Mark Brownstein is Chief Counsel of the Energy Program at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and leads EDF’s natural gas efforts.  Additionally, Mr Brownstein is an Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a Governance Committee member of The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). He also specializes in utility-related issues, including transmission development, wholesale and retail electric market design, rate reform, and power plant siting and investment. Mr Brownstein was one of two EDF staff leads on the United States Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of the nation’s leading corporations and environmental groups championing immediate action on federal legislation to cap and substantially reduce greenhouse gas pollution across the US economy.  He is co-author of the Carbon Principles, a set of enhanced due diligence principles for investment banks considering the financing of coal fired power plants.

Prior to joining EDF, Mr Brownstein was Director of Enterprise Strategy for Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), where he worked directly with PSEG’s senior leadership in crafting and implementing the corporation’s business strategy. Over his nearly ten year career with PSEG, he served the company in a variety of environmental management roles, including Director of Environmental Strategy and Policy. He was active in numerous environmental legislative and regulatory proceedings including efforts to develop federal legislation limiting emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and carbon dioxide from power plants, and the Environmental Council of States’ (ECOS) 37-state Ozone Transport Assessment Group (OTAG) process, which developed specific recommendations to address the persistent problem of ozone transport in the eastern United States. Mr Brownstein was also an active member of the US EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee and New Jersey’s Renewable Energy Task Force.

Aside from PSEG, Mr Brownstein’s career includes time as an attorney in private environmental practice, a regulator with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and an aide to then-Congressman Robert G. Torricelli (D–NJ).

Mr Brownstein has a JD degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a BA from Vassar College. He was named a Truman Scholar in 1985.

 

Guy Chazan was appointed as the FT's Energy Editor in 2012. Prior to joining the FT, he was The Wall Street Journal's Energy correspondent. He worked as the Journal's Moscow correspondent from 1999 to 2007, and also spent time reporting for the newspaper in the Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan. Before joining the Wall Street Journal, he worked at BBC World Service Radio in London.

Ed Crooks, based in New York, is the US Industry and Energy Editor at the Financial Times, a role he took up in 2010. Before that, Ed Crooks was Energy Editor at the FT and was based in the Head Office in London. Mr Crooks joined the FT in 1999 as Economics Editor, and then went on to become UK news editor. Previously, Mr Crooks was an economics correspondent for the BBC, reporting on both television and radio. he started at the BBC as a researcher and producer and worked across several news programmes. He has also been a reporter and editor for Investors Chronicle as well as an economic analyst for the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Gal Luft is Co-Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security, and Senior Adviser to the United States Energy Security Council. He specialises in strategy, geopolitics, energy security, natural resources and economic warfare. Newsweek Magazine called him a "tireless and independent advocate of energy security," the business magazine Poder called him "one of the most recognizable figures in modern energy and security issues," and Esquire Magazine included him in its 2007 list of America's Best and Brightest. Dr Luft has published numerous studies and articles on security and energy issues in various newspapers and publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, The National Interest, Commentary Magazine, LA Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is co-author of Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (2009), Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice (2009) and Petropoly: The Collapse of America's Energy Security Paradigm (2012). He is also author of Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq. He appears frequently in the media and consults to various think tanks and news organisations worldwide. Dr Luft testified before committees of the US Congress, including Senate Foreign Relations, House International Relations, House Science and the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He holds degrees in international relations, international economics and strategic studies and a doctorate in strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS,) Johns Hopkins University.

Ed Morse is Managing Director and Global Head Commodities, Citi Research in New York. He previously held similar positions at Lehman Brothers, Louis Capital Markets and Credit Suisse. Widely cited in the media, he is a contributor to journals such as Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He was most recently ranked one of “The 36 Best Analysts On Wall Street” by Business Insider (one of two commodity analysts) and #23 among the “Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2012” by Foreign Policy. He worked in the US government at the State Department, and later was an advisor to the United Nations Compensation Commission on Iraq as well as to the US Departments of State, Energy and Defence and to the International Energy Agency on issues related to oil, natural gas and the impact of financial flows on energy prices. A former Princeton professor and author of numerous books and articles on energy, economics and international affairs, Mr Morse was the publisher of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly and other trade periodicals and also worked at Hess Energy Trading Co(HETCO). 

 

Charif Souki is Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Cheniere Energy, Inc, and has held these positions since December 2002. Mr Souki founded Cheniere Energy, Inc in 1996. He received his BA from Colgate University and his MBA from Columbia University.

Maria van der Hoeven took over as Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on 1 September 2011. Ms van der Hoeven has steered the IEA during a period of exceptional change in the global energy landscape. While the original IEA mandate of energy security remains at the core of the agency’s mission, the IEA has been challenged by rapidly shifting supply/demand balances for oil as well as other major fuels, affecting its members’ interests and also those within the wider global energy economy. Ms van der Hoeven is taking the initiative to address the challenges of global energy governance in the face of changing worldwide requirements.