Speakers

Mr. Ronan Mac Aongusa has since May 2003 been the First Secretary for Economic and Regional Cooperation in the Delegation of the European Commission in Jakarta. Mr. Mac Aongusa has been an official of the European Commission since 1994, and is currently responsible for the implementation and coordination of economic and governance cooperation in Indonesia as well as for regional cooperation with ASEAN. Mr. Mac Aongusa has been responsible for the implementation of EAEF in cooperation with ACE and ASEAN since 2003. Previously posted in Russia and with experience of technical cooperation with the Mashraq countries in the area of technical and vocational education, Mr. Mac Aongusa has degrees in International Relations and History from the University of Reading and University College Dublin (NUI – UCD).

Mr. Ong Keng Yong is the Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) since 1 January 2003.  Mr Ong joined the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in June 1979 and served in diplomatic posts in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the United States of America from 1984 to 1994.  Mr. Ong was the Ambassador of Singapore to India and Nepal from 1996 to 1998.  He   was the Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of Singapore and concurrently the Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts  from September 1998 to December 2002.  Between 1999 and 2002, he was also the Chief Executive Director of the People’s Association, a grassroots-based community development organization in Singapore.  Mr. Ong graduated from the University of Singapore and Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA)

Mr. Houmphone Bulyaphol is presently Director General of Department of Electricity, Ministry of Energy and Mines of Lao PDR.
Graduated in Electrical Engineering from Canada, he has been working more than 15 years with Electricite du Laos (EDL) a state owned power utility. He managed the Nam Ngum Power Station, the First Hydropower Plant of Laos and supervised several hydropower projects in the country. He was assigned as General Manager of Electricite du Laos from 1989-1995 and nominated from the Government as Vice Chairman of the Lao National Committee for Energy from 1991 to 1998. He is now Director General of Department of Electricity of the Ministry, member of Board of Directors of EDL and Chairman of the Theun Hinboun Hydropower Company, the First Independent Power Producer (IPPs) project of Lao PDR.

Dr. Weerawat Chantanakome is presently the Executive Director of the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), of which main areas cover all energy activities, business and transactions in ASEAN having close collaboration with the rest of the world in energy. Dr. Weerawat was appointed by the Royal Thai government with the endorsement by the ASEAN Ministers of Energy Meeting (AMEM) in June 2004 to assume his tenure as the second Executive Director of ACE.  Besides, Dr. Weerawat was on a sabbatical leave from the North Eastern Polytechnic University where he is a Vice Chancellor and Dean of Faculty of Engineering and associated with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a Private Sector Development Specialist.  Other achievements include being Senate Committee for Science, Technology and Energy of the Thai Parliament; Secretary General of the ASEAN-CCI (Chamber of Commerce and Industry) - Thailand Chapter, Director & Energy Committee of the Federation of Thai Industries, World Bank Energy Consultant, TDRI Energy Policy Specialist, to name a few.
Dr. Weerawat holds B. Sc. From Chulalongkorn University; Master Degrees in System Engineering from Ohio University, U.S.A. and in Energy Planning from University of Paris II, France; and a Ph.D. in Energy Policy from University of Waterloo, Canada, under the Canadian Government Scholarship.

Mr. Pekka Skytta, EC Co-Director of EC-ASEAN Energy Facility. MSc (power engineering) with post-graduate qualifications in business administration. 35 years experience come from 24 years in power engineering, development, marketing, management and production in Finland and other EU, Thailand and Indonesia and 11 years in EU funded projects in Russia, Europe, Africa and Asia. In 2002 he was appointed to his present position as EC Co-Director of EC-ASEAN Energy Facility and stationed in Jakarta at ASEAN Centre for Energy.
His sectoral experience lies in the energy (power, power markets, gas, peat, wood waste etc renewable energy powered electricity production), energy efficiency & conservation and nuclear safety sectors. He has developed in-depth engineering knowledge of these sectors in Finland, Russia, the EU and Asia. He has technical and administrative project management experience related to several nuclear and conventional power plants, along with full grasp of the energy production and development cycle.

