Roland Amelung

Senior sales and marketing manager with a proven track record of sales in central European and emerging markets in the refrigeration industry since 1992.

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.

Paul Arrowsmith

Paul Arrowsmith is an experienced refrigeration design engineer with over 30 years’ experience in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry, Paul is responsible for the design specification and cost models for Sainsburys refrigeration systems, and for the evaluation of new and evolving technologies. He is responsible for delivering the refrigeration operational carbon emission reductions in line with Sainsburys Sustainability Plan. 

Paul has extensive experience in the application, design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of refrigeration installations in commercial retail, food and distribution refrigeration sector. 

Prior to joining Sainsburys he was the Engineering Director of a UK refrigeration contractor with responsibilities for engineering, their natural refrigerant training academy and a plant production facility.

Selimcan Azizoglu

Selimcan Azizoglu works as a Project Manager of GEF funded regional projects in Europe, Central Asia and Africa, related to HCFC phase out and reduction of UPOPs and mercury. He coordinates project implementation at regional level providing support to developing countries in the area of policy, technology conversion, capacity building and regional cooperation.

Bram Vanden Berghen

As a Project Engineer at Colruyt Group, Bram Vanden Berghen is part of the team working on the introduction of natural refrigerants in the group’s cooling plants in Belgium and Luxemburg. His responsibilities primarily lie in the correct technical control of the installations and the support of the cooling emergency response team.

Bram is graduated in 2015 as an Electromechanical Engineer at the Free University of Brussels.

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.

Edwin Bloch

Edwin Bloch holds a Mechanical Engineering & Economics Degree and has more than 30 years of experience in commercial refrigeration. He worked at Linde and Carrier for more than two decades in different leading positions (R&D, Product Management, Sales and Marketing).

In 2007 he founded the company bloch.consulting engineers to develop new refrigeration solutions for German food retailers. For the last 3 years he has worked exclusively with the heating company Viessmann to build up a new refrigeration division. Edwin Bloch will join Viessmann Refrigeration Solutions as 1 November and will be responsible for Innovation Management and Product Marketing.

Lutz Boeck

After completing his Master of Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, in 1993, Mr Boeck joined the Hagenuk Fahrzeugklima GmbH in Schkeudiz, where he was responsible for development and special projects before moving to ITEG mbH in Leipzig, where he held the position of director for seven consecutive years. In 2004 he moved to Faiveley Transport Leipzig GmbH & Co KG, which was recently merged with the Wabtec Group, and is since repsonsible for research and development, including the the work with natural refrigerants, as well as looking after the any climatecontrol questions and emergencies.

Peter Boink

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. 

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 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.

Francesco Castagna

Francesco is an electronic engineer with 20 years of experience in the design of controllers for commercial refrigeration and HVAC.

He joined Eliwell, now part of Schneider Electric, in 1998 as an embedded software engineer. He has held various roles in R&D since then and has been leading Eliwell R&D activities since 2011.

Gérald Cavalier

Gérald Cavalier began his career in 1995 as the head of department and deputy director of the Directorate of Agriculture and Forest of Haut Rhin before taking over in 1999 the International Relations department of CEMAGREF, a research organization on agriculture and the environment. In 2002, he became director of development for the RUAS group. Since 2005 he has taken over the management of CEMAFROID. Gérald Cavalier is the President of the Warehousing and Transport Section of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIF) and President of the French Association of Refrigeration (AFF). He is an expert to UNECE, CEN, WHO and Transfrigoroute International.

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.

Mauro De Barba

With more than 21 years’ in Eliwell, Mauro covers marketing roles since the 2001 merging his experience in monitoring systems and connectivity with a vision for sustainable and future proof solutions to answer the more and more demanding requirements from the refrigeration industry. He delivered solutions from Environmentally Optimized controllers to Televis Systems evolution leveraging on state-of-the-art technology and open protocols. Since the acquisition of Eliwell in 2014, Mauro is coordinating the IT-OT convergence and promoting the integration of all refrigeration solutions into Schneider Electric EcoStruxure architecture.

