Parviz Shahbazov was born in Baku on November 24, 1969. He studied at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, 1986-1992, and did military service in 1988-1989.

He worked as an attaché in the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Federal Republic of Germany during the period of 1992-1996 and served as the Second Secretary, First Secretary, Head of Division for Europe, and Deputy Head of the Department for Europe, United States of America and Canada of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the period 1996-2001. He then served as Advisor and Chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Austria during the period 2001-2005. He was the Chairman of the Security Cooperation Forum of the OSCE in 2005. After that, he was appointed as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2005 and served in this position till 2016. He served as the Ambassador-at-large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the period 2016-2017. He was appointed as the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan on October 12, 2017.

He is fluent in Azerbaijani (native), Russian, English and German.

He is married and has two children.

Ambassador Matthew Bryza is a member of the Board of Lamor Ab, the world’s leading oil spill response company, and CEO of Lamor Turkey in Istanbul. He is also a non-executive director of Turcas, a diversified energy company and one of Turkey’s largest corporations.   Bryza additionally  serves on the Board of an upstream energy companies in the UK, is a founding partner of a cyber security firm in Turkey, and a member of a high-level investment team developing exports of U.S. liquid natural gas to the Baltic Sea region. Ambassador Bryza is a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Center for Defence and Security in Tallinn, and served as the Center’s Director from 2012- 2015. He is also a Non- Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a Board member of the Jamestown Foundation, both of which are think-tanks in Washington, DC.Ambassador Bryza served for 23 years as a U.S. diplomat. His most recent assignment was as Ambassador to Azerbaijan from Februar y 2011 to January 2012.  During 2005 to 2009, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, with responsibility for Eurasian energy security, the South Caucasus, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. He simultaneously served as the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group mediating  the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan), and as U.S. mediator of the Cyprus Question and the South Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts (in Georgia). During 2001 to 2005, Ambassador Bryza served in the White House as Director for European and Eurasian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff, covering the same areas as mentioned above, along with Islamist extremism. Earlier assignments at the State Department included Deputy Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Caspian Energy; Advisor on Economic Reform in the South Caucasus and Central Asia; Russia Desk Officer; and Political Officer at the U.S. Missions to Russia (1995-97) and Poland (1989-91). Matthew Bryza holds a bachelor ’s degree from Stanford
University and a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, both in international relations.

Parviz Shahbazov was born in Baku on November 24, 1969. He studied at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, 1986-1992, and did military service in 1988-1989.

He worked as an attaché in the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Federal Republic of Germany during the period of 1992-1996 and served as the Second Secretary, First Secretary, Head of Division for Europe, and Deputy Head of the Department for Europe, United States of America and Canada of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the period 1996-2001. He then served as Advisor and Chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Austria during the period 2001-2005. He was the Chairman of the Security Cooperation Forum of the OSCE in 2005. After that, he was appointed as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2005 and served in this position till 2016. He served as the Ambassador-at-large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the period 2016-2017. He was appointed as the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan on October 12, 2017.

He is fluent in Azerbaijani (native), Russian, English and German.

He is married and has two children.

Virgil-Daniel Popescu, Minister of Energy, Romania Dr. Virgil-Daniel Popescu was appointed Romanian Minister of Energy on December 2020. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Popescu served as Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment. He had been serving also as Vice-president of the Commission of Industry and Services, at the Chamber of Deputies, Romanian Parliament. He is also a member of the Romanian Parliament since 2016. Minister Popescu is also involved in academic, scientific and research activities, working as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Craiova University. Mr. Popescu holds a PhD in Management awarded by the Craiova University and a degree in Engineering/Automation from the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania.
 

Rovshan Najaf Rovshan Chingiz oglu Najaf was born on April 9, 1982 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 1997, he went to the Faculty of International Economic Relations of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics. He graduated with honours from the bachelor’s program in 2001 and Master’s program in 2003. In 2007-2008 he successfully completed the Master’s program in Economic Policy Management / International Energy Management and Policy at Columbia University, USA within the framework of the SOCAR scholarship program.

He started his career in 2001 as a laboratory assistant at the Department of International Economic Relations and Marketing of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics. In 2003-2007, he worked as a consultant and senior adviser in the Investment Policy Unit of the Investment and International Economic Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 2008-2009, he worked as the Head of the Investment Contracts Unit of the Investment Department of SOCAR. In 2009-2010, he was the Head of the Foreign Economic Relations Department and Assistant Minister of Economic Development at the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2010-2018, he worked as the Deputy Executive Director and Executive Director of “Azerbaijan Investment Company” OJSC.

He was appointed as the Head of the Innovative Development and e-Government Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the Order issued by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on May 11, 2018, as the Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the Order issued on August 28, 2019, as the Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the Order issued on February 11, 2020, as the First Deputy Minister of Economy by the Order issued on December 24, 2021. He was appointed as the First Vice President and Acting President of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the Order issued by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on February 10, 2022. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an order on 21.07.22 on appointment of Rovshan Chingiz oglu Najaf as president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

He holds a PhD in Economics, is the 3rd degree State Counsellor. Married, has two children.

Gary is a proven business leader with almost 40 years of experience. He is currently the Regional President for bp's Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey business.
He began his career with bp in 1981 and has held many leadership positions in drilling, operations and projects. This included heading bp's operations in Iraq as general manager Rumaila / vice president operations, serving as a key leader in Russia as the project director/performance unit leader -Verkhnechonskoye, and holding multiple senior leadership positions across bp's North Sea asset base.
Gary has a significant operations and technology delivery experience and a track record of building strong partnerships with national oil companies.
Gary holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham.
 

Pattabi Seshadri joined the Dallas office of Boston Consulting Group in 1997. He is a core member of the Energy and People & Organization practices. Pattabi is focused primarily on BCG's utilities and power work of the energy industry. He has worked with clients on a broad range of issues including strategy development, capabilities improvement, M&A, reorganization, benchmarking, practice-process development, and new-business launches. 

Pattabi has deep experience in the US power utility industry, covering regulated, hybrid, and merchant categories. He has experience across the power value chain, including power generation, trading, transmission and distribution, retail, and customer service; across alternative energy topics, including wind, solar, and energy storage; and across the gas value chain, including gas supply, operations, and customer service. 

Pattabi has served a number of top 20 electric and gas utility executive teams. In his role as leader of the firm’s South System Energy practice, Pattabi has successfully led a number of client engagements. He also works with clients in developing renewable energy strategies, renewable portfolio performance improvements, partnering strategies, customer and go-to-market planning in distributed generation and behind-the-meter services, and new energy source integration (EE, DR, distributed generation, storage, and more). 

Prior to joining BCG, Pattabi was a transportation planning and economics consultant at Louis Berger International.

Bart Boesmans is the Chief Technology Officer at ACWA Power and is leading technology development at ACWA Power.
He brings over 25 years of international experience in the electrical power industry having held operational and executive leadership roles in a range of areas including engineering, business development, project execution and asset management.
Prior to joining ACWA Power, Bart’s experience was primarily with Engie where he led several C-Suite roles for over 10 years across multiple geographies, the most recent one being Deputy Managing Director of Engie’s Global Business Line Renewables. Before joining Engie, Bart was CEO of Laborelec, an internationally operating electricity research and O&M services center.
Since his early engagement in wind energy over two decades ago, Bart has been actively involved in a wide range of technologies including conventional power generation, natural gas, LNG transport and storage, green gases, solar PV and CSP, hydropower, battery storage, demand side management and microgrids.
Bart holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of KU Leuven. He is also a visiting professor at the University where he teaches power generation engineering.