Conference Speaker Biographies

Samantha Ölz is a Renewable Energy Policy Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA). She is the main author of the 2008 IEA publication Deploying Renewables: Principles for Effective Policies which provides an assessment of effectiveness and efficiency of renewable energy policies for electricity, heating and transport in OECD member countries and Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. She is currently working on extending the analysis of renewable energy potential and policies to countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Ms. Ölz previously worked for IT Power Ltd. in the United Kingdom as an Energy Policy Specialist on international projects. She managed projects on an international system of tradable renewable energy certificates (TRECs), European green power labelling schemes and on renewable energy financing in South-East Asia.

Ms. Ölz has experience in the policy and regulatory framework relating to renewable energy and electricity in Europe and Latin America, with a particular focus on Brazil. She has also worked on the financing and financial analysis of renewable energy projects.

Paul Dickerson, a recognized leader and sought-after speaker on issues of clean tech and energy efficiency, launched Haynes and Boone’s Clean Tech practice group in 2008. Paul, a partner who offices in the firm’s Houston and D.C. offices, returned to the firm to launch the group, a new concentration for the firm that builds upon the firm's broad experience in intellectual property, litigation, technology, financing and many other legal issues that companies in the nascent industry must face.

Paul served as Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) from 2006 until his return to Haynes and Boone (where he worked as an associate from 2000 to 2005). He oversaw the EERE’s $1.8 billion budget and helped move alternative and renewable energy technologies from the “vision” stage to real-world development.

Paul is knowledgeable on the pressing needs of the global energy market and regularly speaks about the tangible, real-world solutions that can be implemented now, from increasing efficiency, bio-fuels, solar and wind investments, to connecting venture capitalists with the cutting-edge scientific researchers in the field of sustainable energy.

He also served as Chief of Staff for the United States and Foreign Commercial Service at the U.S. Department of Commerce. While at the Commerce Department, Paul was responsible for day-to-day management of the Commercial Service’s worldwide network of 1,700 employees in 260 offices and for directing the implementation of the Commercial Service’s worldwide priorities and policies.

Paul has extensive experience with corporate turn-arounds and holds great knowledge about the new wave of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that will power America and the world in the 21st century. Under his leadership, the Department of Energy changed its direction toward commercialization of technology and quickened the pace of moving these groundbreaking energy solutions from the laboratory to the international marketplace.

He now helps Haynes and Boone clients as they continue to develop products and businesses in the Clean Tech arena, in the U.S. and abroad.

Paul, who is also a certified public accountant, has published numerous articles and frequently appears on the media circuit discussing politics, business, taxation, financing and other issues relevant to international trade and business. Through articles, interviews and speeches, he has appeared regularly in the local, statewide, nationwide and international press, including frequent citations in the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle.

Saif Al Sayari is currently working with ADNOC as a researcher at Imperial College, London.

Saif received his B.Sc. Degree in Petroleum engineering (with a minor in Math. and Geophysics) from the University of Tulsa, USA in 1999.

Subsequent to graduation he joined ADNOC as a reservoir engineer.

In 2003 Saif joined the Institue Français de Pétrole (IFP) for a Master of Science Program in collaboration with TOTAL and received his M.Sc. with honor in 2004 in Reservoir Geoscience and Engineering with a minor in Petroleum Economy.

He then joined Imperil College London where he pursued his Ph.D. studies in Earth Science and Engineering. His thesis was on “The Influence of Wettability and Carbon Dioxide Injection on Hydrocarbon Recovery”.

Saif has published in many reputed journals, and presented his work in different conferences such as; World Future Energy Summit, Society of Petroleum science and engineering, Society of core analysis, and SPWLA.  Saif Also received a number of awards during his professional and academic life.

In recent times, Saif is conducting studies from Imperial College in optimum recovery options using different injection schemes (Water-flooding and WAG) and comparing them with CO2 Injection.  He is also investigating the geological trapping of the CO2 in oil reservoirs.

Dr. Bakr Hamza Khoshaim is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a Power & Energy Consultant.

He is the former Director General of Electricity of the Western Regions in Saudi Arabia from 1987 – 2001 and former Solar  Program Director at KACST, KSA 1979-1987., Head of  Mech. Eng .Dept .at KSU 1975-1979.,and Vice-Dean  of Engineering 1977-1979.

He is now a member of the Al- Shura Council KSA. ,He was formerly  Chairman of the Committee for Projects Follow-Up and Budgeting for the Makkah region Council, and was member of the Solar Energy International Committee and the Board of Directors of the Electricity Corporation. Dr. Khoshaim has a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from King Saud University in 1968, followed by a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering  from Liverpool University, UK in 1972  and a PhD in  Mechanical Engineering, Liverpool University 1975. He has held positions as Assistant & Associate Professor at King Saud University .He is a member in the Saudi Eng. Committee 2001 and a member of the Board of Directors of GOSI  KSA. He has presented over 150 papers and articles on the topic of power generation.

