Events

Chi Kong Chyong

Research Associate, Judge Business School and Director of Energy Policy Forum, University of Cambridge

Background: Kong holds a PhD in Energy Economics and Policy from Cambridge Judge Business School and an MPhil in Technology Policy from Cambridge. Before coming to Cambridge, he worked as a researcher at the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine. Since completing his PhD, Kong has been a research associate at EPRG working mostly on natural gas market modelling and Eurasian gas trade relations as well as on energy infrastructure investment.

Research Interest: Energy markets modelling, particularly equilibrium modelling of natural gas markets; investment under uncertainties and real options analysis, particularly energy infrastructure investment; Russian strategic natural gas export policy; Russo-Ukrainian energy relations; Russia-CIS-Central Asia natural gas trade.

David Koranyi

Director, Eurasian Energy Futures Initiative, Atlantic Council

David Koranyi is the Director of the Eurasian Energy Futures Initiative of the Atlantic Council. He has been a Nonresident Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Centre for Transatlantic Relations since 2010. Mr. Koranyi speaks and publishes on the geopolitics of energy, and Hungarian, European, and US foreign and energy policy.

Mr. Koranyi served as Undersecretary of State and Chief Foreign Policy and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, Gordon Bajnai (2009-2010). He worked in the European Parliament as Chief Foreign Policy Adviser and Head of Cabinet of a Hungarian MEP (2004-2009). Previously he was a Political Adviser at the Hungarian National Assembly and a Junior Researcher at GKI Economic Research Institute, in Budapest, Hungary.

Mr. Koranyi is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Hungarian Europe Society. He was a member of the Hungarian NATO Strategic Concept Special Advisory Group in 2009, the recipient of the German Marshall Fund's Marshall Memorial Fellowship (2010), Marshall Memorial Fellow Selection Board Member (2011), and beneficiary of the French Foreign Ministry's Personalities of the Future Fellowship (2012).

Mr. Koranyi pursued undergraduate studies in political economy and business administration and obtained a master's degree in international relations and economics, with a major in foreign affairs from the Corvinus University of Budapest.

Gonzalo Escribano

Energy and Climate Change Program

Gonzalo Escribano has a PhD in Economics and Business Studies from the Complutense University of Madrid and Professor of Economic Policy in the Department of Applied Economics at the National University of Distance Education. He has been a visiting researcher at Florida State University and the Autonomous University of Madrid, and associate at the Center for International Relations at the Ortega y Gasset Foundation. He has participated in several international research projects, such as the Seventh Framework Programme of the EU and four FEMISE projects of the European Commission or the research prize of the Economic and Social Council.

His research agenda focuses on international energy issues as the external dimension of the Spanish and European energy policy, geopolitics and geo-economics of energy, energy security, renewable energy, and the interaction of energy resources to development Economic producing countries, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, issues on which he has published hundreds of academic papers in Spanish and foreign journals and monographs.

Jane Nakano

Senior Fellow, Energy and National Security Program, Center for Strategic and International studies

Jane Nakano is a senior fellow in the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her areas of research include energy security issues in Asia, global nuclear energy trends, and global natural gas market dynamics. Prior to joining CSIS in 2010, Nakano was with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and served as the lead staff on U.S. energy engagements with China and Japan. She was responsible for coordinating DOE engagement in the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, U.S.-China Energy Policy Dialogue, and U.S.-Japan Energy Dialogue. She also worked on U.S. energy engagement with Indonesia, North Korea, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. From 2001 to 2002, she served at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo as special assistant to the energy attaché. Nakano’s recent publications include “The United States and China: Making Nuclear Energy Safer” (Brookings, July 2013); Prospects for Shale Gas Development in Asia (CSIS, August 2012); “Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation between the United States and Japan” (Stimson, February 2012); and “Rare Earth Trade Challenges and Sino-Japanese Relations” (National Bureau of Asian Research, September 2011). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Luca Franza

Researcher, Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP)

In 2011, Luca was a visiting Researcher at Transparency International Azerbaijan, Baku. Then, in 2012, he joined CIEP in the Hague. Luca focusses on natural gas markets. His main research projects have been on gas monetization options in East Africa, pricing of natural gas in long-term import contracts and the impact of South Stream's replacement with Turk Stream. He regularly provides energy training and lectures to government officials and employees in the oil and gas sector and participates in international conferences and workshops. His main areas of research are natural gas/LNG supply and demand, European gas markets, pricing, and the societal, macroeconomic and geopolitical dimensions of energy. Luca is also a lecturer at SciencesPo, Paris (International and European Gas Markets).

Luca received a Master in International Security with specializations in Energy and Russia/FSU, Summa Cum Laude (SciencesPo, Paris, 2012) and a Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations, Cum Laude (LUISS University, Rome, 2010)

Coby van der Linde

Director, the Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP)

1984-2005: University of Leiden (Assistant Professor International Economic Relations; 1991, Associate Professor International Economic Relations; 1995-1998 Jean Monnet professor of European Economic Integration; 2000-2005, (part-time) Professor International Political Economy and International Oil Markets).

1990-1996: Guest Researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; the Energy and Environment Programme, the Royal Institute for International Affairs ‘Chatham House’, Londen; Visiting Domingo Moreno Professor, Colorado School of Mines, Golden Colorado, USA; (part-time) Professor International Oil Markets at the University of Amsterdam.

