Adrian Balaoi is CTO at AB tehnic. He holds a B.Sc from the Universitatea „Dunărea de Jos” din Galați.

Managing director of CTA Group, a multi-channel group companies specialized in Process Cooling and Refrigeration applications – globalizing prescription, manufacturing, distribution, installation, and maintenance systems of HVAC&R for various industries sectors. Adrien has focused his group companies on ‘’green cooling’’ from 2015, by creating the European technical leader to produce hot and cold-water systems using R290 refrigerant on Water Chillers, commercial & Industrial Heat Pumps. Adrien studied in Ireland and in France and previously worked in automotive industries for several years.

Eng. Alessandro Farina Is one of the “Application Managers” for Castel. Trained as a mechanical engineer, he has a 22 years background in Research and development, project management, testing planners and creator, High-level trainer, and problem-solving. Technical contact person for the North and South America market and Canada, and key technician manager for the relationship with OEM systems builders.

Born March 1950, started his career in the merchant navy after his studies in 1971. Worked as a marine engineer on board of oil tankers (Company Chevron) and tugboats (Company Smit Lloyd). There he also gained his first practical experience with cooling and freezing installations. After his seaman’s career he started to work in the cooling and freezing technology in 1981, which he is still active in. Saw many refrigerants come and go. Feels privileged to share his experiences, passion and message with today’s generations.

Andreas Meier has several years of experience in management functions within the refrigeration sector. He has been a member of TEKO's management since August 2015. He was previously President of Sales D / A / CH at GEA Refrigeration Technologies, based in Berlin - Germany, and before that he was the Head of Marketing and Product Management at GEA Küba GmbH. He also worked in Zug - Switzerland, as Sales & Marketing Manager at a Japanese manufacturer for industrial refrigeration.

Arno Kaschl works as a Senior Policy Officer for the European Commission. Arno studied biology and has a Ph.D. from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Since 2011 he has been responsible for European fluorinated gas policies, contributing to the negotiations of the Fgas regulation and the Kigali amendment to the Montreal protocol.

Audun Heggelund is a senior adviser at the Norwegian Environment Agency, Section for Chemicals. He has PhD in organic chemistry from 2005 and about ten years of experience with PFAS from the Norwegian Environment Agency. Audun is currently a coordinator of the Norwegian efforts with the EU restriction proposal for PFAS.

Bas Eickhout (1976, Groesbeek, NL) studied Chemistry and Environmental Science at the Radboud University in Nijmegen and lives in Utrecht. Since 2000, he worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving). He worked on several projects on international environmental problems, such as climate change, agriculture, land-use and biofuels. He co-authored the IPCC report on climate change, which received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Bas Eickhout has been a member of the European Parliament and delegation leader of the Dutch Greens since 2009. He is a member and coordinator of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Budgetary Control. Eickhout is also a member of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China and a substitute member of the Delegation for relations with the United States. Eickhout is the rapporteur for the revision of the EU F-gas Regulation.

Ben is Chief Strategy Officer and executive director for CoolPlanet and has been instrumental in building the B2B SaaS company specialising in ESG and decarbonisation software. Along with CoolPlanet, Ben sits on the Boards of Positive Group, a wellness and psychological skills company. Before joining CoolPlanet Ben was Director of Facilities and Sustainability for Al Futtaim Group in UAE. Previously to that he was CEO of Urbanise, a service delivery software and IoT technology company which he took to IPO in Australia in 2014. Prior to joining Urbanise Ben was CEO and Managing Director of the UAE's largest and most successful Facilities Management company, Emrill, which employed over 8000 staff.

Benjamin has close to 12 years in the commercial refrigeration industry, working almost with #NatRef only. He worked with natural refrigerants, from R290 / R600a by AHT Cooling Systems to CO2 from Sanden, and Panasonic until today. He is currently the Cold Chain Key-Account Manager for Panasonic and does not believe in other refrigerants, but #NatRef!

Since 2010 Bente Tranholm Schwarz has been deputy Head of Unit in the Directorate General for Climate Action in the European Commission. She is in charge of policy development and implementation of the EU regulations preventing emissions from fluorinated greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances. These polices must also safeguard that the EU remains compliant with the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. Before 2010 she worked in the Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, in the Danish Ministry of Business and Industry and in the Danish Permanent Representation to the European Union where her main focus was policies fostering competitiveness and competition. She holds two Master degrees in economics.

