Dr. Derk Swider began his professional journey at the Institute of Energy Economics and Rational Energy Use at the University of Stuttgart. There, he not only completed his doctorate with distinction but also held a position as a lecturer and led the Energy Use and Energy Management department. His research primarily revolves around energy market modeling and decision support in energy economics. In 2007, Dr. Swider joined E.ON Ruhrgas, taking charge as Head of Modeling and Market Data. Over the years, his role within the E.ON group expanded. Since 2016, he has served as Vice President, contributing to the development of several strategic areas of the company, particularly in Portfolio Management and Energy Economics. Currently, Dr. Swider holds the position of Vice President of Energy Economics, Policy, and Foresight at E.ON. 

Zita Vale is Coordinator Professor in the School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal and Director of GECAD – Research Group on Intelligent Engineering and Computing for Advanced Innovation and Developments. She received her diploma in Electrical Engineering in 1986, her PhD in 1993, and her Habilitation in 2003, from University of Porto. She works in Power and Energy Systems, with special interest in Artificial Intelligence based models and applications. She has been involved in more than 40 projects andpublished over 600 works, including more than 80 papers in international scientific journals. Currently, she chairs the Intelligent Systems Subcommittee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society (PES) and the IEEE PES Working Group on Data Analysis and Mining and is Co-Editor in Chief of Applied Energy (APEN) Elsevier.

Since May 2021, Dr. Nurten Avci has been the Director of the European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER), a joint institute of the French energy company EDF and the university of excellence KIT, working on future-proof, low-carbon energy systems to ensure carbon neutrality. Before her current role, Dr. Avci was appointed as a professor of international energy management at Karlshochschule in 2011, where she lectured on the Responsibility of Energy and Energy Services. In 2014, she joined EIFER as the Deputy Director.

Dr. Avci completed her studies in Business Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin and Business Management at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Paris. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics in 2003 from the Department of Economics and Business Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. From 1998 to 2022, she also contributed to the French-German Research Institute for Environment. Her expertise encompasses energy markets, environmental concerns, and energy services.