Dr. Vinegar was previously Chief Scientist, Physics of Royal Dutch Shell. He is presently the Chief Scientist of Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), Afek Israel Oil & Gas and Genie Oil & Gas. He holds MA and PHD degrees in physics from Harvard University and a BA in physics from Columbia. Harold joined Shell's Bellaire Research Centre in Houston, Texas in 1976. During his career at Shell, he had over 50 publications and 290 patents in the fields of shaly sand evaluation, X-ray CT, NMR well logging, microseismic imaging and wireless power and communications for intelligent oil wells.

He was co-inventor of the in situ thermal desorption process for soil remediation and was instrumental in the formation of TerraTherm Environmental Services, an affiliate of Shell Oil Co. created to commercialise the in situ thermal desorption process. Dr. Vinegar has had a career interest spanning over 35 years in applying novel recovery processes to unconventional resources. He is the co-inventor of the in situ conversion and upgrading processes (ICP and IUP) which have been piloted successfully in Colorado oil shale and Alberta oil sands. Harold served as President and VP Technology of the Society of Core Analysts (SCA). He received the Society of Petrophysicists (SPWLA) Distinguished Technical Achievement Award in 1992 and the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in 2010.

He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 1999, cited " for contributions to the science and technology of oil exploration and environmental remediation, particularly thermal methods for extracting hydrocarbons from the ground and for applications of NMR methods to well logging." He was inducted into the US national Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2003 and served on the US National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Earth Resources.

Since retiring from Shell in October, 2008, Harold and his family fulfilled a lifelong dream and emigrated to Israel. He is Professor of Petroleum Geosciences at Ben Gurion University of the Negev where his research centres on making Israeli energy independent.

Barry Smitherman is a fourth generation Texan with a unique blend of private and public sector experience.

Barry is currently the Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. Created in 1891, the RRC no longer regulates railroads, but oversees the oil, natural gas, coal mining, intrastate pipeline, and gas utility distribution industries in Texas. He was appointed to this position in July of 2011, by Governor Rick Perry, and was elected statewide in November of 2012, winning with 74% of the vote. His term ends December 31, 2014. Over the last three years, the RRC has issued more oil and gas drilling permits, than it has in a similar three-year period, since the mid 80s. Texas oil production is about 2 mm bbls/day and gas production is about 21 bcf/day. Barry is also the Chairman of the NARUC Gas Committee, a position he has held since January of 2013.

Prior to the RRC, Barry was the Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, a position to which he was appointed in April of 2004. He was reappointed in September of 2007 and promoted to Chairman in November of 2007. The PUCT oversees the Texas electricity and landline telecommunications industries. The competitive Texas electric market is generally considered one the most dynamic and free market electric models in the world. As Chairman of the PUCT, Barry also sat on the ERCOT Board of Directors, served as Vice President of the Regional State Committee of the Southwest Power Pool and as a two term member of the US DOE Electricity Advisory Committee.

Prior to beginning public service, Barry spent 17 years as either a municipal bond attorney or as a public finance investment banker. He held leadership positions with Lazard, First Boston, JP Morgan, and Bank One, where he was the National head of tax-exempt origination.

Barry graduated with a BBA summa cum laude from Texas A&M University, with a JD from The University of Texas School of Law, and with an MPA from Harvard University’s School of Government where he was the first recipient of the Joel Leff Fellowship in Political Economy.

Barry and his wife of 27 years, Marijane, have four wonderful children and live in Austin, Texas.

Benjamin is Marketing Director for Key Accounts at GE Oil & Gas. Prior to that, he was Senior Market Development Leader at GE Energy covering Europe, Russia/CIS, North Africa, Turkey and Israel. He has over a decade of industry experience in automotive, energy and management consulting focusing on new product development, localization, strategy and market development.

Throughout his career, he has lived and worked in multiple European countries, USA and China. Benjamin holds a joint MSc degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Karlsruhe, ESIEE Paris and University of Southampton, an MBA from CDI in Paris and a PhD in Engineering from National University of Ireland, Galway.

Mehmet has more than 30 years of successful track-record in development, investment, government, diplomacy, international organisations, and energy business.

Currently based in London, Mehmet serves as chairman of Global Resources Partnership, an independent non-executive director on the boards of Genel Energy plc and Yasar Group of Companies, and a special envoy for The Energy Charter in Brussels for MENA and Eurasia regions. He also leads the recently created Bosphorus Energy Club, an exclusive gathering of the senior executives and leaders in finance, energy and politics across Turkey, Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa.

He provides strategic advice to several major natural resources and finance corporations on business growth, investment deals, fund-raising, strategic stakeholder alignment, and risk mitigation.