Daniel de Graaf

Daniel de Graaf studied biochemistry at the Free University of Berlin and also earned his doctorate in 2009 from there. Since joining the German Environment Agency (Section III 1.4 Substance-related Product Issues) in 2008, he is concerned with fluorinated greenhouse gases which are predominantly used as refrigerants in e.g. air conditioning and heat pump appliances.

He was responsible for the publication of several articles and reports dealing with the replacement of HFC refrigerants with natural refrigerants in refrigeration and stationary air conditioning. Furthermore, he was involved in the establishment of the German ecolabel (Blue Angel) for Energy-efficient Data Center Operation (RAL-UZ 161) and for Stationary Air Conditioners (RAL-UZ 204). Currently, he is concerned with the implementation of the HFC phase down according to the Montreal Protocol in the framework of the UNEP associated Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

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.

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.

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.

Michael Duggan

RLS LLC is a recently formed company which is part of the Marmon Group/Berkshire Hathaway, which has developed press-to-connect fittings engineered for high-pressure refrigeration lines used in the air conditioning and refrigeration industries. Numerous adjacent products are in the works.

Michael is a 2001 graduate of University of Ulster with a Masters Degree in Marketing and also holds a Honors Degree in Business Studies. Since graduating from University of Ulster, Michael has worked in various roles for multiple companies allowing him to leverage his diverse knowledge in his daily activities. His focus is on high pressure and natural refrigerant products that enhance efficiency and safety.

Michael Elstrøm

Michael Elstrøm is the technical director and co-owner of HB Products A/S, where he is responsible for technical development. He has 25 years of design experience within capacitive sensors for the refrigeration industry.

Michael Elstrøm came up with the idea for a gas quality sensor during a dialogue on improving efficiency and optimisation of the control of a liquid expansion value for use in air coolers/evaporators.

Giulia Fava

Giulia graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 2014 with an experimental thesis on modeling the thermal exchange of closed-circuit evaporative towers. After two years of working experience in areas other than refrigeration, she started working at Euroklimat in 2017 as product developer in the R&D department, focusing on Propane and natural refrigerants.

Nicolas Fidorra

Nicolas Fidorra is a researcher and PhD Student at the German University of Braunschweig– Institute of Technology, working with simulation of thermal systems in supermarkets. He holds a Spanish-German double degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Braunschweig and Industrial Engineering from University of Zaragoza, Spain.

After staying abroad for nearly two years at Sintef in Norway, he is currently located in Braunschweig. His focus of work is the development of new simulation approaches and numerical assessment of innovative supermarket concepts. Currently he is involved in the European SuperSmart project working on the knowledge-transfer from research to industry.

Stefano Filippini

Stefano Filippini completed his Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, specialising in Energy in 1996. He started working at LU-VE SpA the same year, covering different positions inside the Group and spent 18 months in the German subsidiary. He has been the Technical Manager of LU-VE since 2007. Stefano is the chairman of Heat exchangers for Refrigeration Committee of Eurovent. He has been publishing several papers concerning heat exchangers technologies in several magazines of refrigeration and air conditioning.

Alessandro Franchin

Alessandro graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 2006 at the University of Padova with a master’s degree in Refrigeration. His thesis was related to the design and building of a transcritical booster system. He worked for several years as Product Manager and after as Export Area Manager in the refrigeration field. He joined SCM Frigo in September 2015 as the Export Area Manager for Central Europe, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

Jonathan Fryer

Jonathan is a Director of Iseco Engineering Services, an Australian consultancy company specialising in commercial and industrial refrigeration. He has over 25 years’ experience across a range of projects from large refrigerated warehouses to small fishing boats . Currently  he is working on the refrigeration design for a major new winery project and also is monitoring the performance of 5 trans critical CO2 supermarket installations that have been installed over the last year or so across four states in Australia to determine overall energy consumption of different technologies in differing climatic regions.  He is also a member of the AIRAH Refrigeration Special Technical Group which aims to promote the use and application of natural refrigerants .

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.

