Nordic Green Dialogue

Nordic Green Dialogue: Digitalization in the Energy Sector

Opportunities and Challenges for Startups and Growth Companies in the Clean Energy Sector

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

A sharp rise in demand for renewable energy combined with the introduction of new digital tools and falling costs for green technologies have made the clean energy sector an interesting field for startups and growth companies.

Faced with new technologies and a shifting market, the ability to adapt and innovate has become increasingly important. These abilities characterize startups and growth companies and will enable them to make better use of the internet of things (IoT) and big data. This will play a key role in the future of the green energy market.

The Nordic Green Dialogue will explore the main drivers for digital transformation in the clean energy sector and what this will mean for companies in terms of changing roles and business models, increased connection with other business functions, future opportunities, and an overall changing landscape.

Join us for a dialogue with key stakeholders from Singapore and the Nordics on how startups, growth companies and digitalization can contribute to improving the safety, productivity, efficiency and sustainability of energy systems worldwide through an exchange of ideas, technologies and policies.

Programme

H.E. Anita Nergaard, Norwegian Ambassador to Singapore

HE Anita Nergaard is Norway’s Ambassador to Singapore. A career diplomat, she joined the Norwegian Foreign Service in 1995 and has had various postings since. She was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Russia, Eurasia and Regional Cooperation in the High North from 2010, and Director of Security Policy, Crisis Management, Global Security Affairs and the US and Canada from 2005. Prior to her arrival in Singapore in August 2017, Ms Nergaard served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Norway to NATO in Brussels. An economist by training, Ms Nergaard started her professional career in the Central Bank of Norway in 1993. She holds a PhD Study Programme degree and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics

Pang Heng Soon,Head, Venture Building, SGInnovate

Heng Soon brings with him 30 years of in-depth knowledge and experience in technology startups investments. At SGInnovate, he leads the Venture Building team that is focused on launching new startups that have research and intellectual property at their core.

To increase the success rates of these early-stage deep-tech startups, the Venture Building team also provides business building advice and works closely with them in areas such as use case and customer identification, talent recruiting, and strategic priorities.

Prior to his current role, Heng Soon was active in sales and business development, having had leadership roles in the precision manufacturing and automation equipment sector.

Heng Soon started his career at Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) where he led efforts in identifying promising Singapore companies for targeted development. While at EDB Investments, Heng Soon was involved in direct investments into high-growth US-based technology startups.

He graduated as a Diplom-Ingenieur from Hamburg, Germany in 1985.

Hanne Wigum, Head of Renewables Research and Technology development , Equinor

Hanne Wigum is head of Renewables Research and Technology development in Equinor. She has a PhD and post doc in catalysis from Chemical Engineering at NTNU, Norway. In her 16 years in Equinor she has held different leadership roles with focus on development of new commercial solutions for a large number of technical areas- from gas to liquids, refining, oil sands, and for the last six years renewable energy. Together with her team she is currently focused on developing new profitable technology solutions with focus on offshore wind and solar to support Equinor’s growth strategy in renewable energy

Ted Jankowski, Head of APAC, PlugIT

Experienced Sales Director with a demonstrated history of working in highly competitive markets. Skilled in Negotiation, Sales, International Business, Operations Management and Business Planning. Strong sales professional with a NLP Business Practioner from Rovsing Management Academy

Edmund Chua, Vice President - Power Grids Division, ABB

Edmund Chua is the Vice President of the Power Grids division of ABB in Singapore, a pioneering technology leader serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization with an installed base of more than 70,000 control systems connecting 70 million devices. ABB has two clear value propositions: bringing electricity from any power plant to any plug and automating industries from natural resources to finished products.

Edmund has been in the power industry for over 20 years, and was previously based in the US,

Switzerland, and several countries in Asia.