Dr. Bernardo D. Tadeo is a professional agricultural engineer who has been working since 1986 in government with his latest positions as Chief Science Research Specialist, Program Leader of Environment and Conservation, and Head of the Environmental Standards and Systems Office (ESSO) at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).  He has been active for 20 years in R & D pertaining to energy, environment, and sustainable agriculture. He has designed and modified 17 human - and environment-friendly machinery and equipment. His latest work is in the promotion of gasification, carbonization and combined heat and power generation with the Japanese Biomass Consortium.  He has recently managed EAEF Project 105 entitled “Enhancing the Energy Self-Sufficiency of Rice Mills” in the Philippines with site visits to Thailand and Malaysia.  Dr. Tadeo is also active in establishing systems and standards in agriculture and industry. As the PhilRice’s EMR and IMR, he spearheaded the establishment of QMS, EMS, and OHSMS and certification to ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 in September 2006.

Mr. Chan Sodavath is an Executive Director of Electricité du Cambodge (Cambodia) and heading the Corporate Planning and Projects Department. He has twelve years of experiences in power sector development and  is directly involved in Project Development, Implementation and Management. Mr. Sodavath is also involved in the Policy analysis, project development studies and negotiation of the power purchase agreements with the private power developers. His key qualifications are in the area of Power System Planning that includes generation, transmission, and distribution. He has been coordinating with some local and regional cooperation projects. He currently appointed as the project coordinator of the EAEF Program. Mr. Sodavath graduated in Electrical Engineering, with a Master's Degree in Electric Power System Management.

Mr. Pierre Cazelles graduated with a Master’s Degree on Energy Economics and Law, which he obtained from France. He has been working in Thailand since 1998, and first started as a senior research associate with the Asian Institute of Technology, working in the field of energy policy. He has developed and managed several projects in the Asian region for the European Commission and the United Nations, among others, in the fields of CDM, energy efficiency and energy policy. He is now working as CDM and International Projects Business Development Manager for Bright Management Consulting. His current focus is on developing the CDM consulting activity of the company, including preparation of Project Design Documents. Areas of focus are biodiesel, biogas and biomass projects.

Ms. Laurie B. Navarro is the President of the International Resources Group – Philippines. She is a Chemical engineering graduate and an MBA candidate. Ms. Navarro is an RE expert with over 20 years experience in technical, financial and market delivery of renewable energy systems in the Philippines. She is the Project Coordinator of 3 recently completed EAEF co-financed projects on capacity building of local financing institutions to do lending for RE projects, wind stakeholders on how to conduct wind project preparatory activities and Local Government Units, households and public market vendors on biogas technology for processing municipal solid wastes. Ms. Navarro also served as National Team Leader for a World Bank / DOE project aimed to do pre-investment for rural electrification. She served as National Project Coordinator for a UNDP Technical Assistance project that aimed to capacitate a core group of DBP staff to enhance their capacities to do lending for RE projects. She was the National Project Development Expert who worked hand-in-hand with an international consultant in the preparation of the Project Brief and Project Document (ProDoc) for the project called Capacity Building for Renewable Energy Development in the Philippines or CBRED currently executed by the PhDOE and where Ms. Navarro is the Project Coordinator/Adviser of four subcontracts awarded to IRG-Philippines.

Dr Anuar Abd Rahman is the Chief Executive Officer of Pusat Tenaga Malaysia (PTM) and currently as the Coordinator of ASEAN RE Sub Sector Network. Previously, he was the General Manager of TNB Research and was seconded to PTM since 2003. Dr Anuar holds BSc (Chem) from University of Malaya, MSc (Combustion and Pollution Control), and PhD (Combustion and Pollution) from Sheffield UK. He has 15 years working experience in power station. Being the CEO of PTM, he is the National Project Director for UNDP-GEF projects i.e. Malaysian Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Project (MIEEIP), Biomass Power Generation and Cogeneration Project in the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry (Biogen) and Malaysian Building Integrated Photovoltaic Technology Application Project (MBIPV). Dr Anuar was also Project Coordinator of 3 EAEF projects, National Energy Database and National Secretariat on CDM on energy.

