Juan Alario is an Industrial Engineer specialised in "Energy Techniques", Barcelona University, then Doctorate in Economic Sciences, Grenoble University, option Energy Economics. Before joining the European Investment Bank (EIB), Juan Alario worked at the Regional government of Catalonia and afterwards at the EU Commission. He joined the EIB in 1987. Since July 2005, he has been in charge of developing the Bank’s energy strategy, and since 1 April 2007 has been Head of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division.

Mr. Alario made a presentation during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session on the New Financing Opportunities for Cities Tackling Climate Change, with information about the EIB's new EUR0 15 Million Technical Assistance Facility available to cities and other local energy actors for financing energy efficiency and climate mitigation measures.

Mario Alves is a transport and mobility management consultant in Portugal. He has a degree in civil engineering from Lisbon Technical University (IST, 1988) and holds a Master of Science in transport from the UK's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (ICSTM, 1992). He worked as a research fellow at the University of London's Centre for Transport Studies and at the University of Lisbon's Centre for Urban and Regional Systems on regional and local planning of transport infrastructures, environmental impact studies, travel behaviour, transport and parking policies, as well as activity-based modelling. As a transport and mobility management consultant, he was the coordinator of the Mobility Plan of Almada (Portugal) and participated in several European projects related to transport and mobility.

Mr. Alves made a presentation during the ManagEnergy Mobility Workshop.

Marcello Antinucci, Energy Expert, graduated in Applied Physics in 1972 and spent four years in research and educational activities at academic level (University of Bologna and University of Asmara). He was then product manager at Lamborghini Calor SpA, where he became a specialist in solar thermal systems. Since 1981 he became head of laboratory at Conphoebus – ENEL Group, developing national and international studies and experimental research in solar components and systems, energy performance of building components, test methodologies, standardisation, electro-optical materials, participating with relevant responsibilities in several EU research projects. He became then manager, assistant to the managing director, responsible of business development. Among his tasks was the launching and acquisition of EU research projects in different fields, from energy to waste recovery, protection of nature and clean technologies. Since 1999 he has been a consultant, with assignments in the area of sustainable energy, the most important of which is the direction of the Modena Energy and Sustainable Development Agency (AESS). He technically co-ordinated studies for DG Energy and Transport and the European Parliament, with special regard to local actions, transposition of EU legislation and Structural Funds.

Dr. Antinucci was one of the trainers during the ManagEnergy Training for Energy Agency Directors .

Joan Antoni Baron Espinar has been Mayor of the municipality of Mataró since 10 May 2004, when he replaced Manuel Mas who was appointed Member of the Spanish Congress; he was re-elected on 16 June 2007.
     He is at the head of a number of supramunicipal institutions dealing with new technologies, environment and public health system. He is president of the Consortium for Urban Solid Waste Management in the Maresme County, the Public Health Consortium of Mataró and the Digital Consortium Mataró-Maresme. He is also a member of the Administration Council of Localret.
     When he was elected as a mayor he already had ten years of experience as an elected member of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) in the local administration. During this period, he took responsibilities in different areas; between 1995 and 2003 he was president of the Areas of Human Resources and Social Issues, Public Roads and Territorial Services of the Mataró City Council. He was also appointed Delegate President of the Environment Area in the Barcelona Provincial Council on 19 July 2007. At the 8th Meeting of the “Catalan Network of Cities and Towns towards Sustainability” on 31 January 2008 he was elected President of this association.
     Mr. Baron Espinar has a degree in Biology, specialized in Botany, from the University of Barcelona. He started teaching in a public school in Mataró where he was Director and Head of Studies.

Mr. Baron Espinar made a presentation during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session on the Experience of Barcelona Provincial Council with supporting local actors.

