BEST organization
Each of the industrial partners in BEST are invited to have a representative in the BEST Leadership Forum. The role of the forum is to give strategic direction to BEST and guide the management. The BEST steering group convene on a quarterly basis.
Frederic Hauge
Chairman of BEST steering group, President of Bellona
In 1986, Frederic Hauge established Bellona, which has facilitated concrete changes in environmental policies among political and industrial leaders in Norway and internationally. Today, Bellona is as international scientific and technology based environmental NGO. In 2007, Mr. Hauge was elected Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council for the European Commission’s Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP).
Bob Pegler
General Manager for Europe, the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI)
Pegler has served in the Australian Public Service for more than 30 years in the fields of resources, energy, industry, finance and environment. From 2002-06, Pegler was Minister-Counsellor in the Australian Permanent Delegation to the OECD and represented Australia’s energy and industry policy views at the International Energy Agency and the various industry-related committees of the OECD. More recently, Bob was responsible for policy formulation and regulation surrounding Australia’s mineral resources as Head of Resources Division and as General Manager, Offshore Resources Branch within the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. For GCCSI Pegler is the General Manager for Europe and sits in the Board of Directors and Management.
Nils Røkke
Vice President Climate Change Technologies, SINTEF
Nils Røkke is the head of many of the EU's research projects in the capture and storage of CO2. He is also in charge of the Norwegian BIGCO2 project, Europe's largest national initiative in this type of research. In 2009 Røkke was appointed to the committee council, which is the highest body, in ZEP. As his every day work Røkke is the Director of Climate Research at SINTEF.
Chris Bolesta
Directorate General for Energy, Coal and Oil, European Commission (EC)
Bolesta has worked for the European Commission since 2004 on energy and climate issues. He has been involved in structuring energy policy for most EU Member States and is now the Directorate General for Energy in the Coal and Oil Unit. Bolesta is an economist by education.
Rebecca Collyer
Deputy Director, European Climate Foundation (ECF)
Rebecca Collyer joined ECF from the British Government where she worked in Energy Group, in the Department for Business (BERR). She has ten years of direct policy experience working with the energy sector on Climate Change issues and is also an experienced EU policy maker having worked in the European Commission in Peter Mandelson’s Cabinet. From 2002 until 2005 Rebecca worked on a variety of economic portfolios within the British Government, including a period in the Cabinet Office, Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat where she led on Cabinet coordination of business, trade and energy issues. In ECF Rebecca works as a Senior Associate in the Power Programme.
Aage Stangeland
Special Advicer, the Norwegian Research Council (NRC)
After several years working as a chemical researcher and engineer within industry, Aage Stangeland started working with CCS for Bellona in 2005. Stangeland started to work for the Norwegian Reserach Council in 2009 as a special advicer on CCS. Stangeland has published several reports and studies on CCS the recent years. He is also a member of the ZEP Taskforce on Technology. Stangeland has an MSc in chemical engineering and a Dr. Scient in materials science.
Ellina Levina
Energy Analyst, CCS Unit, International Energy Agency (IEA)
Ellina has more than 17 years of international experience, primarily in climate change policy analysis and development, focusing on technical issues related to climate change negotiations. Ellina has covered a broad range of climate policy related issues, including emissions trading, joint implementation, energy policies, adaptation to climate change, financing, and now energy technologies. Ellina has also worked on air quality, transportation, and industrial pollution issues. She has extensive experience in institutional, regulatory, and economic analysis, as well as in facilitating stakeholder dialogues and providing institutional capacity building assistance. Ellina has worked for many international organizations, including UNFCCC, the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), OECD and IEA. Ellina has also worked with national governments of such countries as Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Czech republic, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, UK, US, Argentina, Mexico, and with the European Commission.
