Speakers

Mr Jan Dusík has spent his entire career in the environmental and climate policy and law. He worked at the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic for 12 years, including as the Minister of Environment in 2009-2010. In 2011, Mr Dusík became the Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and was subsequently appointed as UNEP’s Regional Director for Europe, followed by serving as UNEP’s Principal Adviser on Strategic Engagement for the Arctic and Antarctic. In 2020, he joined the WWF Global Arctic Programme, leading the work on Arctic Sustainable Development and Governance. In 2022-2024, he held the position of the Czech Government Envoy for International Climate Negotiations. In September 2024, he was appointed Deputy Director-General in DG Climate Action of the European Commission.

Mr Dusík holds a doctorate in law from Charles University in Prague and a Master of Science degree from the University of Oxford (Environmental Change Institute).

Dennis Hesseling currently serves as the Head of the Gas and Coal Markets Division at the International Energy Agency (IEA), taking up duties in July 2023. In this capacity, he leads the division with a focus on market analysis, security of supply and policy advice.

From December 2012 to June 2023, Mr. Hesseling was the Head of the Infrastructure, Gas & Retail Department at the EU Agency for the Co-operation of Energy Regulators (ACER). During his tenure at ACER, he directed its activities in the areas of energy infrastructure, gas markets and energy retail and also represented the Agency at the Energy Community Regulatory Board. Before working at ACER, he served as the Head of Unit in the Competition Department of the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa/ACM) from 2006 to 2012 managing merger control and antitrust enforcement in the Dutch energy, telecommunications and media sectors. From 2002 to 2005, he worked for the Dutch energy regulator with a particular focus on gas market regulation. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in Brussels, where he provided strategic and operational advice to postal companies and banks.

Mr. Hesseling, a Dutch national, holds a PhD in Mathematics from Utrecht University, Netherlands; he also received additional training from McKinsey & Company, the IMD Business School in Lausanne, IESE Business School in Barcelona, as well as from the Dutch Programme for Prospective Top Civil Servants.

In his international consultancy work, Mr. Hesseling has trained energy regulators and competition authorities in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey and Vietnam. He has also provided advisory services to political parties in various African countries as part of democracy development programmes.

Razvan POPESCU holds a Master in Sciences (Msc Investment Management) at Bayes Business School London and is PhD student in Economy at Bucharest University of Economic Studies.

He started his career in 2007 working for 9 years in one of the most precious Romanian financial institutions – the Romanian National Bank as Portfolio Manager, responsible with managing the foreign exchange reserve.

Mr. Popescu is member of the Oil and Gas Employer’s Federation (FPPG) Directorate and representative member of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), the international oil industry forum. As of August 2022, Mr. Popescu is Chief Executive Officer of the largest natural gas producer in Romania – S.N.G.N. Romgaz S.A., after acting for two years as Chief Financial Officer.

He financially coordinated the most important transaction in the history of the Romanian energy sector for the last 30 years, namely purchase of Exxon participating interest in Neptun Deep block in the Black Sea and its financing. ROMGAZ was awarded for the first time the ‘BBB-‘ rating with a stable outlook by the financial rating agency Fitch in the context of the bond issue for financing Neptun Deep project.

Cosmin Ghita is a graduate of Bates College of the United States, with specialization in international political economics. He started his career in the USA, with Chevron, Washington, contributing then to the company’s efforts in Romania. During the period 2015-2017, he was a partner in the private investment fund in energy Amerocap, headquartered in New York, supporting transactions and efforts for attracting capital in the field of energy and mineral resources, in Romania, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. He then held the position of advisers of the Prime Minister of Romania on issues of energy security and energy policy. Since September 2017, he has been occupying the position of Chief Executive Officer of Nuclearelectrica.

Mr. Cosmin Ghita is the first Romanian elected within the Main Governing Board of World Association of Nuclear Opertors (“WANO”), contributing to the fulfilment of the objectives of this international associations of strengthening nuclear safety and the culture of nuclear safety, with impact on all nuclear power plants in the world. Mr. Ghita is fluent in Romanian, English, Russian and French.

Hrvoje Simovic, PhD, comes to the position of the INA Management Board member in September 2022 from the position of a full-time professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Zagreb, where he has been working since 2003.

Before that, he worked at Croatia banka d.d. In addition to his academic career, Mr. Simovic has extensive experience in various consulting jobs in the field of fiscal sustainability of the public sector, assessment of the fiscal effects of reforms and public policies, tax consulting and strategic planning in the public sector.

He worked as a consultant for a number of professional organizations in the private sector, as well as for international institutions and consulting companies in the public sector and public companies. He was an advisor and/or member of numerous working groups of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Health.

Jose de Barros is the Chief Decarbonization Officer for Lummus Technology. He most recently was the Vice President and Managing Director of the Ethylene Business Group within Lummus Technology. Jose managed the technical and commercial aspects of the Ethylene Business Group, which includes several key technologies for producing olefins such Steam Cracking, Olefins Conversion Technology, Methanol to Olefins and Butene-1 and Hexene-1 co-monomer production technologies.

Jose has more than 35 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Lummus Technology in 1992, Jose worked in process and operations at Braskem ethylene plants in the Camacari Petrochemicals complex, Brazil for 6 years. Since joining Lummus Technology, Jose has held different positions in the Ethylene Business Group, including Process Design Manager, Director Olefins Technology and Director Business Development. Additionally, Jose led the newly formed Process and Engineering group for Lummus Petrochemicals overseeing the Process Engineering and Mechanical Design groups in both USA and India.

He holds a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering Process Design from Manhattan College, NY and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from UFPE, Brazil. Jose is also fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and French.

Barbora is leading MOL Group Downstream technology development team dedicated to preparing development projects for 4 downstream production sites – MOL refinery, MOL Petrochemicals, Slovnaft refinery&Petchem, INA refinery.

Her focus is on energy efficiency, decarbonization, and sustainability in alignment with the MOL group’s strategic goals. Main areas of her current work are electrification, energy efficiency, introduction of alternative fuels, waste utilization&recycling.

Barbora graduated as a mechanical engineer at Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. She started her career as an engineer at Slovnaft in the maintenance department. In her 13 years of experience she held various leadership positions in the field of maintenance, company transformation and technology development.

George Agafiței leads the Regulatory and Institutional Affairs Department, after previously having held the position of Director of Sustainability and Institutional Affairs within the company (October 2023 – October 2024).

He started his career in the private sector and has worked in the public sector for the past 11 years.

Since 2016, he held various high-level positions in the Romanian government, including personal advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy, advisor to the Minister of National Defense, and state advisor for the energy sector at the Prime Minister’s Office.

George Agafiței graduated from the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations of SNSPA and obtained a master’s degree from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest. He completed his training in a number of courses, which earned him certificates in various fields of activity.