Paolo Bertoldi gained his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 1985 from the University of Padova, Italy. He has been working within the European Commission since 1986. From 1986 to 1993 he worked in Culham, UK on the EU nuclear fusion project, Joint European Torus (JET). From 1993 until April 2001, he was Administrator with the European Commission, DG Energy and Transport, in charge of EU regulatory and voluntary programmes for the rational use of energy in end-use equipment, buildings and industry. He was also in charge of negotiated and long term agreements with industry and tertiary sectors and the GreenLight programme. Since May 2001, he has been Principal Administrator at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy) in charge of research activities for energy efficiency policy, the efficient use of electricity and innovative policy instruments (e.g. white certificates, financing mechanisms, emission trading). He continues to manage the GreenLight, Motor Challenge and Standby Initiative programmes on behalf of the European Commission.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) will be providing scientific and technical back-up to all signatory cities of the Covenant of Mayors. This role will involve evaluating signatory cities' sustainable energy plans and providing feedback on these plans (e.g. advising on setting up the baseline, policy options, specific measures etc.), as well as ongoing monitoring and support during implementation of signatory cities' plans. This makes the JRC very well placed to share its expertise with cities and other local energy actors.

Dr. Bertoldi made a presentation on Effective Sustainable Energy Plans for Cities and Local Energy Actors - Tools and Support during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Seán J. Burke is the Team Leader for the ManagEnergy Support Team, a consortium of specialist service providers (Gruppo Soges, European Service Network (ESN), KanEnergi, Swedish Energy Agency (STEM) and CPL Press) tasked with providing a range of support services to ManagEnergy local and regional actors, in particular the energy agencies. The services provided to the ManagEnergy actors range from web services and developing information products to workshops and good practices identification, managing a sectoral advice facility and management training.      
     Mr. Burke started his career at the consulting firm Ernst & Young, and during the past 15 years he has played a leadership role in such pioneering initiatives as the launch and development of the Europe's 500 Listing of Growth Entrepreneurs, the first pan-European listing of Europe's fastest-growing entrepreneurial companies.  He has also been involved in the development of some of Europe's leading investment forum platforms and coaching academies for bringing together high-growth technology and life sciences companies with venture capital investors. He is currently founder and principal at New Frontier Services, a Brussels-based consulting and training company providing a range of evaluation and project and business development services.

Mr. Burke acted as moderator during the ManagEnergy Education Workshop.

Susanna Ceccanti took a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures (English and German) in Pisa University in November 1998. She has been working for the Energy Agency of Livorno Province (one of the SAVE agencies in Tuscany Region – Italy) since 1999 and is a member of EALP’s training, information and education team.
     EALP first started its experience with education activities by implementing some local pilot projects (year 2000-2001); then it participated as a partner in its first European project in the framework of Altener programme (the FEE project - year 2002/2003) and recently has been partner in the FEEDU project (ended June 2007) and is also currently a partner in two further European projects - ENERGY PATH and YEP (co-funded in the framework of EIE programme).
     In order to raise awareness for correct energy use and consumption in children, parents and in adults in general EALP exploited the great experience and know how gained thanks to these European projects and implemented further local projects as dissemination activities (with lessons at school, training courses for teachers, study visits, local workshops and local events). These projects were partly financed by Governmental-Regional-Provincial or Municipal funds.
     In this background since the year 2000, Susanna Ceccanti has gained much experience as Project Manager in Energy-Environmental Education projects and her main activities are to design, coordinate, implement at local level and make administrative accountings of these projects. Her tasks include:

• energy animations in schools with children (primary, junior and senior secondary schools)
• training courses to teachers (all levels of schools)
• organisation of training courses
• organisation of events (seminars, workshops on energy education, energy saving at home, promotion of RES, theatre plays etc)
• participation to International or national/local conferences (also as speaker)
• participation to projects partners meetings
• updating of EALP’s website www.ealp.it
• issuing of communication / dissemination material (newsletters, leaflets, booklets etc)

Susanna Ceccanti is a member of the ManagEnergy Thematic Group on Education, which includes experts in energy education, and is at the moment finalising (together with the group) the task to develop a guideline for secondary schools on energy and energy efficiency matters.

Ms. Ceccanti spoke on Student Activities within an Integrated Sustainable Energy Approach during the ManagEnergy Education Workshop.

