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Susanne Nies

Chair

Susanne Nies

Chair

Susanne Nies is General Manager of Germany, at Smart Wires. Based in Berlin, she is responsible for business development throughout Europe, with a strong focus on Germany. She is a highly respected leader in the European energy industry, bringing with her a vast amount of experience in market strategy, regulatory and policy development and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining Smart Wires, Susanne worked at ENTSO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators) where she led the Strategy, Research and Communication team. Her responsibilities included ensuring broad strategic alignment of European Transmission System Operators (TSOs), leading the regulatory benchmarking of TSOs, developing the TSO-DSO (Distribution System Operator) interaction strategy and managing stakeholder relationships. Susanne has also worked for EURELECTRIC (European power sector association) where she headed the DSOs department, Energy Policy department and Power Generation department; for the French Think Tank IFRI, based in Paris; in French and German universities; and the German Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Email:[email protected]

John Fitzgerald

Vice-Chair

John Fitzgerald

Vice-Chair

John Fitzgerald is the Chief Executive Officer of SuperNode. He has extensive experience of power systems and grid infrastructure. Previously, he was the Director of Grid Development & Interconnection with EirGrid, the Irish TSO, with responsibility for all onshore transmission and the development and operation of Interconnection. Prior to this, John was Project Director of the East West Interconnector, directly connecting the electricity markets of Ireland and Britain for the first time in 2012 with, what was then, the largest HVDC scheme of its kind in the World. Before joining EirGrid, John was involved in the area of business development for ESB International where he held a number of business development management positions in Europe and Asia. John has been involved in the successful development of major energy infrastructure projects and corporate initiatives in the electricity and gas sectors across Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe. A graduate of University College Dublin, he is a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering and holds an MBA from the UCD School of Business.

Email:[email protected]

Frederic Vassort

Vice-Chair

Frederic Vassort

Vice-Chair

Frederic Vassort is the CEO of Ampacimon, which he joined in 2013. With over 25 years’ experience in general management of industrial, innovation-driven companies, he has been particularly active in the Power industry since the early days of his career, starting with Schlumberger (now Itron), and later Electrabel (Engie). He also spent eight years with industrial conglomerate Danaher, where he led several of Danaher’s sensors and controls businesses worldwide. An electrical engineer by training, Frederic also earned an MBA at Insead in France and Singapore. Frederic is a French national with a strong international background, including postings in Asia, Germany, the UK, and now Belgium which he has called home for the past 14 years.

Email:[email protected]

Grace McLoughlin

Regulatory Affairs Director

Grace McLoughlin

Regulatory Affairs Director

Grace McLoughlin works with Smart Wires as a Strategy Analyst. Based in Dublin, she works in the areas of business development, project execution, and regulation. She has a strong interest in energy policy and regulation, believing that it can become an enabler of the energy transition by supporting the use of flexible modular solutions. Grace holds a Bachelor of Commerce International from University College Dublin.

Email:[email protected]

Rena Kuwahata

Technology Director

Rena Kuwahata

Technology Director

Rena Kuwahata is the Business Development Manager at Ampacimon. She has more than 15 years of experience in power grids: modeling, simulating operation and security, designing and carrying out market impact, flexibility and renewables integration impact studies, and reviewing the rules and regulation affecting the operation and planning of power grids. Rena has acquired this experience through working at utilities and advisory companies like the Elia Group, Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Ecofys, and Energynautics.

Email:[email protected]

Marcos Byrne

Renewables Policy Director

Marcos Byrne

Renewables Policy Director

Marcos Byrne is an Energy Market and Policy Analyst at SuperNode. Marcos comes from a background in developing renewable energy with Mainstream Renewable Power, where he gained experience in developing onshore wind, offshore wind, and solar projects. He was further involved in future market trends, researching the adoption of novel processes for wind farm construction and operation, and the development of future electricity scenarios for Europe. Marcos has a background in engineering with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin. He has an interest in researching future trends in the energy industry along with pushing the transition towards clean energy and a sustainable future.

Email:[email protected]

Alex Houghtaling

Member of the Board

Alex Houghtaling

Member of the Board

Alex Houghtaling is the Vice President of Sales at LineVision. He has spent his career helping large commercial organizations and global utilities succeed with demand-side management programs, energy efficiency technology, next-generation energy procurement, and advanced overhead line monitoring. Solving each of those challenges has required the adoption of new technologies and new mindsets, "the twins of innovation," each of which will be a significant factor in currENT's ability to optimise and maximise the use of the existing electric grid.

Email:[email protected]

Mante Bartuseviciute

Student Support

Mante Bartuseviciute

Student Support

Mante Bartuseviciute is working as a student assistant for CurrENT Europe. Currently she is pursuing MBA degree in Energy Management at Technical University of Berlin. With a background of B.A. Political Science at Free University of Berlin, Mante has been working on Energy Policy for several years, including ENTSO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) as well as consultancy work at Eclareon GmbH. Her research interests are sector coupling, decentralised renewable energy, peer-to-peer trading and energy market regulation. In her master thesis Mante is currently focusing on hydrogen integration and policy support schemes.

Email:[email protected]

Mike Ross

Member of the Board

Mike Ross

Member of the Board

Mike Ross is the Managing Director of Superconductor Power Products at AMSC. Mr. Ross has been with the AMSC team for twenty years. He joined AMSC as a Transmission and Distribution Planning Engineer, designing technical solutions and applications for utilities and industry utilizing AMSC Power Electronic and High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) products. Later, he became the Director of AMSC’s FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) Product Line and then the Managing Director of AMSC’s Distribution Power Products. Today he works with electric utilities to find optimized solutions utilizing AMSC’s Superconductor based solutions to ensure that the products are ideally designed for our customers. Prior to joining AMSC, Mr. Ross worked in the transmission planning department for Xcel Energy (formally Northern States Power). Mr. Ross received a BSEE degree from North Dakota State University in 2000 and has performed post graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr. Ross is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Wisconsin and a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers and CIGRE.

Email:[email protected]

Brage Johansen

Member of the Board

Brage Johansen

Member of the Board

Brage W. Johansen is the co-founder and former CEO of electric car charging company Zaptec, the cleantech company Desert Control and currently co-founder and CEO of Heimdall Power. Heimdall Power's vision is to make the powergrid ready for the Green Shift. Johansen is board member of the drone monitoring company KVS Technology, and board member of the Rogaland mobility company Kolumbus. All his projects are passionately cleantech, has global ambitions, and one of his specialities is to transform oil&gas tech and competence into use for sustainable projects.

Email:[email protected]

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