Distinguished Fellows

Dr. Hans Hutta has a recognized international management career of 37 years in the Oil and Gas Industry in areas ranging from Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe to the Russian Far East and Central Asia and covering positions from Area Manager CEE (OMV) to Branch Manager (OMV Bulgaria) and Director of the Representative Office of PETROM/OMV in Kazakhstan, among others. At present he is General Director of the International Center For Petroleum and Industrial Management in Austria.

For the last 20 years he has also lectured at the Geoscience Department of the renowned Austrian State Mining University at Leoben (Styria) in Petroleum Economics and Management. He authored the two-volume standard reference book ‘Introduction to Exploration Economics’.

Prof. Dr. Ionut Purica presently is a senior researcher in the Romanian Academy’s Institute for Economic Forecasting, and Executive Director of the Advisory Center for Energy and Environment. Dr. Purica was also President (state secretary) of the Romanian Agency for Nuclear Energy and Radioactive Waste, and a counselor of the Minister of Research and previously the Minister of Economy and of the Environment and an expert for the Parliament of Romania He participated in the elaboration of the EU accession strategy for Romania and the energy (electricity and heat) strategy (for the Ministry of Economy and Trade) and did risk analysis and transaction structuring and project management with the World Bank, USEA, JBIC, MARSH, ITOCHU, MVV, etc.

Previously he worked as a project officer for energy and infrastructure in the World Bank, in Romania and the Balkans (e.g. energy Assessment in Kosovo 1999), being trained in project guarantees, value at risk, procurement to complete his expertise in engineering acquired as director for international projects of the Romanian Power Company RENEL and senior engineer managing a joint Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd-IMG-Bucharest quality engineering group for the manufacture of nuclear reactor components for the CANDU units in Romania. He worked also as an international researcher for ENEA Rome – the Italian Commission for Energy New Technology and Environment – and as an associate researcher at ICTP Trieste.

Prof. Purica has authored books in his field of expertise published by Imperial College Press, Academic Press, etc. and published articles in journals like Risk Analysis, IEEE Power Engineering Review, Foundations of Control Engineering, etc. He took his second PhD in economics, (the first one in Nuclear Energy Engineering) and, he is also a Professor teaching a course in Risk management to masters of science in the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and Hyperion University. He was a member of the WEC study group for energy scenarios 2050 and 2060 and a member of the Advisory Group for Energy of the EU Commission. He is also President of the Romanian Association for Energy and Economy.

Prof. Dr. Andrey A. Konoplyanik is energy economist by background. Major professional areas: energy economics, energy & investment legislation, energy financing. PhD (1978) & Dr. of Science (1995) in international energy economics, Professor in International Oil & Gas Business (2012). Current positions: Adviser to Director General, Gazprom export LLC (since 2013); Co-chair from Russian side of Work Stream 2 “Internal Markets”, Russia-EU Gas Advisory Council (since 2011); Member of Scientific Council for System Research in Energy, Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2008); Honorary Fellow, Center for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law & Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK (since 1994); Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Energy for SE Europe (IENE), Athens, Greece (since 2015) and of the Center for Energy Law, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK (since 2018). Detailed professional biography of Prof. Dr. A.Konoplyanik, his publications, presentations and interviews are presented at www.konoplyanik.ru. 

Dr. Narsi Ghorban is currently the Managing Director of Narkangan Gas To Liquid International Company, Chairman of Doran Energy and Director of International Institute for Caspian Studies (IICS). He is also the secretary to the commission on Environment and Energy of International Chamber of Commerce (Iran branch).

Dr. Ghorban has a B.Sc. from the American University of Beirut, an M.Phil from Brunel University, UK, and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Economics from the University of London.

Dr. Ghorban has been an independent energy consultant in UK and Iran since 1979 in which position he has consulted several organizations and international companies including OPEC. He has also worked with the Institute for Political and International Studies, the Institute for International Energy Studies and a number of Iranian companies engaged in oil, gas and petrochemicals business in Iran. Dr. Ghorban is a fellow of the Energy Institute (IE) London, a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), London, a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London, a member of the Iran Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), Tehran as well as a member of the International Institute for Caspian Studies (IICS) Tehran.  Dr. Ghorban has published many articles and scientific papers in various international journals.

