Governing Bodies

Marcio Szechtman is presently the Director General of CEPEL, the Brazilian National Power Research Institute. He acted as the CIGRE Study Committee B4 Chair from 2002 to 2008 and is the current Technical Council Chair of CIGRE.

He started his affiliation with CIGRE back in 1982.He received the following  CIGRE and IEEE awards: the  CIGRE Medal in 2014; the Life Fellow degree from IEEE/PES in 2018; the Uno Lamm HVDC IEEE/PES Award in 2009; The Honorary Member of CIGRE, in 2008.

His main technical activities have been dedicated to the area of HVDC and Power Electronics, since the 1970's.

Michel Augonnet is President of MVAconnect an energy consulting company since 01/01/2016.

Prior to this role he was Senior Vice President for Alstom Grid Commercial Solutions (now GE) in charge of the Regional Sales and Project organization.

Graduate Engineer from SUPELEC in Power Electronics in 1973 he held various positions in the Power Generation Industry (Nuclear, Hydro, Thermal) and Grid Transmission from Project Manager to Senior Executive in companies such as Cegelec, ABBAlstom Power, Areva T&D, Alstom Grid.

He was 7 years Chairman of the French CIGRE National Committee and member of CIGRE Steering Committee. He has been elected Vice-President Finance of CIGRE in 2016.

Graduate Engineer of the Ecole Centrale de Paris, Philippe Adam started his career in EDF R&D division in 1980 as a research engineer in the field of HVDC and FACTS. Then he held several management positions in EDF Generation and Transmission. In 2000, he was appointed manager of the financial and management control department of RTE. In 2004 he contributed to the creation of RTE international. From 2011 to 2014 he has been the Strategy Director of Infrastructures and Technologies of the Medgrid industrial initiative.

He have served CIGRE as the Technical Committee Secretary and as the Secretary and Treasurer of the French National Committee. He was appointed Secretary General of CIGRE in March 2014.

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Dr. Mohamed Rashwan holds BS.C, MS.C, and PhD. In electrical engineering. He is the president of TransGrid Solutions (TGS) specializing in HVDC and Power Electronics. Dr.  Rashwan is the recipient of 2010 Uno Lamm HVDC Medal and Award. His career in the power industry spans 45 years between utility, manufacturers and consultants. He is currently the chairman of Cigre SC B4 “HVDC and Power Electronics”

Mingliang Xie, Senior Engineer, PhD of electrical engineering: Mr. Xie is Vice President and Secretary General of Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and a member of both the CIGRE Administrative Council and Steering Committee.

He has served as Director of Jinan Power Supply Bureau; Chief Economist of Shandong Electric Power Company; Deputy General Manager & General Manager of Shandong Electric Power Corporation; General Manager & Chairman of Central China Grid Company Limited; Assistant General Manager of State Grid Corporation & Director of Central China Branch.

He has long been engaged in electricity production, construction, management, and chaired a batch of key power engineering construction projects, among which, “KPI System Research of Affiliated Units of Central China Grid Company Limited” won second prize of China Power Enterprise Management Innovation Achievement Award. Mr. Xie has published two monographs, namely Application and Research of Electricity Market Technical Support System in Shandong Power Grid and Research on Governance of Enterprise Group from the Perspective of Coordination and Cooperation.

  

Liisa Haarla is Senior Adviser at Fingrid, the Finnish TSO. She has M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology. In 1982–2005 she worked in transmission and power companies in the field of power system planning, relay protection, system planning, and electrical machines and as researcher in a R&D institute and university. In 2006–2015, she was a professor at the Aalto University.

Her CIGRE activities include membership in CIGRE Study Committee C5 and C4 (as of 2016), and being the convener of a CIGRE Working group. Her administrative CIGRE activities include chairing the Finnish National Council of CIGRE and being a member in CIGRE Administrative Council (2012–). In 2016–2018, she was a member of CIGRE Technical Council. In 2017–2019, she holds the chair of the local organising committee of CIGRE SC D2 Colloquium 2019.

