Bettina Stark-Watzinger is the Member of the German Bundestag since 2017. Since 2018, she is Chairwoman of the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag.

Mrs. Stark-Watzinger studied economics at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and Goethe University Frankfurt from 1989 to 1993. Completed graduate training programme from 1994 to 1997.

She worked as a regional manager for BHF BANK AG in Frankfurt from 1994 to 1997 and also as Academic Manager in the Finance, Accounting, Controlling and Taxation Department of the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel from 2006 to 2008. She was managing a research institute from 2008 to 2017.

She was the member of the executive committee of the Hesse Landbranch of the FDP since 2011; deputy chairwoman of the Hesse Land branch from 2014 to 2015 and since 2018; general secretary of the Hesse Land branch from 2015 to 2018. Member of Main-Taunus Council from 2011 to 2017.

Terhi Lehtinen is currently Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ethiopia. She has been working as a European Union official since 2003 with diplomatic postings in Thailand, Uganda, Sri Lanka and Belgium. Previously she worked as a policy researcher on European foreign policy at the European Centre for Development Policy Management in the Netherlands, as an attaché at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the European Union in Belgium and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Carter Centre in the USA. She also participated in numerous policy research projects and consultancies at the University of Helsinki. She holds a Doctorate in Anthropology from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France and Master in International Relations from University of Helsinki in Finland.

Adriana is a Senior Operations Officer with International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group based in Washington, USA. With over 30 years of experience working to ensure the legally, fiscally, environmentally and socially responsible execution of large-scale mining, energy and infrastructure projects, she is driven by a deep conviction in the transformative potential of the infrastructure and natural resources sectors to provide inclusive benefits to society. For the past six years, Adriana has contributed her core expertise in stakeholder engagement, gender equitable development, benefit sharing and social investment strategies to advise client companies of the Infrastructure and Natural Resources (INR) department at the IFC.  Internally, Adriana has also played an active role in advocating for continual improvement on gender issues, leading the implementation of the INR Gender Strategy and at corporate level, IFC’s EDGE Gender recertification process both at HQ and globally. 

Prior to IFC, Adriana worked for nine years with the Energy and Extractives group at the World Bank. In this role, she advised client governments and other stakeholders on good practice for legal and regulatory reforms as well helping client governments to understand the importance of community development issues, particularly benefit sharing mechanisms and gender. She developed and led both the World Bank’s Gender and Extractives Industries Program and the World Bank’s Gender and Energy program. 

A Romanian national, Adriana holds an MSc in Geophysics Engineering from University of Bucharest. She authored and co-authored several publications on gender, stakeholder engagement and investments in infrastructure and natural resources sectors. 

Samantha is the Deputy Representative at ADB’s European Representative Office (ERO) in Frankfurt. She assists the ERO Representative in building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders across ADB’s 17 European member countries, including knowledge sharing initiatives, outreach activities, and external relations.

Samantha is a seasoned provider of management support and coordination, including as prior Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Administration and Corporate Management and directly supporting the Director General of ADB’s Budget and Human Resources Department.

Samantha’s technical specialization is Gender and Development and she joined ADB as a Gender Specialist in 2009. As an active member of ADB’s Gender Equity Thematic Group Committee, she brings many years of experience working on gender issues at policy, institutional and program/project levels. She has also contributed significant knowledge work, including as the lead author for ADB’s Gender and Transport Toolkit. 

Before ADB, Samantha held various other posts, including Gender Advisor for the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), and Gender Advisor for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS). She also worked for the Australian Government Office on the Status of Women, UNICEF Vietnam, and BRIDGE (briefings on gender-development) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex, UK. She originally commenced her international development career as an Australian Volunteer in Vietnam.

Samantha is of Hong Kong Eurasian heritage and is a dual national of Australia and United Kingdom. She holds a Masters in International Development from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Honors Law and Commerce degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and a post-graduate certification in Human Resources Management from CIPD, UK

Idil is Associate Director at the Infrastructure Division of EBRD and based in Istanbul. She is responsible for the municipal social and environmental infrastructure projects of the bank in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. She joined EBRD in November 2013 and since then has developed a EUR 950 million Framework to channel the Bank’s support to the Hospital PPP Programme of Turkey. She led several projects including Adana, Izmir & Kocaeli Hospital PPPs. In 2015 she developed the first Corporate Bond Framework of the Bank for Turkey and worked for the Bank’s first participation of a Turkish Corporate Bond. The TRY 700 million Framework aims to support the development of capital markets in Turkey as well as attracting new international investors into the issues. Prior to joining EBRD, Idil was Manager in Project Finance Department of Garanti Bank. In 2012 and 2013, she led the Project Finance Portfolio Management team, representing an USD 13 billion portfolio comprised of infrastructure, energy, utilities, cement, real estate, steel, petrochemicals etc. projects. Before 2012, she was leading the infrastructure team and responsible for origination, structuring, execution and syndication of long term non-recourse/semi-recourse loans provided to the infrastructure and PPP projects. Her deal experience included many landmark infrastructure PPPs in Turkey including Mersin Port, Istanbul and Antalya Airports, Eurasia Car Tunnel projects. Idil holds an MBA in Finance degree from American University - Kogod School of Business (1999) and an MsC degree in Business Administration from Bilkent University (1997)

Victoria Elangwa is a certified Board member from Tanzania Institute of Directors and was recently appointed to WorldVision Tanzania Board and EWURA Board of Directors where she serves as ENERGY committee chairperson.

