Speakers

Charles Liu
Founder & Managing Partner, Hao International

Mr. Liu Yang Sheng is the founder and Chairman of HAO International, a private equity firm investing in growth companies in China with over $600 million dollars under management. As the leading supporter in the founding of China Greentech Initiative, in a personal capacity, he has been actively investing and developing projects on energy conservation and emission reduction in China. He is also a regular contributor to BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg and CCTV on Chinese economic issues.

Mr. Liu also served on the Board of Directors of Applied Materials Inc., one of the first Chinese nationals to serve on the Board of Directors of a Fortune 500 company, and Chaired its Investment Committee, which led over US$ 1 billion in acquisitions. Born in Taiwan, Mr. Liu graduated from Princeton University with a B.A in Economics in 1972 and attended the Juris Doctor Program of New York University School of Law. He relinquished his Taiwan passport and U.S. Permanent Residency in 1975 to adopt the nationality and passport of the People’s Republic of China. Prior to forming HAO Capital, Mr. Liu was Managing Director of Lazard Asia from 1992-1999. From 1975 to 1991, he served in various capacities in the United Nations system of organizations, principally as negotiation secretary on economic matters and development projects in the developing countries.

Bas Boorsma
Managing Director, Rainmaking Urban

Since February 2018 Bas Boorsma is managing director of Rainmaking Urban, the company within the global Rainmaking group dedicated to smart & sustainable community facilitation.

Prior to heading this Bas served in various global and regional leadership positions at Cisco, including serving as Cisco's Digitization lead for the Northern European region. In this capacity he managed a series of city engagements, leading the way on Internet of Things related innovations for, with and in cities.

Bas also served as a member of Cisco's global lighthouse team that manages a portfolio of smart city lighthouse engagements globally. Bas has coordinated and overseen the implementation of innovative projects and programs that address the ways we work, live, consume, play, learn and deliver within the context of larger communities. Typical innovations delivered include Smart Light, Smart Water Defenses, Smart Work Centers, Smart Parking, City WiFi, Learning Hubs, high end broadband deployment as well as the architectures and service models that will help drive the Internet of Everything at large.

Bas has helped various cities, regions and communities around the world to articulate and implement Smart Work strategies, resulting in Smart Work strategies in Korea, France and Amsterdam among others.

Specialties: Internet of Things. Smart Cities. Complex Governance Structures & initiating and managing them. Entrepreneurship. Carving our niches and new markets. Forging a vision and then 'run' with it: Linking leadership & innovations to opportunities and platform.

Bas is the author of the acclaimed book "A New Digital Deal". (September 2017 - www.anewdigitaldeal.com).

Benoist Grossman
Managing Partner, Idinvest Partners

Benoist Grossman joined Idinvest Partners in 2002. He was appointed a board member in 2003 and operates mainly in the internet sector.

Before joining Idinvest Partners, Benoist worked for several venture capital funds for over 10 years. He was a Partner at Viventures from 1998 to 2002 and worked as Investment Manager at La Financière de Brienne. He had previously spent over 10 years working in the industry as a laser systems specialist at EDF, NASA and Thomson-CSF Optronique, for whom he invented five patents and authored over twenty publications.

In June 2016, Benoist has been appointed Vice-President of the AFIC, the French association of growth capital investors. He is also, censor at Bpifrance Board since July 2016. He is currently on the boards of Winamax, Ogury, Molotov and Frichti and was previously on the boards of Criteo, Dailymotion, Deezer and Meetic.

Benoist Grossmann has a PhD in Physics from the Université de Paris VI and an MBA from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. 

Maria van der Hoeven
Former Minister of Affairs of the Netherlands, former Executive Director of IEA, senior fellow at Clingendael Energy

Ms Maria van der Hoeven is a Dutch professional with broad political and managerial expertise. 
She started her professional career as a teacher. Later on she became director of a Vocational Training Centre for Adults and director of Technology Centre Limburg. In these jobs she demonstrated  great competence in managing change and transition.

Her political career started in 1974 when she was elected as member of the City Council of Maastricht, her home town. In 1991 she became Member of Parliament. In this capacity she fulfilled several functions within her caucus. She was vice-president of the House of Parliament for several years.

From 2002 to 2007 Ms van der Hoeven served as Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands and from 2007 to 2010 as Minister of Economic  Affairs and Energy. In both capacities she demonstrated leadership at national, regional and EU level.

Ms van der Hoeven took over as Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on 1 September 2011 and led the IEA during a period of exceptional change in the global energy economy, as rapidly shifting supply/demand balances for oil and other major fuels transform the IEA’s traditional mandate. Her mandate ended on 31 August 2015.

Ms van der Hoeven responded by enhancing IEA engagement with key non-member countries including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. Under her leadership, the IEA admitted its 29th member, Estonia, and increased its co-operation with OPEC and the International Energy Forum (IEF) as well as signed a partnership accord with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), APEC and other multi-lateral institutions. 

Ms. Van der Hoeven has repeatedly emphasised the close link between climate and energy policy. As a member of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, led by former President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, she has initiated discussions  between policy makers and industry representatives on the impact of climate change on energy security, and sought to raise awareness among young people around the world of the problem of climate change and the need to get informed and take action. She has also promoted renewables and energy efficiency as part of the critical role she believes innovation and technology play in contributing to energy security while supporting climate goals.

These and her other initiatives reflect her overall focus on energy security in all forms, for all people. That includes the hundreds of millions around the world who lack access to modern energy services, and in recognition of her efforts in this area, she served on the Advisory Board for the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative from 2013-2015. Since 2014 she has been a member of the UN Advisory Council  for "Powering the Future We Want- Recognising Innovative Practices in Energy for Sustainable Development"

Since September 2015 Ms van der Hoeven has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Rocky
Mountain Institute in Colorado (US) and senior associate fellow at Clingendael International Energy
Program (CIEP). 

Since spring  2016 Ms van der Hoeven has been a member of the Board of Directors of Total (France) and a member of the Supervisory Board of INNOGY (Germany). 
Since  October 2016 Ms van der Hoeven has been vice chairman of the High-Level Panel of the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative  (European Commission).

Ms van der Hoeven is a recognised speaker on energy  at international fora and symposia.