.

Nina Masson

Nina has been working with shecco for 11 years in various roles, including Deputy Managing Director shecco SPRL and Chief Market Development Officer shecco group. Today, as Chief Strategy Advisor for Special Projects, she is responsible for EU and UN projects for natural refrigerants and sustainable HVAC&R solutions. She holds two Masters’ degrees in Business Management and in Environmental Management. Nina has been the lead author on various publications. She serves as an independent expert for UN and EU agencies on policy analysis, capacity building, renewable energies and energy efficiency.

Francesco Mastrapasqua

After graduating in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering in 1993 in Padua, Italy, Francesco Mastrapasqua started his career as a Commercial and Marketing Manager in the area of robotic and handling factory automation. Since 2003, he has gained a wide experience in business development, international sales, key account and marketing in several HVAC&R multinational companies. Since 2009 at Epta, he has focused on natural refrigeration and environmentally sustainable systems applied to the commercial retail business.

Epta has a leading position as a turnkey system provider and offers to its clients fully comprehensive assistance and training. from the choice of the ideal solution to its implementation and maintenance, including a permanent training center in the CO₂ Excellence Center in the UK.

Julien Meert

Julien Meert studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leuven in Belgium. After his graduation in 2014, he started working as a Project Engineer at Colruyt Group, a Belgian retailer. One of his major projects is the introduction of natural refrigerants for the cooling of the groups’ supermarkets in Belgium.

Stefano Menghini

Stefano Menghini is the R&D Manager of ISA, a leading Italian company for innovation and sustainability in the professional refrigeration sector, exporting in approximately 100 countries, with over 750 employees. He graduated with a degree in Engineering in 1995 from the University of Perugia. He entered ISA in 1995 as a Thermodynamical Engineer, then became R&D Manager before being appointed Director in 2008. He has wide knowledge on the use of natural refrigerants. In 2006 he started to study CO₂ as a refrigerant for ISA remote and plug-in cabinets.

Franziska Menten

Franziska has 10+ years of work experience in marketing, sales and events and over five years of professional experience in the field of climate-friendly technologies with a concentration in natural refrigerants. Together with shecco, she co-founded beatPlus GmbH, a German-based creative agency for branding & design, digital solutions and events for green projects. Franziska holds a Master’s degree in Business and Economics from Humboldt University in Berlin and a degree in Management from Bordeaux Business School.

Pedro José Nogal Muñoz

Pedro José Nogal Muñoz has been working for Mayekawa for over six years and he currently holds the position of Commercial Advisor. During his time at Mayekawa, Nogal has introduced new products into the Spanish market. Some examples are advanced food processing machineries such as Toridas, horizontal flow air barriers for cold storage refrigeration doors called Thermo Shutter and high pressure Mycom compressors for this kind of natural refrigeration applications. Nogal has studied Science and Food Technology at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has a degree in Quality Management Systems from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Alexander Cohr Pachai

Alexander Cohr Pachai started in the refrigeration industry in 1978 and has been working with hydrocarbons since 1995 and CO₂ since 1997. He worked with both R&D, production, sales and installation of systems using these natural refrigerants. Pachai has sold and commissioned the first HC/CO₂ system in Auckland for a supermarket as well as the largest HC/CO₂ supermarket system in the UK. As a pioneer in the field of natural refrigerants, he has also sold, built and commissioned the first larger supermarket system using CO₂ in Denmark and the first large scale HC AC system for computer cooling. Currently he is involved with the phase-out of R22 worldwide and the implementation of natural refrigerants. Pachai has carried out a lot of training for technicians and engineers in using the above-mentioned natural refrigerants in modern refrigeration plants. He is also experienced with the usage of the refrigerants ammonia and water.

Clare Perry

Clare Perry has worked with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) since 1998. As a climate campaign leader, she currently leads EIA’s climate campaign, which aims to reduce emissions of fluorinated gases and improve enforcement of multilateral environmental agreements designed to curb trade in harmful chemicals. She has attended meetings of the Montreal Protocol since 2007, was closely involved in the revision of the EU F-Gas Regulation, and advocates the use of climate-friendly alternatives to HFCs in multiple fora. Clare graduated from the University of Southampton in 1993 with a BSc in biology and subsequently gained a Masters degree in coastal zone management.

Nicola Pieretti

After graduating in Electronic Engineering from Padua University, Nicola Pieretti joined CAREL working as an Application Manager for food retail refrigeration field controllers.

He is currently in charge of the development and deployment of electronic controllers dedicated to centralized supermarket. and  he is defining market strategies, proposing new solutions  and supporting the sales network with technical and application consulting prior to sale, and a sales context, in roles that involve direct customer management and help define the sales strategy.During the past years he has been focusing on CO₂ transcritical application development worldwide.

