Stephane Arditi

Stephane Arditi works as a Policy Officer for the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) on Product and Waste. EEB is a federation of Environmental NGO’s, with more than 140 members all over Europe.

In his current work on Ecodesign & WEEE Directives, he tries to promote rewards schemes for low environmental impact design, noticeably low global warming potential refrigerants.

Before joining EEB, Arditi worked as an industrial consultant, mainly on improvement and lean enterprise strategies. He also collaborated with a University team to design and evaluate energy efficiency in building policy. 

Robert Arthur

Robert Arthur joined the refrigeration industry in 1968 in a training programme with Prestcold (Southern) Ltd. Various roles and employment within the refrigeration and building services industry led to joining Marks and Spencer within their refrigeration department in 1986 as a regional engineer, covering UK, Europe and American business developments.

This led to the role of Refrigeration Manager responsible for all aspects of the companies’ refrigeration portfolio. He is now operating as an independent refrigeration consultant specialising in the retail sector and currently providing services to Resource Data Management and Space Engineering.

Antoine Azar

Antoine graduated from the University of Liège in Belgium, with a Master's degree in electro-mechanical & energy engineering. Antoine worked at the Coca-Cola Company for 16 years. Between July 2011 - December 2016 he held the position of global program director of Coca-Cola’s sustainable refrigeration program. Prior to that, Antoine performed as the maintenance manager and worked in various departments including engineering, design and innovation, quality control and telecommunication.

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.

Jan Boone

After finishing the mechanical engineering degree in Brussels, Jan Boone started working with MAYEKAWA (MYCOM) since 1979 in heavy duty industrial gas compressors. His experience was built-up as member of most of the company divisions from sales, engineering, production, quality, and service activities with profound interaction with Mayekawa Japan with focus on customer relations and optimised product-operation in the field.

Mayekawa focuses on natural refrigerants. In fact, the company is applying NH₃ since more than 85 years and CO₂ as well as hydrocarbons since more than 40 years.

Juergen Brenneis

Juergen has started at Red Bull in March 2008 as Product Manager Retail within the Global Purchasing Department and since February 2013, Juergen is heading the Global Purchasing Team for Point of Sale Materials. He has implement the ECO Cooler strategy and has successfully driven the phase out of HFC refrigerants since 2008. In his position he is globally responsible for all technical and commercial aspects for the Red Bull Cooler fleet.

Christoph Brouwers

Christoph Brouwers started his professional life with an apprenticeship as refrigeration mechanic. Right after completion his studies he joined the former Linde Kältetechnik – later acquired by Carrier Corporation - in 1992 working as field inspection and commissioning engineer in the field of commercial and industrial refrigeration all over Europe and has come in touch with nearly all types of different refrigeration systems and refrigerants.

After having taken over different management positions in the areas of technical services, installation and project engineering he was in charge of the go to market initiative for deploying Carriers CO₂OLtec technology in food retail applications across Europe. Following his appointment to focus on a more holistic approach combing natural refrigeration, space heating and cooling for best in-class efficiency and sustainability, Christoph is currently in charge of Turnkey Operations responsible for establishing design and execution standards related to types of new technologies on an European scale.

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.

Ezra Clark

Dr Ezra Clark is a Programme Officer in OzonAction, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, which works to assist developing countries & countries with economies in transition (CEITs) to achieve & sustain compliance with the Montreal Protocol. His main work focuses of work are the phase-out of HCFCs and compliance and enforcement issues.

Daniel Colbourne

Dr Daniel Colbourne has done extensive scientific and analytical work on environmental safety and efficiency related aspects of refrigerants and refrigeration systems. He is a member of the UNEP Refrigeration Technical Options Committee (TOC) for the Montreal Protocol as well as a number of European and international standardisation committees. Committed to international cooperation, he played a major role in various demonstration projects supported by the German GIZ.

Emma Coles

Emma Coles oversees Ahold’s Group-wide CR strategy in our five priority areas, which is implemented at operating-company level. She works closely with managers and CR leads at each of Ahold’s operating companies. Emma also coordinates our communications with both internal and external stakeholders.

Before joining Ahold in 2010, Emma was Director of the Health Insurance Fund, a Dutch foundation supporting low-cost health insurance in Africa. Emma has previously worked in both the consulting and non-profit sectors. Emma has an MBA from IESE Business School.

Bas Eickhout

Eickhout studied Chemistry and Environmental Science at the Radboud University in Nijmegen and lives in Utrecht. Since 2000 he worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving). He worked on several projects which had to do with international environmental problems, such as climate change, agriculature, land-use and biofuels. He co-authored the IPCC report on climate change which received the 2007 Nobel Peace Price.

He co-authored the GroenLinks election program for the European elections in 2004, 2009 and 2014, and the Dutch elections in 2010 and 2012.