Casper has more than 19 years of experience within the refrigeration industry. He started as a refrigeration technician and after some further technical studies, he became aftersales engineer with Advansor. Afterwards, he worked for 4 years as Area Sales Manager Denmark. As Area Sales Manager, Casper had been involved in the sales of several heat pumps, among others for more district heating plants. It became obvious that someone needed to take care of this segment and Casper got promoted to Business Development Manager for Heat Pumps in September 2022.

Christian holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering supplemented by 30 years’ experience within refrigeration, including solutions for supermarkets, cold stores, heat recovery and air conditioning systems with focus on natural refrigerants CO2 and hydrocarbons. Christian has initiated several projects aiming at reducing climate impact and optimizing energy performance and he share his discoveries when delivering training courses in CO2 refrigeration.

Christine Luetzkendorf is a Project Manager on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases at the German Environmental NGO ‘DUH’ since the beginning of 2021. She focuses on promoting natural alternatives and works on regulations to restrict F-Gases as well as PFAS substitutes on national and European level. Christine holds a master’s degree with honours in biosciences from Utrecht University and moreover, specialized in science communication, which enables her to make the topic accessible to stakeholders like political actors and the general public.

After graduating from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (SUPELEC) in 1988, Christophe started working in a Grenoble, France utility as an Electrical Network Operator and then as an Electrical Studies Manager. He joined Schneider Electric in 1994 in the Protection Relay Department as an Electrical Network Expert. He had the opportunity to write a book on “Protection of Electrical Networks” in Edition Hermès. In 1998, he moved to MV Switchgear Activity where he took different responsibilities in R&D. He is now responsible for new product development and new technology integration. He is also a lecturer at the ENSE3 Engineering School in Grenoble.

Collin Bootsveld has a background in Chemical Process Engineering and experience on the introduction of natural refrigerants within Colruyt Groups' supermarkets in Belgium. Refrigeration and air conditioning also formed a large part of his work for the Dutch research organization TNO. He has developed his career around energy conservation in the process industry, the built environment, greenhouses, and the retail sector. He works as an independent short-term expert on the introduction of sustainable technology, such as cooling, heat pumps and air-conditioning with natural refrigerants or electrical and hydrogen powered transport.

As director of the Technical Department BeLux David Schalenbourg is since September 2015 in charge of realizing Delhaize's ambitions to reduce its CO2 footprint by building towards a sustainable 'brick' network. Graduated as an architect in Brussels, with Master in Urban Planning obtained in Paris and with an international track record in a variety of sustainable building projects (residential, office, retail, islands, ...)

David has been with Epta since 2015 as application engineer. Since 2019 he is the responsible product manager for refrigeration packs and systems. The focus of his work is to push natural refrigerants in commercial refrigeration.

Dominik finished his Master studies at University of Vienna in chemical and process engineering and after that was working at the University of Stuttgart on a project for an autark standby cooling system of Truck driver’s cabins. He later worked for a big OEM in the refrigeration field, responsible for developing a new system for transport refrigeration of long-haul trailers.   After the project he co-founded PBX (formerly PRODUCTBLOKS) with the aim to develop transport refrigeration systems with hydrocarbon refrigerants. The developed product for light commercial vehicles achieved certification by the end of 2020 and is now commercially available as the first of its kind.

Dr. Aikaterini Boulamanti is an energy specialist working for Coop, one of the biggest retail companies in Switzerland. She is responsible for the Energy Optimization of more than 1000 retail shops, including topics such as commercial cooling and use of waste heat. She has studied chemical engineering and did her PhD in Environmental Pollution of energy producers. Before joining Coop, she worked several years in the European Commission, as a consultant for energy and the emissions trading scheme.

Dr Mark Kuschel is the Chief Technology Officer for Switching Products and Systems within Siemens Energy Grid Technologies. He drives the switchgear products towards zero emissions. Moreover he is also very active in the technical committee and associations work, in particular in Cigre as Area Advisor for gas-insulated switchgear, and in IEC & Cenelec as Secretary of the switchgear committee.