Frank Golletz was appointed to the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of 50Hertz Transmission GmbH in April 2011.
Since joining 50Hertz and its previous companies Vereinigte Energiewerke AG (VEAG) and Vattenfall Europe Transmission in 1991 he worked as Head of the Department of Substations and Head of Department of Assets.
Dr. Frank Golletz studied engineering at the Institute of High Voltage and High Current of the Dresden University of Technology where he obtained the title of a degreed engineer (Dipl.-Ing.) and a doctorate.
As CTO of 50Hertz, Dr. Golletz is committed to a sustainable energy transition by maintaining a high level on security of supply while integrating large amounts of volatile renewable energies, by facilitating the development of the European power market and by extending the transmission grid if necessary. The reliable integration of wind and photovoltaics is in fact one of the biggest challenges for the company – as their share in the 50Hertz control area amounted already up to 53% in 2017, steadily increasing.

Mr. Indu Shekhar Jha is Chairman & Managing Director of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) of the country since November 2015. Prior to his present assignment, he successfully served as Director (Projects) of the Company from September, 2009 and was responsible for planning, engineering, project management, monitoring and implementation of all transmission and distribution projects.

He has spearheaded development of robust National grid in the country integrated with State-of-the-Art technologies as well as Green Energy Corridors for integration of renewables. He is known for his technological prowess and people-centric leadership. He is member of Governing Body of Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bangalore and President, International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) – India and other professional bodies. He has published/ presented numerous articles, technical papers in the field of power system in various international and National Journal/Conferences.

Akihiko Yokoyama obtained PhD degree in the University of Tokyo in 1984. Since then, he has been working with the university and is currently Professor of Department of Advanced Energy, the University of Tokyo in charge of Power Systems Engineering. He is interested in planning, operation, control of power system and smart grid.  He is chairman of Japanese NC, CIGRE, chairman of JNC of TC8 and TC 123, IEC and President of IEE of Japan and Councilor of Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Japan (CRIEPI). He is also serving as chairman of power system reform TF and chairman of Electrical Safety Committee in Japanese Government.

Pavel Korsunov holds Master's degrees in Engineering sciences (theoretical nuclear physics) and PhD in Economic sciences.

Currently he is a Vice Chairman of Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System – FGC UES, responsible for Innovative Development, Planning and Implementation of Investment program. Before for 4 years he was head of Research & Development Centre of FGC UES. Previously, for more than 10 years he served in top management positions in companies owning energy generation, transmission & distribution assets accordingly in Moscow region.

Since 2016 he is a Vice Chairman of Russian NC CIGRE, represents Russian in CIGRE Governing Bodies.

Javier Iglesias is Project Director in Red Eléctrica de España (Spanish TSO), being responsible of investment projects for the electrical transmission system in Spain. He has over twenty year experience in engineering, construction and management of transmission lines and substations projects.

At present, he is the Chairman of the CIGRE National Committee of Spain, the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Group B2.4 “Electrical aspects of Overhead Lines” and Regular Member of the Study Committee B2. Javier has been Convenor of two CIGRE working groups and active member of more than fifteen. He has been Special Reporter in the Paris Session in 2016, as well as Chairman of various CIGRE Symposia and Workshops. He has been co-author of sixteen papers and publications, and received the Technical Council Award by the Study Committee B2 in 2018.

Matthias Zwicky graduated from Polytechnical University in Zurich as electrical engineer and holds a PHD in high voltage engineering and has a degree in economics. He started his career as project engineer for the electrical part of hydro power stations, infrastructure projects and heavy industry.After several positions in executive boards he was CEO of Atel Grid Ltd. in Switzerland (one of the 5 TSO's which Switzerland had at this time).  Since 2010 he manages Alpiq's thermal power generation business in Europe.He was member of CIGRE Study committee C1. Since 2005 he is member of the CIGRE Swiss national committee, since 2015 chairman of the Swiss National Committee and since 2016 member of the Steering Committee of CIGRE.

Adam Middleton has spent more than 35 years in the electrical transmission and distribution, energy and oil & gas industries.

Originally from the UK, he spent 21 years with GEC / GEC ALSTOM / ALSTOM Group companies in the UK and France as an engineer, Project Manager, General Manager, Operations Director and finally Managing Director of their UK Substation Projects business.

