Journalist covering Middle East energy for The National.

Dr Mowaffak Baqer al-Rubaie is a distinguished Iraqi politician and active civil rights campaigner.

He was appointed as a member of the 25 member Iraqi Governing Council by the Coalition Provisional Authority in July 2003. In April 2004, in recognition of his astute understanding of the risks and challenges faced by Iraq, he was appointed as National Security Advisor (NSA) by the Coalition Provisional Authority. He held this post for its full 5-year term until April 2009, when he was appointed as an MP in Iraq’s Council of Representatives (Iraq’s Parliament), a role he held until Parliament’s dissolution in March 2010.

Samya Kullab is a senior correspondent at Iraq Oil Report, covering oil, security and politics in Iraq, working in both Erbil and Baghdad bureaus. She was formerly covering conflict and migration in the Middle East with a focus on Syria. Her work has been published in international outlets including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, IRIN, The National and the Globe and Mail. She was a reporter and editor for Lebanon’s The Daily Star, where for three years she covered the spillover from the war in Syria, including the refugee crisis, border security and terrorism. She also reports from South Asia. She completed a Trauma Training for Journalists course in 2015.

In 2017, she authored a graphic novel with Firefly Books about her coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis which was shortlisted for the School Library Association’s Information Book Award and translated to several languages. She has provided commentary about Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to media outlets including the BBC, Monocle and The Atlantic.

Yesar al-Maleki is an energy economist and a Middle East observer with extensive knowledge of the intertwining subjects of energy, geopolitics, and economics in the region.

He has worked for the International Energy Agency (IEA) and various international oil companies and is the managing director of Iraq Energy Institute (IEI) in Baghdad, where he conducts research on Iraq’s and Iraqi Kurdistan’s energy sectors, water challenges, economy, and politics. He is currently studying prospects of joint economic diversification in the northern region of the Persian Gulf, and has written on the impact of Beijing’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) on Middle Eastern port politics, oil rentiership in the GCC, OPEC’s oil market balancing measures, Venezuela’s economic woes, and the prospects of Russian energy exports diversification.

Klaus Michael Winter was born in 1944 in Hamburg/Germany. After graduation as Diplomingenieur (MS EE) from Fachhochschule Hamburg 1969, he went on for studies in mathematics at the University of Lund, Sweden.  In 1973 he started his 18-year carrier with the Swedish State Power Board, initially taking part in the commissioning of Ringhals nuclear power plant.  In 1980 he became responsible for protection standards and concepts of the large State Power Board distribution grid. In this position, he also worked as a researcher (PhD studies) at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. In 1991 he started his own enterprise Swedish Neutral AB, a company focused on the development of new protection schemes for distribution networks. He currently still works in the position as Senior Advisor of the company.

Mr Ossel is focused on developing the Energy and Utility market for Networked Energy Services in Central and East Europe, Middle East, Africa, by extending the network of partners and growing the customer base. He has been involved with Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) since 2001 when Echelon started with Enel (It) the world largest AMR project and has been involved in most large scale deployments in Europe. In 2015 he was selected as one of the top 40 most influential people in Europe by Metering International. Mark is also member of the board of OSGP Alliance, the international industry & utility user group publishing OSGP (Open Smart Grid Protocol), and involved in international standardization efforts. An active member in ETSI, various CEN /CENELEC Technical committees (TC13, TC57), ESMIG and member European Commission Steering board Task force Smart Grid. (SGCG/M490). Mark gained more than 20 years experience in various management functions in the Information & Communication Technology market (Burroughs/Unisys) before he became involved in energy management, smart metering and Smart Grids in 2001. Mark has a degree in marketing and economics, and attended additional courses in The Netherlands, UK and USA; he has a special interest in applying new technology. Based on his experience, and the contacts with many utilities cross EMEA & APJ, he is frequently invited on many international events as a speaker, chairman and forum member on the subjects energy management; smart metering, smart grid, smart home & smart building. Mark has Dutch nationality, lives in the Netherlands and is a.o. a member of Rotary International, non-executive member of various boards and active in the Unesco World Heritage program.

Advocate Ammar Naji is a senior advocate with Multaqa Al-Nahrain Bureau for Legal Consultancy, a law firm registered in Baghdad. He has worked as a lawyer in Iraq for over 15 years, advising a range of international financing clients, encouraging investment in the country. Advocate Naji will be discussing key legal issues facing particularly international financiers and sponsors wishing to finance projects in Iraq.