Luce Award
Legacy Women

Dr. Rachel Perks is a Senior Mining Specialist within the Energy and Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank.

Over the course of her career in mining, Rachel has focused on sustainability, development and gender equality –whether in artisanal and small-scale mining, or more recently in the transition out of coal. In 2017, she was a co-author to the World Bank’s seminal publication Managing Coal Mine Closure: A Just Transition for All which led to the establishment of the World Bank’s global support program on Just Transition in Coal Regions.

She has led the World Bank’s earliest engagements to assist countries plan and prepare for coal phase down in Greece, Poland, and more recently Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH). She was also part of the international team working on behalf of the South African government to prepare their Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan (JETP-IP), presented at COP27.

Rachel is a firm advocate for gender equality in the transition away from coal, developing the first framework for assessing the gendered impacts of coal transition in mining communities.

She has published extensively on gender and mining. She is also committed in her own day-to-day work on mentoring junior female staff to ensure their careers flourish in a way that supports a healthy work-life balance.

In her spare time, she is the author of a blog on parenting, has published a book entitled The Little A to Z: A companion for first time mothers and their partners, and maintains a website of the same title: www.thelittleatoz.com

Ann has more than two decades of experience in high-level public policy and strategy, operating at the intersection of technology, innovation, foresight and entrepreneurship.

At Breakthrough Energy, Ann is working with European partners to accelerate clean tech innovation in the pursuit of climate neutrality and a net-zero emissions future. Previously, she served as Director-General at the European Commission where she ran the internal strategy department, reporting directly to the President. An entrepreneur at heart, Ann set up her own think tank which she ran for more than a decade. Her career started at the World Economic Forum where she led the Europe department. If she is not busy pondering the state of the world, she loves spending time with family and friends, tending to her garden and walking her dog.

Ann holds MA degrees in political science and European law and economics, and graduated with distinction from the University of New Mexico, USA, and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany.

Eva Hennig has been employed by Thüga Aktiengesellschaft in Munich since 1989, where she has held various positions in different topics of the energy sector.

She obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University in Munich and is currently serving as the Head of the Brussels Office of Thüga AG. Additionally, since 2012, she has chaired the Eurogas Distribution Committee.

Thüga Group is the largest alliance of municipal utilities in Germany and is active in several sectors, including gas, electricity, district heating, water, and various services.

Eva Hennig has a special focus on the decarbonisation of energy grids and the organisation of the local energy transition in the cities and the regions.

She is actively involved in all topics relating to renewable and low-carbon gases and the reduction of methane emissions

Ms McCoy joined Portugal’s Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) in 2016 to lead its international relations. Prior to ERSE, she served as Secretary General of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) between 2011 and 2015.

In addition to her responsibilities at ERSE, Natalie co-chairs the CEER Customers and Retail Markets Working Group, following three years as vice chair. She also co-chairs the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) Retail Working Group, established in 2021. In parallel, she serves as co-chair of CEER’s Gas Decarbonisation Legislation Workstream, since September 2016.

Natalie has more than fifteen years’ experience in energy regulation, focusing on customer rights, regulatory governance and electricity and gas market design. With an academic background in political science and EU affairs, she worked at the European Parliament prior to moving into energy regulation.

Anna Creti is Full Professor at Université Paris Dauphine, Paris; Director of the Climate Economics Chair (Un. Dauphine) and the Economics of Gas Chair (U Dauphine, Toulouse School of Economics, IFPEN, Ecole des Mines).

She is Research Fellow, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris and external Affiliate, Siebel Institute, Berkeley. Anna holds a PhD from the Toulouse School of Economics and a post-doc from the London School of Economics.

She has extensively studied competition and regulation of network utilities (telecommunications, baks, gas, electricity…), as well as the link between energy, climate and environmental regulation. Co-editor of the journal Energy Economics, Anna has numerous publications in top economic reviews and she also intervenes in several medias.

Samah Elsayed is a Renewable Energy Education Programme Officer at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future.

She works to advance renewable energy education and skill building through a number of initiatives targeting educators and youth. She leads the Energy Transition Education Network, a new global multistakeholder partnership that is working to empower educators by providing them with the needed curriculum, teaching resources and training. Other areas of focus include the delivery of training and capacity building activities aimed at students and young professionals.

