Anna Fontcuberta i Morral holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Barcelona and a PhD in materials science from France. She worked as a postdoc at Caltech before co-founding Aonex Technologies, a startup that developed substrates for LEDs and solar cells. She went on to earn a Habilitation in experimental physics in Munich. She joined EPFL in 2008 and was promoted to full professor in 2019. Alongside her research, Fontcuberta i Morral actively promotes education and supports young scientists and engineers, especially young women pursuing technical careers. She became president of EPFL on 1 January 2025.

Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) – Benoît Revaz has been Director of the SFOE since 2016. Prior to his current position, he held various management positions in Entreprises Electriques Fribourgeoises (now Group E), EOS Holding, Alpiq Holding and E-CUBE Strategy Consultants.

Mario Paolone is a Full Professor and Chair of the Distributed Electrical Systems Laboratory at the EPFL, Switzerland. He holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy. His research is in power systems, focusing on real-time monitoring, protection, dynamics, and transients. He made fundamental contributions to methods and technologies for situational awareness and control of Active Distribution Networks.

Paolo is the CEO and one of the co-founders of Zaphiro Technologies, an innovative company helping power utilities to accelerate their digital transformation.
Our solution SynchroGuard is the first grid-intelligent software platform designed to process PMU time-synchronised measurements and integrate with existing control room solutions. With over 250 PMU devices installed in the field, our solution is currently deployed with more than 25 DSOs, TSOs & microgrid operators all around the globe.

Head of Sales Development EMEA at Belimo, based in Switzerland.
Dipl. Sales Manager, Exec. MBA. More than 20 years working in the HVAC industry. International experience in sales leadership, business development, and industrial markets, having held senior roles in Switzerland and China. Passionate about driving growth and innovation.

Prof. Matthias is a member of the Directorate at Empa, a research institute within the ETH Domain, and holds a visiting faculty position at Berkeley Lab in the US. He co-founded a corporate group specializing in energy and building technology, successfully taking it public. Matthias excels in leading large-scale, innovative research projects at national and international levels, drawing on extensive experience at the intersection of business, science, and policy.

Since 2013, Christian Schaffner has been the Executive Director of the Energy Science Center of ETH Zurich. Before that, he was with the Swiss Federal Office of Energy as head of the grid section, responsible for developing a grid expansion strategy and smart grid roadmap. He was also involved in the bilateral negotiations between Switzerland and the EU regarding a contract on energy supply. He holds an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Electric Power Systems from ETH Zurich.

Michaël Aklin is associate professor of economics and head of the Policy & Sustainability Lab at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), which he joined in 2023. He also serves as co-managing director of Enterprise for Society (E4S), a collaborative center established by EPFL, IMD, and the University of Lausanne.

Marius Schwarz has been Group Strategy Manager at Axpo since 2024. Previously, he earned his doctorate at ETH Zurich and led modeling projects at the Energy Science Center, analyzing scenarios for the development of the Swiss and European power grid systems. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from RWTH Aachen.

Yasmine has been the Executive Director of the EPFL Energy Center since June 2019. Her role is to catalyze energy research led by EPFL laboratories, notably in collaboration with industrial and institutional partners, and enhance EPFL’s impact and image as a world-leading research and education institution. With more than 100 laboratories active in energy research and education, EPFL ranks among the top institutions worldwide in Energy Science and Engineering.