Peder Gabrielsen

Christoph Gasser

Christoph is serving as Vice President Sales at the Austrian Headquarter of the AHT Group. He studied law at the Unversity of Graz and holds an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen/Switzerland. Since 1998 he has been active in several management positions for the Rettig ICC Group before he started his career as Vice President Sales at AHT Cooling Systems in June 2015.

Vincent Grass

Vincent Grass is Refrigeration Team Leader in the Corporate Operations – Engineering Services department at Nestlé. He is responsible for expanding Nestlé‘s use of natural refrigerants worldwide.

He is involved in implementing natural refrigerant projects in Nestlé facilities across the globe, as well as risk mitigation related to using natural refrigerants. Prior to joining Nestlé seven years ago, he spent two years at Johnson Controls (JCI) and 10 years at Cofely Axima (formerly QUIRI). During that time he was primarily involved in projects using natural refrigerants ammonia and CO₂.

Barbara Gschrey

Barbara Gschrey has been working for Öko-Recherche since 2009 and managed the preparatory study for the EU Commission in the context of the review of the F-Gas Regulation. She holds in-depth knowledge about use and emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases and relevant business sectors.

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.

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.

Martin Hasnik

Martin Hasnik studied at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt, specialising in Project Management, Internal Combustion Engines and Economic calculations. From 2011 to 2013, he was a student trainee at Lufhansa Cargo. After Lufhansa Cargo, he started working as a student trainee at DB RegioNetz from 2013 until 2015. Since 2015 he has been a Consultant in Technology Management and Development at DB RegioNetz.

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.

Kenneth Hoffmann

Kenneth Hoffmann received a Master's Degree in Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 2000 followed by four years of working as a refrigeration consultant for the food and dairy industry in Denmark. In the last 13 years he has been working in the UK for industrial refrigeration companies. Since March 2013, he has been working as a Product Manager for Heat Pumps for GEA. This role involves development of industrial heat pumps application and training of GEA’s global sales team. Over the years he has published many articles and technical papers on high efficiency industrial ammonia heat pump applications.

Adeleke Ige

Adeleke Ige is a Chartered Engineer, and a Member of Chartered institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). He possesses Masters Degrees from University of Salford, Greater Manchester in Manufacturing systems and from Brunel University, West London in Building Services Engineering.

Adeleke has over 10 years of experience that cuts across Equipment manufacturing and Engineering Consultancy. He works for Walgreens Boots Alliance, setting specifications for HVAC and Refrigeration, and also currently looking into overall strategy with a major focus on transition from high GWP refrigerant to ultra-low GWP refrigerants.

Per-Erik Jansson

Per-Erik is an energy engineer within the HVAC&R sector with over 15 years in commercial refrigeration. He is responsible for ICA's solutions for refrigeration and integration with real estate systems such as heating and AC, as well as strategic coordination of F-gas solutions and technical specifications for buying department regarding energy demanding equipment such as cabinets, ovens and lighting. Per-Erik has been a participant in Swedish national research-programs for commercial refrigeration since 1998 such as Klimate21 and EffSys-programs where ICA has put several stores at dispose for field measurements. He also participates in Swedish Energy Agency in forums and programs to push for energy efficient solutions in grocery stores.

Oliver Javerschek

Oliver Javerschek joined BITZER in 2001 and now holds the position of a Project Manager. He is in charge of various projects in the field of CO₂ applications. He wrote his diploma thesis at Sintef Energy Research in Trondheim. Since 2008 he has published several papers at various conferences and for different journals.

Jens Kallesøe

Jens Kallesøe is a passionate technical sales professional with 10+ years of experience in the refrigreation industry and has been with Advansor for the past 6 years. Jens Kallesøe is the Director of Advansor's External and Internal Sales, leading a team of highly skilled refrigeration engineers. Jens Kallesøe is dedicated to maintaining a leading position in the field, measured not only in sales volume but in terms of technology, level of knowledge and environmental responsibility as well. 

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.