In his early career, Mehmet worked as deputy inspector on the board of Is Bankasi, Turkey’s largest private bank, and undertook projects as NATO Research Fellow and EU’s Jean Monnet Fellow. He was a prominent diplomat, having worked on critical “economic diplomacy” dossiers in Ankara, Beijing, Brussels and Paris, and later as an advisor to the late Turkish Prime Minister, Turgut Ozal.

After leaving the foreign services in 1994, Mehmet joined as a senior staffer at the International Energy Agency heading Eurasia, Asia-Pacific and Latin America programme and the OECD in Paris as principal administrator managing international investment outreach over 11 years.

Mehmet was for six years (2005-2011) the global director for BG Group Plc. in the UK, managing high-level government engagements and new business development around the world. He also worked as the chairman of the International Advisory Board of Invensys plc until 2014.

He was most recently nominated by the Turkish government for the secretary-general position of the world’s largest energy organisation, International Energy Forum, based in Riyadh, and became one of the top two contenders. Mehmet is a graduate of Turkey’s “Mulkiye”, a symbol of the Republican meritocracy, similar to the French École nationale d’administration, London School of Economics (MSc) and College d’Europe (MA), Bruges.

He is an occasional lecturer at London School of Economics’ Enterprise Executive Programme, Harvard University, Dundee University, University of Reading and Peking University’s School of Government since 2005.

As part of The London Speakers Bureau he often speaks at key international and regional conferences around the world and writes in newspapers on future trends, development, investment/finance, energy/food/water nexus and geopolitical matters.

Mehmet is fluent in Turkish, English, French and Chinese (conversational).

Dr. Michael Gardosh is the Head of Geology and Geophysics Department in the Natural Resources Administration of the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources. He holds BA and MA degrees in Geology from Hebrew University and PHD degree in Geophysics from Tel Aviv University. Michael started his career in Oil and Gas in the Israel National Oil Company (INOC); where he was trained and then involved in various exploration and drilling projects in the Dead Sea Basin and other parts of Israel, since 1989. He later moved to the Geophysical Institute of Israel (GII) and worked as a research scientist, focusing on seismic interpretation and basin studies. During his career in the GII he studied extensively the Eastern Mediterranean region and his work on the geology of the Levantin Basin is considered a milestone in the development of hydrocarbon resources offshore Israel.

Dr. Gardosh joined the Ministry of Energy in 2010. He created the G&G Department and developed its capacity to review and regulate exploration activity and to evaluate hydrocarbon resources. At present Dr. Gardosh is leading long-term projects to promote exploration activity offshore and onshore and to construct National Data Repository for Oil and Gas in Israel. Michael is a member of the Israeli Geological Society and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He published many articles and professional reports, and continues working with students and teaching courses in Petroleum Geology and Seismic Interpretation in Tel Aviv University.

Robert Rakison is a senior partner in the London office of McGuireWoods, a circa 1,000 lawyer US firm with 18 offices in the US and 3 European based offices in London, Brussels and a consulting office in Bucharest.  Additionally the firm has formal co-operations with law firms in Jeddah, Paris and Tel Aviv.  Through its memberships of Legal Network International and Lex Mundi, the firm is able to access legal advice from over 120 countries worldwide.  In the year to date legal matters and transactions undertaken by the firm have involved 76 jurisdictions.  Lawyers and staff speak 43 languages.

Robert Rakison is a corporate lawyer, primarily specialising in M&A transactions. Within the firm he is: a member of its Board of Partners; former co-chair of the Private Equity Industry Team; co-chair of the Israel Interest Group; member of the Energy Industry Team; and a member of the Middle East and North Africa Interest Group.  In a career spanning 40 years, Robert has been involved in transactions involving over 100 different countries, many of them in the oil and gas and energy sectors.  The last major oil and gas transaction handled by Robert was the sale of a circa 3.5% interest in the Ghanaian Jubilee oil field by EO Group to Tullow Oil for $305M.

Peter Højlund Hviid is heading the oil and gas activities for SystemTeknik A/S. System Teknik A/S is a globally working whole contractor of electrical control systems for industrial installations. Prior to that, he worked in other senior roles within the fields of project management and technology innovation and invention in global companies such as Hamworthy and Ergonomic Solutions. Peter has over a decade of industry experience in oil and gas, energy and energy management and energy saving focusing on new product development, connecting technology with strategy to fit emerging and eminent market developments.

During his career, he has been appointed strategic tasks of developing products entirely new to the market, providing the oil and gas industry with innovative solutions to gain more profit by increasing rates of return and increasing oil field efficiency in a cost efficient manner. Peter holds a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering and a B.Sc. in Business Administration from Aalborg University.

