Agnes M. da Costa, as Head of the Regulatory Advisory Office at the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, is an internationally recognized energy specialist with more than 15 years advising Ministers in energy and natural resources policy design in Brazil. She has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and completed her M.Sc. studies in Energy at the University of São Paulo (USP). Her professional experience also includes working at a Brazilian bank with project finance in the energy sector. Agnes has great experience in coordinating collaborative work, putting many stakeholders together to build solutions that generate a common public value. Her main experiences in coordinating collaborative work have been the privatization processes of power utilities and the Brazilian power sector reform. 

With an extensive list of publications and appearances as a speaker at national and international forums debating the role and trends of the energy sector, she contributes to the understanding of the policies under development in Brazil and worldwide. 

She has also been adding with her sectorial expertise and business savvy to corporate boards for over than 6 years and is also an enthusiast of the role played by the energy sector in social and economic inclusion.  

Co-author of the #simelasexistem project, she is a precursor to the debate on career and leadership from the point of view of women in the energy sector in Brazil, seeking to increase the retention and sense of belonging of all its talent pool.