He subsequently spent six years with GE Energy in Europe and North America, working in Strategy, Marketing and General Management of their Substation Automation business, together with a one year assignment leading the Wireline Technology business unit within GE Oil & Gas.

He spent a further two years with CG Power based in Belgium, as Vice President of their substation projects division and Vice President of their Automation activities.

As Vice President of Power Infrastructure within Laing O'Rourke UK during 2013 to 2016, he was responsible for both electrical substations and new nuclear power plant construction activities.

Since 2016, Adam Middleton has led Siemens Energy Management as Divisional Vice President of their Energy Management activities in Belgium, France and Africa, covering projects, products, systems and services delivery.

Adam Middleton holds a First Class Honours Degree from the University of Bradford (UK) and an MBA from Warwick Business School (UK) and is a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng).

Chairman of CIGRE UK since 2016, he was elected to the CIGRE Executive Steering Committee (SteerCo) in 2019.

Adam Middleton has a strong interest in the development of new and diverse talent within the engineering industry, application of digitalization to improve project delivery and has a passion for improving safety at work. He is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Michael Heyeck has over 40 years' experience in the electric power industry. He retired in 2013 as Senior Vice President - Transmission for American Electric Power serving 37 years at AEP, and founded The Grid Group, LLC. He serves and has served on numerous industry boards. Heyeck served CIGRE as US National Committee president (2011-2016) and now serves on the CIGRE Steering Committee and CIGRE Administrative Council. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering, and holds a Master's in Business Administration. Heyeck is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.

Ciprian DIACONU has graduated the Technical University of Bucharest in 1986 and in 2009 got the PhD degree from Technical University of Timisoara in Asset Management. In 32 years of experience in the Transmission and Distribution Systems, he dealt with System Development and RES Integration, System Operation, Asset Management, Maintenance, Investment projects, being involved also in R&D projects such as eHighways 2050 and Feasibility Study for Synchronous Interconnection of Ukraine and Republic of Moldova to Continental Europe Grid. As management experience he held positions within: Romanian Transmission and System Operator  - Transelectrica: Deputy General Director, Member of Directorate and Member of the Supervisory Board and also in Electrica Distribution utility as Board Member. He was representing Romania and Transelectrica in: EURELECTRIC's Network Committee and ENTSO-E's System Development Committee.
Activity within CIGRE: 

• Chairman of the Romanian NC CIGRE from 2010 and also member of the CIGRE Administrative Council;
• Member of Study Committee B3 “Substations” (2006-2014);
• Member of Study Committee C1 “System Development and Economics” (2014-today);
• Member of  Management Board and Technical Advisory Committee of South East Europe Region –CIGRE (SEERC);
• Member of Technical Council;
• Member of 9 WGs within SCs B5, B3 and C1.

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Nico Smit is the Chairman of Cigré Study Committee A1 – Rotating Electrical Machines, elected in 2014. He is currently a Chief Electrical Engineer in the Technology Group in Eskom where he is responsible for setting standards for the management of Eskom's large Generator fleet and delivering technical support to various divisions within Eskom. He holds an engineering degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He previously convened Cigre working group A1.26 and is presently an IEEE Task Force member and supporting EPRI P65 projects.

Simon Ryder graduated from St John's College, Oxford University in 1996 with an MEng in Engineering Science.  He spent 7 years in transformer design, development, and research with GEC Alsthom and later Alstom T&D between 1997 and 2003.  He has been with Doble Engineering since leaving Alstom T&D, initially working on transformer diagnostics and life management and more recently on transformer procurement.  He is the author of more than 50 technical papers.  He is a fellow of IET and a senior member of IEEE-PES.  He has been active in CIGRE for many years, mainly in Study Committee A2 (power transformers).  He has been chairman since 2016.

Nenad Uzelac graduated from School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, Serbia with a major in Electrical Power Engineering and later completed Master of Science in Product Development at Northwestern University, USA. In 1999 Mr. Uzelac joined G&W Electric company as a R&D switchgear engineer and since 2015 he is Global Research Manager, responsible for researching and developing new technologies. His research interests include AC and DC switching, materials and insulation technologies, sensors, condition monitoring and diagnostics, sensors and arc fault studies.  Mr. Uzelac has been an active member of IEEE Switchgear committee since 2004. Also, he was a member & convener of a few CIGRE A3 working groups since 2007. In September 2018 he became a chair of CIGRE A3 Equipment Technical Committee on Transmission and Distribution Equipment.

