Highlights

Chair 

Paul Noumba Um

Paul Noumba Um is the Regional Director of the World Bank’s Infrastructure Department in the Middle East and North Africa region. He is an infrastructure (energy, transport, and water), telecommunications, and private sector expert with over three decades of experience in infrastructure policy regulation and finance. He has advised governments, utility companies, and private sector partners on energy security and efficiency, transportation, telecommunication, good governance, PPP, and Privatization. Dr. Noumba Um has held technical and leadership roles within the World Bank – most recently as the Country Director for Southern Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) and previously as the Country Director for Mali, Chad, Guinea, Central Africa Republic and Niger. He also served as the practice manager for Private Sector Development and finance for Western and Central Africa.

In the early 2000s, he led the Bank’s Infrastructure Regulation and Public-Private Partnerships Capacity Building Program and held the first global Summit of PPP Units in 2006. Paul is a Cameroonian and French national based in Washington, D.C.; began his career in 1987 with the government of Cameroon before moving to France to work with France Telecom (Orange Labs). Paul joined the Bank in 1998 in the then Energy, Mining, and Telecommunication Department and has since held positions with World Bank Institute, Middle East and North Africa, and after 2010, as Finance and Private Sector Development sector manager in Africa.

He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Rennes University (1995), a Master’s Degrees in Engineering and Economics from IMT Atlantique (1987), France; a BA in Engineering from the Cameroonian National Post and Telecom School (1983), and an Executive Program Certificate in Managing Sustainability (Climate Change and Development) from University of Cambridge, UK.

Closing remarks

Silvia Pariente-David

Silvia Pariente-David is a Senior Advisor on energy at the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI). She helped create the CMI Forum on Energy and Climate Change. She has 40 years of experience in managerial positions in the financing, advisory and consulting activities in the fields of energy project evaluation, energy market analysis, regional energy market integration, and climate policy assessment. Throughout her career, she has thrived to promote regional energy market integration, be it the EU Single Market, the Common Maghreb energy market, or the nascent Euro-Mediterranean energy market.

While a Senior Energy Specialist at the World Bank, Dr. Pariente-David was one of the leaders of the MENA CSP scale-up program, funded by a $750 million grant from the Clean Technology Fund, and the Task Team Leader for the first project under that program, the Noor-Ouarzazate plant in Morocco. Previously, she was leading a consulting team advising major energy companies on their renewable energy strategy, conducting power plant valuation studies, and assessing natural gas market value. She also directed DRI/McGraw-Hill (now IHS) World Energy Service, providing clients with oil, natural gas, and electricity price forecasts.

She holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT and an Eng. Deg. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from ENSIMAG at Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble.

Speakers 

Emanuele Taibi

Emanuele Taibi has over 15 years of experience in the energy sector. After his first years working for large energy companies and research institutions, he spent over ten years working as an international civil servant in different countries and institutions. He is currently based with the IRENA Innovation and Technology Center in Bonn, Germany, where he is responsible for assisting Member Countries in devising strategies for the transformation of the power sector, currently managing the work on power system flexibility, hydrogen, and storage as key enablers for the energy transition. In his previous role, he assisted island countries in the transition to renewable energy, focusing on energy planning and roadmaps development. Prior to joining IRENA, he was an energy specialist with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) managing a 10 million USD EU-funded program in the Federated States of Micronesia. He spent two years with the United Nations in Vienna as Junior Professional Officer at UNIDO, focusing on bioenergy for industrial applications. Before that he had various roles in public and private research, municipal utilities, and, as the last position before leaving Italy, as an analyst in the strategies department of Eni, the largest Italian energy company. He has an M.Sc. in Management Engineering (Laude) from Rome Tor Vergata University and a Ph.D. in Energy Technology from KTH in Sweden.

Miklós Gáspár is a team leader in the unit responsible for infrastructure and regional cooperation in the European Commission’s energy department. Since 2018, he has worked on projects of common interest (PCI) in the field of energy and TEN-E legislation, in particular with regard to gas. 

Alexander Huurdeman

Alexander Huurdeman is a Senior Oil and Gas Expert at the World Bank since 2010. he brings senior leadership with over 35 years of global experience in the oil and gas sector. He is responsible for World Bank oil & gas and decarbonization programs in Africa, the Middle East Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, leading preparation and negotiation of financial instruments for infrastructure projects, and responsible for major policy initiatives and advice to Governments. Prior to that, he held technical, commercial, and senior management roles in Shell International E&P in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and Asia.

Susana Moreira

Susana is an Oil and Gas Specialist and has been with the World Bank for over 8 years, working both in mining and oil and gas sector projects. Previously she was a consultant working on energy, political rights in Africa, and public relations. She holds a Ph.D. in International Studies, a MA in Pacific International Affairs, and a Bachelors in International Relations. She is fluent in 5 languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and French.