Yehuda Saban is a VP of Economic Regulation and FLNG manager at Delek Drilling LP and Avner oil exploration LP,  Israel's leading Oil & Gas companies. Avner holds an extensive track record of discoveries and development of natural gas assets in the Levantine basin and the entire East Mediterranean area.

Yehuda has 6 years of experience in various managerial positions at the Israel Finance Ministry. He also took part in various critical committees that have a lot of  influence on Israeli society and economy.

Yehuda has a BA Hons in Economics & Business Management and also holds an MA degree specializing  in Accounting & Financing. Both were gained at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Founder and Partner of Halman-Aldubi Energy and a Director at Israel Opportunity Oil & Gas Exploration Ltd. Uri is the Chairman of the Halman-Aldubi Investment Group - one of the top ten privately owned financial institutions in Israel.

The Company was established in December 1995 and specializes in provision of mid and long term saving products and business services through provident funds, pension funds, investment management for mutual funds and portfolio management products. The Group manages and operates over $4.5 Billion AUM with approximately 350,000 accounts. Mr. Aldubi holds an MBA in Finance, and a BA in Management and Economics from Tel Aviv University.

With years of investments experience in the oil and gas industry, Uri is the Chairman of the Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries in Israel. Established in 2010, the Association is comprised of the leading companies active in the Israeli oil and gas industry, specializing in the exploration and production of oil and gas.

Shlomo Alfia is a Senior Partner at EY Israel. He has 22 years of experience in providing audit, taxation and consulting services to Oil & Gas companies operating in Israel and abroad and assists them in creating their business models in Israel.

He has also accumulated vast experience in the energy field and has provided services to leading companies including: Avner Oil & Gas Exploration, Delek Drilling, Noble Energy, Woodside, Delek Energy Systems, Yam-Tatis Project, Tamar Project, Leviathan Project, ATP, Isramco Negev 2 LP, Modiin Energy LP, AGR, Lapidot, Israel Opportunity and others.

Shlomo is a graduate in Accounting & Economics and holds a BA Cum Laude in Social Sciences from The Open University. He became a Certified Public Accountant in 1991.

Michal Franco Kedmi is an independent business consultant based in London. Up until recently Michal served as the Senior Adviser to the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Water Resources. Michal founded an energy consulting business that specializes in public affairs and regulatory consulting, contract management, strategy development and market entry services –mainly in the Israeli market.

Listed in Israel’s Top 40 most promising young professionals by Israel’s leading financial magazine Michal gained critical experience and most intimate knowledge of the fast growing natural gas industry in the Mediterranean basin and has been deeply involved in the formulation of the export of natural gas policy of the Israeli government. She is a specialist both international and Israeli infrastructure markets, public and private sectors alike.

Michal is a Board Member of the ‘Ezra & Bizaron Company’, a specialized construction and preservation company for the City of Tel-Aviv and was a Member of the Board of Israel Railways, one of the country’s largest public companies. She also specializes in renewable energy and clean-tech as well as in policy and regulation formulation and development. Michal is a certified Israeli Lawyer and earned her LL.B (Cum Laude) and LL.M, specializing in commercial Law from Tel-Aviv University.

Matthew Hagopian is a dual-qualified (English/New York law) partner who acts as the co-head of Linklaters’ Global Energy Sector and also leads its U.S. law energy and project finance practice around the world.

He is a leading practitioner in the oil, gas and power sectors, with a particular focus on LNG and FLNG. He has recently advised on potential solutions for Tamar and Leviathan. Hagopian is recognised as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global.

Former Director of Budgets at Israel’s Ministry of Finance. As part of this role Gal was responsible for preparing the state budget, formulating and implementing a macro-economic policy, outlining fiscal policy, implementing structural reforms and regulation, and initiating actions for savings, enhancing competition, streamlining and properly allocating resources in all the government ministries and the various sectors of the economy.

Prior to 2011, Gal was CEO of Egged Europe Ltd, the international arm of Egged Group. The Egged Group is the largest transportation operator in Israel, operating approximately 55% of Israel’s public transportation service lines. Under Gal’s responsibility the Egged Group has expanded its operations to public transportation markets outside of Israel and now operates a wide range of public transportation lines in a number of European cities and outlying areas with over 1800 buses.

Before this, Gal was CFO and acting CEO of Hagihon Company Ltd. Hagihon is the Jerusalem Area's Water and Wastewater Utility and is the largest water and Sewage Company in Israel. The company supplies water, sewage and drainage services in the approximately 32,500 acres of the Greater Jerusalem area, servicing about 1,000,000 residents.  The company is responsible for development, expansion, operation and maintenance of the water, sewage and drainage networks, in accordance with the city’s and towns' growth and development plans.