Victoria Elangwa has over 13 years of leadership, coaching and strategy formulating is currently working for Medical Stores Department which is a Government entity responsible for distribution of essential drugs to all government hospitals as Director of HR and Admin responsible for Administration, Human Resources and  Projects; amongst the projects in her portfolio is the first Public Private Partnership for Health in Tanzania.

Prior to that she was the Head of Human Capital for a state owned Electrical Utility TANESCO for over four years. Ms Elangwa has been instrumental in setting up workable monitoring and evaluation framework units for all organization she has worked for including the current organization, She has been an integral part of strategy task force for all organization that she has worked for; she is also affiliated with the balanced score card institute of East Africa and is a member of HRSTA locally in Tanzania. She has won the individual HR Excellence award for recognition of outstanding commitment in transformation of HR in 2017 and also Received Workforce Game Changer for her work in Human Resources.

Ingrid Kalisch, Partner in law firm Arnold & Porter, has extensive experience advising on a wide range of German and international corporate and structured finance transactions, including, project finance, ECA covered loans and tax efficient and off balance sheet financing. Furthermore, she advises on real estate investments, disposals and commercial leases.Her extensive know-how and outstanding understanding of banking business enabled her to advise in connection with the structuring and documentation of many innovative and bespoke transactions and to become one of the best known and frequently recommended lawyers in Germany for finance. She has been working on six A- and V-model projects in different roles, including counsel to the Mandated Lead Arrangers on the first German motorway PPP project, counsel to the EIB in the award-winning A5 motorway project and counsel to the sponsors on several further motorway projects in Germany and the Middle East. Further experience include social infrastructure PPPs and ECA covered projects in Africa and South America.

Natalia is Managing Director of SDG.17 Consulting GmbH and is the organiser of this event. She is an inspiring leader and international expert having more than 20 years of experience of working in challenging environments of the developing countries.

Natalia is actively involved in supporting sustainable business that contributes to economic growth, social and environmental prosperity for people and planet. For this purpose, she founded SDG.17 Consulting GmbH (Germany) to promote public-private partnerships as a tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and to support the development of social infrastructures in developing countries.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including award for Entrepreneurial Excellence (USA), a medal from the European Commission (EU) and governmental awards (Ukraine) and is also a renowned international speaker, presenting in Paris, Geneva, Moscow, Singapore, Dar es Salaam earlier this year.

Natalia believes that being a businesswoman is a highly challenging task, but it can also be immensely rewarding. That is why she is actively engaged in women empowerment and supporting a network of Women for Sustainable Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships.

Lorena is Director of the SuRe® Standard Programme at Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB). Lorena oversees the development, implementation and coordination of SuRe® with internal and external partners. As part of her duties, Lorena is GIB’s representative in ISEAL’s Gender Working Group and as such is responsible for mainstreaming gender into GIB’s tools and projects. Lorena is a specialist in standardization and social regulation (MA. Standardization, Social Regulation and Sustainable Development, University of Geneva); and has particular expertise in labour standards and gender mainstreaming. Previously, Lorena worked for the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the United Nations as technical M&E officer in the SCORE programme for improving working conditions in SMEs in 9 developing countries. Here Lorena supported the development of the gender strategy of the programme. Lorena has a business and financial background, having worked in Corporate Banking and impact investment in Canada, Mexico and Switzerland.Her specialties include: Monitoring and Evaluation of ESG KPIs, Labour Standards, Analysis and Development of Sustainability and Quality Standards, Gender Mainstreaming and Training of auditors and other stakeholders.

Maria is Policy & Advocacy Adviser at Infrastructure Transparency Initiative. She supports CoST on the analysis and evaluation of the programme results, helping to identify the impact of transparency in the

delivery of public infrastructure projects and to provide evidence-based advice to increase governance and accountability in the management of public funds.Maria is legal professional whose experience has focused on construction and infrastructure and has advised on contract management,compliance and dispute resolution. Her academic researches include the policy design evaluation of the Brazilian Infrastructure Policy and of the Inter-American Development Bank sustainable infrastructure project Cairu-2030, where she helped re-designing its legal safety programme. Previous experience has also included advising on employment rights, routes to exit in-work poverty and the protection of labour rights particularly in the infrastructure sector.

