Webinar 'The new regulation for energy access in off-grid areas in Mozambique'
Marcelina works for the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy in Mozambique for over 20 years. She has extensive knowledge in the renewable energy sector. With an engineering background coupled with policy experience, her daily work involves the creation of a favourable environment for energy projects to be developed in a sustainable way, in order to contribute to the achievement of access to energy for all.
Mrs Isabel Faria de Almeida is currently working as Head of Cooperation in the EU Delegation to Mozambique.
She worked previously in the new EU Delegation to Myanmar as Head of Cooperation having participated in the establishment and opening of this EU Delegation in the country.
Prior to this Ms Faria de Almeida worked in the EU Somalia Mission as Head of Poverty Reduction and Aid Coordination, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Prior to her posting in EU Delegations overseas Ms Faria de Almeida worked as Principal Administrator in the European Commission in the field of Management of Natural Resources and in the Coordination of the EU Anti-Drugs Policy. Previously, she worked in the European Commission Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate General for more than 8 years having different assignments and covering multiple issues such as the Accession to the EU of Czech Republic and Slovakia, the EU Outermost Regions and the Irish Rural development programme.
Mrs Faria de Almeida graduated from the Technical University of Lisbon, with a degree in Agricultural Sciences, specializing in Rural Economics and Rural Development. She joined the European Commission just after her studies.
Thierry is now Head of cooperation at the German Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique. Thierry has worked as Senior policy officer at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Germany, in charge for the cooperation with Indonesia as well as for the sector strategy development in the fields of reproductive health and population dynamics; desk officer at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Germany; logistician with Doctor Without Borders (MSF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo; project assistant/intern with Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action) in Ethiopia.
Miquelina Menezes was President of FUNAE, the Energy Fund of Mozambique responsible for off-grid rural electrification projects, between 1998 and end of 2015.
Before working at FUNAE, Miquelina was responsible by the VAT project with IMF at the Finance Ministry.
Most of her professional career was in the energy sector. She served as Deputy Director General of the National Hydrocarbon Company between 1986 and 1998 and before that she worked at the Mining Development Company, at the Mineral Resources Ministry, at the State Secretariat for Coal and Hydrocarbons and at the National Coal Company.
Since 1992 she has been a teacher of management at Eduardo Mondlane University – Faculty of Economy.
She is currently President of ALER – the Lusophone Renewable Energy Association and member of the AMER's Board
Telma Mariza Matakutumula, 40 years old, born in the city of Maputo, province of Maputo, jurist at the Faculty of Law of the Eduardo Mondlane University, also attended the undergraduate course in Energy Law.
It then joined the Ministry of Energy in 2006 which will later also become more public, where the Ministry of Resources and Energy functioned in the area of international cooperation and in the legal area. Telma participated in the negotiation of different legal instruments in the development of the energy sector, as well as participating in the negotiation of contracts.
In 2020, she moved to the Energy Regulatory Authority, where she currently serves as Director of the Legal Affairs and Consumer Support Division.
Isabel Cancela de Abreu is an Environmental Engineer with an Executive Master on Sustainable Energy Systems.Her experience in renewable energies started at APREN, the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association, where she was Director of the Technical Department.
Isabel was afterwards invited to work as Policy Adviser at EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council.
Later on, she decided to take advantage of her national and international experience to found ALER, the Lusophone Renewable Energy Association, where she now works as Executive Director.
In addition, Isabel was also a social volunteer in Niassa - Mozambique, and did an internship at Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh to learn about their microcredit and Solar Home Systems programs.
Ricardo Costa Pereira is a founding member and current President of the Board of the Mozambican Renewable Energy Association (AMER).
Ricardo has been working for over a decade in the renewable energy sector in Southern Africa, specifically in Mozambique where he has worked for the public sector through the National Directorate of New and Renewable Energies (Ministry of Energy), contributing to a series of regulations and legislative documents on the development of renewable energy. For the private sector through a large multinational consultancy company where he led multidisciplinary projects and managed teams in a variety of different countries. For donor funded programs, he was part of the core technical assistance team appointed by the EU and AFD to structure the first competitive tender for large scale renewable energy projects (PROLER). Presently, Ricardo is the Portfolio Manager for AECF’s program REACT-SAA in Mozambique providing end-to-end support to companies that AECF has invested in.
Guilherme Daniel graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) with a postgraduate degree in Business Law.
Later, he founded GDA Advogados (which integrates VdA Legal Partners) in 2016, where he works actively in matters of Corporate, Energy and Natural Resources (in particular, Oil&Gas) and Infrastructure. Before founding the firm, he was Director of the Legal Department, Secretary of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Petromoc – Petróleos de Moçambique, SA (where he worked for 13 years). In this capacity, he supported the Ministry of Energy and participated in the preparation of the main legal instruments for regulating the fuel sector from 2006 to 2015 and regularly collaborated with IGEPE in the preparation of corporate governance instruments and in the training of holders of bodies of state-owned companies.
He took on various positions in companies in which Petromoc participated between 2005 and 2015 and holds several national and international training certificates in the areas of oil and gas, law and management.
He is a member of the National Council of the Mozambican Bar Association as well as a founding member and of the Board of Directors of AMER.
Marcus Rother is an international expert on renewable energy with 20 years of experience in developing project as well as raising project-funding and leading investor relationships. Being part of EU GET.invest´s Finance Catalyst network, he has successfully connected local entrepreneurial initiatives to funding institutions and implemented training programmes on financial structuring of RE projects within local partner institutions in Mozambique and South Africa.
Previously a senior Investment Officer at EU impact fund ElectriFI, he focuses on catalytic private sector investments in renewable energy companies in the IPP, Minigrid and Solar Home System sector.
Holding a PhD in Technology Policy Marcus collaborates in academia on sustainable energy policies with University of Madrid and University of Stellenbosch as a guest lecturer and sits on the advisory board of Edulink Participia, an EU programme for academic knowledge transfer.
Rita Marouço is a Portuguese renewable energy advocate who did her studies in Energy and Environmental Engineering. In 2014 she co-founded the first hackerspace in the Faculty of Science in the University of Lisbon and 2016/17 co-organized the first and second Lisbon Green Hackathon and the first Transport Hackathon. The last four years she worked in Coopérnico, developing projects in the field of renewable energy communities and working towards tackling energy poverty in Portugal. At the present time, she is working full time as a project manager for ALER, promoting renewable energy in the African Portuguese-speaking countries and fomenting gender equality in sustainable energy access.
