Top 10 energy leaders in the UK and Europe
A time of year where looking back is often commonplace, Energy Digital takes the opportunity to reflect on some of the companies - and the leaders within them - making a difference across the energy sector.
In the run up to the festive period, we will also run through the top 10 energy leaders in APAC and MEA as well as the Americas.
In this edition of the series, we showcase 10 executives making influential contributions to the energy sector at some of the industry’s leading names.
10. Luc Rémont
Role: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Company: EDF
Country: France
A graduate of the prestigious École polytechnique, Rémont began his career as an engineer, working at the French Defence Procurement Agency before holding a variety of positions at the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry from 1996. He then went on to join bank Merill Lynch and then Schneider Electric as President of Schneider Electric France, his first major role in the energy sector.
While at Schneider Electric, he was appointed Schneider Electric Executive Vice President, International Operations, which put him in charge of South America, Africa and Middle East, India, and East Asia Japan & Pacific. From there he became Chairman of Gimélec, a trade association representing more than 230 French companies providing power and automation solutions for the energy, building, industry and infrastructure markets.
9. Jo Kjetil Krabbe
Role: Executive Vice President and Power Solutions
Company: Aker Solutions
Country: Norway
With responsibilities include the Power Solutions business, along with its deliveries to hydropower projects, as well as new-energy products and technologies, Krabbe was appointed Executive Vice President and member of Aker Solutions’ corporate Executive Management Team earlier in 2023.
He has held a number of senior positions and, in his 30 years with Aker Solutions, has been SVP Subsea APAC, SVP Manufacturing and, most recently, SVP Performance.
His work has taken him all over the world, with Krabbe gaining 10 years of expat experience in Eastern Europe, Houston, Brazil and Malaysia.
8. Tim Dawidowsky
Role: COO and CSO
Company: Siemens Gamesa
Country: Spain (Spanish-German)
In post since 2022, Dawidowsky was previously a member of the Board of Directors of Siemens Gamesa, a leader in renewable energy, from 2020.
He boasts a career spanning more than 28 years in the Siemens group of companies, working across a range of engineering and manufacturing sectors. He joined Siemens AG in 1993 after graduating from the Technical University of Berlin with an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Business. His career has seen him work across numerous industrial sectors including oil and gas, power generation and transmission.
In recent years, at Siemens Energy, Dawidowsky served as Senior Vice President, Project Excellence where he established world-class project management practices ensuring excellence in project execution - similar to undertakings in his latest role at Siemens Gamesa.
7. Anders Opedal
Role: President and CEO
Company: Equinor
Country: Norway
Coming from a small industrial village in Norway, Opedal professes that he has always been passionate about the role of engineering and industries in shaping societies and creating progress. Opedal joined Equinor in 1997 as a petroleum engineer and has held a variety of positions at the company since, working his way up to President and CEO via roles including Chief Procurement Officer.
In 2011, he was chosen to lead Equinor’s NOK300 billion (US$27.9bn) project portfolio, before then serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, followed by Senior Vice President and Country Manager Brazil.
His upbringing, paired with his extensive career experience, is a driving force behind his role as CEO, leading the company’s ambition to shape the future of energy and successfully transform natural resources to energy for people and progress for society. He is also a firm advocate for using technology as an accelerator to drive the transition to a low carbon future.
6. Mikel Ortiz de Latierro
Role: Environmental, Social, Health & Safety & Quality Director
Company: Acciona Energía
Country: Spain
Acciona Energía’s Environmental, Social, Health & Safety & Quality Director since 2017, de Latierro leads international, highly qualified teams in 22 countries across five continents to decarbonise the economy by developing, building, operating, maintaining and selling renewable energy. Part of his role also includes establishing green hydrogen ecosystems by providing electric mobility solutions and by optimising the energy consumption of companies and institutions.
An advocate for enabling a deep, systemic, and sustainable change in people's lives through decarbonised energy models, de Latierro joined the company after a decade at Siemens Gamesa, the last 18 months of which as its ESG Director. In this role he led ESG disciplines across the complete value chain in EMEA and ensured compliance with relevant legislation, client concerns and contractual arrangements.