Giacomo Pisano

After obtaining his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2002, Giacomo Pisano worked for one year as a Project Manager for General Electric's Oil & Gas division, where the core business is turbomachinery applied to the oil & gas industry. He joined DORIN in 2003 in the R&D department, taking responsibility of the CO₂ compressor development and being in charge of the product's technical qualification. Giacomo Pisano then took over several application engineering roles and is currently responsible for the CO₂ compressors' business development. In the meantime he joined several ASERCOM working groups and was the Chairman for the association's CO₂ working group for many years.

Reinhold Resch

Dipl. Ing. Reinhold Resch is the Head of Research and Development at AHT Cooling Systems GmbH located in Rottenmann, Austria. He studied Industrial Engineering at the Technical University of Graz, in Austria. In 1987 he worked as an R&D engineer at KNAPP Logistics for approximately 5 years. Reinhold began his career at AHT in 1993.

Kari Salonen

Kari Salonen has over 30 years of experience in sales, marketing and product development for commercial and industrial refrigeration, and HVAC applications. With a Nordic background, he is always looking for solutions that can preserve nature and using every opportunity to develop products with the natural impact as a product and the application in mind. Kari is always open for reflections and questions about the market.

Riccardo Savigliano

Riccardo holds a PHD in Plant Pathology and Pest Management, with a specific focus on horticulture. He graduated from the University of Torino, Italy, as Agricultural Engineer with a focus on Agro-Environmental Protection. Before joining UNIDO in 2008, he served the Italian Ministry of Environment Land and Sea, dealing with implementation of the Montreal Protocol at national and international level.

At UNIDO Riccardo is responsible for a number of projects in various countries and industrial sectors, including refrigeration and air conditioning. This includes actions to improve and expand the food cold chain in developing countries in order to reduce food losses and GHG emissions. Projects are designed to stimulate the application of innovative refrigeration technologies with the involvement of governments, end-users, technology supplier and financial investors.

Jürgen Süß

Jürgen joined Efficient Energy in December 2013 and is currently the CEO of the company. From early 2011, he served as Managing Director and CEO at Cofely Refrigeration in Lindau, Germany. This company is part of the GDF Suez Group and manufactures products and solutions for the industrial refrigeration segment. Previously, Jürgen had a 13-year assignment at Danfoss A/S in Denmark, where his last role was Vice President R&D of controls and line components for all kinds of refrigeration equipment. Before this, he held various management positions within technology and business development at Danfoss. Jürgen has a Ph.D. in Refrigeration from Hannover University and is active in the IIR, ASHRAE, and other scientific committees and associations.

David Schalenbourg

As director of the Technical Department BeLux David Schalenbourg is since September 2015 in charge of realizing Delhaize’s ambitions to reduce its CO2 footprint by building towards a sustainable ‘brick’ network. Graduated as an architect in Brussels, with a Master in Urban Planning obtained in Paris and with an international track record in a variety of sustainable building projects (residential, office, retail, islands, …).

Jonas Schoenenberger

Jonas Schoenenberger is working for Frigo-Consulting, a Swiss engineering company mainly active in the fields of retail- and industrial refrigeration, with a focus on energy efficient and sustainable refrigerating systems. Over the past years, he has gained comprehensive experience in engineering efficient and sustainable solutions with natural refrigerants, and has been involved in the design and implementation of several sub- and transcritical CO₂ systems. Since 2012, he has been in charge of research and development activities at Frigo-Consulting, and committed to developing and pushing innovative technologies. Jonas Schoenenberger gained a Bachelor degree in system engineering in 2009 and has previously worked as a Mechanical Engineer.

Olaf Schulze

Olaf Schulze is the Director Energy Management at Metro AG. From 2005 to 2013, he was the Managing Director of Metro Proper-ties Energy Management GmbH. Previously, Schulze has worked at Europower Energy GmbH as the Head of Legal and Human Resources and at Geberit Mapress GmbH as the Head of Legal and Insurance.

Sidi Menad Si Ahmed

Recently retired from his position as the Director of the Montreal Protocol Branch at UNIDO, Mr. Si Ahmed is shecco's International Chief Advisor.

Originally a meteorologist with a specialisation on numerical forecast, he graduated from the Institut Hydrometeorologique de Formation et de Recherche of Oran (Algeria) and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (atmospheric pollution).

Before joining UNIDO as a Protocol Coordinator, and later as a Director of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements Branch, Mr. Si Ahmed was the Director on Environmental Studies at the Ministry of Environment in Algeria. He was also a lecturer on Environmental Impact Assesment at the University of Algiers.

Volker Stamer

Dipl.-Ing. Volker Stamer has a long history in the HVAC&R industry. Upon receiving his degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on thermodynamics, automation systems and production/operational management, he began his career at TRANE Germany in 1994. Since then, he has enjoyed a number of successful positions working within both European and international teams. In 2012 Volker began working at BITZER, first as the Division Manager of Global Customer Support, and later as the Director of International Sales. Since 2015, he has been the Director of SCHAUFLER Academy training centre in Rottenburg-Ergenzingen, Germany.