Ejner Brodersen is CEO at B COOL A/S an innovative company providing Marine Refrigeration solutions using CO2 as refrigerant. Ejner, which hold a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with specialization in thermodynamic has more than three decades of practical experience working in the Marine business providing HVAC and Refrigeration systems

Enrico graduated as a thermotecnical engineer from the Padua University. He is experienced in HVAC, compressed air treatment and commercial refrigeration. Since 2002, Enrico has been the Refrigeration Systems Director at Arneg Italia, headquarter of the Arneg Group, international leader in the design, manufacture and installation of complete equipment for the retail sector. With his expertise on CO2 systems, he is responsible for supporting the business in its high sustainability projects, evolving hand in hand with intelligent technologies, interacting with the environment, society and customers.

As Policy Officer in European Commission’s DG Energy since 2015, Eric is in charge notably of: energy efficiency and transition to carbon neutrality in industry; heat pumps for industrial, commercial and residential applications; as well as Country Coordinator for Belgium in the DG Energy. In this frame, he is coordinating the development of research and innovation topics related to energy intensive industries in the Cluster “Energy, Climate and Mobility” of the Horizon Europe framework programme, as well as the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) Working Group on energy efficiency in industry. He contributes to the Competitiveness Progress Report (CPR) on Heat pumps and on industrial heat recovery and upgrade. He is also coordinating the assessment of the Belgium National Energy and Climate Plan, and Resilience Recovery Plan, from an energy point of view. Prior to this, he was Research Programme Officer at DG Research and Innovation for six years. Before joining the European Commission in 2009, Mr Lecomte worked in industry for 19 years, mainly for Thales Alenia Space, as head of the Electrical Power Conditioning Units product line for space application. Eric Lecomte has an Engineering degree from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, as well as a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, US.

He started his experience in the refrigeration industry during Bachelor studies. Grown into the vertical refrigerated display cabinets industry, he led the transition to HCs and inverter technology on commercial appliances, achieving at the same time a Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering for Food Industry at Parma University of Studies. He joined Daikin Europe NV in 2020 as Section Manager for NPD Commercial Refrigeration, Product Compliance and Development Control. Registered to “Albo Ingegneri of Reggio Emilia” and CEN TC44 member for standardization.

After graduating in Energy Engineering (University of Padova, 2018), Federico Ferrari joined CAREL as an Application Specialist in the Food Retail Marketing Unit. He is currently involved in the development and distribution of electronic controllers for compressor racks and condensing units, mainly focusing on CO2 as refrigerant. Being part of the Sales & Marketing department, he provides technical and commercial support to subsidiaries and the sales network.

Manager, CDU Strategic Marketing Team, Cold Chain Solutions Company, Panasonic – CO2 TC Condensing Unit Installations in Australia & NZ

After obtaining his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2002, Giacomo Pisano worked for one year as a Project Manager for General Electric's Oil & Gas division, where the core business is turbomachinery applied to the oil \\u0026 gas industry. He joined DORIN in 2003 in the R&D department, taking responsibility of the CO2 compressor development and being in charge of the product's technical qualification. Giacomo Pisano then took over several application engineering roles and is currently responsible for the CO2 compressors' business development. In the meantime he joined several ASERCOM working groups and was the Chairman for the association's CO2 working group for many years.

Henrik Kudsk holds a M.Sc. in mechanical engineering from DTU (1986) and B.Com from CBS (1991). He has over 30 years of experience as product manager and engineer from refrigeration, renewable and steel industry.

Ingo Seliger is leading Strategic Standardization at Viessmann since April 2016. Focus areas include the decarbonisation of heating, cooling, air conditioning, digitalisation, business environmental development and competitiveness. Ingo has engineering experience of 29 years with 22 years in development of thermotechnical products and 7 years of standardization, in energy and climate business. He has led a team that launched highly efficient heating technology products in a global joint venture. He has previously led several development projects for energy and material conversion products at Bosch and RWE; he is member of more than forty technical committees in ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, DIN, DKE and consults the EU Commission on standardization affairs; he teaches refrigeration, air conditioning and mechanical engineering students in thermodynamics as an adjunct lecturer/assistant professor since 2014 at THM. Ingo holds a PhD in Engineering from the Leibniz University of Hanover faculty of architecture, a master’s degree in technical building service engineering from TU Dresden, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Paderborn. The Viessmann Group is one leading manufacturer of heating, cooling, air conditioning, industrial, and refrigeration systems with a turnover of € 3.4 billion. The family enterprise was founded in 1917. Our purpose statement, "We create living spaces for generations to come", is the goal driving both innovation and production by the 13000 employees of the Viessmann family and its trading partners across 74 countries.