Following a career in Greater London as a full time, class teacher and subject manager for Geography in Key Stages 1 and 2, Rachel Close moved to Gloucestershire. In 2005 she joined Severn Wye Energy Agency to develop their work with the education sector.
      Her first project was a European collaboration across 13 regions `FEEDU’. The project focused on Primary Education. Locally known as, The Power to Change it aimed to improve energy efficiency and sustainability in twelve Gloucestershire schools. Rachel managed the Gloucestershire project developing education programmes and supporting teachers with training, advice and resources, in order to get pupils actively involved in reducing the schools consumption and to be ambassadors for positive behaviour change, with regards to energy use, throughout their school communities.
      Since then Rachel has had a very busy few years widening SWEA’s involvement with Sustainable Education in Gloucestershire and promoting the importance of education for energy. She is a founder member and current chair of the Gloucestershire Environmental Education Partnership, providing activity days for pupils and training for the counties teachers. Rachel is also an active supporter of the local Education Business Partnership through their steering group and activities in our secondary schools. Her involvement with groups such as the Learning South West Sustainability allow her to engage with strategy, action and policy in this area of education on both a regional and national level.
      Rachel’s project work has also expanded since starting work with SWEA. She has recently been working with providers of adult education to instigate the pilot of the accredited training course she has written and resourced, ‘The Certificate in Sustainable Energy Skills for Life and Work’ and the first courses are now in progress.
      At this time Rachel is coordinating her new project Young Energy People. She has initiated this European contract for SWEA from concept to proposal, this piece of work is now secured from the European Commission and Gloucestershire County Council. The project pilots an innovative approach to the integration of education for sustainable energy into the much pressured secondary curriculum. Rachel will manage this project for SWEA across 8 European regions.
     With her detailed knowledge of the education system; experience in the preparation and delivery of materials for both children and adult training courses, and her project management skills, Rachel is engaged in developing SWEA’s educational work for the future, widening the scope of the work with primary schools and building upon partnerships between secondary schools and local employers.

Ms. Close made a presentation on on the role of energy agencies in support of teacher training during the ManagEnergy Education Workshop.

Roger Coombs is responsible for the design, development and content of the ManagEnergy KidsCorner website. As well as offering design and marketing services within CPL Press, Roger is Managing Director of Leafstream, which provides e-publishing, PR and advertising services to companies and organisations involved in sustainable technology.
     Roger has over 15 years experience as a copywriter, journalist, author, editor and web designer. During his career he has worked on reports, publications and projects for a wide range of organisations including WWF, Friends of the Earth, Macmillan, Earthscan, the Retail Fruit Trade Federation and the European Commission.
     He has also been involved in marketing campaigns for leading IT and innovation companies such as 3-Com, 3M, Entrust, Rainbow Technologies, GX Networks, Aventail, BOM, Sunrise and Magic Software.

Mr. Coombs was a speaker at the Management Innovation and Good Practice Workshop.

Maria Da Graca Carvalho is Principal Adviser to the Bureau of European Policy Advisers, a Department of the European Commission reporting directly to the President. In this bureau she is a policy analyst in the areas of Science, Higher Education, Innovation, Information Society, Energy, Transport, Environment, Space and Security Research Policy and Sustainable Development.
     She is a Full Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department of IST-Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon) since June 1992. In 1983 she obtained her Ph.D. at the Imperial College in London. She has participated in and coordinated a large number of international R & D Projects. She is author of 97 articles in scientific international journals and she has written more than 400 articles for books, international conferences and seminars.
     Her main research field is Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development. She was Minister of Science and Higher Education of the XV Constitutional Government of Portugal and Minister of Science, Innovation and Higher Education of the XVI Constitutional Government, Director-General of GRICES-Office for International Relations in Science and Higher Education and Deputy President of the Portuguese Association of Engineers. She was a member of the Board of Directors President of the Scientific Board of Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon). She is a member of 22 national and international scientific associations and fellow of AIAA-American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of AAAS-American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was decorated by the President of Portugal with the designation "Great Official of the Order of Public Instruction" within the scope of International Women Day Programme (8 March 2002) and by the Chancellery of the International Order of Merit of the Discoverer of Brazil with the high honour of the Great Cross (26 April 2005).

