Sofia University,
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Lecturer of MREA 2023 and 2024 editions

Scroll down to read moreAss.Prof. Dr. Mariya Trifonova brings 13 years of experience with Renewable Energy Sources (RES) technologies. She is also deputy director of Net-Zero Lab and lecturer at FEBA where she teaches RES and biofuels, Sustainable development of energy systems, Green and circular economy. Her Ph.D. focuses on institutional factors for RES development in three EU countries, and she has also conducted various studies on social acceptance of renewable energy technologies. Dr. Trifonova is the author of the first techno-economic assessment of offshore wind energy potential in the Bulgarian section of the Black Sea based on nation-specific data and was part of the working group that drafted the offshore wind legislative act in Bulgaria. She is a member of the steering committee of ETIPWind and former coordinator of the BLUECEE initiative aimed at establishing the Black Sea Renewable Energy Coalition, replicating Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature (OCEAN). Dr. Trifonova is also a member of the research team of the Horizon-funded JustWindforAll and she served as co-chair of the Energy Transition Commission, a sub-committee of the Bulgarian Ministerial Council’s Advisory Body on the European Green Deal. Dr. Trifonova co-authored knowledge pieces on sustainable renewable energy deployment for Cohesion4Transition community of practice (DG Region).

Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult,
United Kingdom

Lecturer of MREA 2024

Scroll down to read moreDr. Magnus Harrold is the Senior Marine Energy Technical Manager at the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the UK’s leading technology innovation and research centre for offshore renewable energy. He leads on ORE Catapult’s marine energy activity, managing a range of collaborative R&D projects to support the development of wave and tidal technologies, as well as projects that investigate and provide evidence of the wider benefits of marine energy to influence policymakers.Magnus has an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in offshore renewable energy, with his thesis focusing on the design, development and testing of one of the world’s first full-scale tidal stream turbines. He is also a Chartered Engineer and a member of IEC’s Technical Committee 114, where he contributes his knowledge and experience to the development of international standards for the marine energy sector.

Blue Cluster, Belgium

Lecturer of MREA 2024

Scroll down to read moreAnn Overmeire is Chief Operation Officer at Blue Cluster, a Belgium-based cluster focused on sustainable blue economy with over 180 industry members and 17 public funded partners. Recognised as a spearhead cluster by the Flemish government, Blue Cluster has a dedicated budget for innovation projects. Ann engages with the members and stakeholders and is responsible for the networking agenda as well as the international projects. She assists the CEO in the daily management of the cluster organisation.

Danish Technology University (DTU), Denmark

Lecturer of MREA 2024

Ashal Tyurkay is an architect with an MSc in Environmental Control and Construction Technologies. She has developed a performance evaluation framework in building and architectural detail design, supporting teaching activities in sustainable building systems and consultancy work for companies. She is experienced both in research and commercial projects, having been worked in Turkey, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark in various universities, architecture firms, and construction and facade design companies. Her portfolio ranges from multi-functional facade panels to co-creating Nature-Based Solutions for urban regeneration.She is currently working at DTU Sustain towards a PhD in Circular Construction Materials. Her main focus is incorporating circular economy principles in the end-of-life management for wind turbine blades. She has assessed the readiness of the wind industry for sustainable decommissioning and explores the environmental, economic, and social impacts of using blade waste in the development of innovative construction materials.

Cierco, United Kingdom

Lecturer of MREA 2024

Alex Gauntt brings more than 20 years’ experience in the concept, development and realisation of renewable energy projects globally. Currently he is the Supply Chain Director of Cierco Energy, developers of floating and fixed bottom offshore wind projects globally. The Cierco portfolio includes the Llŷr 1 & 2 floating wind projects situated around 40 km from the Pembrokeshire, Wales coast, the CADEMO floating wind project off California West Coast USA (within State Waters) as well the ForthWind project off Scotland. The projects will be fully operational before 2030. Having spent more than 20 years in the offshore & onshore renewable energy sectors, with over a decade experience in the offshore wind subsea supply-chain, Alex joined Cierco in 2021 to explore exciting new opportunities to unlock supply-chain innovations and add value for fixed & floating wind projects globally. Alex holds an MSc with Distinction in the Commercial Practice for the Energy Sectors and an MBA.
Company Profile: Cierco is a technology independent renewable energy project developer. Cierco is an early-stage developer accelerating the global development of the renewables industry in multiple geographical locations, with a specialism in offshore wind. Cierco is aiming to accelerate commercial floating wind power through step-wise demonstrations and semi-commercial projects. Cierco will achieve this using next generation turbine platforms with production capacities at 15MW and above, aiming to unlock the renewables potential of new markets globally.

