MenuDr. Miriam Schröder
Miriam co-founded SiNERGi, and is a managing director. With 16 years’ experience, she has developed a solid track record in advising clients on energy and climate issues. At this nexus, she works on market mechanisms and results-based financing, renewable energy deployment policies and financing models, and off-grid energy access. Her consultancy work is well grounded in hands-on implementation experience gained from 2 years of co-managing the Energising Development Project for the promotion of mini-grids and solar home systems in Rwanda.
Miriam complements her technical expertise on renewable energies with a sound toolbox of social science evaluation design and data analysis methodologies. She wrote her PhD thesis on "Evaluating the effectiveness of provincial CDM centres in China – lessons learned for capacity development", holds a master’s degree in political science, and graduated from the Centre for Rural Development (SLE).
Miriam is passionate about life-long learning, and embraces the challenge of acquainting herself with new topics in a short period of time. She enjoys training and moderating, and has lectured at several universities, such as the New York University in Berlin. In addition to publishing extensively in her own right (view publications), Miriam serves as a reviewer for a number of journals, including Applied Energy, Climate Policy, and Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in China.
Miriam speaks English, French, Chinese and German.
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Dr.-Ing. Mirco Gaul
Mirco is also a co-founder and director of SiNERGi. As an energy and process engineer with a focus on renewable energies, he has 16 years’ experience of advising on energy issues in the context of international development cooperation. At the nexus of energy and development, he advises on the implementation of energy programmes, the design of conducive regulatory and policy framework conditions, the development of business models, and energy investment projects.
Mirco enjoys working in different roles and assignments, whether as manager, team leader, consultant, or colleague. He likes both working with people and number-crunching for technical or economical assessments. He has followed the technical and political debate on the evolution of renewable energies for the last two decades, and has acquired ample technical and economical expertise. His methodical skills cover technical analysis, economical assessment, market & policy studies, and strategy development, as well as monitoring and impact evaluation.
Mirco completed his PhD on comparative energy and cost analysis of energy services at the TU-Berlin, where he also received his master (Dipl.-Ing.) in energy and industrial engineering. He has completed a post-graduate programme on international development at the Centre for Rural Development (SLE, HU-Berlin). Mirco is a reviewer for journals such as Regional Environmental Change, Energy for Sustainable Development and Journal for Sustainable Development, and publishes in his field of expertise (view publications by Mirco).
Mirco works in German and English and understands Spanish.
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Maurice Kayisire
Maurice Kayisire has more than 10 years of experience in supporting private-sector led electrification in Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electromechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Hydropower Engineering. He possesses sound experience in both on and off-grid rural electrification and in the development of small hydropower projects. Maurice has for several years managed a construction company working mainly on electrification projects and has advised companies in the development of energy projects.
He is well familiar with EnDev Rwanda’s approach of results-based financing for solar off-grid solutions and mini-grids. Being an entrepreneur himself and having worked for several private sector companies before, Maurice has a good understanding of business’ needs and is passionate about the promotion of private sector led energy markets in Africa. Maurice works in French and English and speaks German, Chinese, Swahili and Kinyarwanda.
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Annika Tillmans
Annika is an environmental psychologist with 7 years of research and international work experience in off-grid renewable energy technologies. She has conducted research on how stakeholders communicate knowledge in the implementation processes of solar home systems. Annika managed a distribution company for pico solar systems in Uganda, and worked for fosera Solarsystems, who manufacture pico solar technology.
Annika has comprehensive experience in data collection through interviews and questionnaires, qualitative and quantitative research, and data analysis. Her interests focus on the perspectives of end users, on challenges for small and medium sized enterprises in the solar markets of developing countries, and on the barriers to dissemination which can be induced by too much or too little political regulation.
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Martin Seißler
Martin co-founded SiNERGi in 2007 and was managing director until January 2015. During his time with SiNERGi, Martin advised clients on energy and climate issues, focussing on renewable energy deployment policies and financing and business models.
In 2013 Martin founded Velogista, Germany‘s first cycle logistics operations startup using electric heavy load cargo bikes for inner city sustainable logistics. Martin served as Velogista‘s managing director until the end of 2018: he developed the business model, build and led the team and oversaw operations.
Martin has gained a thorough understanding on the foundations needed for deploying sustainable city logistics and passenger transportation. At the national and international policy level, he promotes the idea of sustainable city logistics. He is also co-founder and expert board member of the German Cycle Logistics Federation (RLVD). As a consultant he advises municipalities, companies and institutions on the topics of setting up sustainable fleets, switching fleets to cargo bikes and integrating cargo bikes into operational processes.
Martin holds a Diploma as a Business Sinologist (2003) and is a Certified Financial Manager (2012). Martin works in German and English and speaks Chinese and French.
Dr. Gerrit Hansen
Gerrit is a researcher, political advisor and independent consultant with over 10 years experience working on climate policy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, attribution of climate impacts, green finance and renewable energy technologies. She holds a doctorate from Wageningen University, a diploma in Environmental Engineering from the TU-Berlin, a MSc in Global Change Management from the HNEE, and has published extensively in high ranking journals.
Gerrit specializes in science-based policy advice and has ample experience in project management, developing political strategy in both international and local contexts, and in facilitating and moderating workshops and panels. Gerrit is also a certified conflict mediator. Former employers and clients include research institutes, UN organizations, government agencies, think tanks and NGOs. Her current main affiliation is with the German IPCC Coordination Office and she is also a guest scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Gerrit works in English and German, speaks Spanish, understands French and Norwegian.
You can contact Gerrit via her personal website www.gerrit-hansen.net.