Hilde Bygdevoll
Regulatory Affairs Manager, Shell
Hilde Bygdevoll is the Regulatory Affairs Manager for Shell Upstream International in Europe. She covers activities & projects both on the national- and EU scene. Hilde is working with national and EU regulatory bodies on all commercial regulatory activities for Norway. She is also leading Shell’s Gas Advocacy project in Norway. Work includes defining the short and long term strategy, policy asks & identifying engagement opportunities for gas advocacy in Norway. For Regulatory Affairs in EU she is the CO2 focal point (for Upstream) with responsibilities for, including but not limited to, Energy Efficiency Directive, Energy Tax Directive, Low Carbon Economy Roadmap, Marine Strategy and the Arctic. Hilde has previously worked for ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing in London, as a senior Supply Analyst and senior Sales Negotiator.
Gérard Moutet
Vice President Climate and Energy, Total
In 2011 Moutet was appointed to the ZEP committee council, which is the highest body in ZEP.
The BEST project will be lead by Derek Taylor, Director of BEST, together with Paal Frisvold, BEST Project leader. Taylor and Frisvold represent long experience and knowledge related to CCS. They will ensure a successful management of BEST and their expertise will be a guarantee for successful achievement of the BEST ambitions.
Derek Taylor
Director of BEST
Taylor holds a PhD in geology/geochemistry and started his career at British Petroleum before joining the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. Since 1984 until 2009, he was with the European Commission, where for many years he was a head of unit in the field of nuclear energy and safety. Over the last few years, Taylor has focused on the security of energy supply and energy markets, where he has been advising on the environmental impacts of energy and energy policy, in particular relating to carbon emissions and climate change.
Paal Frisvold
Project leader
Frisvold has worked with political processes in the EU, IEA and at G8 level related to CCS for years. He has a large network, including very good connections to the European commission and European Parliament. Frisvold is member of the ZEP Coordination Group. Frisvold holds a Masters Degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, SAIS.
Eivind Hoff
Deployment programme manager
Lobbyist experienced with both European and multilateral affairs. Hoff has worked for several years with trade policy, both at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and at the WWF European Policy Office. Author of a Bellona paper on financing options for EU CCS demonstration programme. He holds an MA in European studies from the College of Europe and an LLM in public international law from the University of London.
The current members of the BEST team are listed below. In addition, the ambitious scope of BEST will require new employees with key expertise within CCS and project management. Recruitment of additional staff will commence as soon as sufficient funding is secured.
Erlend Fjøsna
Programme director
Erlend Fjøsna holds a BSc in Power Electronics from Norway. During most of his more than 25 years career he has worked with technology deployment and business development. He started his professional life as an engineer during the time when the Norwegian Continental Shelf at its peak of development, working for several exploration and production companies, and also for engineering and construction yards. During this period he gained a solid hands-on experience from the development, qualification and implementation of new technology. Over the last 10 years, before joining Bellona Foundation in August, he headed the development of a new business area for FMC Technologies Inc, enabling it to be the first company ever to deliver subsea processing to the offshore oil & gas market on a commercial basis.
Virginia Corless
Analyst and researcher
Virginia Corless joined Bellona in 2010 after working as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate for the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, where she specialized in international energy and industrial efficiency issues. At Bellona, she leads the Analysis programme for the BEST team, analyzing policy and technical issues important for carbon capture and storage. She also works more broadly on international energy issues and is a member of the Sahara Forest Project team. She has lived, worked, studied, and taught in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Italy, and Chile. She holds a B.S. in Physics with a minor in Applied International Studies from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Cambridge, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar and a U.S. National Science Foundation Research Fellow.
Laetitia Birkeland
Legal expert
Birkeland has a French law degree and Master in International Private Law from the University La Sorbonne in Paris and practiced as a lawyer before she moved to Norway in 1998. In Norway, she worked several years in a Norwegian business law firm and qualified as a Norwegian lawyer before she decided to join Bellona in the end of 2007. Author of Bellona paper on the legal aspects of CCS following the adoption of the Directive on geological storage of CO2.
