Mr. Abdesselam Ould Mohamed Saleh holds a degree in economics from the Faculty of Law and Economics of Tunis, a postgraduate degree (DEA) in economics (development economics) from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (France) and a diploma awarded in Paris by the National School of Administration (ENA) at the end of an international cycle of public administration.

He began his career in 1985 as Head of the Projects Department, before becoming Deputy Director of Finance and External Debt at the Mauritanian Ministry of Economy and Finance, from 1988 to 1989. From 1989 to 1991, he held the position of Principal Advisor to the Ministry of Planning and Employment and from 1991 to 1992, that of Director of Planning responsible for the coordination and formulation of economic development programs within the same Ministry. From 1992 to 1997 he was Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, then in 1997 he was appointed Minister of Fisheries and Marine Economy and in 1998 he became the first Commissioner for Human Rights, the fight against poverty and reintegration within the framework of the newly created Commission in Mauritania. From 2001 to 2003, he worked as an international consultant on development issues. Mr. Ould Mohamed Saleh joined FAO in 2003 as the Organization’s Representative in Lebanon, before becoming Representative in Togo in 2006. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East and FAO Representative in Egypt. In 2010, he was appointed Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in Geneva, then Regional Representative for the Near East on September 30, 2012. Mr. Abdesselam Ould Mohamed Saleh was appointed Minister of Petroleum, Mines and Energy of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in August 2020.

Ahmed Mortada is a Senior Banker (Associate Director) at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), responsible for the Energy Sector for the EBRD in Egypt. This includes all investment-related activities mainly in the field of green hydrogen production, renewable energy generation, transmission and networks, through the provision of different financial instruments that span from project finance, corporate loans, equity and quasi-equity.  Prior to the EBRD, Ahmed was part of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Advisory Services team, analysing loan book portfolios of regional banks and advising them on developing their SME banking platforms. Ahmed also brings along years of investment banking experience, having worked on multiple mergers and acquisitions and fund raising exercises at Pharos Investment Banking. Ahmed started his career at Ernst & Young – Transaction Advisory Services, conducting independent financial due diligence and third-party equity valuations on target companies. Ahmed is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a holds a Bachelor of Accounting from the American University in Cairo.

The Honorable Amarjeet Sohi is the Mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He immigrated to Canada at the age of 17, worked as a bus driver for the Edmonton Transit System and was an active member of the Transit Employee Union. He was elected to Edmonton City Council in 2007, serving for eight years before being elected as a Member of Parliament for Edmonton’s Mill Woods riding. During that time, he served as Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources from 2018 to 2019 and Minister of Infrastructure and Communities from 2015 to 2018. On 18 October 2021, he became the first person of a racialized minority to be elected Mayor of Edmonton.

Andrea S. Santos is a Brazilian Professor, 43 yrs, member of the “Women in Green Hydrogen
Network”. Andrea has Eighteen years of significant experience in the environmental area. She
has been working with sustainability and climate change issues, including public policy on
climate change, and the development of studies and projects for national and international
institutions. Biologist, Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering, Ph.D. from COPPE – Alberto Luiz
Coimbra Institute of Graduate Studies and Engineering Research of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ (2014); Master in Sustainable Development from the Center for Sustainable Development of the University of Brasília – UnB (2008); Bachelor in Biological Sciences from the Catholic University of Salvador (2001).

She was the coordinator of Climate Change and Sustainability in the Secretariat of Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Ministry of Environment (SMCQ-MMA). She was a consultant at the Executive Secretariat of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change and was hired by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-Brazil) to develop management and technical consulting activities for the project. She is currently the Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change. She acts as a senior consultant in the areas of environment, climate change policies; climate change (mitigation; vulnerabilities, impacts, adaptation; and resilience of cities); Smart cities; transportation, and sustainability. She also has consolidated experience in project and people management. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor at COPPE/UFRJ, researcher and coordinator of the Sustainable Transport Lab (LabTS), and vice coordinator of the Transportation Engineering Program – PET/COPPE/ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in the research lines on Technology and Sustainability in Transportation; Cities and mobility; and works in the area of Impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation in the transportation sector. She is the coordinator of the Green Hydrogen Project supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Brazil. Andrea was Contributing Author of the Sixth Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Contributing Author of the Third Assessment Report (ARC3.3) of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) of Columbia University.

As Founder and Executive Chairman, Dr Andrew Forrest has led Fortescue from inception to a top ten ASX listed natural resources company that has invested more than US$30 billion developing some of the world’s most efficient infrastructure.

Fortescue will become zero-emissions across its operations by 2030. Key to enabling that is FFI. Established in 2020, FFI is a developer, financier and operator of a global portfolio of renewable energy resources to produce green energy at a scale equal to the oil and gas super-majors. Fortescue has been globally recognised for its industry leading work to decarbonise and has been appointed to the UN Race to Zero Coalition and the US President’s First Movers’ Coalition.

