Today IEEP Board announced the appointment of three new members. They are Dorthe Nielsen, Executive Director at Eurocities; Thomas Nowak, Secretary General at European Heat Pump Association; and Mercedes Sanchez Varela, EU Climate Policy & Sustainability Executive Advisor at GoAct BV.
As Executive Director at Eurocities, the network of 200+ European cities, Dorthe Nielsen leads on strategy development and implementation. She has successfully promoted the case for a greater recognition of and role for cities at EU level in the green, digital, and just transformation over the past 15 years. She is part of the European Commission’s Fit for Future Platform, working to modernise EU legislation. Before joining Eurocities in 2011, she worked for the Greater London Authority (EU office) and in Secretariat General of the European Commission. She holds two master’s degrees from the College of Europe (BE) in European Politics and from the University of Roskilde in Public Administration as well as a certification in strategic foresight and management.
Thomas Nowak is Secretary General at the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) where he represents the industry at the European Institutions and manages the association and its future development. Thomas has published several articles on heat pump technology and the integration of heat pumps in the energy system and has spoken on this topic in European and international conferences. He has also been contributing to scientific publications including the IEA energy technology perspectives and the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report. Before working for the EHPA, Thomas has worked in several projects on the economic and social benefits of renewable energy.
Mercedes Sanchez Varela is an EU sustainability and climate policy adviser, with a long exposure in translating policy challenges into future-proof sustainable strategies to private and public sector. She has a strong record in Brussels as a public speaker in events engaging in a wide range of topics around EU Green Deal. She is currently sitting as member of the Board of Chapter Zero Brussels, a WEF spin off, that deals with climate governance issues at Board level. Mercedes has a long international consultancy career and her last corporate role was at KPMG as head of the EU office in Brussels and partner responsible for EU relationships. With a strong management experience, she led international teams to deliver upon pan-European funded contracts across sectors and geographies. She was part of numerous global steering boards on Government and infrastructure, Development and IMPACT that dealt with ESG and sustainability. Previous to this, she also worked in consultancy for EU, WB and EBRD; for a legal firm and for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in West Africa where she started her professional career. She has been also part of BoardCompanions that promote and educate better governance and purpose for NGOs.
“I warmly welcome our new Board members, who will bring valuable complementary experience to IEEP’s executive management. I am sure our organisation will benefit greatly from their views, which will be necessary to navigate properly in these disrupted times,” says Eero Yrjö-Koskinen, IEEP’s Executive Director.
Dorthe, Thomas and Mercedes join Hans Wolters (Chair), Malini Mehra, Natalia Danailov, Edmond Lefebvre, and Roberto Ferrigno in the IEEP Aisbl Board.
Photo by Brandon Green on Unsplash
