BrazilMeet the six consultants speaking at the Arab Green Summit
Tomorrow the 2022 edition of the Arab Green Summit kicks off, an event that brings together government entities, businesses and communities to discuss and discover the latest practices and creative solutions to help tackle one of the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change.
Building on the COP26 in Glasgow, the Arab Green Summit aims to facilitate a series of intense deliberations around the Middle East’s green efforts – in part as a kickstarter for the COP28 international climate conference which will take place in the United Arab Emirates in 2023.
Key topics that will be discussed include: energy sustainability and clean energy, adopting science based targets and ESG and SDGs, sustainable innovation, green cities, sustainable mobility, waste management, green hydrogen, how governments and private sector businesses can collaborate to better tackle sustainability objectives, and building a culture and society that is aware of the importance of climate change.
The Arab Green Summit serves as a platform for climate champions to discuss, innovate, collaborate, and set the path for climate action through mitigation and adaptation, and falls under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
The two-day event will see a range of high-profile leaders in the sustainability space inform the 200+ participants, including H.E Yousif Ahmed Al Ali, Assistant Undersecretary for Electricity, Water & Future Energy Affair, Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure; Dena Assaf, Resident Coordinator for the UAE at United Nations; Joel Van Dusen, Senior Executive Vice President, Group Head of Corporate & Investment Banking at Mashreq Bank; and Salwa Al Maflahi, Director of Sustainability & CSR at Aldar Properties.
Other speakers are: Manjeet Singh Chhabra, Managing Director at CRIF Gulf; Latifa Lahsine, Vice President Engineering at Engie, Andrea Prazakova, Senior Vice President at Mastercard Foundry, EEMEA; and many more.
Among the roster of speakers are six experts active in the consulting industry:
Bakatjan Sandalkhan
Partner & Associate Director, Boston Consulting Group
Sandalkhan is a core member of the firm’s Energy practice, specializing in power and gas markets & regulation, green energy, distributed energy resources, EV and EV charging infrastructure, and sustainable supply chain management.
Bakatjan worked in BCG’s Istanbul and Middle East offices. His recent BCG projects include EV charging infrastructure development, battery storage solutions, growth in distributed energy resources, and decarbonization. Before joining BCG, Bakatjan was Vice President, Managing Director and Board Member at Innogy (then RWE) companies in SEE and Turkey; responsible for new market entry strategy.
Adnan Merhaba
Partner, Arthur D. Little
Merhaba brings extensive experience in consulting, technology and operations and specializes in corporate strategy, growth strategy, diversification and innovation strategy and management. He focuses on new energy (clean technology, renewables, energy storage, hydrogen, etc.) and emerging technology trends including digital technology.
Adnan advises both public and private-sector clients in the Middle East, Europe and South East Asia over the last 11 years. He advises clients on strategy, technology and innovation related matters, navigating through the energy transition and setting up new businesses for sustainable growth. He covers client in the energy domain (Oil & Gas, Power and Water Utilities), aerospace and defense, ministries and large diversified family conglomerates.
Carlo Stella
Partner, Arthur D. Little
Stella is Partner in the Dubai office, heads the Global Waste & Water Competence Center for the Energy, Resources and Environment Practice of Arthur D. Little. During his professional experience Carlo acquired an in-depth expertise in strategy, large scale transformations, governance as well as privatization and public private partnerships topics supporting public and private sector players in the GCC, Europe and Asia.
In particular, Carlo has been supporting public sector entities in transforming the waste management sector towards a sustainable/circular, self sustaining, private sector driven performance.
Katarina Uherova Hasbani
Partner and Global Director of Strategy and Advisory, AESG
Hasbani is AESG’s Partner and Global Director of Strategy and Advisory. She is an energy transition and sustainability professional with comprehensive experience in leadership positions across the value chain of the energy industry, encompassing utilities, oil and gas and renewables and large energy users.
Hasbani has spent 18 years designing strategies, public policies and implementing transformation projects across more than 30 countries in the Middle East, South-East Asia and Europe. Katarina covered cross-cutting themes shaping energy transition, including net zero, climate change, environmental protection, and sustainability.
Rashid Khursheed
Partner, PwC
Khursheed is a Partner at PwC in its Assurance business. He among others leads the ESG Reporting offering.
Jeffrey Beyer
Managing Director, Zest Associates
Beyer is the Managing Director of Zest Associates, a UAE-based sustainability consultancy focused on climate policy, cleantech innovation and green finance.
He works with governments and the private sector to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy, and has worked in over 20 countries to develop effective climate policies, identify cleantech product-market fit and unlock finance for renewables and energy efficiency.
Event partners
Meanwhile, two consulting firms have been appointed a partner of the event. PwC is one of the event’s two associate partners, while Anthesis Group is a strategic partner. Headline partner is Mashreq, one of the larger banks in the region.
The Arab Green Summit takes place from 21-22 June 2022 at Mövenpick Grand Al Bustan Dubai, UAE.