Eckart Woertz heads the economic department at the Gulf Research Center (GRC) in Dubai, UAE, the leading think tank of the Gulf region. He has extensive experience in banking and finance and has held senior positions in financial services companies in Germany and the UAE, amongst them Delbrück & Co one of the oldest German private banks. His research interests include the political economy of the Middle East, financial markets and energy issues. Dr. Woertz is a regular contributor and commentator to major international and regional newspapers like the Financial Times, Forbes, Der Spiegel, The National or Gulf News.

He also appears regularly on Arabic, English and German speaking news channels like Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg or BBC. In February 2005, he published "The Role of Gold in the Unified GCC Currency", where he predicted a long-term bull market in the precious metal. In his GRC publication “GCC Stock Markets at Risk”, he warned at the beginning of 2006 about the following stock market crash in the GCC. He has also dealt extensively with petrodollar recycling, strategic foreign investments and the impact of the global financial crisis on the GCC countries.

A special interest of his in 2008 has been food inflation in the Gulf and GCC agro-investments abroad. He holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and a PhD in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he conducted research about structural adjustment politics in Egypt.

Born in 1944, Hermann Scheer graduated from highschool in 1964. He attended the Officers School of the German Federal Army from 1964 to 1966, serving as lieutenant during 1966-67. Hermann studied economics, sociology, political science and public law between 1967 and 1972 at the University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin. He received his PhD in Economic and Social Science in 1972.  Dr Scheer was appointed Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Stuttgart in the Faculty of Economics, 1972-76. He worked as system analysts at the German Nuclear Research Center from 1976-1980.

Dr Scheer was first elected member of the German Parliament in 1980, re-elected in 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2005. He served as Chairman of the Arms Control and Disarmament Committee 1990-93.  Since 1983 Hermann Scheer has been delegated by the German Parliament to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture between 1994 and 1997.  He holds a Doctor honoris causa, bestowed by the Technical University of Varna (Bulgaria).  Dr Scheer has chaired as well as initiated numerous international research and development conferences.

 His work has been honoured with the
    •     inaugural SolarWorld Prize (1998),
    •     inaugural World Prize on Bioenergy (2000),
    •     Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award, 1999), and the
    •     Gold Medal of the Union for Small Hydropower.
    •     TIME Magazine recognised him in 2002 as one of five “Heroes for the Green Century.”
    •     World Wind Energy Award 2004

Dr Scheer’s work is dedicated to a broad shift in the energy basis of modern civilization: from fossil and nuclear resources to renewable energies. He has demonstrated both necessity and feasibility of this transition in his five books: The Stored Sun (1987), The Solar Age (1989), Solar Strategy (1993), The Solar Economy (1999) and Climate Change. From the Fossil to the Solar Culture (2002). In addition, Dr Scheer has also authored more than one thousand articles.

The Solar Strategy (1993) has been published in eight languages; the English version is entitled "A Solar Manifesto". The Solar Economy (1999) is distributed in eleven languages; the English publication is “Solar Economy”. These two volumes are acknowledged as the most widely read books on renewable energy worldwide, combining new technological, economical and cultural issued with policy recommendations, from the local to the global scale. They suggest that the transition to renewable forms of energy with the aid of modern technologies will lead to a “solar information society.” This shift creates the most important and promising structural change of civilisation since the beginning of the industrial age and leads to manifold benefits for societies: mitigating climate change, and overcoming national security issues, addressing the mounting water crisis, cleaning the cities, improving the health of the people, revitalizing the agricultural economy, creating new industrial jobs and fighting underdevelopment and deprivation in the developing world.

In 1988 Dr Scheer founded the non-profit European Renewable Energy Association EUROSOLAR, and in 2001 the non-profit World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE), serving as President and. General Chairman, respectively, of the two non-governmental organizations on a honorary basis. Through these institutions Dr Scheer elaborated his original policy concepts for renewable energy disseminations, and initiated legal frameworks in Germany and the European Union. He has done so both in his capacity as a Member of Parliament, and by advising governments and parliamentarians in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In these roles Hermann Scheer’s most successful policy innovations have been accomplished:

• the fully implemented 100.000 photovoltaic solar energy roof programme, the world’s first mass implementation program;
• the German Renewable Energy Act with 16.000 MW installed decentralized renewable energy capacity below 5 MW per installation (including 14.000 MW wind energy capacity, 40% of total world wind power installations); and
• full tax exemption for all biofuels, affording a lower price level for renewable fuels when compared to fossil fuels.

The revolutionary German National Renewable Energy Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz, EEG) provides the major boost for the renewable energy technology industries sector, generating more than 150.000 new jobs and triggering annual renewable energy growth rates of 30 percent. Based on these exemplary results Brazil and China have recently adopted this policy as concept, adapting it to their own requirements.

