Speakers of the Decarbon Days 2025 (A–Z)
From science YouTube stars to top politicians and scientists to the most successful startups in the industry – here’s an insight into our speaker lineup (A–Z). Around 30 personalities await you, which we’ll be announcing here gradually:
Aderonke Ojumu
Founder & career counsellor
After spending the first part of her life in Ibadan, Nigeria, where she completed a degree in banking and finance, Aderonke Ojumu decided to spend the next years in Europe. After completing two master’s degrees in financial management and corporate finance at the renowned EDHEC Business School in Nice, she founded her own company. With her coaching company “Becoming YOU Academy”, which is based in Germany but also operates in her home country of Ibadan, she not only wants to help young people find the right career path, but also make companies fit for the multicultural age.
Adi Roesch
Chairman of the LEAG Executive Board
As an experienced manager with a vast amount of expertise in the energy and construction business, it is Adi Roesch who is to position LEAG for the transformation of the energy landscape in Germany and the German government’s new power plant strategy. He was most recently CEO of Köster Holding SE, one of Germany’s leading construction companies, and previously held several management positions at General Electric and the Alstom Group, most recently as Head of Power Plant Services for Central Europe and as Spokesman of the Management Board of General Electric GmbH and member of the Management Board of GE Power AG.
Dr. Beate Baron
Head of Decarbonization BMWK
Since 2010, Dr Baron, who holds a doctorate in law, has gained extensive professional experience in the field of energy. For instance, she held four different positions as a consultant in the field until 2018: first for energy law at the BMWi, then for energy policy at the Directorate-General for Energy in the European Commission and later again for energy policy – including industrial policy – at the BMWK. She still works there today, now – after a position as head of the sub-department for decarbonization, climate and environmental protection in industry as head of the industrial policy department.
Prof Birgit Beckmann
Dean Institute of Solid Construction TU Dresden
… is the first woman in the history of TU Dresden to be elected Dean of the Institute of Solid Construction. With her scientific specialisation in highly dynamic effects in concrete, she herself investigates in particular innovative concepts made of carbon concrete, which reduce resource and energy consumption while increasing performance within the framework of new construction strategies. She is also part of the team of top researchers who are exploring climate-neutral and resource-saving construction solutions at the LAB – Living Art of Building, with the aim of establishing a construction research centre for climate-neutral and resource-saving construction in Lusatia.
Dr. Christian Ehler
MEP for Brandenburg
Dr. Christian Ehler can look back on a long entrepreneurial and political career, but his work as an MEP for Brandenburg since 2004 is particularly noteworthy in connection with the Decarbon Days. Since 2014, he has been a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, where he not only significantly developed and revised the Net Zero Industry Act, but was also the driving force behind the concept of Net Zero Valleys and considered Lusatia from the very beginning. He also played a decisive role in its implementation and, together with zwei helden GmbH, provided the ideas for the Decarbon Days.
Daniel Keller
Minister of Economics Brandenburg
In addition to his enthusiasm for sport, which has even led him to the position of President of the German Judo Federation, Daniel Keller has long been involved in politics. After joining the SPD in 2008, his position as a member of the city council in Potsdam from 2015 to 2024 should be mentioned in particular, after which his next step was to join the Brandenburg state parliament in 2019. There he first acted as parliamentary managing director, then as a member of the executive committee and chairman of the parliamentary group – and today as Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour, Energy and Climate Protection.
Dr Harry Lehmann
Director of the PtX Lab Lausitz
Dr Harry Lehmann, who holds a doctorate in physics, has his roots in elementary particle and numerical physics. He later moved into applied environmental research with studies on climate change. Back in the 1990s, he wrote scenarios for a 100 per cent renewable energy supply. He is the editor and co-author of numerous publications and has taught at various universities since 1985. He currently heads the PtX Lab Lausitz, which aims to make Power-to-X (PtX) products ready for the market. As a member of the Club of Rome, he is also one of around 150 thought leaders for sustainable development worldwide.