Prior to joining IRENA, Samah was a research analyst at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Laura Cozzi was appointed the Agency’s Chief Energy Modeller in 2018. Ms Cozzi is part of IEA’s senior management. As Chief Energy Modeller Ms. Cozzi oversees the Agency’s work on outlooks and forecasts and is in charge of overall consistency of modelling work and resulting messages.

Ms. Cozzi is also Head of the Demand Outlook Division with responsibility of producing the annual World Energy Outlook, the IEA flagship publication. The Division produces medium to long term energy demand, efficiency, power generation, renewables and environmental analysis for the World Energy Outlook and other publications, notably the Net Zero by 2050 report published in May 2021.

Ms Cozzi joined the IEA in 1999, and has been leading several editions of the Outlook, and has been co-author of multiple editions of the report. Prior to joining the IEA, Ms. Cozzi worked for the Italian energy company ENI S.p.A. She holds a Master Degree in Environmental Engineering (from Polytechnic Milan), a Master Degree in Energy and Environmental Economics (from Eni Corporate University).

Meredith served as Student Energy’s Executive Director for eight years and currently is a Senior Advisor. Under her leadership Student Energy grew to be a network of more than 50,000 youth in 130 countries. She brought practical energy education to the forefront, with programs to launch people’s energy career or business.

Meredith is a champion of youth empowerment, ensuring that youth voices are heard in forums where their future is being decided. She worked with Ministers, CEO’s and Philanthropists to create forums for young people to have a seat at the decision making table.

Meredith’s work was particularly impactful for brining more diversity into the world of energy and she is particularly proud of supporting the SevenGen Indigenous Youth Energy Council in its founding.

One of her greatest talents is scaling climate solutions. She grew the Student Energy team from one to 40 staff, and raised over $20M for youth-led work globally.

Tejal Kanitkar is an Associate Professor in the Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Program, in the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering, at NIAS. She is a mechanical engineer by training and has worked on in the area of energy and climate studies since 2006. 

Her research interests lie in the areas of energy, development, and climate policy.

She works on trying to integrate perspectives from the natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences to understand the interconnected aspects of energy production, environmental constraints, and economic development, with a perspective that prioritizes equity in the era of acute environmental crises such as climate change.

Marie-Claire Aoun is the Director of Prospective and Institutional Relations at Teréga, a gas transmission and storage operator in France. She is also the Chair of the consortium Gas for Climate.

Holding a PhD in Economics from Paris Dauphine University (2008), Marie-Claire Aoun was the Director of the Center for Energy and Climate at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) between 2014 and 2017.

Between 2008 and 2014, she served as a Policy officer at the European interconnections and networks department of the French energy regulator (CRE).

She has an extensive knowledge of global energy and climate dynamics, regulation, public policies on energy transition, development of hydrogen and biomethane, energy markets and energy security.

Marie-Claire Aoun has been a regular speaker at high level international conferences and in the media on energy and climate since 2004.

She is also a lecturer at Paris Dauphine University and Sciences Po Paris. She speaks Arabic, French and English.

Liesbeth started her career in leading law firms, with a focus on sustainability.

She has been involved in renewable energy certification for nearly 20 years, at the Flemish energy regulator and later in the AIB, the Association of Issuing Bodies, including roles as legal advisor, chair of the reorganisation and the reviewers’ group, thereby securing the quality assurance of the European Energy Certificate System.

As secretary general, Liesbeth loves bringing members together and empowering young female professionals, while jointly working towards guaranteeing the origin of all European energy.

Liesbeth is a regular speaker at conferences on renewable energy and, as board member of the European Society of Association Executives, on association management and DEI.

The AIB provides the EECS standard for guarantees of origin (GO) for different energy carriers within Europe, implemented in 28 countries, with several more joining in the near future. AIB also operates a hub for transferring GOs for electricity and gases.

Clara Poletti is Commissioner of the Italian independent Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA), Chair of the Board of Regulators of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and ARERA delegate at the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER).

She has more than twenty years’ experience in the field. She contributed to the start-up of the Italian independent energy regulator. Since then, she has worked on the regulation of energy, water and waste management services at both national and European level.

She was Director of the Bocconi University research centre on energy and environment (IEFE).

She was also a founding joint academic director at the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE).

She is member of the Advisory Council Executive Committee of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and associate researcher of the Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group.