Ahmed Badr
Acting Director, Project Facilitation and Support
International Renewable Energy Agency

Ahmed Badr is the Acting Director of the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Project Facilitation and Support division (PFS), a new division that offers member countries dedicated project implementation support. Mr. Badr took up the position in April 2020 and brings more than 30 years of international experience in the field of banking and finance.

In his role, Mr. Badr is tasked with leading the development of the division, while spearheading the Agency’s implementation of the Climate Investment Platform, a multi-stakeholder platform in established in partnership with SE4All, the UNDP and in coordination with Green Climate Fund to streamline access to climate funding for developing countries and advance renewables deployment.

Prior to joining IRENA, Mr. Badr held several senior operational positions in the field of climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency, water and infrastructure projects in a number of multinational financial institutions, including the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Commission (EuropeAid), and Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Mr. Badr is certified a project infrastructure project manager, with a B.Sc in Civil Engineering and Master’s Degree in Infrastructure Economics from the Universite de Nates, France.

Mohammed Al Taani
Secretary General of Arab Renewable Energy Commission

Eng. Mohammed Al Ta’ani is the Secretary General of  Arab Renewable Energy Commission  (AREC)and the Vice Chairman of Jordanian Renewable Energy Society (JRES) & general manager . He is the founder of both JRES & AREC.  He was working in the field of Renewable Energy since 1988 (Solar PV &Green Building) as Project manager and researcher and publish more than 25 papers. From 1999-2007 he was the project manager for the Renewable energy in King Abdullah the Second Design & Development Bureau (KADDB). In 2002 he was the Project manager for the Jordanian Solar Car & Zero fossil Fuel House (Eco House for KADDB) Project manager. He was the Vice Director of Energy Center in Jordan University from 2007 until 2008 where he was working as the founder of this center. He was the founder of the Global Net for Renewable Energy in the Desert regions (GNREADER). Also was  the Chairman of Renewable energy committee in Jordan Institution for Standards & Metrology , Ambassador of the DONG energy solar challenge events in the middle-east countries (World Cup for Solar Powered Boats). Member in the board of directors of renewable energy center in Philadephia university.

Dr. James Watterson
Fellow Member
Institute of Operation’s Management UK

Dr. James Watterson is a highly experienced consultant and trainer with over 35 years’ experience in various disciplines: engineering, maintenance, marketing, project and contract management.

Professional Memberships

• Fellow of the Institute of Operation’s Management
• Fellow of the Royal Graphical Society
• Member of British Institute of Management
• Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics & Transport
• Member of the American Society for Quality

Education

• Currently a visiting lecturer with Newcastle University in Newcastle-Upon- Tyne
• Belfast College of Technology
• FTC (HNC) Mechanical Engineering
• DMS (British Institute of Management)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Major: Mechanical Engineering)

Industry Experience

• Oil & Gas Refineries
• Petrochemical Refineries
• Power Plants
• Mining Industry
• Fertilizer Plants

Mr. Shah Jahan Mirza
Managing Director
Private Power & Infrastructure Board
Ministry of Energy (Power Division) Government of Pakistan

Shah Jahan Mirza is currently serving as Managing Director, PPIB. He is a graduate in Investment Management from Cass Business School London and master in Business Administration from Pakistan having more than 34 years’ professional experience in the areas of evaluation, development and financing of large scale power generation and infrastructure projects, facilitation of investors, strategic management, policy formulation, public procurement, contract administration, tariff structuring, regulatory affairs, etc.

During the last five years as Managing Director PPIB, he was instrumental in adding power generation capacity of 9,000 MW to the national grid of Pakistan mainly through private sector investments. Currently PPIB is managing 39 commissioned IPPs of 17,449 MW having investment of around US$ 20 billion while 26 multiple fuel-based power projects of 12,550 MW and One HVDC Transmission Line Project are under development. Target is to add another 5,600 MW to the national grid by Year 2022. PPIB is also acting as front runner institution in implementing major chunk of China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC) Energy Projects.

Tuan Vu
Digital Asset Strategies
Power Link Australia

Tuan Vu is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Engineers Australia, a Chartered Professional Engineer, a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland and an International Professional Engineer, Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours), Master of Systems Engineering – Specialised in Complex Electrical Systems, and is currently undertaking PhD research in the field of Power System Harmonics and System Modelling for Major Loads. Tuan is member of Standards Australia Committees and Joint Standards Australia/New Zealand Committees, and an Australian Delegate for IEC TC 57 / WG 10.

Tuan has more than 21 years of experience in the electricity supply industry. He has extensive practical knowledge in SCADA, Control Systems, Voltage Control and Reactive Power Compensation (SVC and STATCOM) covering a wide range of disciplines, including technical specification, design, contract and project management, construction, commissioning, investigation and training. From 2004 to 2010, Tuan was the Technical Project Manager, Technical Superintendent Representative and SVC Subject Matter Expert for 16 SVC projects with total project budget in excess of $235M. He has successfully led a number of major technical investigation tasks identifying the main contributing factors to a wide range of equipment and power systems faults or mal-operation associated with SVC and Volt-VAr control systems. He has presented a number of papers on the subjects of SCADA, Control Systems, Power Systems Harmonics, Voltage Control, Reactive Power (VArs) Management and SVC projects at CIGRE and CIRED conferences. Tuan also delivered training courses and provided consultant services to utilities
and industrial customers.