Christophe Allain

Christophe Allain is Group Portfolio Vice President, Non-Ferrous Metals, at Nexans, a role he has held since January 2012. The bulk of the commodities managed by Christophe are copper, aluminium and lead with the total spend ranges between €4.0 billion and €5.0 billion. Previously, Christophe was in charge of Group Purchasing Control and Offshore Sourcing within Nexans for five years. Before joining Nexans, Christophe worked for Safran, one of the leading French Aerospace & Defense companies and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He has been a member of the London Metal Exchange Copper Committee since 2018. Christophe is a graduate of the French business School ESCP Europe where he majored in Finance and Industrial Marketing.

Tanja Winter

Tanja Winter's journey into the copper industry began at Berkenhoff GmbH during her school holidays, continuing there during her business studies in Mannheim, Germany incl. a semester in the US. Afterwards, she joined the Rolled Products division at Kemper as a Sales Manager for overseas. Since 2015, she has been with Aurubis, initially as Area Sales Manager, since 2016 as Head of Sales Rod. Tanja co-founded WoMen4Metals, an initiative dedicated to industry branding & female empowerment, actively represents Aurubis in councils at the ICA and LME, co-organizes the NFWireForum, and is a VP of the German Association of Sales Managers.

Charles Mellagui

Charles Mellagui specialized in Energy at Nexans (one of the top cable manufacturers). He has lead businesses under challenging circumstances and delivered good returns to shareholders. He drives strategic planning process, growth, performance, operations and profitability and promotes Health & Safety culture. 

Florian Martin

Florian Martin studied electrical engineering, electrical systems engineering and high-voltage engineering. He received his engineering degree from the University of Karlruhe (TH) in 2003 and completed his doctorate in 2008 as part of a cooperation between HighVolt and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on the subject of "High Voltage Test System based on Power Electronic Frequency Converter". Since then, Mr. Martin has been working for TenneT TSO GmbH (formerly E.ON Netz). Initially as a specialist for electrical reactive power compensation in substations. In 2013, Mr. Martin moved into management and has since been responsible for various technical areas. Dr. Martin is currently Head of Corporate Asset Technology in Asset Management and, together with the department, is responsible for all guidelines for technical energy transmission systems used by TenneT TSO in the Dutch and German onshore and offshore grids in terms of primary and secondary technology.

Michael Weiss

Michael Weiss is heading the Siemens Purchasing Council (PUC) Cables since mid of 2011. His earlier assignment was the lead of the Strategic Product Portfolio Management Department for Medium Voltage Equipment. Before this he was employed in the Business Excellence Organization of the Power Transmission and Distribution Division. He held various internationally orientated sales positions and in earlier times even within the cable organization of Siemens. Additionally, Mr Weiss gained experience specifically on the Commodity Cables during his time in Siemens cable factories in Berlin and Mudanya, Turkey, where he held different positions in R&D and Quality Management functions.

Simon Price

Simon is CEO of Exawatt, which provides strategic consulting, detailed cost forecasting and supply-chain analysis in sectors that are united by common theme: decarbonisation through electrification. These include energy storage, electric vehicles (EV), power electronics and solar PV. Exawatt’s customers span the entire supply chain, from mining companies to major solar/storage developers and EV manufacturers. The company was acquired by CRU Group in early 2023.   Prior to founding Exawatt in 2015, Simon was the co-founder of a PV module factory design and integration company.

In 2008, he was part of the founding team of a startup technology company dedicated to improving the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. An electrical engineer by first degree, Simon began his career in the UK steel industry and spent time in the US as a business and technology journalist, management consultant and CEO of a publicly traded US software company, before making the move into renewable energy in 2008.   Simon holds a master’s degree in Science Communication from Imperial College London, and an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Joshua Dorfman

Joshua Dorfman is a standout leader in the electric utility and renewable energy industries. He works closely with clients and leading operations in the electric utility, renewable energy, electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, and commercial construction industries. He oversees all sales, marketing, and procurement operations, and has implemented comprehensive training programs for his team to share his decades of industry expertise. Joshua has been heavily involved in projects generating over 1GW annually in utility-scale PV, wind power and BESS projects since 2008. He focuses on cable engineering, project management, and engineering solutions tailored to the customer’s needs in renewable generation facilities and transmission projects.

Oleksandr Mykhailov

Michael Yong

Michael Yong is the Chief Strategy Officer and a member of the management team of the NKT Group – an industry leader within low-, medium- and high-voltage power cable solutions enabling sustainable energy transmission.  Michael has more than 15 years of management experience in the power cable and transformer sectors having had several roles in strategy, commercial, and finance in several countries with NKT, SGB-SMIT Group, Prysmian Group, and Draka Holding. Michael also currently serves in the Board of Directors of Walsin Energy Cable Systems which is developing Taiwan’s first offshore cable factory in collaboration with NKT. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, a MBA from the Insituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain, and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Henk Geene

Henk Geene holds a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Following his graduation, he joined the Dutch cable manufacturer NKF (nowadays part of the Prysmian Group), where he managed the development of High and Extra High Voltage cable Accessories. Currently, he holds the position of Commercial Director HV Network Components at Prysmian Group.   Throughout his career, Henk has been actively involved in various professional committees and groups. He has served as convener of several CIGRE Working.