Reinhold Mitterlehner, Federal Minister, Economy, Family & Youth, Austria

 Reinhold Mitterlehner is currently the Federal Minster of Econmy, Family and Youth for Austria, responsible for national energy stratgy and policy. From 1980 till 1992 Mr. Mitterlehner worked for the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber, where his last position was Head of the Marketing Department. From 1992 till 2000 he was Secretary General of the Austrian Economic League (Wirtschaftsbund) in Vienna and in July 2000 he became Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO). During his political career Reinold was a local councillor in Ahorn from 1991 till 1997 and from that position he went on to become a Member of the Austrian Parliament (National Council) on 8 February 2000, where he served as Chairman of the Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee from 2001 to 2008.  In May 2002 he became District Party Chairman of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) for the district of Rohrbach.

Reinhold Mitterlehner was born in 1955 in Helfenberg/Upper Austria, attended grammar school in Rohrbach and studied law in Linz; he also completed a post-graduate course in association management in Fribourg.

Alexander Novak, Russian Minister of Energy, Ministry of Energy, Russia

Alexander Novak was appointed Minister of Energy of Russian Federation in May 2012. He was awarded with the Order of Honour, letters of commendation of the President and the Government of Russian Federation. Between 1988-2000 Mr. Novak worked at the A. P. Zaveniagin Norilsk Mining & Metallurgical Combine (later the A. P. Zaveniagin Norilsk Mining & Metallurgical Combine, JSC). He was then promoted from a hydro metallurgist of the category 1 to a Deputy HR Director – Chief Management Officer of the Arctic branch in the Norilsk Mining Company, JSC.

During 2000-2002 he worked as a Deputy Chief majoring in Finances and Economics in Norilsk, as the First Deputy Chief of Norilsk. From 2002-2008 Alexander worked in the administration of Krasnoyarsk region: the Deputy Governor – Head of the Chief Financial Administration, the First Deputy Governor, the First Deputy Governor – Chairman of the Government. Since September, 2008 – the Deputy Minister of Finance of Russian Federation, since October, 2011 – a Member of Ministry of Finance Board.

Alexander Valentinovich Novak was born in August 23, 1971 in Avdeevka of Donetsk region in the USSR. He graduated from Norilsk Industrial Institute in 1993, Economics and Administration in Metallurgy Department, from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2009, majoring in Management.

Marc H. Hall, Director for Energy, Wiener Stadtwerke, Austria

Marc H. Hall is member of the executive board of the Wiener Stadtwerke Holding AG in charge of energy, research, technology and innovation. Prior to that he was executive director at Bayerngas, held positions at RWE Gas, RWE Energy and OMV and acted as advisor to the Austrian Minister of public economy and transportation. Hall studied civil engineering at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) and accomplished management trainings in Brussels, Oxford and Houston.

Philippe Cochet, President of Alstom Thermal Power and Executive Vice-President, Alstom

Philippe Cochet was appointed President of Alstom Thermal Power and Executive Vice-President of Alstom in July 2011. The Alstom Thermal Power Sector has sales of over €9 billion (in 2010/11) and 38,000 employees. It covers gas, steam and nuclear power generation as well as the service and automation & control activities.

Aged 51, Cochet is a graduate engineer from the CESTI (Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Techniques Industrielles). He began his career in 1986 as a consultant. From 1988 to 1994, he held different positions in Thomson Multimedia and at the end of 1994 he joined General Electric Medical Systems Europe (GEMS) where he was Vice-President Operations Europe, Vice-President Eastern Europe and Senior Vice-President X Ray division. In 2001 and 2002, he took charge of the environmental control business at Alstom. In 2003, he joined the Hager group as Executive Vice-President of Operations and a member of the board of Directors. Returning to Alstom in April 2006, Philippe Cochet was appointed Vice-President of Alstom Hydro and then of Alstom Hydro and Wind.