21st EU BC&E Executive Committee

Anders Eldrup is a Danish business leader who for years has been a central figure in Danish politics and business and will bring the perspective of a strong industrialist to the conference. Under his leadership, DONG Energy has turned into a world leader in renewable energy, with wind mill parks, conversion of fossil-based power plants to biomass and demonstration of cellulosic fuel ethanol production. Before heading DONG Energy, Anders Eldrup was Permanent Secretary in the Denmark’s Ministry of Finance for 10 years. Anders Eldrup is deeply committed to the greening of our economies and the development and commercialisation of sustainable new energy technologies.

Anders Eldrup chairs the Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster and is a member of the board of among other the Technical University of Denmark, Offshore Centre Denmark, and the Rockwool Foundation.

David Baxter is a member of the Cleaner Energies Unit in the Institute for Energy & Transport of the Joint Research Centre (European Commission, Petten, Netherlands). He is part of a team providing scientific and technical support to the development and maintenance of sustainability schemes for biomass and bioenergy, including biofuels. In addition, he is a member of the European Bioenergy Industrial Initiative (EIBI) team which is operated within the frame of the Strategic Energy Technologies (SET) Plan. He is also the leader of the International Energy Agency Bioenergy Biogas Task 37, promoting economically and environmentally sustainable management of biogas production and utilisation from agricultural residues, energy crops and municipal wastes.

David Baxter is a materials engineer who joined the European Commission Joint Research Centre in 1991 after working in an industrial company supplying components for power generation and transport.

From 2010 he has been involved in the Programme Coordination of the prestigious series of European Biomass Conferences.

Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink, born in 1951, has a PhD in Nuclear Physics from Hahn Meitner Institute, Berlin and joined the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in 1982. He built up the JRC's activity on Photovoltaics when Europe started its research and pilot programme for Photovoltaic systems. In 1995 he became Head of the Unit for Renewable Energy, and expanded research and support activities to Energy Efficiency and Bio-Energy, notably Biofuels. His work is dedicated to the scientific support of EU legislation for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency. More  recently, he is developing the unit's portfolio to support Africa's efforts for a renewable energy supply.

Since 1982 he is contributing to the standards work of the IEC TC82, Solar Photovoltaic Systems, in particular regarding calibration of reference cells and lifetime testing of PV modules. His many publications cover measurement and testing methods for photovoltaic generators, economic assessment of renewable energy and global environmental impacts of extended bio-fuel use.

From 1995 he has been serving as Programme Chair of the prestigious series of European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conferences and in 2005 he commenced and still continues his term assisting the Programme Chair of the prestigious series of European Biomass Conferences.

He lives on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy where he practices sailing and skiing, and is deeply interested in global sustainability issues.

Kyriakos Maniatis is Principal Administrator in Unit C2 - Directorate General for Energy, European Commission. He is responsible for technical issues related to biofuels and manages the DG ENER demonstration component on advanced biofuels in the Commission's the 7th Framework Programme. He contributes accordingly to the legislative actions of the EC and to the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative of the SET Plan and he is involved in the CEN standardisation work on liquid and gaseous biofuels.

He coordinates the team that launched in June 2011 the Biofuels FlightPath for Aviation in close coordination with the aviation and biofuels sectors. Kyriakos also represents the European Commission in the Executive Committee of IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement and served as the ExCo Chairman in 2002, 2005-2007. He regularly organizes workshops and conferences on these subjects.

Wim Van Swaaij studied Chemical Engineering Sciences and obtained his PhD at the Technical University in Eindhoven The Netherlands. From 1965 to 1972 he worked for Shell Research BV for two years in Nancy ( ENSIC)  but mainly in Amsterdam, on fluidization, reaction engineering and process development. His last position was section leader gasification processes. In 1972 he became full professor of Chemical Engineering Sciences and later of Biomass at the University of Twente where he (co-) authored over 500 scientific papers, several handbooks and was promotor of 60 Ph.D. students. From 1992 till 2002 he was scientific director of the Dutch National Graduate School on Process Technology (OSPT) and of the Process Technology Institute Twente (PIT). He is/was consultant for several multinational firms: AKZO, DSM, Unilever, Shell, Solvay Duphar, TNO, BASF, Cortis-Dow.

Van Swaaij is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) and received several prices and rewards for his scientific work, like the “Grand Prix du Génie des Procédés” of the French Academic of Sciences (1996), doctor honoris causa by the Université de Nancy (1996), the Royal Dutch Shell Prize (2004) and the Golden Tesla medal for energy research (1999).

Angela Grassi is ETA-Florence Managing Director. Project management based on Economics and Political Science background and experience. Over 20 years organisation and management of high level international Conferences and Exhibitions in the field of Renewable Energies. Executive Committee Member of international conferences. Since 2000 organisation and management of the annual European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. Coordinator of international projects on renewable energies. Responsibilities include project definition, setting up of international teams, guidance and follow-up of project work, reporting, budgeting, project results assessment and dissemination of results. Author and co-author of papers published in proceedings of national and international conferences; contributions to specialised books. Preparation of final project reports for the European Commission. Managing editor of brochures, publications, scientific proceedings.

Peter Helm is scientific Director at WIP-Renewable Energies, Munich, Germany. His focus is on techno- economic and strategy related networking in the field of renewable energies. Peter Helm is organizer and co-organizer of international conferences and exhibitions that are addressing the wide field of energy, energy efficiency, energy economy.

Peter Helm studied mechanical and processing engineering and obtained his degree at the Technical University of Munich. He added a postgraduate university study in Economics and Business Administration and obtained his PhD. He started his career as scientist at the international Battelle Institute for applied research / Frankfurt / Geneva / Aberdeen / Richland (Washington). Peter Helm performed project leadership for the GTZ / German Agency for technical cooperation in the framework of emerging countries projects. He was project officer for KfW, the German Bank for Reconstruction, for projects in Africa and Latin America. He coordinated national technical projects on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology and the Federal Ministry for Economic cooperation. Peter Helm acts as contracted expert providing scientific and project monitoring assistance to international organisations.