Bart W. Ezendam

“Only by doing you will be able to create!” is Bart’s message. Bart graduated from the Technical University Delft (TUD) with a Masters in System Engineering, Policy Analysis & Management. Bart has been working for Thermo King, Ingersoll-Rand in many different roles primarily as Logistical Manager responsible for purchasing, logistics, back-office, environment health & safety.

In the last two Years, Bart was heavily involved in setting up the business case for Thermo King’s innovative refrigeration equipment called CryoTech in the Netherlands. This refrigeration machine is based on evaporation of recycled CO₂ in an open loop system. In 2010, Bart’s team won the Ingersoll-Rand President’s Award for implementing the CryoTech solution.

In 2012 Bart was promoted to lead all CryoTech related operations for the region of Europe, Middle-East and Africa. The CryoTech equipment is expected to be the leading green transport refrigeration solution.

Jean-Michel Fleury

As Assets Director for Carrefour group, Jean Michel Fleury carries out strategic projects. Among them, he is in charge of switching over current commercial refrigeration systems using synthetic gas to natural refrigerants. Moreover and according to the sustainable development policy of Carrefour, he leads the objectives regarding increasing energy savings for countries throughout the world where Carrefour operates.

Previously Jean Michel Fleury has been Asia Procurement Director, based 8 years in Shanghai, where he drove sourcing for Asian countries, performing international tenders, and seting up global agreements. Furthermore since sustainable development is at the heart of Carrefour’s strategy, he also tested and set up some new equipments and devices in China which have proven their reliability and contribute to environmental sustainability.

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.

Marion Geiss

Marion has joined the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in 2009. As a federal enterprise, the GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. As part of the GIZ PROKLIMA team, Marion is currently working on projects promoting sustainable refrigeration, cooling and insulation worldwide.

Before that she has worked for two years in the GIZ office in Tunis.
Marion holds two Masters focusing on development cooperation, EU-politics and climate policy. 

Rene van Gerwen

Rene van Gerwen joined Unilever in 2000 where he is responsible for all R & HVAC activities in Unilever, being one of the largest end-users of refrigeration in the world. A major part of his work is related to large industrial refrigeration plants for the production of ice cream, margarines and other chilled/frozen foods, mainly using ammonia as refrigerant, and to plug-in display freezer cabinets for the sales of ice cream. For these cabinets, he developed a global programme for using hydrocarbons as refrigerant. Before joining Unilever, Rene was heading the Department of Refrigeration & Heat Pump Technology in the R&D & Testing Company TNO, where he was working on energy saving, safety, alternative refrigerants & technologies since 1987. Rene has an MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering (Refrigeration & Climate Control) at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

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.

J Michael Griffin

Mike Griffin is a program manager, leading container refrigeration new product development teams for Carrier Transicold. Having joined Carrier Transicold in 1984, he has extensive experience in both design and application of transport refrigeration equipment. In his current role, Mike leads the development of Carrier’s new, natural refrigeration (CO₂) technology for container applications.

Mike earned an MBA from Syracuse University, School of Management, Syracuse, N.Y., and a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.

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.

John Gummer

The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben was the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food between 1989 and 1993 and was the longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment the UK has ever had. His sixteen years of top-level ministerial experience also include Minster for London, Employment Minister and Paymaster General in HM Treasury. He has consistently championed an identity between environmental concerns and business sense.

To that end, he set up and now runs Sancroft, a Corporate Responsibility consultancy working with blue-chip companies around the world on environmental, social and ethical issues. Lord Deben is Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, Valpak Limited, the Association of Independent Financial Advisors and Veolia Water UK Limited. In December 2005 David Cameron appointed him Chairman of the Quality of Life Commission and he continues this work in the House of Lords today.

Philippe H. Heymans

Philippe H. Heymans is Vice-President for Sustainability for Delhaize Europe, part of Delhaize Group.

Delhaize Group is a Belgian international food retailer present in eleven countries on three continents. At the end of the second quarter of 2012, Delhaize Group’s sales network consisted of 3 365 stores. At the end of June 2012, Delhaize Group employed approximately 158 000 people.

Prior to joining Delhaize Europe, Philippe H. Heymans held various positions at Delhaize Belgium and was among those Vice-President for Store Design, Technical Department, Indirect Procurement and Environment. He holds a civil engineer degree in architecture from Faculté Polytechnique, Mons Belgium. 

Torben M. Hansen

Torben M. Hansen has worked with refrigeration during his entire professional career. Among the merits is an ASHRAE research project as well as more than 30 published international papers on refrigeration and former CDIG board membership. He is the Director and Cofounder of ADVANSOR A/S, a manufacturer of CO₂ refrigeration and heat pump technology. Since November 2011, Advansor was acquired by Hill Phoenix (US) and Torben Hansen is thrilled with the new commitments in making CO₂ a global commercial technology.

