Ben Gardner is president and co-founder of Northeast Group, LLC, a Washington-DC based smart infrastructure market intelligence firm. His primary area of expertise is smart grid infrastructure, having worked in this sector for more than a decade. Prior to founding Northeast Group, Ben spent over five years as a management consultant in the Global Energy Practice at PA Consulting Group, based in Washington, DC. Before joining PA, he worked at DiamondCluster (now Oliver Wyman) in its Barcelona, Spain office. Ben has also been a frequent contributor to The Economist Group and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania (magna cum laude) and a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he concentrated in International Finance and Energy Policy.

Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Schiffer is the Executive Chair of the World Energy Resources programme of the World Energy Council, London. He spent more than 20 years working for the RWE group in Essen, Germany, where he held various positions. He left his position as head of RWE´s General Economic Policy/Science department in April 2014, but continues to work for RWE as a consultant and advises the Executive Board on issues concerning international energy policy matters, in particular.

Born in 1949, Mr. Schiffer studied economics at the University of Cologne and at Pennsylvania State University. Between 1974 and 1978, he served as scientific assistant at the Institute for Energy Economics of Cologne University. After a nine-year career with the Federal Economics Ministry, including a period with the British Department of Energy, he moved in 1987 to work with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation und Nuclear Safety. Following his role as personal assistant to the parliamentary state secretary, Mr. Schiffer was appointed head of the Product-Related Environmental Protection division of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

Dr. Schiffer is a visiting lecturer for Energy Economics in the Mineral Resources Engineering master´s programme at RWTH Aachen University. He is also the author of the standard work Energiemarkt Deutschland.

The Energy Policy Institute of Australia is USEA’s Australian affiliate. Robert Pritchard has headed the Institute for the last seven years. He served for nine years on the finance committee of the World Energy Council.

 Robert is a director of several Australian companies involved in the development of low-carbon energy technologies and a lawyer with over 40 years’ experience in a wide range of oil and gas, LNG, coal and renewable energy projects.