Panel Discussion

Head: Just Energy Transition Investment Plan Project Management Unit

Moderator

Joanne Yawitch is a Commissioner of both the Presidential Climate Commission and the National Planning Commision. She is the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Business Initiative (NBI). Prior to this, she was the Deputy Director General for Climate Change in the Department of Environmental Affairs, with responsibility for Environmental Quality and Protection, as well as for the Department’s Climate Change work. Joanne worked for the Gauteng Department of Environment from 1997 to 2004 and prior to that, was Special Adviser to the then Minister of Land Affairs from 1994 to 1997. Joanne is the former Chair of the Board of Directors of South African National Parks (SANParks). She is also a Board Member of SAFCOL, as well as the Chair of their Social and Ethics Committee.

Group VP, Air Liquide

Matthieu Giard is currently Vice President supervising the Industrial Merchant business line and Hydrogen activities.

After a first experience in the consulting industry, Matthieu Giard joined Air Liquide in 2004 in the Industrial Merchant operations in Benelux. In 2008, he became Industrial Director for the Medical Gases activity in the United States, before being CEO of the Canadian Healthcare operations.

From 2014 to 2018, he managed the Dubai Hub supervising operations in Africa, Middle East and India.

In 2018, he was appointed Director for the Industrial Merchant World Business Line. He has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2019.

Matthieu Giard's educational background is in engineering and management. He graduated from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA, France) as Mechanical Engineer and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard.

Chief Director, Hydrogen & Energy, DSI

Dr Rebecca Maserumule is currently the Chairperson of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE).  IPHE, formed in 2003, is an international governmental partnership currently consisting of 21 member countries, and the European Commission with a mission to facilitate and accelerate the transition to clean and efficient energy and mobility systems using hydrogen and fuel cell technologies across application and sectors.  IPHE also informs broad stakeholder groups, including policymakers and the public, on the benefits and challenges to establishing widespread commercial hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in the economy.

Dr Rebecca is also Chief Science and Technology Representative: Hydrogen and Vaccines at the National Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) in South Africa.  Her responsibilities include fostering international partnerships to support the successful implementation of the Hydrogen Society Roadmap. She also holds other responsibilities as a board member of the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) and member of the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Panel established by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition. Rebecca holds a Ph.D in Mathematics with a focus on computational fluid dynamics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Executive Director, Presidential Climate Commission

Crispian is the Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Commission, an independent multistakeholder advisory body established by the President of the Republic of South Africa. Crispian is a member of the Commission ex-officio and is responsible for running the Secretariat of the PCC and its various policy and research programmes. He has served in the South African government in various capacities, including as Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (1999 – 2005), in which position he crafted much of the climate policy and environmental legislation, as well as leading South Africa’s hosting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002). Crispian has a deep interest in local governance issues, starting with his work on community land, housing and development issues in the 1980s, his work as Deputy Director General in the then Department of Constitutional Development, and subsequently as an author exploring the mechanics by which regimes are governed and the way in which good governance can be eroded. His first book titled ‘How to Steal a City’ (2017) documented patronage based systems in Nelson Mandela Bay and how the metro was captured by factional interests. His subsequent book, ‘A House Divided’, published in October 2019, documented the nature of the relationship between the City of Cape Town and landed property interests, and how this fuelled a factional split in the DA. Crispian is a medical doctor by training and holds BSc (Med) (1983), Psychology Honours (1984) and MBChB (1988) degrees from UCT. He is completing a PhD at WITS Politics Department, and is a research fellow at the Public Affairs Research Institute.

Chief  Operations Officer, Industrial Development Corporation

Responsible for overseeing the IDC’s core functions of lending and investments including the entire transaction value chain from deal origination, due diligence and deal structuring, credit and investment evaluation, deal team negotiation and transaction closure. Responsibilities include driving continuous improvement operations and optimising client experience; overseeing delivery of emergency funding responses to support business recovery (including COVID, unrest response and flood relief) ; and building sustainability  capability, driving alignment to sustainable development goals and building just transition approach for the corporation.



Joanne is also a commissioner of the Presidential Climate Commission, chairperson of Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Panel established by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition. She also chairs the New  Energy Vehicle Panel  to drive alignment in ensuring a just transition in South Africa’s automotive manufacturing sector and decarbonisation of South Africa’s transport sector. Further, Joanne serves on the Presidential Climate Finance Task Team 



Joanne is a Chartered Accountant and started her career at the IDC in 1996 where she headed up both the Corporate Finance and Project Finance teams and participated in and led numerous transactions including the USD1.1 billion Mozal transaction in Mozambique together with Mitsubishi Corporation and BHP Billiton.

VP Climate Change - Sasol

Shamini is a seasoned climate change expert who holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science with a specialisation in climate change management.

She has nearly two decades experience in the field, having begun her career as a researcher at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, before moving into a corporate environment focusing on climate change management.

At Sasol she is the Vice President for Climate Change where she leads a diverse team focusing on reducing emissions, transforming operations and shifting the company’s portfolio. In December 220 she was appointed by the President as a Presidential Climate Commissioner.

For five years she negotiated international climate change policy, as the first business representative on South Africa’s negotiating team at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She was previously Co-Chair of the National Business Institute’s Environment Committee and Chair of the South African Petroleum Industry Association’s Climate Change Committee. She is the current BUSA Environment and Just Transition Committees Chair, representing business at NEDLAC.

Shamini remains active in South African and international climate change policy development processes and is a sought-after speaker on the topic at local and global conferences.

Environment, energy and sustainability expert at Energy Observer

I graduated from Politecnico di Torino in energy and nuclear engineering with a specialisation in innovation for energy production.

After a master thesis on hydrogen production via adsorption processes at ETH Zürich, I worked there as a research assistant on CO2 separation and capture technologies. I now work for Energy Observer as an onboard scientist and environment, energy and sustainability expert.

Cosmas holds a Doctorate in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from the University of the Witwatersrand and has more than 15 years' experience in the field of Materials Fabrication and Characterisation.  In his current post as Director: Power, at the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), Cosmas is responsible for the Hydrogen Infrastructure Centre of Competence, the CoalCO2 to X and Energy Storage Programmes.  His main role is to interact with public and private sectors in South Africa and internationally in order to develop and strengthen partnerships that are essential in promoting the uptake of emerging low carbon energy technologies, particularly those that beneficiate mineral resources found in South Africa and neighbouring countries. Dr Chiteme’s current interests are in technology roadmap development, innovation management and technology commercialisation in collaboration with both national and international partners.

Thomas Wurzel is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) within Air Liquide Large Industries Division, International Fellow.

Thomas holds a Diploma and a PhD in Technical Chemistry from the Ruhr University Bochum (Germany). He started his career at Lurgi (part of Air Liquide since 2007) in 1998 as process engineer in the syngas team working on green- and brownfield projects including start-up and troubleshooting on site. During his career he assumed different roles with increasing responsibility, mainly in the field of technology but also business development and product management and marketing. In late 2019, Thomas joined the Large Industries division as CTO, assuming global responsibility for all technological aspects related to the production assets. His scope includes competitiveness and solution development for new assets, IP management and co-innovation with (key) customers focusing mainly on energy transition related topics.