Jakob started his journey working at Zudek in December 2020 as a Business Development Manager. Since then, the industrial refrigeration company, with ecology, sustainabilty and efficiency as main beliefs, has been gaining more and more international recognition, due to the quality of its work and dedication. Jakob a former Business Management Engineer has a key role in representing the company, thanks to his listenining skills and understanding of clients needs.

Jan holds a Doctor of Engineering degree in System Design from Hosei University in Tokyo and a Master’s degree from the Czech Technical University in Prague. During his studies, and research undertaken in the USA, Europe and Japan, Jan has centered his academic focus on environmental technologies and marketing strategies. Having lived in Japan for over 13 years, Jan communicates fluently in Japanese and has a rich experience cooperating with Japanese industry. Jan is currently based in Tokyo, responsible for business/market development activities and monitoring Asian markets on behalf of ATMOsphere Japan. He is also the global COO for ATMOsphere (formerly shecco).

Jonas Schoenenberger is working for Frigo-Consulting, a Swiss engineering company, mainly active in the fields of retail- and industrial refrigeration, with focus on energy efficient and sustainable refrigerating systems. Over the past years, he has gained comprehensive experience in engineering innovative solutions with natural refrigerants and has been involved in the design and implementation of several novel CO2 systems. Since 2012 he is in charge of research and development activities at Frigo-Consulting and committed to push and develop sustainable technologies. Jonas Schoenenberger has gained a Bachelor degree in system engineering in 2009 and has previously worked as mechanical engineer.

Dr Jonatan Kleimark has background as a PhD in organic chemistry and experience from working as a project manager within different industrial sectors, including MedTech, automotive and pharmaceutical industry. At ChemSec, he leads the work on PFAS, including PFAS Movement and identification of safer alternatives to PFAS, is project manager for ChemSec Marketplace, and is responsible for the work within the ChemSec Business Group.

Joseph Marchetti is the CO2 Refrigeration Product Manager at Energy Recovery where he leads the technical scope of the PX G1300 development, application and introduction into the HVACR market. He has worked specifically on developing the controls and systems scope of the PX skid to be integrated into existing refrigeration systems. Previous to CO2 refrigeration his role was in the R&D team primarily focused on reliability, system design, integration and core technology improvements on oil and gas projects. Previous to Energy Recovery, his experience was with major turbomachinery, in operation, reliability, optimization as well as project management and execution at multiple onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities. Joseph is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas and holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University. His research was completed in multiphase pump design and testing on electric submersible pumps for oil and gas applications

Today, Dr. Jürgen Süß is technical director of Ecooltec. Before that, he held various senior and top management positions at efficient energy, Cofely Refrigeration and Danfoss. Furthermore, he runs his own engineering consultancy. Jürgen holds a PhD from Hannover University and is active in international scientific committees and associations.

Jutta Paulus is a Member of the European Parliament for the German Green Party Bündnis90/Die Grünen since 2019. She is a member of the committees on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), Transport (TRAN) and Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic (COVI). Paulus started her career as a pharmacist, co-founded an independent laboratory for the examination of chemical hazards, and worked in quality management. From 2017 to 2019, she was the regional co-president of the Rhineland-Palatinate Greens. Jutta Paulus dedicated her political work to climate, energy and environmental challenges. She aims to achieve that the European Union takes effective action against climate change and that human beings, animals and nature are protected from destruction, pollution and poisoning.