Prof. Da Graca Carvalho acted as moderator for the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes is Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal, PhD on Applied Sciences at the Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland) in 1973. He has devoted the last 30 years of his career to teaching, research, consulting and public activities on various topics related to energy and environment. He is a Founder of an RTD group on Building Thermal Physics with major pioneering activities in Portugal on Solar Technologies and Thermal Behaviour of Buildings, Indoor Air Quality, Energy and Environment in the Urban Space and Energy Planning at the Regional and Urban Levels. Leader for over 25 years of all Regulation process of Energy in Buildings for Portugal.
     Academic and Institutional positions held: Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1980-82); Vice-Rector of the University of Porto (1986-91); Chair of Portuguese Mechanical Engineers (1992-94); Vice-President of PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture) (1987-91); Vice-President (1991-1995) and President of ISES (International Solar Energy Society (1995-97). Responsible for the Concept Energy/Environment of EXPO’98 site in Lisbon (1993-8), Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Energy Agency of Lisbon (2003-2006). President of the Energy Agency of Porto (2006-…).
     Governmental positions held: Secretary of State for Environment of the Portuguese Government (1984-85) and Secretary of State for Energy of the Portuguese Government (2001-2).

Prof. de Oliveira Fernandes will take part in the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Kristina Dely has been heading European affairs at Energie-Cites since 2005; and from 2009 the newly established Covenant of Mayors Office. Formerly she held positions in management consultancy, providing services for municipalities, public and private sector companies among others in the field of urban transport and energy. She holds a masters degree in Economy and Environmental Management from the Ecole de Management de Lyon (EM-Lyon) and the Budapest University of Economy.   

Ms. Dely made a presentation on the Covenant of Mayors Office during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Eddy Deruwe has extensive experience in leading sustainable energy educational programmes, with emphasis on sustainable communities. He is the leader of the ManagEnergy Thematic Group on Energy Education. Before this he coordinated the European FEE and FEEDU-projects, both energy educational projects for primary schools. Since 1996, he has been the General Manager of the Centre Urbain (ABEA-Brussels Energy Agency), an information centre for citizens under mandate of the Brussels Regional authorities, where he initiated several projects related to energy awareness and training, building refurbishment and architectural heritage, as well on the Brussels regional as on the European level (IEE projects). Before that, between 1986 and 1996, he worked for different urban regeneration and neighbourhood development programs (neighbourhood contracts and URBAN, European Regional Funds), social housing estate development, industrial building conversion and poor neighbourhoods development, all in the Brussels region. He has an equivalent of Masters degree in Adult Educational Science (VUB- Free University Brussels, 1985).

Mr. Deruwe spoke on the Integrated Project Approach to Sustainable Development in Schools and hosted the ManagEnergy Education Workshop.

Mr. Doubrava presented ManagEnergy - Recent Developments & Future Plans during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

William Gillett is an engineer, who is currently Head of Unit for Renewable Energy in the European Commission's Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI), based in Brussels, where he leads a team of renewable energy specialists, who manage projects that tackle non-technological and market barriers to the deployment of renewable energy. Before moving to the EACI, William was based in the European Commission's Directorate for Energy and Transport (DG TREN), where he helped to manage the Commission’s research programme on sustainable energies. Before that, he worked in the UK in the private sector, mainly on renewable energy.

Mr. Gillett took part in the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Bill Gormley, MSc (Employment Studies) Chartered FCIPD FBIDA, is currently Vice Chairman of a UK National Health Service Primary Care Trust (budget £500 million) and a former UK Senior Civil Servant with the Department for Work and Pensions where he was the Director responsible for Business Excellence and People Development. He was seconded from UK Government to the European Foundation for Quality Management in 2002 where he was appointed Head of Public Sector and External Relations. As an advisory member of the EU Member States Innovative Public Services Group (IPSG) he contributed to the development of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) He also led a team of experts successfully introducing the new CAF model into the Turkish Prime Ministers Office in 2006. He is a Senior Assessor for EFQM's European Excellence Award.

Mr. Gormley presented Organisational capacity for implementation, the concept of Excellence and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) during the ManagEnergy Training Workshop for Cities and Local Energy Actors.

