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 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. He has been a Visiting Professor of energy policy at the College of Europe in Warsaw, Sciences Po Paris, and the CIFE European Institute in Nice.

Find out more here.

Email: bernd.weber@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Parul Kumar
Deputy Executive Director
Director Climate

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.

Find out more here.

Email: parul.kumar@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Joachim Schmitz-Brieber
Senior Policy Specialist Industry and Energy

Joachim Schmitz-Brieber is an economist and public policy specialist with over fifteen years of experience. Before joining EPICO, he worked for a variety of organizations, including the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Office of the Federal President of Germany, on issues ranging from Better Regulation and Industrial Policy to Energy Policy. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Maastricht and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance. He also pursues a Professional Doctorate focused on the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries. At EPICO, he is the Senior Policy Specialist for Industry and Energy.

Find out more here.

Email: joachim.schmitz@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Sam Williams
EU Policy Manager Energy and Climate

Sam Williams studied Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent (UK) and obtained an MSc in EU Public Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE), specialising in EU policymaking, and an MA in EU International Relations and Diplomacy from the College of Europe, specialising 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), at the Energy Community Secretariat (Vienna), and working in two think tanks based in Italy. At EPICO, he leads the EU energy and climate policy in Brussels.

Find out more here.

Email: sam.williams@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Julian Parodi
EU Policy Specialist Industrial Decarbonisation

Julian Parodi holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Sciences Po in Nancy and Freie Universität Berlin, complemented by a Master's in European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, where he focused in EU policymaking, specialising in economics and climate policies. His academic journey included an exchange semester at The New School in New York, specialising in climate justice and carbon pricing. Following his studies, he gained experience through traineeships at the Fondation Robert Schuman and the French mobility startup Pony Bikes. He then served as a Researcher at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung's Competence Center for Climate and Social Justice in Brussels. At EPICO, he is responsible for EU industrial policy, with a focus on energy-intensive industries, renewable hydrogen and circularity.

Find out more here.

Email: julian.parodi@epico.org

Image: Jens Schicke

Ingrid Bunker
Policy Specialist Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

Ingrid Bunker has a background in Environmental Science, with a BSc from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and a MSc from Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany. During her Master’s studies, she increasingly focused on the topics surrounding sustainable agriculture in Germany and the EU. She has worked at the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) at the intersections between nature protection and agriculture, and at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in a research project that investigated transformation processes in the German agri-food system. At EPICO, Ingrid is the Policy Specialist for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, working to bring together actors across different sectors for transdisciplinary cooperation.

Find out more here.

Email: ingrid.bunker@epico.org

Michela Sandron
EU Communications and Events Specialist

Michela Sandron is an EU Communications Specialist with a Master’s degree in European Affairs from the University of Bologna and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Groningen. She gained experience in diplomatic communications at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN in New York and in the European policy space at European Business Summits in Brussels. Michela is passionate about making complex policy issues accessible to diverse audiences, using storytelling to engage European citizens on urgent topics such as climate change and sustainability. At EPICO’s Brussels office, she coordinates the think tank’s communications strategy, press relations and the organisation of events.

Email: michela.sandron@epico.org

Ayana Trüper
Working Student Climate Politics

Ayana Trüper is a Master's student at Radboud University in the Netherlands in Environmental Justice and Governance. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Global Studies – International Relations from the University of Wrocław in Poland, where she focused on climate change topics, like sea level rise, and their relation to international law and justice, as well as a Pre-Master's degree in Environment and Society at Radboud University. During her studies she also spent a semester abroad at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea. She has work experience with NGOs in the field of human rights and migration. At EPICO, she focuses on European and international climate policy.

Find out more here.

Email: ayana.trueper@epico.org

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 Petroleumchemie in Cologne, Germany, and BP in Grangemouth, Scotland, among others. At the beginning of 2019, Schäfer assumed the chairmanship of DECHEMA eV, 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 strategies 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 Center 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 decarbonization of the economy.

Image: Jens Strüker