Sirris, Belgium
The innovation companion of the Belgian technological industry

Lecturer of MREA 2024

Scroll down to read moreBram Cloet has over 15 years of experience in the energy sector and currently serves as a Senior Engineer in Energy Transition Industry at Sirris an OWI-Lab, where he focuses on innovation and advancing sustainable energy solutions such as offshore wind and floating solar. In this role he supports innovation by setting up projects aimed at developing new sustainable technologies, by organizing and executing challenging tests for component suppliers and OEMs to validate prototypes or components under extreme climatic conditions.
Prior to his current position, Bram was a Nuclear Electrical Design Engineer at Tractebel (Syngenia) from July 2017 to May 2021. Here, he was responsible for designing, testing and commissioning new low voltage switchboards for Belgian nuclear power plants and determining power supply cables for electrical equipment within the power plants.
From September 2007 to June 2017, Bram worked at CG Power Systems Belgium in various roles, including Project Engineer, Team Leader of Automation, and Team Leader of Electrical R&D Projects. His work involved designing and testing custom high voltage distribution transformers and wind turbine generator transformers, managing teams of project engineers and software developers, overseeing the design of large power transformers, and leading special and strategic projects across multiple international plants.
ir. Bram Cloet holds a Master’s degree in Electro Mechanical Engineering, with a specialization in Electrical Energy, from KULeuven in Belgium, earned in 2007. Additionally, he completed the Avantha Young Executive Programme in General Management at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India, which included coursework in organizational behaviour, financial management, global economics, marketing, project management, entrepreneurship, operations management, and strategy.

Ignitis Renewables, Lithuania

Lecturer of MREA 2024

Scroll down to read moreAnu Eslas is a distinguished leader in the Baltic Sea and Baltic States energy sector, known for her passionate advocacy of offshore wind energy. Over the past decade, she has played a pivotal role in enhancing energy cooperation in the region. Anu has held prominent positions including CEO of the Wind Energy Association in Estonia, Head of Offshore Wind at the Estonian Ministry of Communication, and VP for Offshore Wind Development in the Baltic States at RWE. She has also spearheaded the ELWIND offshore wind project, a groundbreaking cross-border initiative between Estonia and Latvia, and represented Estonia in the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) initiatives. Currently, Anu serves as the Head of International Business Development at Ignitis Renewables, a leading green energy company in the Baltics based in Lithuania. Her work focuses on strengthening collaboration among Baltic Sea countries as they navigate the transformative changes in the region's energy landscape.

Technical University of Denmark,
Department of Wind and Energy Systems Society, Market and Policy

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Niels-Erik Clausen works at DTU Wind Energy with planning and development of wind farms, icing of wind turbines, environmental impact and social acceptability of wind energy. He has been project manager or coordinator of various research projects in this field. Since 2007 he has been teaching planning and development of wind farms as a part of DTU’s two-year MSc programme, where he is a head of the study board. Dr. Clausen brings 15 years of experience working as a mechanical engineer in the private sector before joining DTU.

University of Leeds,
School of Civil Engineering

Dr Anne Velenturf works in the Resource Recovery from Waste programme (RRfW) at the University of Leeds where her main role is to facilitate collaboration between their academic, government and industry partners. She is currently Senior Research Fellow in Circular Economy in the School of Civil Engineering. Across the UK, she works with foundation industries such as cement, metals, glass, paper, ceramics and chemicals who manufacture 75% of materials in our economy. Internationally, Anne supports the embedding of circular economy approaches in the wind industry. Dr. Velenturf has explored in her recent research projects circular economy practices into the design, operation and end-of-use management of offshore. She holds various advisory positions for government, research councils and industry within and outside the UK wind infrastructure.