Hans-Peter Klein

Hans-Peter Klein has gained extensive experience in several branches of engineering, including ten years at Fraunhofer Society in Freiburg, where he worked on renewable energies (wind energy) and at BAFA in Eschborn, where he was looking after international export control. Starting his career with studies in aerospace engineering  at Technical University Aachen, he also worked for several years as Aerospace industries at CargoLifter in Brandenburg. Since 2015 Mr. Klein is responsible for Energy Efficiency and Climate Mitigation Technologies at the BMUB in Berlin, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.

Markus Lenz

Markus Lenz joined Emerson in 2008 and he is responsible for marketing condensing units in Europe. Previously he worked in engineering and marketing positions with a strong focus on mobile and stationary refrigeration applications for global companies in Europe and China. He holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree and counts 20 years of professional experience in the HVAC & R industry. Markus is based in the European Headquarter of Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions in Aachen, Germany.

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.

Michael Matthias

Mr. Michael Matthias is heading the technical centre Europe in Bad Nauheim, Germany since 2012.

Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Matthias was leading the advanced product management department for the development and commercialization of new environmentally friendly product lines.

Mr. Matthias holds an engineering degree for car engineering from HAW Hamburg, University for applied Sciences and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Former to his career at Sanden of Europe, Mr. Matthias hold several positions in Sales, Project Management and Engineering at Visteon and Ford Motor company.

Andreas Meier

Andreas Meier has several years of experience in management functions within the refrigeration sector. He has been a member of TEKO's management since August 2015. He was previously President of Sales D / A / CH at GEA Refrigeration Technologies, based in Berlin - Germany, and before that he was the Head of Marketing and Product Management at GEA Küba GmbH.

He also worked in Zug - Switzerland, as Sales & Marketing Manager at a Japanese manufacturer for industrial refrigeration.

Thomas Nowak

Thomas is a long term (renewable) energy aficionado. Apart from closely following the energy transition both in the electricity and heating sectors, he is the owner of a heat pump, a PV power plant and a building in which both peacefully cooperate.

In his professional life, Thomas represents the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) as Secretary General in Brussels. His main responsibilities are the representation of the industry at the European institutions, networking with other stakeholders in the field of heating and cooling as well as the management of the association and its future development.

Thomas has published several articles on heat pump technology and the integration of heat pumps in the energy system and has spoken on this topic in European and international conferences.

He has also been contributing to scientific publications including the IEA energy technology perspectives and the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report. Before working for the EHPA, he has worked in several projects on the economic and social benefits of renewable energy.

Thomas holds a university degree in business administration and economics.

Anthony Ornatsky

Anthony Ornatsky holds a degree in technology and marketing. He is responsible for marketing development on cooling and heating groups for OEMs at Tecumseh. He is experienced in chiller product management from his past positions at Trane and Carrier. Anthony is currently working mainly on launching a propane chiller dedicated to refrigeration, in addition to other various projects. 

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.

Lukas Patryarcha

Lukas Patryarcha joined WURM as a specialist for thermodynamic systems and applications in the controller development department in the year 2011. Since 2016, he is also responsible for applied research in the company. Major tasks of his work have been the development and implementation of thermodynamic models and applications for overheat and temperature controller functions such as the control method Smartflow+ or the temperature sensor T3S. Currently, his focus is on is on R&D and project management for HVAC&R simulations, data analytics and R744 applications and controllers.

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.

Vartan Petrosyants

Director and designer-in-chief of the Air Turbo Technology R&D Centre of UPEC Industrial Group, owner and president of Turbo-Vesta Ltd (Ukraine), PhD, Laureate of State Award in the Field of Science and Technology. He has over 40 years experience in the fields of design and production of high efficiency centrifugal compressors and centripetal turbines, heat-exchangers, turbochargers, turbo-blowers, refrigerant turbocompressors and air refrigerating machines. Vartan Petrosyants is the inventor of the ATT - absolutely ecologically pure and highly efficient HVAC units for stationary and vehicle applications at wide range of outdoor temperatures. The ATT uses air as a working body and provides conditioning and heating of premises, delivering up to 100% fresh air.