1998-2011: (part-time) senior research fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, The Hague.

2001- : Director of the Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP).

2004- : (part-time) Professor of Geopolitics and Energy Management at the University of Groningen.

Giacomo Luciani

Adjunct Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

In addition to his role as adjunct professor, Giacomo Luciani is co-director of the Executive Master in Oil and Gas Leadership at the Institute. He is also Scientific Director of the Master in International Energy of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences-Po and a Princeton University Global Scholar attached to the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Near Eastern Studies. He is Senior Advisor to the Gulf Research Center and in this context serves as the Team Leader in the EU-GCC Clean Energy Network Project. He is also actively involved in the POLINARES FP7 research project.

In 2007-10 he was Director, The Gulf Research Center Foundation, Geneva. In 1997-2010, he was Adjunct Professor of International Relations at the SAIS Johns Hopkins University Bologna Centre. From 2000-06, he was Professor of Political Economy and co-director of the Mediterranean Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. In this time, he directed the EUROGULF project within the SYNERGY program and participated in several other EU-supported projects (INDES, ENCOURAGED, MEDSUPPLY, EUROGULFHCT)

Houda Allal

General Director, Observatoire Méditerranéen de l'Energie (OME)

Dr. Allal joined OME in1992 and is currently the General Director of OME. Her fields of expertise mainly relate to energy prospects, renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable development in the Mediterranean region.

Mrs. Allal occupied several functions within OME, most recent ones being successively Director of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development and Director Strategy.

Dr. Allal has a graduate degree in energy economics from Institut Français du Pétrole, the University of Paris2/Assas and the University of Dijon (France). She also holds a PhD from the Ecole des Mines de Paris.

Ayla Gürel

Senior Research Consultant, PRIO Cyprus Centre

​​​​Since 2005 she has worked on several research projects about the plight of displaced persons on both sides of the island and the associated question of property rights within the context of the Cyprus problem. She has numerous publications related to these topics. Gürel has also been involved in facilitating inter-communal dialogue on property issues, including at the level of the UN-sponsored negotiations for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem. Recently she has led a PRIO Cyprus Centre team on a project entitled ‘Internal Displacement in Cyprus: Mapping the Consequences of Civil and Military Strife’, (www.prio-cyprus-displacement.net). Her more recent research engagement concerns the issue of hydrocarbons exploration and exploitation offshore Cyprus.

Gürel was part of the bi-communal team that carried out in 2003-2004 PRIO’s public information project on the so-called Annan Plan (the UN Plan for ‘the Comprehensive Settlement of the Cyprus Problem’). The project, which covered both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, was aimed at dissemination of objective and easily understood information on the Plan before it was put to separate simultaneous referenda on both sides of the island on 24 April 2004. Project’s activities included running a website (www.prio.no/cyprusdecides), production and distribution of booklets and leaflets, holding of public seminars and discussion, and TV and radio presentations.

Wenran Jiang

Project Director, Canada-China Energy and Environment Forum, Special Advisor to Alberta Minister of Energy, and Senior Fellow of Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada 

Dr. Wenran Jiang is the Director of Canada-China Energy and Environment Forum and its annual conference since 2004. Currently, he is Special Advisor to the Alberta Department of Energy on Asian market diversification, Senior Fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Wilson Centre Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Special Advisor on China to the US and Canada based Energy Council, and President of Wenya Group Inc.

Before taking a partial leave from his tenure at the University of Alberta’s Department of Political Science, Dr. Jiang was the Founding Director (2005-08) and Inaugural Mactaggart Research Chair (2008-11) of the University’s China Institute. Traveling to China very frequently, and other parts of the world with field research, Dr. Jiang has written extensively on the rise of China and its impact on the Chinese political economy and the rest of the world, with a major focus on the shifting balance of power in the global economy, international finance and energy and resource sectors. Dr. Jiang has advised government agencies, private companies in energy, mining, forestry and agricultural sectors on Asian market access and how to engage China. He is currently completing a book on energy security and Chinese foreign policy.

Dick de Jong

Senior Fellow, the Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP)

Dick had a lifelong career at Royal Dutch Shell, in various positions in natural gas. He holds and an Msc Mathematics from Delft University

Philippe Copinschi

Science Po, IEP

Dr Copinschi is an expert on international and African energy issues. He wrote his thesis in political science on the issue of oil resources and governance in Africa. Prior to completing his Ph.D. at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), he earned two Masters, one in Political Science from Sciences Po and another in Management Science from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. He currently works as a freelance consultant in the field of energy, especially on the issues of security of supply and of governance in African oil-producing countries, for energy companies, consultancy firms, the French government and international organizations as well as NGOs. He teaches courses on the Geopolitics of Energy in Africa and on the Political Economy of Sub Saharan African, and is a Seminar Leader in World Politics at Sciences Po Paris. He also teaches at the ESCP Europe Business School in Paris.

Mark Smedley

Freelance energy journalist,formerly Europe gas markets reporter at Energy Intelligence

Mark is a freelance energy journalist, including for Petroleum Economist. He has 25 years' experience gained as an oil and gas reporter and editor at Argus and Energy Intelligence. His focus remains European gas markets, projects and energy policy, Gazprom, Groningen, and large gas producers. He's been interviewed by the BBC and CNN and has interviewed top industry leaders.