Maria holds a BA in Law from the University of São Paulo (First Class Honours), a Research Master in Law from the Université Paris II (Mention Assez Bien); a MSc in Development Management (Distinction and Award) from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economic Law (Distinction) from the University of São Paulo.

Šemsa Alić is one of few internationally-certified PPP specialists in the SEE with over 20 years of practice on the institutional and economic reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. She has been constructing, supporting and managing high-scale international and national development projects aimed at improving the livelihoods of people, effectiveness of governments, and accomplishment of businesses. 

Šemsa is author and co-author of some of the key economic development public policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including a number of national development strategies and legislations regulating construction right, concessions, and PPPs. In February 2019, she has facilitated development and contracting of the first formal PPP project in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Invasive Cardiology in the Zenica Doboj Canton. 

Šemsa is owner and manager of “Partneria” d.o.o., the first consultancy company in Bosnia and Herzegovina dedicated solely to investments and partnerships, currently engaged in supporting several potential PPP projects in healthcare, equine tourism, and creative industry.

Alina Sarnacka has 25 years consulting experience, (of which 23 years related to PPP) gained in the prime consulting companies including Booz Allen Hamilton, PwC and EY. Her main expertise is related to management and preparation of PPP and concession projects as well as to debt advisory for public investment  projects, including projects on behalf of the EBRD, EU Commission and the World Bank, the Polish central and local governments, Egyptian Ministry of Finance and PPP Central Unit as well as the private sector. Her project portfolio includes projects in most of the sectors within the public domain, mainly focusing on health, education, environmental and sports and leisure and is related to both PPP transactions and policy. She has been involved, in review and commenting amendments to the Polish PPP law and was the expert to the Polish Ministry of Investment and Development involved in development of the National PPP Strategy for Poland. Recently, on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Investment and Development she was one of the experts developing PPP guidelines and she has completed the first Polish e-learning course on PPP.  Alina has an extensive experience in PPP capacity building, gained among others in Egypt, having been one of the experts in implementation of the EU funded project “PPP capacity building for the PPP satellite units”.  Since May 2019 Alina is the Vicepresident of the PPP Centre – a Polish NGO focused on promotion of PPPs via capacity building, publications, conferences and workshops.

For some years Alina has been a lecturer in postgraduate studies in the Warsaw School of Economics Management and implementation of PPP projects.  She is a co-author of four books on PPP (including the book on PPPs in the hospital sector) and an author of numerous press articles and presentation at the PPP conferences.

Sanja is CEO at Infinity Global Consulting, LLC Company headquartered in Washington D.C., and operating worldwide. Her project portfolio includes high level consultancy on a range of projects, mostly in Southeast Europe, like the Concession for Regional Waste Management Center, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Project for Replacement of Fossil Fuels with Renewable Energy, Public Lighting ESCO Projects, and others. These projects contributed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In addition, Sanja participated over the past years in many national and regional events related to PPPs, SDG’s and infrastructure, as speaker or key note speaker. Sanja also published a number of articles describing good practices in these domains. She has held a number of trainings mostly for national and local governments, companies and representatives of financial institutions. 

Dr.Irina Michalowitz has overall 20 years of diversified work experience in academia, Public Affairs, executive search and business development services, of which 10 years working as chief lobbyist in or with infrastructure-heavy industries (especially in transport, telecommunications and energy-related fields). She serves as co-chair of the “Sustainable & Resilient Economy” task force of the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium (BCCB). Irina holds a joint doctorate degree in Political Science from the University of Hamburg and the Robert-Schuman University Strasbourg, an MBA, and she is a trained business coach. In 2015, she first established her company IMConsult, in 2019, she gathered the partners of Emerald Advisors together in order to create an independent advisory group.

As Scientific Director, Dean Rakic accompanies customers in their digital transformation processes. He looks back on many years of experience in architecture for the processing of large amounts of data, especially in the healthcare environment. His professional focus is on project management, lead with respect to the entire project life cycle including project initiation and project handling. Besides, his additional personal strength is in acting as a specialist in business liaison/stakeholder management. Overall previous experience is on top of Strategy and Innovation development during all development phases. More than 25 years of detailed knowledge of IT and software architecture, project monitoring and project controlling with the identification, analysis, measurement, and control of project risks as well as the regular analysis of the impacts makes his personal stamp. Particularly important is his contribution to the promotion of science and the implementation of innovative achievements through lectures, mentoring and counselling in different vertices, ranging from standard industrial to non-governmental and sustainable projects. 

Maria Luisa Engels has a background in economics and business administration and has been working for 20 years in finance in a corporation (automotive). She is also artist (painting) and had numerous exhibitions in Rhein Main.  Maria Luisa is the founder of Artparty, which creates art experiences for private and company customers. Her passion is to help women and organisations to unfold their creativity for innovation, collaboration and a better quality of life and work.

 She is Spanish and lives in Germany since 1994.