Joseph Paritzky, Former Minister of Energy & National Infrastructure in Israel

1973-1976: Army Service

1978-1982: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, School of Law, LLB

1983: Member of the Israel Bar

1985-1987: USA - Member of NY Bar, NY Law practice

1988-1999: Business and international lawyer in a private Law Practice in Tel Aviv, Israel

1999 – 2006: Member of the 15th and 16th Knesset (Israeli Parliament). Here Joseph was a Member of the Finance Committee and a Representative of the Israeli Parliament to NATO Parliamentary Assembly

2003-2004: Member of the Government and Minister of Energy and National Infrastructure in the 30th Government. In charge of Energy Water and the Negev and Galilee Authorities

2006 until today: Joseph established and headed “International Pipes” in Houston TX, which sold products and services in access of US$700 Million to the US pipeline industry (www.international-pipes.com)

Established and managed a consortium of investors in various energy projects in East Europe Representation of “ACE VALVES”, the largest Korean Valve Manufacturer, in its Middle East business Representation in Israel of GTM, the largest CNG Company in United States Founder and partner in Israel CNG Corp., which built a CNG terminal and station in Israel.

Member of the board of the Texas Israel Chamber of Commerce

Lecturing in numerous international conventions and organizations about Energy, including UK, Korea, US, Cyprus

Published various articles regarding energy issues

Mark specialises in advising on infrastructure projects and project financing transactions in a wide variety of fields. In particular, he advises clients in the energy field, with particular emphasis on exploration and production of natural gas. He acts for owners and operators of gas exploration rights on all aspects of their activities, including applications to the Petroleum Commissioner, Farm-In Agreements, JOA's and ongoing matters. He also advises Israeli and international lenders on all aspects of the financing of gas exploration and production projects in Israel (such as the Tamar field), including advising on regulatory issues and the security package.

Mark also represents concessionaires, bidding groups, Israeli and international banks and financial institutions as well as the public sector in connection with large-scale BOT infrastructure projects, such as toll roads, light rail systems and desalination facilities. He recently advised the lenders on the financing of the new IDF Training Centre in Southern Israel, one of the largest infrastructure projects in recent years.

In addition, following recent regulatory changes allowing for the construction of independent power plants, Mark has advised a variety of lenders in connection with the financing of large scale conventional power plants. He also advises several solar power companies on the financing of their projects and on tenders in the solar power field.

David has more than 20 years experience in a wide range of corporate and securities matters, with concentrations in the energy and technology industries that span from the representation of U.S. public entities to start-ups to cross-border transactions. He serves as co-head of strategic development for the firm’s energy practice.

His energy industry experience includes mergers and acquisitions in the upstream, midstream and downstream industries, master limited partnerships, energy trading, energy audits and performance contracts relating to energy efficiency, drilling contracts, drilling partnerships, sustainability issues and renewables. His technology experience includes investments in and fund-raising for technology-based companies, strategic alliances and development agreements. In the securities area, David leads representations that involve initial and secondary public offerings, special committees of boards of directors in conflict situations, venture capital investments, private placements of debt and equity securities including 144A and Regulation D offerings, preparation of SEC periodic reports and structure and governance matters. In addition, David has been involved in a number of healthcare transactions, mainly representing doctors related to the formations of entities and sales of practices. David was the first lawyer in Houston certified as a LEED-accredited professional by the U.S. Green Building Council and owns the first LEED- H certified home in Houston (with a gold certification).

David is a frequent speaker and has earned numerous accolades throughout his career. Activities have included serving as an energy panelist at the Foreign Law Firms Conference – The Flow to Israel; serving as emcee at the Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce Cleanovation Conferences; serving as national board member and former Houston Chapter President of the American Society for the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; and serving as a board member of the Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Serge Rueff Ph.D is a Business Development Consultant with Atlantis-Nautilus of USA. An ultra-deepwater expert, Serge is a past-Director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He had created the Network of Excellence in Training "NExT" concept, and "PetroStars", an integrated Project Management Consortium.

He held various technical and high managerial positions with IIOC around the World, from Australia to North America, from the Middle-East and Africa to Europe, and with service companies and offshore contractors. Serge consulted for the World Bank, UNDP and ADB.

Serge was the first-ever oilman to work on damaged subsea wellheads from a self-propelled submersible in deep and very deepwaters. He also drilled the first-ever Arctic offshore well from a floater.