Mr. Ramon C. Abaya is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company, Inc. (CEPALCO).
He has a Master in Public Administration (MPA) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as well as a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Mrs Vu Thi Kim THOA is local project manager for a number of energy efficiency projects implemented in Vietnam since 1995 for public-private partnership promotion. Among those are Energy Efficiency Promotion in the Ceramic Industry and Selected Industries in 1998-2000 under Ministry of Science and Technology; Energy Efficiency and Environmental Management for Sustainable Brick-making Industry in 2002-2006. Graduated in High Energy Engineering and hold a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Economics and Master Degree in Technology Management and Policy. She is currently  the Local Project Advisor to the Ministry of Industry for the Commercial Energy Efficiency Program and other projects under Rural Energy Program and Renewable Energy for Remote Areas. Under the framework of EAEF, she presents for Son Vu Company Ltd, a Local Private Investor and being Project Local Team Leader for EAEF-2004-111 to promote private investment in minihydro power development.

Congressman Augusto H. Baculio is currently the co-chairman of the Committe on Ecology of the Philippine's House of  Representatives and had been an advocate of  renewable energy and clean environment.He had authored several bills on energy and ecology which became the legal framework of most of the local policies.

Dr. Tuan Nguyen is Senior Energy Economist with Innovation Energie Développement (IED), a France based consultancy and engineering firm, specialized in sustainable energy projects essentially in Asia and Africa. Since 2002, he has hence extensive hands on experience with project development, implementation and management as well as facilitation and coordination of team work. Tuan Nguyen is and has been directly involved in different projects, covering the areas of policy regulatory analysis, feasibility and planning studies, technical assistance, and training. His area of expertise lies in power system planning (generation, transmission and power pool), institutional and financial aspects of energy projects, and rural electrification issues in Africa, Asia and Europe. Dr. Tuan Nguyen combines a degree in engineer-economist, master degree in engineering and Ph.D. in applied economics.

Prof. Rowaldo del Mundo is an Associate Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of the Philippines where he teaches energy and power system engineering courses. He also serves as Program Director of the Competency Training and Certification Program in Electric Power System Engineering at the National Engineering Center. His field of specialization includes power system analysis, electric power industry restructuring, renewable energy, and energy regulation. Prof. del Mundo has assisted the Energy Regulatory Commission in the Philippines in the drafting of several regulatory guidelines and rules including the Philippine Grid and Distribution Codes and the Segregation and Establishment of Caps of Recoverable Distribution System Losses for the Distribution Utilities in the Philippines. He is the Project Manager and Principal Consultant in the EAEF Project “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity in the Philippines to Prepare the Electric Cooperatives for the Adaptation of Performance-Based Regulation.

Prof. Thierry Lefevre is the Director of Centre for Energy Environment Resources Development – Foundation for International Human Resource Development (CEERD-FIHRD) since 2002. CEERD conducts Training and Research on energy-environment economics, planning, modeling, policy, markets, and technology in the framework of international cooperation projects to strengthen the capacity of national governments in Asia and the Pacific in energy-environment planning and policy formulation. Prof. Lefevre has 37 years of international experience on teaching and research activities on above fields of expertise. He has been responsible for the management and implementation of more than 100 major projects in his field of expertise with national, international and multilateral Agencies such as the EC, World Bank, ADB, United Nations Agencies, APEC, ASEAN, NEDO, IAEA, IEA, WEC and the French Government, and others. He has also published a large number of articles in international journals and scientific reviews, as well as several books and chapters of books in the field of energy –environment planning and policy. Prof. Lefevre received his Ph.D. and Master degree from the University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, as well as his engineering degree in Mechanics and Electricity from ESME, Paris, France.

Dr Ludovic Lacrosse, (PhD, MSc, EMBA), is Senior Project Manager with Carl Bro International AB. He has 24 years of experience in the renewable energy sector (8 years in Europe and 16 years in South-East Asia). He moved to South East Asia in 1991 to be Technical Advisor during the first two phases of the EC-ASEAN COGEN Programme (COGEN 1 & 2), aiming at promoting the use of clean and efficient European biomass energy technologies in ASEAN wood and agro-industries. He then became Programme Co-ordinator of COGEN 3.  He has a strong experience in Euro-ASEAN economic co-operation. He acted as policy advisor to ASEAN energy policy makers and as business facilitator between European cogeneration equipment suppliers, their local partners and clients in ASEAN.  He has been involved in several EAEF projects and is currently the International Team Leader of the Vietnam-Sweden Rural Energy Programme.