5. Mike Collins
Role: Executive President Business Sustainability & Assurance
Company: Wood
Country: United Kingdom
Working for Wood, previously known as Amec Foster Wheeler, since 1997, Collins has worked his way up through the business via a variety of roles, most recently as Executive President Business Sustainability & Assurance, which he accepted earlier this year. As part of this remit, he leads Wood’s focus on health, safety, security, sustainability, quality and supply chain across all business units, which include major energy and materials markets.
A graduate with a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a qualified mechanical engineer, Collins’ career has seen him live and work in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
4. Guido Brusco
Role: Chief Operating Officer Natural Resources
Company: Eni
Country: Italy
Armed with a Mechanical Engineering degree from La Sapienza University of Rome, Brusco has been Eni’s Chief Operating Officer Natural Resources since 2022.
He has worked for the Italian energy company for the majority of his professional career, joining the business in 1997. He says that supporting the evolution of Eni and addressing the challenge of the current energy market to deliver secure and sustainable energy to its customers is one of his proudest achievements.
He started his career in the technical areas of the Exploration & Production business holding positions of increasing seniority across different countries, and worked his way up to Operations Director in Egypt and then in Kazakhstan. Most recently he has acted as Executive Vice President for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region and then Director of Eni’s Upstream division.
He now oversees Eni’s global oil and gas exploration, development and production activities, gas and LNG portfolio, sustainable development, CCUS, forestry and agri-feedstock. He has been Chairman of Confindustria Energia, Italy's Federation of energy sector associations, since July 2023.
3. Irene Di Martino
Role: CEO
Company: Amp X
Country: United Kingdom
An accomplished sustainability leader, Di Martino’s experience spans power generation and now the energy sector. She leads Amp Energy’s technology arm, Amp X, which was established in 2019 to deliver a disruptive grid-edge digital platform. When founding Amp X, she assembled a highly talented multidisciplinary team to compliment her more than two decades of energy sector experience and to execute her vision.
Playing an instrumental part in the roll-out of Amp X, Di Martino now works with the edge digital platform to unlock flexibility at a very large scale, ultimately enabling the transition towards a fully transactive grid where every end user can actively participate to the provision of system flexibility and access new revenue streams, within a fully decarbonised system.
“[Instead of] focusing on just a single point solution or a specific vertical, we have been developing a number of solutions that are strategic and they provide a much greater value for different stakeholders,” she told Energy Digital in 2022.
2. Helle Kristoffersen
Role: President Strategy and Sustainability
Company: TotalEnergies
Country: France
A dual Danish and French national, Kristoffersen is a graduate of the École normale supérieure and the Paris Graduate School of Economics, Statistics and Finance (ENSAE). She also holds a Master’s degree in Econometrics from Université Paris Sorbonne. She is an alumna of the French Institute for Higher National Defense Studies (IHEDN) and, as well as this, is a Knight of the Légion d’honneur.
She is President Strategy & Sustainability of TotalEnergies and member of the Executive Committee, having also served as the company’s President Strategy & Innovation, SVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs in Gas Renewables & Power and SVP Strategy & Business Intelligence during her 13-year tenure. Between 1994 and 2011, she held a number of general management positions within the Alcatel group, which became Alcatel-Lucent and then Nokia.
1. Wael Sawam
Role: CEO
Company: Shell
Country: United Kingdom
Leading Shell’s staff to deliver on its Powering Progress strategy that sets out to provide the energy the world needs today while building the energy system of the future, creating value for shareholders and society, Wael has worked for the British oil and gas company since 1997, working across a variety of Director, VP and General Manager roles.
Before taking up the position of CEO of Shell at the start of 2023, the Lebanese-Canadian executive, Wael was previously Director, Integrated Gas, Renewables and Energy Solutions. He has been a member of the Executive Committee (EC) since 2019, when he was appointed Upstream Director.
His tenure at Shell has seen him work in each of Shell's core business units: Upstream, Integrated Gas and Downstream. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from McGill University in Montreal and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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