Dr Forrest’s commercial business, Tattarang, is backing new renewable green energy projects, including Windlab wind power and Sun Cable solar power, and expanding sustainable and carbon-neutral practices within agrifood business Harvest Road. Dr Forrest has a PhD in Marine Ecology from the University of Western Australia, and serves as an IUCN Patron of Nature, a World Economic Forum Friend of Ocean Action and a member of the United Nations Environment Program’s Scientific Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Marine Litter and Microplastics.

Dr Forrest holds the Australia Medal, the Australian Sports Medal and was appointed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Australia to develop a blueprint for eliminating Australia’s Indigenous social and economic disparity through health, training and employment.

He is also Co-Chair of the Australia-China Senior Business Leaders’ Forum, Global Patron of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and served as a Councillor of the Global Citizen Commission charged by the United Nations in 2016 to modernise the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 2017, Dr Forrest was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to philanthropy, mining, employment and sustainable foreign investment.

FFI is leading the green industrial revolution, developing technology solutions for hard-to-decarbonise industries, while investing in green hydrogen and green ammonia projects – recently announcing it will partner with Germany’s largest energy distributor to supply five million tonnes of green energy per year to Europe by 2030.

In 2001, Dr Forrest co-founded Minderoo Foundation with his wife Nicola, and to date they have donated more than $2.7 billion supporting initiatives addressing modern slavery, ocean health, cancer, Indigenous disparity, childhood development, artificial intelligence, disaster resilience and plastic waste.

Andrew Kamau is the Principal Secretary for Petroleum and Mining in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, charged with technical undertaking on behalf of the Government of Kenya in the areas of Oil, Gas, and Mining. He has a wealth of experience in the energy sector having worked in energy trading, oil and gas operations, and the mining sector for over 30 years.
Believing in steadfast leadership to deliver complex projects, Andrew has spearheaded several Government initiatives that have benefitted Kenyans. His vantage has allowed him insight on how to structure, negotiate, and navigate interventions that have lasting and positive impact. Among his greatest accomplishments in this regard, Andrew championed the rapid uptake of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a primary cooking fuel and moving the per capita consumption from 3kg to 7.5kg in eight (8) years. This initiative contributed to reduction of households reliant on charcoal and firewood as a cooking fuel and reduced serious indoor pollution incidence among vulnerable women and children.
Andrew advocated for initiatives to shift the transportation of most refined petroleum products from road to rail and lake barges, thereby reducing costs and the carbon footprint. He oversaw the construction of a new rail siding, connecting the Kenya Pipeline Storage to the Port of Kisumu, allowing for the transportation of refined petroleum products by rail barges from Kenya to Port Bell in Uganda. Relatedly, he led the team working on the rehabilitation of the long defunct Nairobi- Nanyuki rail line, allowing for fuel, agricultural goods, and passengers to be transported after nearly 30 years’ absence.

As a presenter and journalist, Anic van Damme makes TV programs and podcasts about technology and innovation and helps companies with their content strategy.

She does this for Accenture, Signify and Eneco eMobility.

Previously Anic worked for different national broadcasters in the Netherlands such as NOS and RTL, where she also was Head of Video for Bright, the tech platform of RTL.

The documentary ‘Hydrogen, our new energy?’ that she presented for National Geographic was broadcasted on TV last fall.

Anic loves tech that helps the world move forward. She would like to enthuse as many people as possible about the latest technological innovations and the impact they can have on our lives.

Antonio M.A. Pedro is the Acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Africa’s premier thought leadership institution focused on generating knowledge and applying policy research in support of accelerated economic diversification and structural transformation. A mineral exploration geologist with more than 40 years’ experience, Pedro has broad experience of and exposure to international development issues and management at national, sub-regional, and continental levels.

He has been involved in the promotion of regional integration and cooperation on the continent since 1984. He was Managing Director of several companies in Mozambique and Deputy National Director of the country’s Geological Survey.

Pedro spearheaded the formulation of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) which was adopted by the African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in February 2009. The vision advocates for “transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development”.  Pedro was appointed Acting Executive Secretary on 1 September 2022 and is also the Deputy Executive Secretary (Programme Support), following his appointment to this role in 2021. Prior to this, he was the Director of ECA’s Sub-regional Office for Central Africa based in Yaoundé (2016-2021), where he successfully led the organization of the DRC-Africa Business Forum aimed at deepening DRC and Africa’s participation in the battery and electric vehicle value chain. 

As the Director of the ECA Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa, based in Kigali, Rwanda (2009-2016), he provided thought leadership and helped elucidate pathways and design practical tools and integrated solutions on issues of sustainable development and structural transformation, governance of natural resources, tourism, blue economy, ICT and infrastructure development, and regional integration.  Prior to joining ECA, he was the Director General of the Southern and Eastern African Mineral Centre (SEAMIC), in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he led the modernization and corporate restructuring process of the institution.

He is a member of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and Co-Chair of the SDSN Thematic Network on the Good Governance of Extractive and Land Resources (TG10). He is a former member of the International Resources Panel (IRP), and at the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Mining and Metals of the World Economic Forum (WEF).