Khalid Aziz has held the position of Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Global Ventures at Signify since July 2019. Khalid is responsible to build a growth platform of the next generation of businesses at Signify.

Khalid is currently the Managing director of the BrightSites business unit. The business is aimed at transforming outdoor lighting infrastructure as a platform for broadband connectivity.

Before Signify, Khalid has held leadership roles in Telecoms and ICT industries. Based out of Germany, Khalid led the Global Commercial and Business Digitization portfolio at Nokia Services, prior to which he was leading the Global Strategy and Business Development function for the Nokia Services Business Group. As General Manager and Chairman of the regional board, Khalid led Nokia’s business in the Middle East covering several markets. While at Nokia, Khalid led several senior assignments in Finland and UK. He was the Chief Technology Officer at a Private Equity group based out of the Middle East tasked at building Telecoms services business across Arabian Gulf markets.

Khalid holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from Oxford University, and BEng in Electronics and Information Technology from Vaasa University, Finland. He is a mentor at the Social Entrepreneur Academy, Germany and has been an active partner member of Acumen Fund, focusing on sustainable investments in East Africa and South Asia.

The main focus in Anke’s career has been partnerships for sustainable development. She has experience working as a researcher, program manager and policy developer for diverse organizations such as municipalities, NGO’s and Erasmus University. Currently, she works as the Coordinator of European Affairs for the municipality of Leeuwarden (NL). Leeuwarden has ambitious goals with regards to climate neutrality and ample experience with citizen led initiatives.

Esben Tonning Otterlei is Head of Climate in the Lyse Group. His main priority is business and
project development contributing to green transition in Rogaland, as biogas production from
manure, carbon capture and local utilization, and making use of waste heat from data centres.
Prior to joining the Lyse group in 2014 he worked as Senior Advisor in Norsk Energi with energy
and climate assessments for the energy-, industry- and public sector. He holds a Master of
Technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 2008.

Iris Kriikkula works as a Project Specialist at the city of Turku’s climate team. Turku’s ambitious target is to be carbon neutral by 2029 and a world’s leading climate and nature city. Having inherited nature conservation values already from her grandparents, who worked to protect the local lake, she feels truly lucky to be in a position where she can be part of the climate and environmental policy work that results is concrete CO2-reductions and improvement.

Iris is currently working closely with the EU Horizon REPONSE-project that aims to solve energy trilemma by building positive energy districts. Iris is also a teacher and an East Asia Expert, having worked and studied in Japan and conducted research on Japan’s renewable energy policy. 

Robert supports international companies in setting up a presence in Germany and is the energy, building and environmental technologies team’s specialist for energy efficiency in buildings and industrial processes. In the last six years he has introduced businesses from different countries and a wide range of fields to the ins and outs of energy efficiency and doing business in Germany.

Experienced policymaker with substantial experience working on ICT, digital, privacy and it-security policy, politics and media and communication strategy with management, companies, NGOs, Government and politics.

Founder and Co-Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. Strong entrepreneurship professional skilled in Negotiation, ICT Strategy, and Management.