Since February 2006, José Ignacio Hormaeche Azumendi has held the post of General Director of Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE), the Basque Government's energy agency, whose mission is to prepare energy strategies for the Basque Country and to develop programmes and actions for achieving the aims contained in them.
     Prior to that, from January 2004 to February 2006, Mr. Hormaeche Azumendi was Operations Manager at Gamesa EOLICA, a company dedicated to the sale, installation and maintenance of wind turbines and wind farms. Gamesa Eólica is Spain's leading manufacturer of wind turbines and the third largest in the world in terms of market share, with major involvement in countries such as China, the US, Italy and Germany. From 1999 to 2004, he held the post of General Manager at SIEMSA, (at that time part of the Gamesa Group), whose primary activity is the engineering, assembly and maintenance of electrical installations, power plants and wind farms, with production centres in Bilbao, Madrid, Tarragona, La Coruña and Valencia. From 1995 to 1998 he was the marketing manager of the COINPASA Group, where his work centred on the companies in the Engineering and Consultancy Area.
     Mr. Hormaeche Azumendi previously spent over 8 years (October 1987 to December 1995) working at the ROBOTIKER Technology Centre, where he held a number of different positions and responsibilities. He began working as a researcher in CAD/ CAE systems, going on to spend two and a half years as Sales Manager and during my last 4 years he was Deputy Director of the centre, with direct responsibility in the area of Marketing, coordination of technological and commercial areas and relations with customers, collaborators and institutions, nationally and internationally.
    Mr. Hormaeche Azumendi gained his Degree in Civil Engineering from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica, Madrid in 1986, specialising in Hydraulics and Energy. He also holds a Master's Degree is in Business Management from INSIDE, Universidad Comercial de Deusto, specialising in Marketing (1990-91). He is a senior assessor at the Club de Evaluadores de EUSKALIT, conducting external assessments on companies following the EFQM Excellence Model.

Mr. Hormaeche Azumendi took part in the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Inete Ielite has been working in the field of social and economic issues for more than 15 years, promoting the development of civil society and the participation of the most disadvantaged groups of society in Latvia as well as in other countries. She has been involved in creating new legislation, policies, programmes and services both through professional and voluntary work.
     Since 2000 the Coalition for Gender Equality in Latvia, of which she is the founder and an elected co-chairperson, has encouraged participation and networking of non-governmental organisations in dialogue with government to promote the best possible implementation of state obligations under international instruments aiming to improve quality of life and economic safety. Her efforts have been recognised and acknowledged by the Prime Minister of Latvia, other ministers as well as various international and national organisations.
     Ms. Ielite has worked in project development and coordination of international activities related to energy efficiency; contributed towards development of academic and professional programmes at Riga Technical University as well as supporting various local authorities in Latvia to develop their energy efficiency policies and projects.
     Ms. Ielite has a LLM in International and EU Law; currently she is undertaking a PhD at the Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Latvia.

Ms. Ielite took part in the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

John Johnsson has a Master of Science in energy engineering from Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, Sweden, specialising in municipal energy and environmental planning. Mr. Johnsson has been working at PROFU since 1990 and has been in charge of numerous local and regional energy and climate plans in Sweden.

Mr. Johnsson presented Fact-based Reference Energy System and Scenario Modelling during the ManagEnergy Training Workshop for Cities and Local Energy Actors.

Christopher Jones took on the role of Director for New and Renewable Sources of Energy in November 2008. This followed on from his position as Deputy Head of Cabinet of Andris Piebalgs, Commissioner for Energy, with responsibility for co-ordination and strategic development of energy policy, which he held from November 2004. Prior to this, from 1997 he held a number of positions as the head of units in the European Commission's Directorate General for Energy (later the Directorate General for Energy and Transport), responsible for issues regarding gas and electricity, internal markets, and coal and oil. Mr. Jones studied Law at the University of Reading and the College of Europe in Bruges and is the author of the book "EU Energy Law; the Internal Energy Market" (2006) and co-author and editor of four books on competition policy. He is also author of numerous articles on EU law and a Member of the Advisory or Editorial Boards of numerous academic Journals.

Mr. Jones made the Welcome Address during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

José La Cal Herrera is an Industrial Engineer (Polytechnic University of Madrid) and a teacher associated to the Business Management Department of the University of Jaén. He has worked as a Local Development Technical in the Provincial Council of Jaén and as Director of Renewable Energies Department of the Energy Management Agency of Castilla-La Mancha region (AGECAM, SA). He has been the Director of AGENER since 1997.
     Mr. La Cal Herrera has taken part in several courses, workshops and seminars in the fields of renewable and efficiency energy, as well as giving lessons at the Masters level. He has written many articles in specialised technical magazines and has participated in national and international meetings related to energy and environment, as well as research projects related to get the maximum use of energetic resources, specially biomass. He is currently doing a Doctoral Thesis at the Department of Electric Engineering of the University of Jaén.