Kęstutis Kupšys is a Vice-President of the Lithuanian Consumers Alliance, which (as of September 2021) unites ten consumer associations. The Alliance has been a member of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) since 2013. After a 2-decade long career in finance, political consulting and public relations, Kęstutis Kupšys joined the consumer rights movement in 2011, when he was chosen to supervise the establishment of 'For Honesty in Banking', a consumer advocacy organisation destined to steer diverse civic and legal campaigns of vulnerable consumers hit by the financial crisis of 2008–2009. Kęstutis Kupšys currently serves as the Executive Director of this organisation, which along with the Lithuanian Consumers Alliance has been actively participating in national and European debate on various essential issues, among them overindebtedness, the affordability and accessibility of financial services, financial literacy, green finance, and socially responsible savings and investment. In 2014–2015, as Lithuania was preparing to enter the Eurozone, he led a national campaign monitoring consumer rights during the litas-to-euro transition period. In April 2018, Kęstutis Kupšys was assigned the role of an alternate member of the European Economic and Social Committee, in the 'Diversity Europe' Group (III). He was appointed full member in October 2020. He also currently represents consumer interests in the Payment Systems Market Expert Group at DG FISMA as well as in the Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group at EIOPA. In addition, he takes part in the work of various BEUC working groups (on Trade, Financial Services, Sustainability, and Energy). Kęstutis Kupšys graduated from Vilnius University with a degree in Economic Cybernetics/Systemic Analysis of the Economy (in 1995), while his supplementary study interests encompassed Financial Markets and Business Administration (via Catholic University Eichstätt, Germany, 'Gaststudium' program in 1992–1993) and Philosophy (Vilnius University, 1995–1997).

Educated as mechanical engineer at DTU back in 1995 later in 2003 further educated in Engineering Business Administration (bachelor). Started as engineer at Danish Technological Institute in 1995 and worked as general manager for the refrigeration department from 2001. Started own company, Advansor, in 2006, which was the fastest growing start-up in DK in the years 2008-2011. Sold the company to the Dover Industries in 2011 and stayed as CEO for Advansor until 2018. Took a year in 2018/2019 crossing the Atlantic Ocean with my family and a 8-month cruise in Caribbean before returning to Denmark in the summer 2019. Now working with start-ups and advisory business focusing on sustainable businesses within environment and energy sector. CO-founded Fenagy during the summer 2020 with the ambition to create a professional OEM in the field of industrial refrigeration and electrical heap pumps based on CO2 as refrigerant. The majority of Fenagy was acquired by Beijer Ref in 2021.

Luca has a degree in energetic engineering from Padua University. After doing is master thesis at Enex on CO2 transcritical chillers, he started as a design engineer and is now R&D laboratory manager.

Born in Italy, Luca obtained a specialist degree in energy engineering (ingegneria energetica) at Politecnico of Milan in 2011. He's been working in E. Biaggini SA in Switzerland since 2013 and is project manager in the field of commercial and industrial refrigeration systems with transcritical CO2 technology. Luca speaks Italian, English and German and closely collaborates with many Swiss, European and Chinese companies.

Manuel FERNANDES has 20 years of experience in the world of HVAC and industrial refrigeration, and in the CTA SAS teams for 10 years. He was in charge of the commissioning of CTA equipment in France and abroad, before taking care of the development and the technical follow-up of the different ranges of R290 chillers and heat pump for the French market. He accepted a new challenge and took, for CTA, a commercial activity in the North East of France, mainly in the industrial sector with innovative solutions using natural fluids.

Founder of ATMOsphere a global, independent market accelerator with a mission to clean-up cooling. Marc Chasserot has 20 years of experience in the HVAC&R sector. His focus throughout those years has been with Natural Refrigerant based technologies used in Refrigeration, Heat Pumps and Air Conditioning applications. He has founded several industry platforms, namely; www.R744.com, www.hydrocarbons21.com, ammonia21.com, and Accelerate Magazine. Published numerous reports for industry and policy-makers, chaired over 70 ATMOsphere conferences worldwide. Marc has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and America. He holds several degrees in Economics, Marketing and Politics.

After his graduation in Ingegneria Elettrica at the Pavia University of Studies he was attracted by the refrigeration sector. Engaged in Embraco since the beginning, he held several positions, including Technical Support, Marketing for Innovation, and actually Key Account Sr. Advisor - Commercial Business, dealing with Technical Liaisons between Embraco-OEMs-End Users. He pioneered the penetration and diffusion of HCs as a natural solution for integral commercial applications. Partner of RealAlternatives4Life EU training and CEN TC44 member for standardization.

Mark has about 20 years of international industrial sales & business development experience. In his career he has always been focusing on products that focused on more sustainable industrial operations. While being in the Aluminium industry he was part of the team that was pushing the HVAC & R sector towards replacing Copper with more economical Aluminium products. Today he´s working with Replique, a German start up that is providing a digital inventory platform solving supply chain issues by providing a more sustainable production and logistics utilizing 3D printing.