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.

Nicolas Pondicq-Cassou

Based in Aubagne, France, Nicolas Pondicq-Cassou is leading both engineering and marketing teams for Carrier Commercial Refrigeration Mechanical Systems.

He joined the company in 2000 in the Technology group and led in the early 00’s the first product development efforts on CO₂ solutions for heat pump applications. He then held different engineering positions in product development as well as field engineering in both HVAC and Refrigeration businesses. Nicolas possesses a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from both ENSICA Toulouse and Syracuse University, NY, US.

Maria Purzner

Maria Purzner has a background in biology, and joined the Environment Agency in 2008. She first worked on Chemicals Management (which later brought her to Tunisia, where she worked as a Resident Twinning Advisor), and has been working at the Department for Emission Inventories and Climate Change Mitigation for over 5 years, where she has been responsible for calculating emissions from fluorinated gases in Austria, as well as working on a project on the implications of the EU F-Gas regulation on the market in Austria.

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.

Roelof Robbertsen

Roelof Robbertsen is a highly experienced refrigeration engineer with over 29 years of experience in transport cooling, climate, industrial, consultancy and design. For the last eight years he has been working at Aeres Tech in the Netherlands. Roelof provides education (national and international) to companies and their employees to gain the certification for natural refrigerants such as ammonia, CO₂ and hydrocarbons. He develops practical training programs for cascade ammonia/CO₂, transcritical CO₂ and cold systems with hydrocarbons and educative material on level 2 mechanics, 3 technical maintenance and 4 service technicians/designer cold technology.

Jörgen Rogstam

Jörgen Rogstam has in his 20 year career been dedicated to the refrigeration field starting off as researcher (PhD student) at the Royal Institute of Technology with research on natural refrigerants. With a specific passion for CO₂, which started in the automotive industry in year 2000, he has pushed the use of CO₂ in to other applications where ice rinks are one of them.

Today he applies a scientific approach to applications and fields which may not have seen that before such as ice rinks. The working field is international with assignments mainly in Europe and North America. He also teaches students on a University level as well as refrigeration technicians in the art of using CO₂ as refrigerant.

Hayato Sakamoto

Hayato Sakamoto is the Assistant Manager of Engineering and Development section. He has 14 years of experience in design and development of turbomachines such as centrifugal blowers and compressors. In 2007, he joined the development team of water refrigerant centrifugal chiller and played an integral role of the development and the commercialization of Kawasaki turbo chiller using R718(water) as a refrigerant. After the launch of this new chiller, he has been engaged in the improvement of technologies and the market development.

Bafoday Sanyang

Bafoday Sanyang is responsible for coordinating and implementing activities and programmes related to the phasing out of Ozone Depleting Substances in the Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Sector. He has background knowledge in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Mr. Sanyang is a graduate in Master of Science (MSc.) in International Environment Sustainable Development, National Central University, Taiwan.

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.

Gaku Shimada

In 1996, Gaku Shimada graduated from WASEDA University (with a Major in Applied Physics) and entered SANYO Electric Co.Ltd as a Mechanical Engineer of compressors. After receiving a Master degree in 2006 from Boston Univ., School of Management, he became the compressor sales manager as well as a strategic business planning manager of the new technology research department. Since 2017, Mr. Shimada has been the Manager of Strategic Planning of Condensing Unit Business and Overseas Sales, Cold Chain Business Division of Panasonic Corporation.

Michael Sonnekalb

Michael Sonnekalb is an expert in bus air conditioning sytems working with CO₂. He started research with CO₂ at Konvekta in 1993 and finished his PhD in 2002. In 2007 Konvekta’s founder Carl H. Schmitt got the German Environmental Award for this development. He has been continuing his work since then and is recently focused on heat pump systems for urban electric buses.

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.

Chiara Tognoli

Chiara Tognoli graduated in Padua with an energetic engineering degree specialising in thermotechnics.

She has experience in industrial and commercial refrigeration and since 2016 she is a refrigeration designer in Arneg Italia, headquarter of the Arneg Group, international leader in the design, manufacture and installation of complete equipment for the retail sector.

