Solarplaza Summit | Balkans

Rositsa Chopeva is partner in xFigure Finance, a corporate finance practice focused on M&A, project finance and capital raising for RES projects and companies. Rositsa holds bachelor degree in International Finance from the University of Portsmouth, UK and has more than 17 years’ experience in the financial sector. Her background includes roles in project financing for UniCredit Group, investment manager of the largest food holding in Bulgaria, M&A advisor and more. As Rositsa has been working in the RES sector in Bulgaria since 2011, she is passionate about providing sustainable financing solutions and working towards the stable growth of the renewable energy sector in Bulgaria.

Panos has been at Aurora since June 2019. He is leading the research activities of Aurora’s Southeastern Europe Power and Renewables market services, including Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. Panos was one of the key people that developed Aurora’s modelling capabilities across Southeastern Europe. In his time at Aurora, he has previously led the analysis of multiple projects modelling net zero scenarios for the UK but also globally. For the past 2 years, he has developed Aurora’s offering in Southeastern Europe.

Nela Vlahinić Lenz is the founder and president of XEnergy - Empowering Women in Energy Transition, an association of experts working for the empowerment and visibility of women in the energy industry and the promotion of renewable energy, innovative and low-carbon technologies and green finance. Nela Vlahinić Lenz is a full professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Rijeka and the founder and director of the postgraduate MBA program in Energy Economics. By combining this MBA and XEnergy, she has created a broad networking platform that connects all key players in the energy sector in Croatia - from energy regulators, power grid and market operators to leading energy companies.

Tina Jakaša has more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry and has had a distinguished career in leadership positions in utility activities. She was the director of HEP -Opskrba in 2012-2019, during the period of market liberalization and major changes in the electricity market. During her mandate, HEP -Opskrba introduced numerous innovations - from a unique application enabling large customers to access the electricity market to independent management of electricity procurement. During this time, she managed to considerably increase market share in the Slovenian and Serbian supply markets. Today, Tina Jakaša works on energy product development at Petrol Group on the Croatian and Slovenian markets. She has extensive understanding and experience with PPA contracts and new, customer-oriented market models.

As the Head of PPA at DTEK Renewables International, Joffroy Beckers is responsible for managing the renewable energy assets of the largest private energy company in Ukraine. With over 15 years of experience in the energy sector, he has developed a strong expertise in power purchase agreements, commodity markets, procurement, and deal structuring. Joffroy is passionate about energizing our communities with clean and sustainable energy, and strives to create value for stakeholders and partners. He has successfully closed multiple PPA transactions, supported the development of new origination products and services, and stayed up to date with energy regulations in EMEA. Joffroy graduated with a Master in Commercial Engineering and a Master in Financial Risk Management.

Director of Master Department and Lecturer in Business and Public Law, Tirana Business University (TBU) and Adviser in Energy Policy & Law, Regulation and Infrastructure high-level projects in Albania. The leading professional activities include academic teaching, applied research, strategic consulting, and institutional capacity building. The work focuses on the EU legal framework in Albania and the public policies related to industry and interest groups, international institutions and public authorities. The main activities have been focused on promoting issues related to sustainable growth in Albania as part of the EU integration process within the regional integration of the Western Balkan countries. Higher education is fully attended in Italy, France, Germany, etc. In continuation, he has worked as a researcher, professor, and trainer in various national and international environments. He has been engaged as a legal advisor and consultant to foreign and local companies, public authorities, and international organizations. The activities have been accompanied by the publication of an extensive bibliography, mass-media appearances and participation as a key speaker in many international conferences on the legal and political framework of the EU in Albania, mainly in the energy policy, business field, public policies, etc.

Jiří Bím was born in Mladá Boleslav. He finished FEE CTU with Bc. in 2017 in Electrotechnics, energetics and management study program. In 2020 he finished his Masters degree in the study program Management of energetics. Since 2021 he is PhD. student and researcher at CTU and studying topic Economics aspect of RES. He has focused on agrivoltaics and is also active in establishing legislation for agrivoltaics. From 2022 he is the Head of agrivoltaics section in Czech Solar association.