Marco Marelli has a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering. He developed his career in Prysmian where he's currently Engineering Director for HV/EHV and Submarine Cable Systems in Prysmian PowerLink, with responsibilities on both AC and DC cable systems. His work within Cigré as SC B1 Member, Convener of Working Groups and Special Reporter at the General Session has been recognized with the “TC Award” in 2010 and the “Distinguished Member Award” in 2012. He's author of several papers and he's been part of several technical and scientific committees. Since August 2016 Marco is the Chairperson of Cigré Study Committee B1 “Insulated Cables”.

Herbert Lugschitz, born 1954 in Vienna, Austria, is with Austrian Power Grid as a transmission lines engineer. Current and former responsibilities are: technical planning and design of HV-overhead lines in the voltage range from 110kV till 380kV. He has been with Cigre for more than 25 years and is currently the chairman of SC B2 (overhead lines)

Herbert Lugschitz is also chairman of the section “Overhead Lines and Embedding of Power Cables“ of Österreichischer Verband für Elektrotechnik - OVE, which is the standardization institute of Austria, and of Austrian Association of Electricity Utilities VEO - section „Grid Matters“. He was the Austrian member at CENELEC during the establishment of the European Standard for overhead lines.

Koji Kawakita was born in Mie, Japan. He joined Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. in 1986. Since then, he has been engaged in research & development, design, construction, asset management for substation, and international consultancy services. Presently, he is the General Manager of Engineering of transmission department. In CIGRE, he has been involved in Study Committee B3 since 2000. He contributed to a lots of activities such as Poster Session chair of Paris Session, Convener, Secretary and member of Working Groups. He positioned regular member of Study Committee B3 from 2012 to 2018. He has been inaugurated as Chairman of Study Committee B3 since 2018 to present.

Dr. Mohamed Rashwan holds BS.C, MS.C, and PhD. In electrical engineering. He is the president of TransGrid Solutions (TGS) specializing in HVDC and Power Electronics. Dr.  Rashwan is the recipient of 2010 Uno Lamm HVDC Medal and Award. His career in the power industry spans 45 years between utility, manufacturers and consultants. He is currently the chairman of Cigre SC B4 “HVDC and Power Electronics”

Rannveig S. J. Loken took her Bachelor of Science in Micro electronics at Trondheim University College in 1990, and recieved her Master of Science in Power Electric engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1992.

She works in Statnett, the TSO of Norway, and is the Project manager of the R&D Project Digital substation. She was the Head of Section for the Control and Protection system from 2007 until 2017.

She has been the Norwegian member for SC B5 between 2008 and 2012, and have worked in several Cigre working groups within SC B5. She was the secretary of Cigre SC B5 from August 2012 until August 2018. In August 2018, she became the chair of Cigre SC B5.

Konstantin Staschus, PhD Konstantin Staschus is from Berlin, Germany and holds a PhD in Operations Research from Virginia Tech, USA. After 9 years at PG&E, USA, he held management positions in German utility associations, including 6 years as Managing Director of the association of grid operators, VDN. In 2009 he became the 1st Secretary-General of ENTSO-E in Brussels, with legal mandates for EU network plans and codes. Since 2017 he is a Director in the Berlin office of Ecofys – a Navigant Company, and consults part-time for ENTSO-E and the European Technology & Innovation Platform “Smart Networks for Energy Transition”. He participated in CIGRE WGs since the 1990s and was member and later expert in SC C1 “System Development & Economics” since 2004, before becoming its chair 2014.

Susana Almeida de Graaff received her “Licenciatura” (5-year university degree), M.Sc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Porto University, Portugal. She was with Rede Eléctrica Nacional, the Portuguese TSO, since the beginning of 2001, with System Operations in the development of activities such as network security analysis, online risk assessment and disturbance/blackout analysis. Since the end of 2010, she is with TenneT TSO in the Netherlands, in International Development within System Operations, focusing in innovation, research and development, cooperation and coordination among TSOs, developing methodologies for capacity calculation, network security on a European level. She is the chair of CIGRE SC C2 on System Operations and Control since August 2016, and contributing actively to CIGRE SC C2 activities since 2006, as working group member, special reporter and national member.