Connie Hedegaard

Born in 1960, Connie Hedegaard had already been working with climate issues for several years by the time she began her appointment as the EU's first ever Commissioner for Climate Action in February 2010.

In August 2004 she was appointed as Danish Minister for the Environment. In 2007 she was in charge of setting up the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy, where one of the main tasks was to prepare the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Besides her political career, Connie Hedegaard has had a long career in journalism. Apart from working as a politician and journalist, Connie Hedegaard has sat on a number of committees and boards, including chairing the Centre for Cultural Cooperation with Developing Countries (CKU) and as a member of the board of the Danish Parliament's Democracy Foundation.

Jan Hinrichs

Jan Hinrichs started his carrier at ixetic in 1996 as mechanical engineer developing R744 compressors for mobile applications. After this development was stopped in 2008, he was responsible for the design and validation of these compressors for some years. Then in 2009, Hinrichs took over responsibility for the Advanced Development department. The compressor development for natural refrigerants is one of the main activities in this department.

Blaise Horisberger

Blaise Horisberger is a policy advisor at the Federal Office for the Environment. For the last twenty years he has been responsible for the issues of ozone depleting substances and fluorinated greenhouse gases. He has lead the Swiss delegation at several Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol and at the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. His main focus is on development and implementation of regulations at domestic and international levels.

Blaise Horisberger obtained his degree in biology at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1981. After a few years dedicated to biochemical research in the biotechnology department of LONZA, Switzerland, he complemented his studies by a postgraduate certificate in environmental science at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland and by courses in environmental law and public administration at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration.

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.

Matti Kuivalainen

Matti Kuivalainen was named as President of Carrier Commercial Refregiration, Europe in October 1^st 2011. In his role he has general management responsibility for several manufacturing plants as well as European wide sales and service operations.

He began his career in United Technologies Corporation in 2008 as General Manager for commercial refrigeration businesses in Central and Eastern Europe. After successful reorganization of the regional business he gradually received additional management responsibilities. Prior his appointment to the current role he served as Director, Food Retail Distribution, Europe.

Before joining United Technologies Corporation Matti Kuivalainen spent more than 15 years in a variety of positions with Honeywell International Inc. His last position was General Manager, Honeywell Building Solutions, Northern and Eastern Europe.

Knut Lutnæs

As environmental manager since 2000 at the cooperative retailer Coop Norway, Knut Lutnæs is responsible for Coop Norway’s CSR activities, including sustainability issues as energy savings and –efficiency, waste management, ecolabelling and organic products. Knut Lutnæs is Leader of the board at Ethcial Trading Initiative, Norway, and represents Coop Norway at EuroCoop’s Sustainability Working Group.

Knut Lutnæs holds a Master in Resource and Development Economics from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, included an internship at Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia as a part of his Master Thesis in development economics.

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.

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.

Ugo Miretti

Ugo Miretti is policy officer in the European Commission at DG Enterprise, in the Sustainable Industrial Policy and Construction Unit. He deals, inter alia, with the coming Ecodesign Regulation on professional refrigeration products implementing the Ecodesign Directive.

Before joining the Commission, he had a diverse career, embracing the private sector (real estate), finance (investment consultant and portfolio manager) and academia (university teacher).

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.

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.

Andy Pearson

Andy Pearson graduated from Strathclyde University with bachelors degrees in Engineering and Manufacturing Science in 1986, and returned there to complete a PhD thesis on the use of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant in 2005.

Dr Pearson is the President of the Institute of Refrigeration (IoR) for the period 2010 - 2013. He served a six-year term as a Director of the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration (IIAR) and recently edited the guide book “Ammonia as a refrigerant” and the soon-to-be-published "Carbon Dioxide as a refrigerant" on behalf of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR). He currently serves as a member of the refrigeration safety committees of the British Standards Institute, the European Standards Commission and the International Standards Organisation. He is a lead author for the United Nations Environment Program’s Refrigerant Technical Options Committee.

Dave Pearson

In 2004, as a Director at Starfrost Spiral freezers, Dave Pearson's work was commenced to use ammonia in a packaged LPR system to minimise the charge and utilise reverse cycle defrost. This is now the standard offering for spiral freezers and is achieved without any control valves inside the factory or freezer. Recently he was involved in the supply of the world’s first Transcritical CO₂ system for a spiral freezer.

As Director of Innovation for Star Refrigeration things have “hotted up” for Pearson as he has spent much of the last 3 years working to maximise the opportunity for ammonia heatpumps in district heating and process applications using “single screw” compressors.