He has held management and leadership positions with regional and global responsibilities in major MNCs across different roles, from engineering, sales, projects, turnkey solutions, and services

Samuel Tan, Chief Digital Officer, SP Group

Samuel Tan is the Chief Digital Officer of SP Group, where he is responsible for driving innovative digital business models and digitising business processes. He leads the Digital and IT team, which consists of many revered tech leaders in Singapore – coined by the media as the “Avengers of Engineering”. The team strongly believes in developing digital solutions to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. Samuel is also passionate about grooming digital and IT talent and developing a strong digital eco-system in Singapore.

Prior to his current role, Samuel spent 18 years in GE (General Electric) and GE Capital businesses where he last served as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of GE Oil & Gas Asia Pacific and concurrently CIO for GE Corporate ASEAN, Global Growth & Operations. He joined the GE’s IT Management Programme after graduating with Honours in Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University, and contributed to diverse GE business operations, including Consumer and Commercial Lending, Insurance, Advanced Materials and Oil and Gas. He had assumed various leadership roles driving technology, productivity, quality and strategic sourcing. To fulfill these appointments, Samuel and his family lived in the United States, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Martin Lim, COO & Co-founder, Electrify

A perpetual problem solver, ideas-generator and new business connector, he has transformed idealistic startups into newsworthy, profitable businesses as the lead in corporate planning, business development and consolidation, for more than a decade.

His interest in energy and water led him to co-found Arteton Sdn Bhd to develop water treatment systems for disaster relief in the region.

With his latest venture, ELECTRIFY.SG, his partner, Julius Tan and himself intend to ignite the electricity retail industry by creating a retail marketplace and simplifying the entire electricity purchasing process.

ELECTRIFY.SG is Singapore's first marketplace for retail electricity plans. With the upcoming liberalisation of the power market, ELECTRIFY.SG allows business and household consumers to search for an electricity plan and sign-up directly with electricity retailers. Their marketplace is powered by Fibonacci, our proprietary electricity pricing engine that enables retailers to offer dynamic prices to end-users.

Mathias Steck, Executive Vice President and Regional Manager - Digital Consulting and Smart Cities, Asia, DNV GL

Mathias Steck and his team are driving DNV GL's services towards Cyber Security, Smart Cities & Ports, Digital Development and DNV GL's Digital Platform Business Veracity in Asia - from DNV GL's Digital Hub in Singapore. Mathias has worked for DNV GL since 2003 and holds a German Diploma in 'Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology' (2001) from the ‘Technical University Hamburg-Harburg.

Maurice Adema, CEO, Sundaya Group

A Dutch National, Who founded Sndaya in 1993. Maurice operates as CEO of the sundaya group and is supported by the Senior Management Team, and two General Managers who are in charge of the day-today management of the company.A true “New Energy pioneer” Who first moved out to asia in 1990 managing Solar projects for Shell Solar Asia

A Strong “Ambassador” of decentralized Energy.His commitment to delivering clean energy solutions is enabled by his passion and talent for product design. Maurice leads a team of skilled design engineers from initial produdct ideas to final product. He is also personally involved with all Sundaya initiatives related to energy education.

Moderator: Katarina Hasbani, Founder of EnRupt

She works today on transformations shaping the energy systems of tomorrow. The future of energy will be closer to the customer, using cleaner, renewable sources and leveraging digital technologies. Katarina is supporting this transformation by building partnerships between young, innovative startups and corporations. She brings insights from several energy sectors and regions to create programmes of activities where new ideas thrive and deals get executed. Katarina consults via The August Company. She is on the Board of the Alliance for Rural Electrification (Industry association, HQ in Belgium) and Female Founders (Non-profit, HQ in Singapore).

The event is organized by Innovation Norway and SG Innovate in partnership with the Embassy of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark and with support from the Nordic Innovation House

The Nordic Innovation House in Singapore is a soft-landing, community and resource centre as well as a networking hub for Nordic tech scale-up’s seeking to speed up their market growth in South East Asia and expanding their network. Key industries of interest include, but are not limited to fintech, edtech, medtech, cleantech and energy. The Nordic Innovation House in Singapore is cofunded by and in cooperation with Nordic Innovation.

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