Martin Sønderby is a Mechanical Engineer and has worked with technical sales for more than 25 years within the industry and district heating sector both in Denmark and abroad. He is specialised in energy consulting and sustainability, especially working with Science Based Target initiatives and scope 1-3 carbon emission reductions. As Technical Sales Consultant at Aktive Energie Anlæg A/S, Martin contributes to the green transition and provides sustainable turn-key heat pump solutions to the district heating sector.

Massimiliano Santini is an Italian sustainable cooling specialist who has been working, for over 26 years, in the absorption cooling and refrigeration industry. He is a real sustainability enthusiast who chose Absorption Cooling from the very beginning of his career, because of the use of natural refrigerants (water or ammonia) and the exploitation of waste heat for its working cycle. A strong advocate of the use of absorption chillers as contributors to decarbonisation, Massimiliano has held different positions in the industry, most of them in business development and training of engineers worldwide. Today, in addition to his position as International Business Development Specialist for the German Ammonia Absorption Chillers manufacturer AKM, he is the Managing Director of World Energy Europe, the European HQs of the Korean lithium bromide chillers maker World Energy.

Matteo Bettoni is Project Manager for the R&D department in Rivacold. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (specialized in Thermodynamics) from the Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, with an internship period at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He has been working at Rivacold for over 6 years, starting from engineering up to Project management, where he is responsible for flammable refrigerant projects

Menno van der Hoff has been innovating heat pumps since 1989, many years Head of R&D at Colt International UK/D/NL and he invented the patented TripleAqua technology. TripleAqua is a natural three pipe reversible heat pump system without a 4-way valve, thus always more efficient, with less material and much less piping costs! The technology was tested at a series of pilots with the help of BeijerRef. By applying thermal storage, natural refrigerant propane, optimized heat transfer, a zero carbon footprint solution is created. TripleAqua is relaunched at ChillVenta 22 with CO2 transcritical. Menno has patented his designs and all patents have been granted and commercialized. Several licenses have been given out to leading family owned European heat pump manufacturers. For his work, he received a long list of awards, some to mention: the Cooling Industry Award 2009 UK, the H&V News award 2009 Environmental initiative of the year, twice he received the Dutch NVKL Cool Trophy for a propylene decentral heat pump system and for TripleAqua, the EU Climate-KIC award, EU Heat pump initiative of the year, the IEA Heat pump innovation award, The European Heat Pump City of the Year HPCY award, Person of the Year 2017 (Atmosphere) and more. Menno strives to continue to build new and innovative businesses using natural refrigerant and the most efficient heat pump technology available or to be invented.

As the Head of Content for ATMOsphere (formerly shecco), veteran journalist Michael Garry is responsible for the news articles on R744.com, Hydrocarbons21.com and Ammonia21.com. He also contributes to in-depth market reports, helps to organize ATMO conferences and helps to manage and curate the global ATMO Connect network. Starting at ATMOsphere in 2014, he has also served as editor-in-chief of Accelerate America and Accelerate Magazine. Prior to joining ATMOsphere, he led the coverage of sustainability, technology and logistics at Supermarket News for 11 years. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of M.I.T with a degree in political science, he is the author of “Game of My Life: New York Mets.”

Born in Switzerland, Mirko Guidetti began his professional training with an apprenticeship as a refrigeration plant fitter; and then graduated as a designer of refrigeration systems. In 1998 he took on a new professional challenge at Grünenfelder SA (family business) as a food product representative. He attended the school of marketing technician and from 2000 he became sales director of the Retail / GDO sector. Since 2017 he is co-owner of the company. Mirko speaks Italian, German and French.

Nishant is from Pune, India with a bachelor’s education in Mechanical Engineering. Additionally, he holds a MSc. In Sustainable Energy with a specialisation in Thermal Energy from the Technical University of Denmark. His studies focussed on sustainable heating and cooling technologies with an emphasis on integrating renewable heat sources with heat pumps. Currently based in Oostende, he is responsible for analysing and evaluating the performance of HVACR technologies from a technical and an environmental perspective at the Environment Research Centre in Daikin Europe.

