Our Team

Our dynamic team is breaking new ground, because innovations for climate neutrality need an agile and integrated approach.

Dr. Bernd Weber
Founder and Executive Director

Bernd Weber is the founder and managing director of EPICO KlimaInnovation. Previously, he was the Director Industry, Energy and Environment at the Wirtschaftsrat (Economic Council), where he was responsible, among other things, for the work of the Federal Expert Commission on Energy Policy and the decision-making summit "Convention on Energy and Environmental Policy”. He founded and led the European Energy Lab 2030, an agile energy policy think tank bringing together 60 experts from politics, business and science. Bernd Weber holds a PhD in European energy and climate policy from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Oxford.

E-mail: bernd.weber@epico.org

Parul Kumar
Senior Policy Specialist Environment

Parul Kumar is a lawyer and environmental policy expert with more than ten years of professional experience. She has worked at think tanks such as the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Institute for Transformative Sustainability Studies (IASS), and as a lawyer in India's leading law firms, representing international clients from various sectors. Parul holds a Bachelor's degree in Law from the National Law School of India University in India and an interdisciplinary Master's degree in Law and Economics from the Universities of Hamburg, Ghent and Warsaw School of Economics.

E-Mail: parul.kumar@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Sam Williams
EU Policy Manager

Sam Williams studied Politics and International Relation at the University of Kent (UK), and obtained an MSc in EU and Intl. Public Policy from the London School of Economics, specializing in policy-making, and an MA in EU International Relations and Diplomacy from the College of Europe, specializing in foreign economic relations and sustainable development. Since his Erasmus at Bogazici Universitesi (Istanbul, TR), he has been focusing on EU energy and climate policy and diplomacy, subsequently completing a traineeship in the Energy and Sustainability team at APCO Worldwide (Brussels), and at the Energy Community Secretariat (Vienna), and working in two think tanks based in Italy. At EPICO, he is responsible of EU energy and climate policy.

E-Mail: sam.williams@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Nassos Anastasilakis
Political Communication Specialist

Nassos Anastasilakis studied political science in Bonn and Berlin. After completing his studies, he devoted himself to the exciting field of political communication. Since 2008, he has advised institutions, parties and federal authorities on communication and campaigning issues. His customers included the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
At EPICO KlimaInnovation, he is responsible for press and public relations.

E-Mail: nassos.anastasilakis@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Saga Henriksdotter
EU Energy Policy Trainee

Saga Henriksdotter has academic experience from Sustainable Development at KU Leuven and International Relations at Stockholm University. Within her studies, she conducted a traineeship with focus on industry, environment, agriculture and transport at the European Parliament, and a field-study in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. She has previously worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) with coordination of public agencies’ international cooperation. At EPICO, she works on policy research related to energy and EU-affairs and supports the development and implementation of communication formats.

E-Mail: saga.henriksdotter@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Dr. Klaus-Dieter Borchardt
Associated Senior Advisor EU Energy and Climate

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Borchardt is a lawyer and has been Senior Energy Advisor in the area of European Competition Law in the Brussels office of Baker McKenzie since October 2020. Prior to this position, he held various positions within the European Commission for more than three decades, including as Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development and most recently as Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Energy. In addition, Prof. Dr. Borchardt has been Honorary Professor of EU Law at the Julius Maximilian University in Würzburg since 2001 and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies since February 2021.

Image: Backer & McKenzie

Dr. Klaus Schäfer
Associated Senior Advisor Industrial Policy

Prior to his appointment to the Board of Management of Covestro AG, Dr. Klaus Schäfer headed production and technology in the Polyurethanes Business Unit, served as country representative in China for Bayer Material Science and worked as managing director of the German chemical park operator Currenta. Previously, Schäfer worked for Erdölchemie in Cologne, Germany, and BP in Grangemouth, Scotland, among others. At the beginning of 2019, Schäfer assumed the chairmanship of DECHEMA e.V., and in 2020 he was appointed to the National Hydrogen Council. He also chairs the Energy, Climate Protection and Raw Materials Committee of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and is a member of the Board of the German Association of the Industrial Energy & Power Industry (VIK). (Retired since July 2013)

Image: Covestro AG

Prof. Dr. Karsten Neuhoff
Associated Senior Advisor Climate and Energy
Professor of Energy and Climate Policy, Technical University of Berlin
Head of Climate Policy Department, German Institute for Economic Research

Karsten Neuhoff is Professor at the Institute of Economics and Business Law at Technical University Berlin and Head of the Climate Policy Department at DIW Berlin. His topic: How to design carbon pricing, power market design and further policies for an economically and socially successful transformation to climate neutrality? Based on independent scientific research he engages in mutual transfer between science, politics and other stakeholders, for example in the Sustainable Finance Advisory Council of the German Federal Government. He leads extensive consulting projects for the German government and the EU Commission and has published 42 journal articles and four books. Karsten Neuhoff holds a Master in Physics from the University of Heidelberg and a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Image: Karsten Neuhoff

Prof. Dr. Jens Strüker
Associated Senior Advisor Digital Energy
Professor of Business Informatics and Digital Energy Management, University of Bayreuth
Head of the Fraunhofer Blockchain Lab

Jens Strüker is a Professor of Business Informatics and Digital Energy Management at the University of Bayreuth. After a research stay at SAP Labs in Palo Alto (USA), he completed his habilitation in business informatics and business administration at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Jens Strüker is now the deputy scientific director of the Centre for Finance & Information Management (FIM) and the Business Informatics Project Group at Fraunhofer FIT. His research focuses in particular on the potential of digital technologies such as IoT and blockchain for the decarbonisation of the economy.

Image: Jens Strüker