Speakers

Career history:

Areas of expertise:

Energy and climate policy

Career history:

Sumant Sinha is the Founder Chairman and CEO of ReNew Power, one of India’s largest clean energy companies. Prior to ReNew Power, Sumant held top management positions at some of India’s largest business groups. He was the CFO of the Aditya Birla Group for six years, and more recently the Chief Operating Officer of Suzlon Energy Ltd., world's fifth largest wind turbine company. Prior to this, as an investment banker in London and NY, he worked with Citibank and ING Barings. At ING Barings, he was the managing director for the firm’s debt business in Latin America. During his ten year investment banking career, he advised corporates and sovereigns in emerging markets across the globe with respect to their financing strategies in international and local capital markets. Sumant holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs, MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Areas of expertise:

Sumant is a passionate advocate for solutions to climate change through the intersection of business and public policy. He speaks extensively on global platforms including participation at key panel discussions; some of his noteworthy sessions include the Fortune Brainstorm Green, Boao Forum for Asia, Clean Energy Ministerial and keynote sessions at universities such as Wharton, Harvard and Columbia. Sumant has authored more than a hundred articles on subjects related to India’s economic scenario, entrepreneurship and issues related to climate change and development, in leading publications such as The Economic Times, Business Standard, The Financial Express, Business Today, among others. He has been extensively quoted in leading international media such as The Financial Times, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. Sumant serves as the founder Chairman of the Indian Wind Energy Alliance (IWEA) and Co-Chair, National Renewable Energy Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He is also on the SIPA (School of International Public Affairs) Advisory Board at Columbia University.

Career history:

Mr. Abbo is President and CTO at C3 Energy, which leverages next-generation technologies to enable energy companies to realize the benefits of IoT and system investments. He was SVP at Oracle, responsible for application and SaaS products, and previously, SVP of Technology and CTO at Siebel Systems.

Mr. Abbo earned a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.

Areas of expertise:

Smart grid analytics, big data analytics, modern energy system, cloud solutions, machine learning, Internet of Energy

Career history:

Vaclav Smil does interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy.
He has published 37 books and more than 400 papers on these topics. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy), and the Member of the Order of Canada; he was listed by Foreign Policy among the top 100 global thinkers and in 2015 he received OPEC Award for Research.
He has worked as a consultant for many US, EU and international institutions, has been an invited speaker in about 400 conferences and workshops in the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa, and has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe and East Asia.

Areas of expertise:

• Energy and the environment
• Technical innovation: its history, complexities and risks
• Material flows
• Global food production

Topic of Presentation:

Zero Energy Buildings

Career history:

Amory B. Lovins, a consultant physicist and innovator in energy and its links with resources, security, development, and environment, has advised the energy and other industries for four decades as well as the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense. His work in 50+ countries has been recognized by the “Alternative Nobel,” Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, 12 honorary doctorates, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Time Hero for the Planet, National Design, and World Technology Awards.A Harvard and Oxford dropout, former Oxford don, honorary U.S. architect, and Swedish engineering academician, he has briefed 23 heads of state and written 31 books and over 530 papers. Cofounder of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org)—an independent, nonprofit think-and-do tank that drives the efficient and restorative use of resources—his work as its Chief Scientist has lately included leading the superefficient redesigns of scores of buildings, several vehicles, and 140+ billion worth of industrial facilities in 29 sectors. He led the creation of two of RMI’s five for-profit spinoffs: E Source, www.esource.com, and Fiberforge,www.fiberforge.com, which he chaired until 2007. His latest books with various coauthors include Natural Capitalism (www.natcap.org), Small Is Profitable (www.smallisprofitable.org), Winning the Oil Endgame (www.oilendgame.com), The Essential Amory Lovins, and Reinventing Fire (www.reinventingfire.com). The most recent of his visiting posts in ten universities were as 2007 MAP/Ming Professor in Stanford University’s School of Engineering (www.rmi.org/stanford) and as Professor of Practice at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a member of the Advisory Board to the Chief of Naval Operations and of the U.S. National Petroleum Council. In 2009, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers.

Areas of expertise:

Areas of expertise include energy efficiency, integrative design, transportation, alternative fuels, the electricity sector, distributed generation, industrial efficiency, and the oil industry, among others.

Career history:

Peter Robinson is President and CEO of the United States Council for International Business, a partner organization of the Major Economies Business Forum (BizMEF) and the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce, International Organization of Employers, and Business and industry Advisory Committee to OECD. A leading business advocate for private sector innovation and investment in international markets, he is an appointee to the President’s Committee of the International Labor Organization as well as to the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee (TEPAC) to the United States Trade Representative. He has represented US business at four of the UNFCCC COPs since Copenhagen, and will do so again in Paris at COP21.

Career history:

Takehiko Nakao is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors.
In a career spanning more than three decades, Mr. Nakao has gained extensive experience in international finance and development. He has held senior positions in the Ministry of Finance in Japan, which he joined in 1978, including Director-General of the International Bureau, where he fostered close ties with leading figures in the Asia-Pacific region, and G20 nations.
He was assigned as Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C., between 2005 and 2007, and from 1994 to 1997 served as economist and advisor at the International Monetary Fund.
He has published books and numerous papers on financial and economic issues, and in 2010 and 2011 was a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo.

Areas of expertise:

Finance and Economics