Mr. La Cal Herrera spoke about Local Energy Agencies as Intermediaries and Catalysts for Deploying Renewable Energy solutions at the Management Innovation and Good Practice Workshop.

With a background in engineering, Catrin Maby has a lifelong interest in sustainability and the impact of technology on social equity. She has worked in sustainable energy since 1984, when she set up an energy advice service for London tenants. She has wide experience in strategic development, training, technical consultancy and awareness raising, and assisted several UK local authorities in the development of their first Home Energy Conservation strategies in 1996.
     As an independent energy consultant, Catrin assisted Birmingham City Council in developing sustainable energy aspects of inner city regeneration programmes, working with technical and community liaison staff and community groups over a period of several years, including developing energy awareness materials for use in literacy, numeracy and English as a second language classes.
     Catrin joined Severn Wye Energy Agency in 1999, overseeing its development as a dynamic and dedicated team of energy professionals, with a wide portfolio of sustainable energy projects and services in South West England and Wales . She was one of a team of four international consultants selected by the European Commission to research the work of European energy agencies in 2004, and is currently coordina tin g two Intelligent Energy Europe Projects.

Ms. Maby was one of the trainers during the ManagEnergy Training for Energy Agency Directors.

Mr. Magnin made a presentation on the Covenant of Mayors Office during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Harry Meerwijk gained a degree in Law from Free University Amsterdam in 1983. He has been Director of EREA - First Regional Energy Agency since its formation in 2007, following the merger of the Delft Energy Agency with its partner Energy Agency Zoetermeer, where he had been Director since 1999. As part of these energy agencies, he has been involved in a number of European projects, including RUSE, BELIEF and ENCOURAGE. Prior to that he was a legal advisor at Amsterdam (1987-89) and Zoetermeer (1989-99) municipalities.

Mr. Meerwijk spoke about Building Stability in an Energy Agency’s Financial Income - Making the Case for Service Level Agreements at the Management Innovation and Good Practice Workshop.

Hans Jacob Mydske (Master of Management) has extensive experience in project- and programme management in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. His main topics are energy management, energy strategy and local and regional approaches to energy planning. Mr. Mydske was assigned as national expert to the European Commission, Directorate General for Energy and Management from 2000 to 2003, where he managed the non-technology programme ALTENER. Mr. Mydske is one of the co-funders of NEPAS.

Mr. Mydske gave an Introduction to local energy planning - ambitions and challenges and present further information about Monitoring and Benchmarking municipal buildings and installations during the ManagEnergy Training Workshop for Cities and Local Energy Actors.

Werner Neumann has a Diploma and PhD in Physics (particle accelerators). Since 1987 he worked for various cities, and from 1990 for the City of Frankfurt am Main in the field of energy efficiency and local energy planning and climate protection. Since 1992, Dr. Neumann has been Director of the Municipal Energy Agency of Frankfurt (Energiereferat). Energiereferat is part of the municipal administration and part of the Department of Environment and Health.

Dr. Neumann took part in the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Endre Ottosen has a Master of Science in energy and environmental engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Since 2007 he has been employed by NEPAS, focusing mainly on local and regional energy and environmental planning. Mr. Ottosen has specialised in operating a modelling tool for local energy planning and has trained local experts in several European countries in using this tool. He has participated in several European projects funded by the European Commission.

Mr. Ottosen presented Activities and measures - from plan to action during the ManagEnergy Training Workshop for Cities and Local Energy Actors.

Tomáš Perutka is an efficiency engineer who is currently Deputy Director of the Energy Agency of the Zlín Region which was established in 2006. He has been engaged in many successful projects focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources utilization during his long term work for municipalities and other subjects of the Zlín Region since 2003. He has extensive experience with management of projects aimed on development of the Zlín region.