Olaf Schulze is the Director Energy Management/ Real Estate Sustainability at METRO Properties Holding From 2005 to 2013, he was the Managing Director of Metro Properties Energy Management GmbH. Previously, Schulze worked at Europower Energy GmbH as the Head of Legal and Human Resources and at Geberit Mapress GmbH as the Head of Legal and Insurance.

Olivier Liégeois is Marketing Refrigeration Director for the Retail Sector in Europe at Emerson Commercial and Residential Solutions.  He has a Master's Degree in Engineering in Thermodynamics from the University of Liège (B) and has been working at Emerson for more than 20 years. He has been involved in New Product Development during all his career, starting from engineering, to project management and now to product management, where he is responsible for the Cold Chain solutions using natural refrigerants.

Patryk leads the design of compact CO2 units in the range up to 30kW cooling capacity. As a refrigeration engineer from the beginning he is closely involved in the entire product life cycle from concept to commissioning. A seven-year career with Area Cooling Solutions in various roles has prepared him well for next challenges of natural refrigerants. As a direct technical contact with key CO2 customers, he ensures that the iCOOL units meet the highest market expectations.

Business development manager at Area Cooling Solutions. Philippe leads the sales development of commercial refrigeration solutions based on customer centric as business approach, sustainable solution as core value and a philosophy based on being different. As a mechanical engineer with an MBA, he began his journey at Area as Business Manager for France, Belgium and North Africa and later became a sales manager for West Europe and North Africa market.

René van Gerwen, graduated in 1983 as M.Sc. mechanical engineering at Delft University, The Netherlands, has dedicated his professional life to removing barriers to the wider application of sustainable refrigeration and heat pump technologies, focusing on energy efficiency, natural refrigerants like ammonia, hydrocarbons, CO2 and air, as well as alternative technologies like Stirling, magnetocaloric and thermoacoustic refrigeration. He is currently owner of Entropycs (Entropy Cooling Solutions), a refrigeration consultancy that he founded in 2016. Prior to that, he was Global Lead Engineer for many years at Unilever, one of the largest end users of refrigeration in the world. He has held major positions in professional organizations like IIR, IIAR, CEN, NEN, NKK, STEK and KNVvK. He presented numerous papers in national, ATMO, IIR and IIAR conferences. In 2004, Van Gerwen co-founded Refrigerants, Naturally!, an association alliance of multinationals and NGOs, promoting the use of natural refrigerants in point-of-sale equipment; in 2018, this association has been revitalized, with a broad RACHP scope, open for all supporters of natural refrigerants worldwide. He is co-initiator and executive partner of Refrigerants Naturally! for Life, a European Union LIFE project focusing on the uptake of natural refrigerants in small stores in Europe (2018-2022). In 2019, as Board member of the Dutch Refrigeration Association KNVvK, he founded two Dutch Knowledge Platforms, one for natural refrigerants and one for heat pumps, of which he is now coordinator, and he is still very active on safety standards for hydrocarbons, CO2 and ammonia in NEN, CEN, ISO, IEC and ECOS.

Sarah holds a Master of Mechanical Engineering, graduated in 2015, and Doctor of Engineering Science: Mechanical Engineering, graduated in 2019. Since August 2019, Sarah has been working as an energy efficiency engineer at Equans in the department of Industrial Cooling. The department of Industrial Cooling designs and installs industrial cooling and HVAC-systems as well as heat pumps and is a premium maintenance partner. Sarah is responsible for energy studies of all kinds, amongst others: energy optimization of cooling and HVAC installations, integration of hot and cold streams, heat recuperation, heat pump optimization, pre-engineering and TCO-studies, and CFD-studies. Energy Efficiency Engineer

Sergio graduated from High School in Electric Technologies in 1995. After a few experiences in various fields, he joined Eliwell in 1998 in Technical Support, as Engineer first and Manager later on. Over the years he built a solid knowledge of products, applications and Refrigeration Market. Since 2017, he has been working as Refrigeration Systems Sales Expert - Technical Sales, HVAC-R Solutions for Eliwell Controls, developing and supporting the Retail Solution both for Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration, including natural refrigerants. Since 2021, he has been working as well as Offer Manager supporting Marketing Department for Refrigeration Products.

