Europe Advisory Board

Cynthia Dubin has had a distinguished career in the energy space for the last 40 years. It has included both executive and non-executive board roles in banking, private and publicly listed companies and a regulator. She has experience with established and nascent technologies from oil and gas to cryogenic energy storage and EV charging. Her work has encompassed multiple geographies from both an equity and debt perspective. It started in the US with advising and providing finance for nascent projects born out of the deregulation of the utility industry to support the transition to independently owned and operated power generators. She brought this to bear on markets which followed suit in Europe, specifically the UK, Spain, Italy and Turkey, after moving to the UK 33 years ago and becoming European CFO for one of the largest independent global power developers. Her CFO work moved to oil and gas in the mid-2000s where she was involved with financing fields from the North Sea to Russia. Her experience with owning and operating the largest pump storage business in Europe, the 2,150 MW First Hydro “magic mountain” in Wales led her to work with the start-up, Pivot Power, a developer of large-scale battery storage and EV charging facilities in the UK, to raise the necessary capital to make this vision a reality with its sale to EdF.

Cynthia turned her focus exclusively to board work in 2019 and currently has a portfolio of three non-executive roles where she is influencing developments in the energy transition regularly. Specifically, energy related, she is on the board of the UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, where she was a champion of their work to conduct a market study to support the building of a comprehensive and competitive electric vehicle charging sector. She is also a board member of ICE Futures Europe, the largest regulated energy futures exchange in Europe, where it hosts crude oil, interest rates, equity derivatives, natural gas, power, coal, emissions and soft commodities trades. It is the world’s leading market for emissions trading and handles more than 50% of the world’s crude and refined oil futures trading.

Pernille is a Ph.D. economist with 25 years of international private and public-sector experience in energy, climate change, and sustainable development. Her energy-related work includes biomass, carbon capture and storage, wind energy and other renewables.

Pernille is a Research Fellow at Imperial College London’s Business School where she researches how to channel greater investments into nature and climate change. She is also a senior consultant to S&P Global, where she undertakes green bond/finance second party assessments. In 2017, Pernille founded Blue Maia, an advisory firm, to advise clients on the growing market for green finance and nature-based solutions.

Victoria is responsible for ensuring Encyclis value as a baseload energy supplier and essential public health service is understood is a priority within her role. This includes strategic engagement across UK & European governments and partnership working across the sector to deliver a wider comprehension of the waste sector’s contribution to the circular economy and Encyclis’ place within it. Victoria is also an executive board member of Ambiente 2000 an energy from waste treatment and disposal company based in Trezzo, Milan, Italy.

Her previous role was with The Peel Group, as Director of Corporate Affairs covering the energy, real estate and built environment sectors in the UK. Her early career was with Amberley Group PLC in specialty chemicals and Nissho Iwai Europe Plc trading marine aviation and electronics investments.

In addition to being a European Board Advisory Member for The Hawthorn Club she is also Vice Chair of The Community Forest Trust: the national charity for trees in communities, working in partnership with DEFRA & The Woodland Trust.

Trude is the Chief Technology Officer for Hydro and was previously the CEO of Gassnova.

Tania worked with Siemens from 1997 until 2015 where, after joining the company as a commercial bid and project manager, she progressed to hold a number of Finance Director roles in Siemens Postal Automation, Siemens Healthcare and Siemens Energy. Between 2011 and 2015 Tania was the Group Finance Director of Siemens Energy in the UK and the Controller for Siemens Energy Region North West Europe (a 4 billion EUR business).

Since leaving Siemens, together with working as a consultant for her previous employer, Tania has built a portfolio of Non-Executive Director roles including Thrive Renewables plc (a renewable energy developer and operator), Energy System Catapult (which seeks to drive innovation across the energy system), Sureserve Group (a gas and renewable technology energy services group), the UK Infrastructure Bank (facilitating private finance alongside public investment to help tackle climate change and economic growth), and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (a multi-donor organisation fostering infrastructure investment in developing countries).

Since 2003 Tania has also been active as a Board Member of ViaNinos Germany and UK, a charity that supports projects helping street and working children in Ecuador.

Trude is the Chief Technology Officer for Norsk Hydro and was previously the CEO of Gassnova. She has 30 years business experience, with key areas within energy, environment and climate issues. She has had several years of management experience including corporate and line management, R&D management, as well as business development and oil/gas field development.

Sundset has experience from Boards of organisations including commercial businesses, experience from international collaboration and has built a broad network in various international organisations. Among these, Sundset was Member of Advisory Council in ZEP (European Union’s platform for Zero Emissions Fossil Fuel Power Plants united to support CO2 Capture and Storage. She also served as Chairman of Technical Group of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (2005-2008) on behalf of Norway. In addition, she was Member of Executive Committee of IEA GHG R&D (International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Research& Development).

For more than 15 years she was Chairman of the Board of the foundation FIRST Scandinavia. Being part of building this organisation from the start, now a sound organisation as the key player in Norway on developing and running science programs for young people. Sundset holds a Master of Technology, Physical Chemistry, from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim.

Mallika is Shell’s Chief Economist. She advises on macroeconomic issue, economic trends, and related policy matters to shape Shell’s log-term scenario outlooks. She leads strategic engagements on energy transitions with national and city governments across the world, notably a multi-year collaboration with the Chinese government. Mallika also advises on Shell’s strategic policy and advocacy approach to support the company’s energy transition strategy. She sits on a range of external advisory boards.

Prior to joining Shell, she was Deputy Director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs responsible for evidence and analysis across the environment, food, and green economy portfolio. She has held senior positions across the UK Government, including at the Cabinet Office as Head of Policy Analysis for the 2009 G20 London Summit. Before that, Mallika worked in senior economics and policy roles int eh USA.

Mallika holds a PhD and M.S. degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, and a BA from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.