Pearson is a dual graduate of the University of Strathclyde, first in Mechanical Engineering then from the MBA course. These support his passion that “Ideas” are nothing until they are implemented and earn profit- that is real Innovation. Natural refrigerants are a key part of proven and viable operational and financial improvements in most businesses.

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.

Arne Richters

Arne Richters is a seasoned regulatory affairs specialist with 13 year of experience. He started his professional career as a transport policy advisor in the European Parliament, then worked five years with Toyota's External Affairs department in Brussels, before joining T&E in 2010 to lead the organisation's programme on cars and CO₂.

As of March 2012, Arne Richters is the Head of Government affairs at shecco.

Samer Sawalha

Received PhD degree from KTH in 2008 in the subject of CO₂ in Supermarket Refrigeration. Since then worked in several research projects in cooperation with the industry dealing with field measurements and evaluations of different system solutions for supermarket refrigeration.
The research work is usually done through a consortium of companies in the field and co-financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. The research tools includes computer simulation modeling, experimental investigation in the laboratory and field measurements.

Christian Schmälzle

Christian Schmälzle joined Obrist Engineering in 1999 and started as Testing and Development Engineer for R744 compressors. Various development projects were run at Obrist Engineering with Christian as Project Leader since than with focus on sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies incl. R744 components, mobile and stationary applications. Development focus in recent years for R744 have been stationary compressors.

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.

Lothar Serwas

Lothar Serwas started his professional life with an apprenticeship as Instrument Mechanic. After completion his studies he joined the former Linde Kältetechnik – later acquired by Carrier Corporation - in 1995 working as Application Engineer in the field of commercial refrigeration in the international sales department and has come in touch with many types of different food retail applications.

After having taken over different management positions in the areas of project engineering and sales he has been appointed as Manager CO₂OLtec Sales focussing on transcritical CO₂ turnkey solutions for all types of Food Retail shop formats.

John Skelton

John Skelton joined Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Limited as an apprentice in 1984. He has spent his career in retail refrigeration working for and on behalf of various UK food retailers. He has been instrumental in reducing Sainsbury’s carbon footprint and the step change to CO2 refrigeration. John has delivered CO₂ in over 160 stores and continues to champion the switch to natural refrigerant solutions.

John Skelton is currently Chairman of the British Retail Refrigeration Association End User Group and sits on both the Institute of Refrigeration’s Executive Council and its Technical Committee. 

Bente Tranholm-Schwarz

Since 2010 Bente Tranholm Schwarz is deputy Head of Unit in DG Climate Action in the European Commission responsible for, inter alia, protecting the ozone layer and the climate system against adverse effects of ozone depleting substances and fluorinated gases.

From 2004 to 2009 she was in charge of State aid policy development in DG Competition where she also worked as a national expert between 1996 and 1999. Before she joined the European Commission she worked for the Danish Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs.

She began her career in 1994 and from 1999-2001 she was the Assistant to the State Secretary. Between 2001 and 2004 she was posted as Industry and Maritime Counsellor at the Danish Permanent Representation to the European Union.

Sonja van Renssen

Sonja is a freelance climate, energy and environment journalist who writes for publications such as European Energy Review, Nature Climate Change, Environmental Finance, ENDS Europe and European Voice. She also hosts interviews and gives media training for Internet-based TV channel viEUws.eu. Prior to freelancing, Sonja was lead climate/carbon correspondent for EU environment policy news and analysis service ENDS Europe for four years.

Andrea Voigt

Andrea Voigt was appointed Director General of EPEE, the voice of the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump industry in Europe, in 2009. Headquartered in Brussels, EPEE currently represents 48 companies as well as national and international associations from Europe, Asia and North America.

Under Voigt’s leadership, EPEE has become one of the leading associations of the HVACR sector on a global level. EPEE is a member / supporter of major European and international initiatives such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), ICARHMA (International Council of Air-conditioning, Refrigeration, Heating Manufacturers Associations) and the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR). It is also partnering with UN Environment on several projects.

Voigt’s experience in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry spans over two decades. She is a member of ASHRAE, the German engineers’ society DKV and a Board member of the EU Coalition for Energy Savings, a leading cross-sectoral association advocating for a stronger focus on energy efficiency in the EU. A German national, she is fluent in English and French, holding degrees in public administration (MPA), applied linguistic science (MA) and marketing.

Georg Weinhofer

Since September 2009, Georg Weinhofer is head of the specialist department Energy/CO₂ at Coop Switzerland. Hence he is responsible for the realization, coordination, and communication of Coop's vision “CO₂-neutral by 2023”.

Before joining Coop he was working as a research assistant at the Chair for Sustainability and Technology of ETH Zurich where he obtained a Ph.D. with a thesis on corporate mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

Georg Weinhofer holds a bachelor and master diploma in industrial engineering and management from Graz University of Technology, Austria, with focus on energy and environmental technology.