Key Account Manager for the retail food industry focusing on high energy efficiency solutions. Once achieved his graduation in electronics engineering he started his experience in the HVAC/R market as Project Manager in Aermec for the development of the regulation of heat pumps / chillers / AHUs to optimize the performances in terms of energy consumption. After this experience, Stefano moved to Carel as Export Area manager for the AC market in Central Europe and ME. He then moved to Frigoveneta in 2011 to develop the commercial refrigeration business. During these years he has promoted several heating recovery solutions and integrated systems of refrigeration with air conditioning systems, with special attention towards new green solutions.

Thomas Frank is a chemical engineer (Dipl. Ing.) and certificated senior project manager (IPMA level B) with demonstrating experience and network in the field of refrigeration. For over 10 years, he has been working in different fields of industrial refrigeration from process cooling for chemical plants to food storage and environmental simulation. In 2019 he founded Refolution, an engineering office that is using deep knowledge of refrigeration and analytic process understanding to develop new processes in different fields to transform the industry to natural refrigeration only with efficient, long lasting and safe for humans and nature technologies. Refolution is well known for inventing and building new solutions with the oil-free air refrigeration machine from Mitrai Intex like the -115°C cold sauna, the vaccines storage container,  the HOF-CryoBlizzard that is a central refrigeration plant for pharmaceutical batch processes like lyophilization and plasma freezing, steel hardening, plastic deburring and a solvent recycling process. 

Thomas is a policy analyst at ATMOsphere. He is the leading author of the report 'Accelerating the EU’s shift towards natural refrigerant domestic heat pumps', as well as coordinator of the Clean Cooling Coalition. He regularly contributes to ATMOsphere’s industry-dedicated media outlets www.R744.com, www.ammonia21.com and www.hydrocarbons21.com with policy-relevant articles. Before joining ATMOsphere, Thomas worked at the European Commission's competition department for state aid in the energy sector.

Tim Grabiel is an experienced environmental lawyer based in Paris, France. He joined the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2011, providing policy and legal advocacy on issues at the European and international levels. He has extensive experience working with governmental and non-governmental organizations on various environmental issues, including ozone-depleting substances, fluorinated greenhouse gases, plastic pollution, climate change and forest protection, among many others. He also taught international and trade law at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in France. Prior to joining EIA, Tim spent two years working on European litigation and legislation and six years working in the United States, first as an Attorney at Make the Road by Walking in Brooklyn, New York and then as a Staff Attorney in the Environmental Justice Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Los Angeles, California, where he litigated several successful cases against major polluters and government agencies on behalf of low-income communities of colour. Tim is a law graduate of New York University (NYU) School of Law and received his undergraduate degree in Economics/International Area Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is admitted to practice law in California, New York, England and Wales.

Tim Rook is a Chartered Engineer and the Chief Markets Officer for Clade Engineering. The leading manufacturer of natural refrigerant heat pumps using CO2 and hydrocarbons in the UK. Tim has 16 years experience of a broad range of low carbon technologies and more recently of digital tech with IBM where he lead blockchain and Industry 4.0 initiatives for industrial clients. He currently leads the market development and strategic planning for Clade including the technology road map, digital marketing and representation.

Vincent Grass is the Global lead for refrigeration in the Corporate Operations – Engineering Services department at Nestlé headquarter in Switzerland. He defines the strategy and the standards for the choice of refrigerants for heating and cooling applications. He is involved in implementing natural refrigerant projects in Nestlé facilities across the globe, as well as risk mitigation related to using natural refrigerants. Prior to joining Nestlé twelve years ago, he spent two years at Johnson control (JCI) and 10 years at Equans (formerly Axima). During that time he was primarily involved in projects using natural refrigerants ammonia and CO2.

''Refrigeration technology was instilled in me from the very beginning''. With Servex at home, founded in 1974 by his father, Wil grew up. After completing various training and courses and internships outside Servex, he and his brother took over the business in 2005. But times were changing. ''Traditional, synthetic refrigerants have had their day,'' he firmly believes. They are an enormous burden to the environment, are becoming increasingly rare and prices are skyrocketing. There is an alternative: natural refrigerants. That's why Servex has decided that starting in 2014, only refrigeration systems with natural refrigerants will go out the door. Effective, safe and economical. In 2020, he and Servex made an entire flat gasless in one day. This through a plug and play installation, on propane, with more to follow.... ''My biggest motivation is to make refrigeration more sustainable''