Queen Mary, University of London and King's College London graduate, after post-graduate course at the Sorbonne, Elena began her career as a business analyst at American Express (UK). Before starting the "Evklips Energy" adventure, Elenagained valuable experience at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she worked as a financial analyst. The dream of a "greener future" becomes a driving force for the transition from large corporations towards the establish of company. To date, Evklips Energy is among the leaders in the construction of photovoltaic plants throughout Europe. In the last 6 years, the company has over 1 gigawatt of installed capacity. Evklips Energy is the investor and owner of 4 solar power plants in Bulgaria (18 MWp). With a team of over 250 professionals, Evklips Energy also offers full EPC services in Bulgaria.

Victor Signes is a Senior Analyst in Rystad Energy's Renewables & Power Research team. He focuses on the wind, solar PV, storage and green hydrogen markets in Europe. His role is to cover market developments and analyze the future evolution of renewable energy. He covers project development in Europe, policies, power markets and economics. He has extensive experience in analyzing the impacts of policies on the market, economic modeling of renewable energy projects, and long-term scenario analysis. Prior to joining Rystad Energy, Victor was an economics research analyst at EDF, focusing on the renewable energy and nuclear markets. He holds a Master's degree in Engineering from IMT Atlantique as well as a Master's degree in Energy economics from the IFP School.

Mr.Shala’s areas of expertise include the the general management, managing of the capital projects, designing, engineering, supervision, commissioning and putting into operation of them, green field development of the Renewable Energy Sources, coordination engineering feasibility studies, preparing design basis scoping papers, evaluating feedstock supply opportunities for proposed electrical facilities, reviewing project specifications to insure economic design and conformation with engineering and safety standards. He has excellent experience on preparation and evaluation of the tenders of KfW, EBRD, WB, EC. Historical achievements under the leadership of Mr. Shala include: Establishment of Control Block Kosovo – Albania, 26.11.2019; New Connection Agreement between KOSTT – ENTSO-E, 30.06.2020; Entering into force the New Connection Agreement between KOSTT – ENTSO-E, 29.09.2020; Establishment of Albanian Power Exchange (ALPEX), 05.10.2020.

Dusan has been working at the Montenegrin electricity transmission system from 2015 to 2017, and since 2017 at the Montenegrin electricity market operator - becoming the head of the department of Renwable Energy Sources since October 1st. He holds a Master of electrical engineering in the field of transmission and distribution power systems and renewable energy sources and published numerous papers on this topic.

Iva Draganovska, have more than 17 years of extensive experience in the renewable energy sector, specifically in specifically in solar power and small hydroelectric projects. She currently serves as the Commercial Manager and Head of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) at Solarpro Holding Pls., where she has been instrumental in driving the company's success for over five years. Her career journey also includes a significant tenure in renewable energy portfolio management focusing on the development and operation, energy trading, planning, coordinating power plant maintenance activities. She holds a PhD in engineering from the Technical University of Sofia, further strengthening her knowledge and expertise in the field. Her academic journey also includes a master's degree in Electrical, Electronics, and Automation Engineering from the same institution. Iva Draganovska's career highlights her dedication to the renewable energy sector, and her commitment to achieving sustainable and efficient energy production.

Mr.Krasen Mateev holds a bachelor degree in Electrical Power Engineering and master degree in Renewable energy from Technical University of Sofia. He had more than 9 years practical experience in design, installation and commissioning of photovoltaic power plants, monitoring systems and service of inverters. <br>He had successfully conducted more than 120 projects related to PV installations, energy storage and power management. During the past years Krasen was involved in some of the R&D related to product development of innovative concepts in the field of direct using of PV energy – MPPT DC/DC converter which allows direct supplying the DC Grid of public electrical transport with PV energy, a DC/DC power electronics for water heating, power electronics for battery management systems, energy storage systems and EV charging stations.<br>Currently Krasen is Managing Director of Solarpro Holding, where he is fully supporting development of all business lines within the group related to EPC and O&M of PV power plants as well as energy storage systems, EPC and O&M services for charging stations for EV and all actual R&D projects within the Holding.