Hidekazu Tachibana

Hidekazu Tachibana is the General Manager at Panasonic. Having started his career in 1981, Mr. Tachibana has more than 30 years of experience in his field. In 2006, he was appointed as the President of Panasonic Compressor Malaysia Co. Ltd., and has since served as Head of the Sales Department and as Group Manager.

Menno Van der Hoff

Since April 2014, Menno is leading the development of the TripleAqua Heat Pump at Uniechemie (NL) and he is responsible for the design and technology of this HVAC heat pump climate control system. By applying active and passive thermal storage, natural refrigerants and optimized transfer of energy, a zero carbon footprint sustainable solution was created. Prior to that, he was the EU International Product Manager HVAC at Colt International Ltd, UK.

Menno has patented several designs, such as Apparatus and Method for Influencing the temperature in a Building (2013). In 2009, he received The Cooling Industry Award 2009 UK and the H&V News Award 2009 UK Environmental initiative of the year. He was also awarded the NVKL Koeltrofee (Cool Trophy) 2010-2011 at VSK Utrecht, NL for a propylene decentral cascade heat pump system. Through his original work, he has achieved results reducing the GHG emissions directly and indirectly from HVAC systems. He strives to build new and innovative business without the use of ozone depleting chemicals and synthetic refrigerants.

HENK JAN VAN GERNER

Henk Jan van Gerner is a research Engineer at the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR). He has extensive experience in the design and development of advanced two-phase cooling systems for both terrestrial and space applications. His current work is focused on the development of lightweight vapor-compression cycles, numerical modeling of pumped two-phase cooling systems, and systems with very accurate temperature control (0.001°C accuracy) at varying heat loads. Henk Jan studied mechanical engineering and obtained his PhD in the Physics of Fluids group at Twente University in the Netherlands.

Stuart Webb

Stuart Webb supports the development and deployment of new technologies at Carrier Commercial Refrigeration Europe, with a primary focus on CO₂ refrigeration and integrated systems. He is involved in tracking, mapping and analysing the market uptake of natural refrigerants for Carrier throughout Europe.

Stuart is based in the United Kingdom, with a background in project management and project engineering. He joined Carrier in 2006 and possesses a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Glasgow.

Andrew Williams

As editor and senior reporter in Brussels, Belgium, Andrew oversees publication of natural refrigerant news on shecco’s B2B websites R744.com, hydrocarbons21.com, and ammonia21.com. He is also editor of Accelerate Europe and Accelerate Australia & NZ magazines, shecco’s quarterly magazines showcasing how leading organisations are turning to climate-friendly natural refrigerants like carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrocarbons to improve and future-proof refrigeration, heating and air conditioning systems in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

He joined shecco in December 2015 from COGEN Europe, the European Association for the Promotion of Cogeneration, where as communications manager he helped to represent the interests of the combined heat and power sector towards the EU institutions. He particularly focused on the heating and cooling sector and its contribution to delivering climate and energy policy objectives. 

Andrew's previous roles include communications manager at the European Policy Centre, an EU affairs think-tank, and sub-editor and journalist at EU affairs news website EurActiv.com. He studied French, German and European Union Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Jennifer Yun

Jennifer Yun holds an MBA with honors on Innovation Management from the Universiteit van Amsterdam, and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from the University of Texas in Austin. With over 10 years of experience in business development, she has worked in diverse fields from digital solutions to renewable energy. Today, Jennifer is engaged in identifying opportunities and creating strategies to leverage DENSO Europe capabilities for Non-Automotive Solutions.

Marek Zgliczynski

Marek Zgliczynski studied at the Turin Politechnic in Italy where he earned his degree in mechanical engineering. In 1979, after completing his degree, Marek began his career as a researcher and project leader of new product development at Aspera Spa. 

A few years later, Marek transitioned to Embraco, becoming the Manager of Compressor Design. His successful efforts led to many promotions, including European Commercial Product and Technology Manager, Commercial Refrigeration Product Corporate Director and Corporate Fellow Researcher for the Commercial Refrigeration Segment. 

His main responsibility includes the development of household and light commercial refrigeration products. He also provides technical assistance to the sales team in order to promote Embraco products that align with customer feedback. 

Throughout his career, Marek has earned three U.S. patents and Gold Whirlpool Quality Team Award and he has published several pieces of literature for international conferences and events about refrigeration technology. In 2016, he was elected to a Chair of the IEC/SC61C Committee, in charge of the development of international product safety standards for refrigeration segment. He is also member in several other standardization bodies like ISO TC86/SC1/WG1, CEN TC182WG6 and WG12, IEC SC61DWG16 and UL STP471, Ashrae Member. 

Klara Zolcer Skacanova

With a background in public affairs and economics Klára joined shecco in 2011. She leads the company’s market development team focusing on market research, policy analysis, funding projects and specialised campaigns with the objective of accelerating the adoption of climate friendly technologies across different world regions. She has co-authored several extensive market and policy publications focusing on the current use and future potential of natural refrigerants. Prior to joining shecco she worked at the European Commission and a European association for small and medium-sized businesses.