Experts

Dr. Janez Kopac

Energy and Climate Expert

Janez is currently a Commissioner in the Slovenian National Regulatory Authority and a consultant. In the period 2012-2021, he was the Director of the Energy Community Secretariat and personally engaged in the adoption and implementation of several Ukrainian reforms: Gas Market Law, Electricity Market Law, REMIT Law, Naftogaz unbundling, certification of Ukrenergo as a transmission system operator, etc. Janez was for four years also a Minister for Environment and Energy in Slovenia, chief negotiator for Slovenia for chapters on energy and environment in the EU accession process, Minister of Finance, three mandates Member of the Parliament, etc.
At the Univerity of Ljubljana, he graduated and finished a master's in economics (Faculty of Economics) and a PhD in politology (Faculty of Social Sciences).

Dr. Iegor Riepin

Postdoc research scientist, Department of Energy Systems, TU Berlin

Iegor is a research scientist working and teaching in energy system modelling, energy economics & policy, and operations research. He publishes widely on European and international energy matters. His expertise and research interests encompass mathematical models, their applications to real world problems, their limitations, and their impacts on decision making.

Oleh Savytskyi

Strategic Advisor NGO Razom We Stand

Oleh holds a master's in electronic engineering from the National Technical University of Ukraine. With over 11 years of experience in climate and energy policy, his roles span journalism, project management, and expert consulting. His expertise includes industrial emissions reduction and energy transformation. Currently pursuing a PhD, he's contributed significantly to EU accession reforms and Ukraine's climate policy implementation.

Dr. Maksym Chepeliev

Research Assistant Professor, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University

Maksym’s work focuses on the analysis of a variety of global and regional economic issues, including climate change mitigation, agricultural policies, food and nutrition, poverty and inequality, regional and multilateral trade agreements, and circular economy. His country-based work, with a particular focus on Ukraine, explores interlinkages between energy transition, environmental impacts, and development.

Olha Yevstihnieieva

Decarbonization expert at the RST (Ministry of Energy of Ukraine)

Olha is a Ph.D. student in Climate Economics, coordinated the enactment of four Green Deal reforms, notably land market reform. She contributed to Ukraine's Hydrogen Strategy 2050 and now tackles carbon taxation/CBAM issues. She led Ukraine's first Climate Ambition Accelerator, guiding businesses toward SBTI/GHG protocol.

Dmytro Naumenko

Senior Analyst at Ukrainian Center for European Policy

Dmytro is a consultant of GDU in Ukraine supporting the modelling team in energy efficiency and renewables domains. He has 14+ years of experience of policy advise to high-level stakeholders in Ukraine and work for technical assistance projects in field of energy policy and financial modelling. He is also a co-founder and senior researcher in Ukrainian Center for European Policy – a specialized Kyiv-based think tank dealing with legal and technical aspects of European integration of Ukraine.

Agata Łoskot-Strachota

Energy policy research fellow

Agata in her research focuses on European Union energy policy, European gas markets and energy markets and policies of Central and East European countries. She works as a coordinator of the Energy in Europe project in Warsaw based Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW). Participant in a number of EU and regional research projects (including Strategic Foresight Conversation on the Future of the EU and Ukraine 2035, V4ETTP consortium of Visegrad Group think tanks). Cooperates with EU and regional think tanks on regular basis. Was a visiting fellow at Bruegel think tank in 2023 and cooperated with the Think Visegrad platform. Graduate of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Member of the Polish Expert Council on Energy Security and Climate, and the Working Group on European Energy Security (CEPA). As a consultant in GDU she works on biomethane project.

Daryna Kulaga

Climate and Sustainability Expert

Daryna is a climate change and sustainability expert, with a Masters Degree in public administration from Cornell University. She has been working on climate and environmental policies with governments, having been involved in drafting Ukraine’s climate change law and a plan under the Ukraine Facility. Previously, Daryna was leading an Emissions management unit in the largest gas company in Ukraine. She is also a UNFCCC COP negotiator in Ukraine’s delegation, covering topics on climate finance.

Dr. Martin Uebele

Martin is an empirical macroeconomist and received his doctoral degree from Humboldt-University of Berlin. His academic work covers European industrialization, global market integration and economic crises. He spent several years in the automotive industry and has experience as a freelance journalist and in political consulting. As a consultant for Green Deal Ukraine he leads a study on demand responses to electricity deficiencies in Ukraine.
• Education: doctoral degree in economics from Humboldt-University of Berlin (2008)
• Current (previous) occupations: Academic Lecturer, International University Group (current), 2017-2024 Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Coroplast Group, Wuppertal, 2013-2017 Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen (NL), 2010-2013 Junior Professur at the University of Münster
• Other relevant directions (e.g. teaching): currently teaching macroeconomics, economic history, quantitative methods, business administration, experiences as freelance journalist and at the German Economic Institute, Cologne

Wassim Brahim

Independent consultant for Data analytics

Wassim Brahim is a researcher at the Department of Economic and Infrastructure Policy, TU Berlin, and a consultant in energy economics and data science. His work centers on energy scenario analysis, foresight, and sustainable development. He applies machine learning and econometric methods to assess energy transitions, with a regional focus on North Africa and the GCC. He also teaches data analytics and contributes to policy-driven research.
• Education PhD student at TU Berlin (holds a MSc in computer science)
• Current (previous) occupations: Researcher at DIW Berlin in Energy Economics
• Other relevant directions (e.g., teaching): Lecturer in Data Analytics at Energy management MBA TU Berlin

Viktoriia Vostriakova

Expert in Climate Finance and Renewable Energy Sources

Viktoriia is a Ukrainian expert in sustainable development, bioeconomy, and energy transition with over 16 years of academic and administrative experience. She is currently Head of the NGO Sustainable Development Agency “SYNERGY”, which she co-founded. Viktoriia also serves as a project and international technical assistance expert at the Municipal Enterprise "Institute for Urban Development" in Vinnytsia and a national expert in the ENERCOM Facility Life project. She has coordinated national and international sustainability projects funded by the EU donors. Viktoriia holds a PhD in Economics, an Executive Master's in Research Infrastructure Management (University of Milano-Bicocca), and certificates in Climate Finance, Renewable Energy, and Policy Communication. She is also the author of over 40 scientific publications in national and international journals in sustainable development, bioeconomy, and renewables.

Anna Piddubna

Research Associate and Ph.D. Candidate in the Resource Economics Group, HU Berlin

Anna holds a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School (Germany), specializing in climate and energy policy. She also holds a Master of Philosophy in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a Bachelor of Arts with double highest honors in Political Science and Music Performance from the University of Lynchburg (USA). At present, she is a Research Associate and Ph.D. candidate in the Resource Economics Group at the Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), where she specializes in the planning and implementation of climate and energy policies (incl. energy transition) at the local level, with a focus on the roles of different stakeholders in municipalities of varying sizes and capacities, and the effects of these policies on environmental and energy justice.

Pavel Bilek

Energy, critical minerals and industrial policy expert

Pavel is an independent consultant working in the fields of energy economics, international development, industrial policy and critical minerals.
Previously, he was Deputy Head of Energy and Climate Policy and the Low Carbon Ukraine project at Berlin Economics, where he led projects across Ukraine and Moldova. Pavel holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.