Professor Ali Sayigh B Sc, DIC, AWP, Ph D, F Inst E, F IET

Chairman and founder of World Renewable Energy Congress and Council, Director General of World Renewable Energy Network (WREN) since 1990, aims and mission are on our website: www.wrenuk.co.uk. Chairman, Founder of the Arab Solar Energy Society, Past Chairman of the UK Solar Energy Society, Director of Solar Seminars at ICTP- Trieste, Italy between 1977-1995, Professor and head of Solar Energy in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Reading Universities from 1969 to 1994. Presently he is professor at the University of Hertfordshire.

Founding member of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), Sharjah, UAE, Fellow of the Institute of Energy; Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers; and Chartered Engineer. He published more than 400 papers and contributed and edited more than 30 books. He is editor and editor in chief of several international journals including the one which he founded in 1983 Solar and Wind Technology. This journal in 1990 is called The International Journal of Renewable Energy which is published by Elsevier Science Ltd. He established with Sovereign Publications the annual Renewable Energy Magazine since 2000, Co Editor-in-chief of ICPSR
Journal ”ISESCO Vision of Science and Technology”. Editor of International Journal of Environmental Sciences and Technology.

Rob Shamir, is the Chairman of the E & I Group, Director Global Sustainable Development and Environmental Programs and Director E&I Renewable Energies Inc. (Toronto, Canada).

Responsible for technology identification, evaluation and commerciality assessment; interface with US Department of Energy National Laboratories with regards to renewable energies (bio-fuels and biomass) and environmental technologies; as well as long-range strategic planning; and innovative strategic contract negotiation schemes. He manages all renewable energies and environmental operating units.

His key achievements include conceptualizing and negotiating a first of its kind $150 million USD sustainable bio-fuels (ethanol) concession/program in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cambodia and developing new negotiation strategies for renewable energies and food security projects in the developing world.

Prior to E&I Group, he worked for Philip Holzmann USA (Lockwood Greene) As a Senior Program Manager for Federal Environmental Programs, and as Manager of Geo-environmental & Modelling Division for Ogden Environmental & Energy Services (OEES) Inc.

Rob has a Masters degree in Sciences in Environmental Hydrogeology (Flow & Contaminant Transport Modeling) from the University of Kentucky – Lexington, Kentucky and a Bachelor of Sciences in Environmental and Engineering Geophysics.

Ali bin Towaih is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy & Environment Division, TECOM Investment as well as the Executive Director for Energy & Environment Park.

The Energy & Environment Division is mainly concerned with developing and implementing a Sustainable Development Policy for TECOM Investments across all of its projects in Dubai and internationally, which was developed and launched on August 2006. The policy consists of several elements such as: Green Buildings initiative for all TECOM Investment’s owned buildings as well as retrofitting the existing buildings, Energy and Water conservation programmes, sustainable procurement policy, and sustainable development training and awareness programme for TECOM Investments staff.

Part of his responsibility is to develop Dubai as the sustainable energy & environment hub in the region, which includes the development of new value added real estate for a free zone dedicated for Energy & Environment Industry (Enpark) (www.enpark.ae).

Ali bin Towaih is a member of the Emirates Energy Award Committee, the advisory board of the Engineering School in American University Dubai, and on the board of directors of Energy Management services Co. (EMS).

On July 2008, Ali bin Towaih has been unanimously elected as the new chairman for Emirates Green Building Council 2008 for one year. Previously he served in Dolphin Energy Limited as Marketing Manager and Operations Interface Manager (2002-2005). Bin Towaih was responsible for developing the gas marketing department and leading the department planning and operations. He has been heavily involved in the development of various gas sales and operations agreements with different governments. In addition, he worked at Emirates General Petroleum Corporation (EMARAT) (1993-2002) as Terminal Superintendent. He was managing the petroleum terminal as well as the LPG plant and distribution operations. He has a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from Boston – USA.

Dr. Emziane has  spent the past 15 years working in the area of semiconductor materials and devices with an emphasis on thin]film PV, TPV, CPV and tandem solar cells. He joined the Masdar Institute (Abu Dhabi) from Oxford University (UK), and he spent one year as a Visiting Scholar at MIT (USA). He held appointments at the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool and Durham in the UK, and as a Guest Scientist with Siemens in Germany. Dr. Emziane is co]owner of an IP right that was licensed to industry, and is author of tens of publications, technical reports, presentations and seminars. He is member of several international professional organisations, and also member of the Steering Committee of the Masdar PV Company (Abu Dhabi).

Sander Trestain is Enviromena’s Vice President – Technical and the main client liaison on all large scale Enviromena developments. Mr. Trestain has extensive project management experience and originally trained as a Mechanical Engineer in Canada. He has previously worked as a Consulting Engineer and Project Manager in the fire protection industry (AD Fire Protection, a subsidiary of Carboline) and PV solar industry (Enviromena Power Systems). Mr Trestain has in-depth experience working with large scale project RFP’s, contracts, schedules and correspondence from both the consultant side of preparation and the contractor side of execution and has managed the installation of over 10MW of solar photovoltaic systems in the last year alone.

Mr. Trestain currently hosts a fortnightly slot on Alternative Energy during Dubai Eye’s Business Tonight radio program.