• Email: valza@dtu.dk
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Valeria Zambianchi is no longer employed with the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre or UNEP DTU Partnership since 2020

Valeria Zambianchi is a research assistant at the Copenhagen Centre since September 2017. Previously, she worked as student assistant at UNEP DTU Partnership. Valeria researches the best practices of energy efficiency in cities and the role of cities in South America for implementing energy efficient actions. Moreover, she assists the senior staff with projects in Latin America, as well as coordinates and moderates the Copenhagen Centre’s webinars in Spanish. Valeria graduated from København Universitet with a MSc. in global development and concentration in environmental governance. Her field experience includes participatory forest management in Tanzania and urban flooding in India.

• Email: laura.wiehler@rcreee.org
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Laura Wiehler is the Planning and Development Specialist at RCREEE focusing on Climate Finance and the strategic development of interconnection and the renewable energy and energy efficiency markets in Arab countries. Laura holds a Master’s Degree in Politics and International Relations with a specialization in RE and EE Policy.

• Email: mscholand@clasp.ngo

Bio

Michael Scholand is a Senior Advisor at CLASP working to support governments around the world in the development and implementation of energy-efficiency programs and policies. With over twenty years of experience on energy-efficiency policies and analysis, he has worked on a broad range of appliances and equipment, as well as emerging technologies and market transformational programs. Mr. Scholand serves as a technical expert in the European Commission’s Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Consultation Forum and regularly speaks about the European policy-making process. Trained as an engineer, Mr. Scholand is well versed in energy metrics, energy-efficient technologies and energy-related analysis. He has worked as an advisor on technical due diligence work for green-tech private equity investors in Europe, and has provided support to countries in Africa and the Middle-East who are setting energy-efficiency policies. He has spoken at conferences all around the world, and for six years worked at the United Nations Environment’s United for Efficiency (U4E) programme, serving as the technical expert for lighting and transformers.

• Email: sara.ibrahim@rcreee.org
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Sara Elhag is a Renewable Energy Expert at RCREEE in Cairo, where she works in achieving the centre’s goals of spreading the use of clean energy systems and increasing the adoption of renewable energies in the Arab World region. Her responsibilities include the design, management and implementation of Renewable Energies (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE) projects. Ms. Elhag’s career path extends over more than 14 years of engineering experience, working in large scale power generation projects and thereafter specializing in renewable energy systems’ applications. During her work in the National Electricity Corporation (NEC), Sudan, she worked in the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) project where she worked as a senior electrical engineer at first and later as the manager of Khartoum zone. Ms. Elhag has also worked in the consultancy field where she was a Unit Manager in a leading consultancy company (Newtech Consultancy Group). She has just finished the work on a project targeting XX countries in the MENA region researching on household appliances.

• Email: klihidheb@econoler.com
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Ms. Lihidheb is a highly experienced international project manager and EE expert with 25 years of experience, including 15 years in energy labelling and MEPS for appliances and equipment with a strong focus in the MENA region. Worked for the European Union Med-Enec program and 20 years at the Tunisian National Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) on designing implementing and monitoring MEPS and labeling regulation, Energy Efficiency programmes in buildings, household appliances. Ms. Lihidheb has vast experience in designing, implementing and monitoring EE policies and programs targeting buildings, household appliances and the industrial sector. She has engaged in extensive collaboration with national ministries in charge of energy throughout the MENA region and internationally. She spent most of her career working for the Government of Tunisia at the agency in charge of energy efficiency programs, thus enabling her to gain an intimate knowledge of the complete process starting from designing a strategy to its implementation. Ms. Kawther Lihidheb is a chemical Engineer and holds an executive MBA from Mediterranean school of business.