University of Aberdeen,
School of Engineering

Dr Srinivas Sriramula is a Reader in the School of Engineering at the University of Aberdeen, UK. He is Chartered Engineer (CEng, MIMechE) with research interests broadly focused on the development of data-driven risk and reliability modelling approaches for engineering infrastructure, with a focus on energy transition. He has led and been leading industry-funded projects on risk-informed long-term performance of derogated infrastructure at the National Decommissioning Centre, funded through the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC). Dr Sriramula has led an Innovate UK funded KTP project to enhance the reliability of safety-critical components, which was rated ‘Outstanding’ by the KTP panel (2022). He has previously collaborated with Lloyd's Register in developing safety factors for offshore wind turbine structures and contributed towards the research activities of the Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF) Centre for Safety & Reliability engineering at Aberdeen.

Georgetown University

Dr. Maria Petrova is an environmental scientist at Georgetown University, USA. She completed a Ph.D. in environmental science at Oregon State University, where she focused on examining public opinion on the introduction of wave energy in the state of Oregon. She holds an M.A. in marketing, advertising, and public relations from the University of Sheffield and a B.A. in business administration from the American University in Bulgaria.Petrova’s research and course topics include environmental science and policy, climate change, sustainability, and renewable energy. She serves as a section co-editor of the UC Press journal Case Studies in the Environment and is an associate of Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

University of Strathclyde,
Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering

Dr. Maurizio Collu is a Professor in Offshore Renewable Energy Engineering at the NAOME Department of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His area of expertise is applied mechanics, focusing in particular on multidisciplinary, coupled model of dynamics for offshore renewable energy systems. He develops conceptual and preliminary design methodologies for offshore renewable energy systems.
Prof. Collu is currently the Principal Investigator of one of the five EPSRC Joint UK-China Offshore Renewable Energy flagship projects (INNO-MPP). His research group is focusing on the development of multi-purpose offshore platforms for the sustainable development of small/isolated communities, exploiting the synergies among offshore renewable energy and aquaculture industries. He also contributes to “The Blue Growth Farm” project, focusing on the development and demonstration of an automated, modular and environmentally friendly multi-functional platform for open sea farm installations of the Blue Growth Industry.
Prof. Collu sits on several international committees, including the ITTC Specialist Committee on Hydrodynamic Modelling of Marine Renewable Energy Devices and the OMAE Ocean Renewable Energy technical committee.

Independent Consultant, Practitioner

Jørgen Nellemose is a practitioner with over twenty years of industry experience working in the energy and renewables industry.
He currently acts as Lender's Technical Advisor on large-scale on-/offshore wind power and solar projects and has a vast international experience within the due diligence process, supporting and providing market input to investment projects and business development initiatives, globally, to stakeholders such as developers, utilities, banks, and pension funds.
Mr. Nellemose led a variety of technical and commercial projects across Scandinavia, the UK, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, the USA, Mexico, Panama, Columbia, the Middle East, Togo, Nigeria, Angola, Rwanda, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China.
He has developed a new cutting-edge risk management framework (incl. qualitative and quantitative risk assessments and stress testing) supporting several projects in Europe and Southeast Asia to advise developers how to improve bids/competitiveness, decrease insurance premiums and be in control, cost- and timewise, through all project phases. Mr. Nellemose is one of the initiators of the creation of the Global Wind Organisation.

Marine Management Organisation (MMO), UK

Dr. Rachel Brown is a Marine Planning Manager at the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in England. She completed her PhD in marine ecology at York University, where she focused on the impacts of climate change and fishing on benthic communities. She has worked in marine planning at the MMO for a decade, leading the programme of work to deliver marine plans for English waters by 2021. The MMO is responsible for preparing, implementing, monitoring marine plans for English waters and supporting marine spatial planning programmes internationally. Dr Brown leads marine plan development work, including evidence and developmental projects. She is currently leading developmental work to further marine spatial prioritisation in English waters focused on how the long-term deployment of offshore wind impacts can be optimised.