In Arneg she works on designs and quotations of refrigeration plants and gives technical and commercial support to customers and the sales force.

Giovanni Tonin

Giovanni Tonin graduated in Management Engineering at Padua University and joined CAREL in 2012, working in the food retail refrigeration business. As an Application Specialist he was responsible for development and deployment of high-efficiency condensing units equipped with DC compressor technology, solutions that are widely used in Asia. Last year he specifically focused on CO₂ transcritical DC condensing units for the European market. Starting in 2017 he has been working in the commercial refrigeration business, developing high-efficiency solutions for refrigerated merchandisers charged with hydrocarbon refrigerants and featuring innovative connectivity options.

Maryia Tsvirko

Mrs. Maryia Tsvirko works in the field of refrigeration equipment, heat pumps and energy efficiency since 2010. Her specialization is the effectiveness and the environmental safety of refrigeration equipment. Maryia took part in the audit of more than 200 enterprises (dairy plants, meat processing plants, fish processing plants, distilleries, etc.) in Belarus. Since 2016, she is a certificated expert on Energy Audit and she has a number of publications.

Supported by UNDP-GEF project on HCFC phase out in Belarus, Maryia Tsvirko had an active role in implementation of the demonstration project "Low-charge ammonia based cooling for an administrative building”. She graduated from Belarussian National Technical University in 2010, specialized in “Energy-Efficient Technologies and Energy Management"

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.

Bert van Dorp

Florian Veyssilier

Florian Veyssilier graduated from the Ecole des Mines d'Ales engineering school in France. Since 2011, he has been a policy adviser in the general directorate for risk prevention of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. In particular, he is responsible for the implementation in France of the FGas regulation and the national regulation that applies to fluorinated greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances. He is also one of the French delegates in the Montreal Protocol negociations, and especially involved in HFC amendment talks. Previously, he worked for 4 years in the IT industry as a software developer, including 3 years in Amadeus IT Group in Sophia-Antipolis.

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.

Thomas Willson

Thomas Willson is the Policy Officer responsible for coordinating activities related to refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump standardisation at ECOS, since 2013. This includes engagement with European and international standardisation processes, as well as liaising with the European Commission on standards related issues for the implementation of the EU Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulation No. 517/2014.

Previously, Thomas held positions in the Sustainable Food Trust and the Environmental Justice Foundation. Thomas holds a Master degree in Environmental Science Legislation and Management from Brunel University and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom.

Freddie Wilson

Alexander Wirsching

Alexander Wirsching is well experienced in refrigeration since nearly 30 years. He gained his basic knowledge as a trainee and technician in commercial refrigeration before he finished the Bundesfachschule Kälte-Klima-Technik in Maintal as an engineer of refrigeration. Since 1998 he is part of the TEKO–Team and participates in the development of CO₂ applications from its beginning in 2004 with his responsibility of the R&D Department.

David Wirth

David Wirth is employed as an Application Engineer in the Product Management and Marketing of Epta Deutschland GmbH. He is responsible for supporting the business with his expertise on CO2 and Propane systems, their performances, energy efficiency and furthermore developing new concepts together with customers and sales organization.

He graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 2011 with focus on thermodynamics. During this time he spent half a year in a student research project for working at Sintef in Norway.

Before joining the Epta group in 2015, he gathered experiences in refrigeration technologies as a Service Engineer and afterwards as Product Manager for Julabo GmbH.

Enrico Zambotto

Enrico graduated as a thermotecnical engineer from the Padua University. He is experienced in HVAC, compressed air treatment and commercial refrigeration.

Since 2002, Enrico has been the Refrigeration Systems Director at Arneg Italia, headquarter of the Arneg Group, international leader in the design, manufacture and installation of complete equipment for the retail sector. With his expertise on CO₂ systems, he is responsible for supporting the business in its high sustainability projects, evolving hand in hand with intelligent technologies, interacting with the environment, society and customers.

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.