After graduation in Electronic Engineering in Italy at Bologna University, Lorenzo Paumgardhen starts his career in the telecom industry as pre-sales engineer for micro-wave systems, then moved to energy efficiency market as sales manager for power quality system manufacturer. Since 2018 is actively working in renewable sector, covering sales positions in multinational manufacturing companies with strong focus on power conversion and storage technologies.

Mr. Sideris works as Country Manager in Greece and as Reference Manager Bulgaria-Western Balkans at ECONERGY Renewable Energy, while he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Econergy Group/TERNA Energy Joint Venture, aiming to produce 460MW from RES in Greece. In addition, as part of its operations in Greece, Econergy is developing a portfolio of 500 MW PV Parks and 250MW Battery Storage in a total of 10GW across Europe. In the new Hydrogen Economy, the company is developing combined RE technology projects in Greece, including green H2 applications. It also develops international partnerships for the sale of green energy with PPA contracts to major global consumers.

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Marta Zajac is a product management and marketing professional with work experience in international manufacturing companies, with a strong interest in sustainable solutions and decrease of usage of fossil-based fuels. She holds a master’s degree in Modern Marketing Communication from SWPS University as well as a Bachelor degree of Business Administration from Wroclaw University of Economics and Business. Marta is currently a Product Marketing Manager at Trina Solar for the Central & Eastern Europe markets, focused on discovering market trends and supporting the launch of solar solutions.

Mariyana is currently serving as Policy Director at the Association for production, storage and trading with electricity (APSTE) while also leading the business development team at engineering consultancy Renergy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has more than 12 years of experience in various leadership roles within business development and investment market research for wind, solar and energy storage projects. Mariyana is now focusing on developing strategies for greater integration of renewable energy into the electricity mix, including skill trainings for the solar PV industry, corporate sourcing of renewable energy and flexibility solutions such as storage, demand response and smart grids.

Svetlin Pislenski is a banker and investment professional with over 20 years of experience in Banking, Private Equity, Financial Services and Audit, as well as general company management and supervision. Svetlin is an Associate Director and Senior Banker at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and is responsible for the structuring and execution of debt and equity investments in the energy, manufacturing and natural resources sectors for EBRD. Svetlin has experience as an investment manager in the field of private equity. Prior to that, he was part of the external and internal audit functions of key European financial institutions in London. He holds an ACA qualification from ICAEW UK as well as an MSc in Macroeconomics from Sofia University 'St. Kliment Ohridski'.

Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov DSc, is a full professor at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies (FEEIT), University Ss Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, N. Macedonia, where he received B.Sc. (1993), M.Sc. (1997) and Ph.D. (2009) degrees. He is a Head of Solar Energy Laboratory at FEEIT. His research and application activities are focused on planning, designing, developing, construction, supervision and operation & maintenance of photovoltaic plants.

Associate, Professor and Lawyer Dr. Nikolay Kolev has 16+ years of experience in Company Law, M&A, Commercial Litigation and Arbitration, Restructuring & Insolvency. He has a strong academic record as Associate Professor in Commercial and Company Law, author of 3 monographies and more than 70 articles in Bulgarian and foreign legal periodicals, including unique commentaries of the case law of the Supreme Cassation Court in the field of company law (912 pages, published in 2021).

Originally from Brazil, Lorena Nieuwenhoven completed a double major degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2019. She then deep-dived into the area of renewables and sustainability, helping expand the penetration of solar energy in the Iberian markets through her work as a Project Manager for Solarplaza. Apart from her work in the Spanish and Portuguese markets, Lorena has also spearheaded topical conferences related to Green Hydrogen and Hybrid Renewables.