A cum laude graduate of Athens College, Dr. Leo Drollas attended the London School of Economics where he gained his B.Sc. (Econ) and M.Sc. (Econ), and completed a doctorate. After leaving the LSE in 1975, Leo Drollas worked in London at the Commodities Research Unit and then joined British Petroleum in 1977 as the company’s first econometrician. At BP he managed the energy and economic modelling team in the company’s Corporate Planning Department (1980-86) and was responsible for many studies on various aspects of the oil market. Whilst at BP, Leo Drollas was seconded for two years to the Confederation of British Industry (1986-88), where he held the post of Deputy Director of Economics. In 1989 Leo Drollas joined as its Chief Economist the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), a think-tank founded in that year by Sheikh Yamani, the former Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia.

Leo Drollas was the Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the CGES from 1989 until 2011, becoming in that year the CGES’ Director. During his time at the CGES, which ceased formal operations in January 2014, Leo dealt with many diverse subjects in the oil and gas sphere. Over a career spanning 41 years, Leo Drollas has written many articles and studies on oil, energy and economics in general, and co-authored “Oil – the Devil’s Gold” with Jon Greenman. He has spoken at numerous conferences all over the world and has appeared frequently on TV and radio programmes and been quoted regularly on the main wire services and leading financial newspapers.

Mr. Slavtcho Neykov has more than 25 years non-interrupted experience in the energy sector, including as Secretary General of the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy, Commissioner in the State Energy Regulatory Commission, expert at the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels and a Director of the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna.
Prior to his involvement in the energy sector, he has worked as a state prosecutor and a legal advisor.
In addition to a law degree from the Sofia University, Mr. Neykov has completed two years postgraduate studies on International Economic Relations and Foreign Economic Activities. He also holds Master of Arts in European Integration from the University of Limerick in Ireland.
Since the end of 2014, he is the Chairman of the Board of Managers of the Energy Management Institute in Sofia. Mr. Neykov is also a member of the Board of Directors of EURELECTRIC.

Nenad Stefanović was born in Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade in 1990. From 1990-93 he was employed in the Electric Power Industry of Yugoslavia (JUGEL), and from 1993-2005 in the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) within the Power System Control Department as the Chief Engineer for Power System Plannning and Assistant for power system technological issues, and in Trading Department as the Chief of Contracting and Accounting Division. He was the Secretary of the South-East Europe regional TSOs organization SUDEL from 2003-05. After holding the position of the Secretary of the Study Committee „Electricity Markets and Regulation“ within the Serbian Committee of the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRÉ) he was elected the President of this Study Committee in 2016. Since 2006, he has worked for the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia as Senior Expert for Electricity. He was the Chairman of the Internal Market Working Group within SEEER-CEER in 2006, and he was the Chairman of the Energy Community Regulatory Board Electricity Working Group (ECRB EWG) from 2007, after the ECRB was established, till 2018. He has been the member of the local Organizational Committee and of the International Honorary Committee of the South-East Energy Dialogue in the organization of the Greek Institute of Energy for South-East Europe (IENE) since 2008. He has been member of the South Eastern European Region of CIGRÉ (SEERC) Technical Advisory Committee since 2016. He is the author and co-author of numerous papers which were published in Serbian and within international conferences and symposia. He participated in numerous.

Nick Butler is Visiting Professor and Founding Chair of the Kings Policy Institute at Kings College London. He was former Group Vice President for Strategy and Policy at BP, and subsequently senior policy advisor to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He writes the weekly blog on Energy and Power for the Financial Times.

Tim Yeo is currently Chairman at the New Nuclear Watch Institute. Tim is a former Conservative MP for South Suffolk and former Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Since leaving the House of Commons in 2015 where Tim was Chair of the Energy of the Energy & Climate Change Select Committee (2010-2015), Tim has been working in various energy and climate change related roles in the business and academic worlds. These include Chairman of The New Nuclear Watch Institute (formerly New Nuclear Watch Europe), and Chair of the University of Sheffield Energy 2050 Industrial Advisory Board.

Tim remains a Director of Getlink SE (formerly Groupe Eurotunnel), one of the largest listed companies in France, where he chair's the Board Strategy and Sustainable Development Committee. In 2016 KOTRA, the Korean trade office, appointed Tim as the Honorary Ambassador of Foreign Investment Promotion for South Korea. Tim is also works with the UK-China (Guangdong) CCUS Centre on carbon capture projects, on the design of China's emissions trading system, and with business on inward investment from China to the UK.