Mr. Perutka took part in the Panel Discussion during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Andris Piebalgs took up the post of Energy Commissioner in November 2004. Since the EU enlargement on 1st of May 2004, when the Commissioners of the new Member States came into the European Commission, he was heading the Cabinet of Latvian Commissioner Mrs. Sandra Kalniete. Before joining the European Commission, he worked for almost a decade in diplomacy. He started his diplomatic career in 1995 when he became the ambassador of Latvia in Estonia. During five years - between 1998 and 2003 - he was the Ambassador of Latvia to the European Union, later - Undersecretary of State for EU affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia.
    Andris Piebalgs spent six years of his career being active in Latvian politics. From 1990 till 1993 he was Minister of Education, in 1993 and 1994 he was chairing the Budget and finance committee of the Parliament of Latvia (Saeima). In 1994 he became Finance minister of Latvia and held this post for two years.
    He was born in Valmiera (Latvia) on 17 September 1957, and in 1980 he obtained his degree in Physics from University of Latvia. During the eight years time after his university studies he worked as a teacher, later Headmaster of the 1st Secondary School of Valmiera. His career in the education system continued when he started to work as Director of the Department in the Ministry of Education of Latvia.

Mr. Piebalgs presented the ManagEnergy Local Energy Action Award during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Robert Pressl works for FGM-AMOR, a research, consulting and educational company based in Graz, Austria. The company is a private non-profit organisation which has been engaged in a broad range of national and international projects. Its main fields of activity are mobility management and mobility marketing, innovative transport concepts, transport telematics, traffic planning, traffic safety, as well as the coordination and dissemination of EU-funded projects.
     Mr Pressl, and his colleague Karl Reiter, are members of the ManagEnergy Thematic Group on Mobility and Transport. FGM-AMOR is also in charge of coordinating the European Platform on Mobility Management (www.epomm.org), and undertakes dissemination activities for the CIVITAS initiative (www.civitas-initiative.net) and for the European Local Transport Information Service (www.eltis.org). It also organises national and international conferences.

Mr. Pressl hosted the ManagEnergy Mobility Workshop, along with Mr. Reiter.

Karl Reiter works for FGM-AMOR, a research, consulting and educational company based in Graz, Austria. The company is a private non-profit organisation which has been engaged in a broad range of national and international projects. Its main fields of activity are mobility management and mobility marketing, innovative transport concepts, transport telematics, traffic planning, traffic safety, as well as the coordination and dissemination of EU-funded projects.
     Mr Reiter, and his colleague Robert Pressl, are members of the ManagEnergy Thematic Group on Mobility and Transport. FGM-AMOR is also in charge of coordinating the European Platform on Mobility Management (www.epomm.org), and undertakes dissemination activities for the CIVITAS initiative (www.civitas-initiative.net) and for the European Local Transport Information Service (www.eltis.org). It also organises national and international conferences.

Mr. Reiter hosted the ManagEnergy Mobility Workshop, along with Mr. Pressl.

Réne Schellekens, Ing, is a specialist in Urban Planning, working at SenterNovem, the Dutch national agency for Sustainability and Innovation. In recent years Mr. Schellekens has encouraged and supported Dutch municipalities in setting and executing their local climate policies.

Mr. Schellekens presented Practical use of CAF in Dutch municipalities during the ManagEnergy Training Workshop for Cities and Local Energy Actors.

Roger Smith is a governor of Millfield Primary School and is Chairman of the school Stamp Stanley Committee. The Stamp Stanley project by Millfield Primary School, which aimed to promote schools' innovative environmental problem-solving, was the final winner from the Environment and Innovation Project, 1st Cycle (2005 - 2007), a project organised by the Eco-Schools International Programme Coordination with the support of Toyota Motor Europe via Toyota Fund for Europe.

The Millfield Primary School Stamp Stanley project was runner-up for the ManagEnergy Local Energy Actor Award presented by Commissioner Andris Piebalgs during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.

Yvonne Träff has been working as Environmental strategist in the Municipality of Lidköping since 1990. Yvonne has a background as a teacher in both Adult and Secondary School Education. She will be presenting The Energy Gain, an action to increase awareness of energy issues in SMEs in Lidköping, Sweden, by combining education with a voluntary agreement on action taken by the companies.

The Lidköping Municipality's The Energy Gain activity was the winner of the ManagEnergy Local Energy Actor Award presented by Commissioner Andris Piebalgs during the ManagEnergy Plenary Session.