Gøril Tjetland
Geologist
Tjetland is a geologist with a Master of Science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She has substantial industrial and international experience from previous positions in oil and mining companies where she has perfomed geological surveys on finding gold in Norway and oil in the Middle East. Tjetland joined the Bellona Foundation September 2009. In Bellona she sits in the Technology Taskforce in the ZEP platform and lead Bellonas deliverables in ECCO (7th framework program).
Carolina Perez-Garcia
Analyst and researcher
Carolina holds a MSc in Marine Science from the University of Cadiz (Spain) and a PhD in Marine Geophysics at the University of Tromsø (Norway). She has been collaborating with scientific institutions in Europe, presenting at international congresses and participated in more than fifteen oceanographic cruises. At the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), she worked on processing seismic data and assessed shallow tectonic risk for building pipelines during the MEDGAZ project. At Bellona BEST, she is modelling the energy demand for different European countries and creating future scenarios in where CCS technology is contribuiting to the CO2 emission mitigation by 2050.
Keith Whiriskey
Analyst and researcher
Keith Whiriskey holds a MSc in Carbon Capture and Storage from the University of Edinburgh. He has previously worked as a mine geologist for Rio Tinto before joining Bellona. At Bellona his work specialises in the all aspects of the CCS value chain form source to sink.
Joanna Ciesielska
Advisor
Joanna Ciesielska (known as Asia) is a trainee at Bellona Europa assisting with CCS, biomass and energy efficiency. Asia has a passion for the environment and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Kraków and Lisbon, focused on renewable energy sources. She has been active in the Board of European Students of Technology. In addition to her Polish mother tongue, she speaks Portuguese, German and English. Asia has previously worked for the European Photovoltaic Industry Association and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation. She will be staying with Bellona Europa until the end of February 2012.
Jonas Helseth
Advisor Bio and Energy
Jonas Helseth joined Bellona Europa after two years of working with transport, energy, environmental and telecom policies at the Mission of Norway to the EU in Brussels. He holds a joint master's degree in Baltic Sea Area/EU-Russia relations from the Universities of Turku (Finland) and Riga (Latvia), and a bachelor's degree in EU studies from the Universities of Trondheim (Norway) and Freiburg (Germany). Jonas has a fluent command of German and Dutch, and is currently involved in the CCS team BEST as well as Bellona's work on bio-CCS, related to the Joint Task Force between the EU technology platforms ZEP and EBTP.
Svend Søyland
International climate policy expert
Søyland has worked for Bellona on CCS issues in the USA since 2004 and represents Bellona in the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. He has an extensive network in US both in academia, government as well as the oil/gas and power sectors. He is also following the UNFCCC negotiations closely. Søyland holds a Cand. Polit. Degree from the universities of Bergen and Oslo.
Ashenafi Degefe Erena
Data manager
Ashenafi has a bachelor's degree in forestry. Prior to joining Bellona, he worked as a lecturer and researcher for the Department of Agriculture in Ethiopia. He is part of Bellonas CCS team, where he is working with GIS and RS data analysis.
The BEST Team will expand through the project period of 2010 – 2014, and the following new positions are planned:
Two geological and environmental experts to work on CO2 storage safety projects
- A CCS advocacy trainer with responsibility to develop and train the BEST advocacy team
Two communication officers to manage public communication and the continuous development of the Bellona CCS Web as a respected and attractive communication hub
Political and technological experts will be hired or employed in countries selected for CCS roadmap establishment
A Project Secretary
- A high level EU policy officer to facilitate the development of BEST CCS roadmaps
In total, 8 new experts is planned hired or employed. The number of new positions to work on roadmaps will, however, depend on available funding and decisions made by the BEST Leadership Forum, but an initial analysis conclude that 8 new positions are required to establish roadmaps for the intended countries.
New employments will require new funding prior to employment. Recruitment started early 2010 and aim to fill the majority of the vacant positions by 2012.