Henk Sanders studied at Radboud University Nijmegen (spatial and environmental planning) and at Wageningen University (science policy and administration).

He always worked in the field of infrastructure, first with the Dutch Railways (over 10 years) and later with electricity (TenneT, for almost 20 years).

Henk has a lot of experiences with public administration.

He works now in the department of asset management, as strategist environmental and spatial planning.

His membership with Cigré started as member of a working group in B2, later became member of several WG's of C3, becoming a member and recently appointed as chair of C3.

He published a paper for Cigre and was special reporter in 2014.

Zia Emin is the Technical Director on power system planning and analysis with Power Systems Consultants, UK. He holds a PhD degree in power systems and is a specialist engineer in power quality and switching studies. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), a Senior Member of IEEE, a Distinguished Member of CIGRE and a Chartered Engineer in United Kingdom. He was the past UK representative on CIGRE SC C4 System Technical Performance and acted in many CIGRE working groups as member, task force leader and convener within system technical performance area related to power quality and insulation co-ordination.

Alex has over 25 years’ experience in energy markets with experience in a vertically integrated utility, a generator/retailer, a market administrator and the government.  His key areas of expertise are in market design, regulation & rules, new technology and organisational design.

Alex has degrees in science, education and business from the University in Adelaide and currently lived in Melbourne, where he works as an Energy Consultant with Oakley Greenwood.  Alex was Vice President of Smart Grid Australia, is currently a member of Smart Cities Australia and the Regulatory Advisory Panel of the Monash Microgrid Project.

Alex joined CIGRE as a member of the Australian Panel AP C5 in 2006 and became the Chairman of SC C5 in 2018.

Christine Schwaegerl holds a Diploma and a PhD in Electrical Engineering. After many years in industry she is currently fulltime professor at Augsburg university of applied science. She is active in CIGRE SC C6 ‘dispersed generation and distribution systems' since its creation in 2002 as member in several working groups, as well as a secretary and web site administrator of SC C6 since 2008. She was recently elected chair of SC C6 in 2017.

Dr. Ralf Pietsch graduated in physics (“Diplom-Physiker”) from the University of Technologies of Aachen, RWTH Aachen, Germany, in 1986. He received his Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) at the Institute of High Voltage Technology, RWTH Aachen in 1992. Between 1992 and 1996 he worked as a project engineer at ABB Corporate Research in Baden-Daettwil, Switzerland. End of 1996 he moved to ABB High Voltage Technologies, Zürich-Oerlikon (Switzerland) to lead the type test and development laboratories, mainly for testing GIS with rated voltages above 170 kV up to 800 kV. Since January 2001 he worked for HIGHVOLT in different technical positions. Additionally, since 1996 he is an active member of CIGRÉ SC D1 in various working groups (as specialist, secretary and convenor). Since September 2016 he is Chairman of CIGRE Study Committee SC D1. Additionally, since 2004 he is a contract teacher at Chemnitz University of Technology, giving lecture on “Diagnostics and High-Voltage Measurement Techniques”.

Olga V. Sinenko graduated Moscow State Technical University, Russia, faculty of Computer Science and Instrumentation Technologies with qualification in Electromechanical engineering in 1977. She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in 2003 and 2005 accordingly and became a member of Engineering Science Academy of Russia. Since 1992 Olga Sinenko is  CEO of  RTSoft, an international company in the area of industrial and energy automation, focusing her attention on advanced industrial energy automation, Industry 4.0, DER and RES development. She participated actively in the foundation of the IIoT Laboratory at Moscow State Technical University, DER Laboratory at the International Center for Development of New Technologies Skolkovo. In 2014 she became the Chair of NC D2 “Information systems and telecommunication” of Russian NC of CIGRE, in 2015 she joined CIGRE SC D2 as a regular member and in 2018 she was elected the Chair of D2. She is a member of international Standardization committees and has more than 60 publications.