Jacob Beautemps
aka Breaking Lab, Science-YouTuber
With over 850 videos, 666,000 subscribers and 140 million views, Jacob Beautemps aka Breaking Lab is one of Germany’s biggest science YouTubers. He takes a particularly close look at current developments in the field of green industry & cleantech – whether in conversation with (former) Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck, on a trip to the fracking areas of the USA or by looking at scientific studies on the energy transition. The young scientist is also active in various TV formats on ARD, RTL, SWR & Co. such as the documentary series “Science for Future”.
Janet Jurk
HR Manager DB Werk Cottbus
After completing her training at the German Academy of Management, Janet Kurk has built up many years of professional experience in the field of human resources and thus a unique wealth of knowledge. She worked for over ten years as HR Manager at Arvato CRM Solutions, which provides digital customer relationship management solutions, initially held the same position at DB Netz AG for four years until the end of 2021 and is now continuing her career at Deutsche Bahn itself, where she works at the DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung GmbH Cottbus and is a member of the management team.
Jens Warnken
President of the IHK Cottbus
In the past, the qualified business economist worked at Sachsenmilch AG in Leppersdorf and Papierfabrik Hamburger Spremberg GmbH & Co. KG, two of the largest companies in Lusatia. Since 2012, he has been Managing Director of airkom Druckluft GmbH in Wildau, which is spezialized in the construction of compressed air and industrial cooling systems. Familiar with the economy of the region like few others, he was elected President of the IHK Cottbus in 2022 and has since represented the overall interests of the economy in the chamber area, which includes the districts of LDS, EE, SPN and OSL as well as Cottbus.
Jess Ralston
Head of Energy ECIU
The ECIU – Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit – is a UK NGO that contributes to an informed debate on energy and climate change issues. Jess Ralston joined the organisation in 2020 as an energy analyst and is now Head of Energy – specialising in renewable and green energy policy and technology. She previously worked for Ecuity Consulting LLP , where she focused on energy policy and communications, and for the Sustainable Energy Association, where she was a policy advisor specialising in energy efficiency and low-carbon heating.
Lucie Töpfer
Founder pyropower GmbH
Lucie Töpfer is not only co-founder and CEO of pyropower GmbH, which develops and produces systems for decarbonised energy generation, but also co-partner and co-Ceo at ClinX Energy Systems GmbH, which develops modern technologies for the efficient use of renewable energies. As a driving force for cleantech, leadership and the future economy, she has already received several awards, including the Gründungspreis Brandenburg 2024 and as the winner of the Lausitzer Gründungswettbewerb 2024, Miss Germany Top 90 and Miss Germany Top 30 Founder 2025.
Prof Dr Mario Ragwitz
Director of the Fraunhofer IEG
The doctor of physics is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of energy system analysis, modeling and analysis of energy systems and infrastructures as well as policy analysis and transformation research in the energy and climate sector. He has worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, as a guest researcher at the University of Texas in Austin and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is currently Director of the Fraunhofer IEG and advises the German Federal Government, the EU Parliament, the World Bank, governments of other countries and companies.
Maxim Asjoma
Head of Department at the Hasso Plattner Institute
Established by SAP founder Hasso Plattner, the privately funded IT institute named after him forms the Faculty of Digital Engineering together with the University of Potsdam, where research is carried out on practical and applied topics relating to digital technologies. The HPI has already produced a large number of successful founders and leaders in the IT sector. Maxim Asjoma, who holds a doctorate in philosophy with a focus on business and digitalisation, has now been Head of the Strategic Partnerships and Acquisitions department for seven years.
Melanie Stein
Journalist, moderator and host
The journalist, presenter, producer and qualified psychologist is best known as the brain behind various TV, online, radio and podcast formats, such as the SWR series “Geld machen Welt retten” (Saving money saves the world) about sustainable investing. In particular, she has received several awards as the founder and managing director of the initiative “Wir sind der Osten” (We are the East), which highlights players in and from East Germany who are shaping the future in a positive way. She has not only made it her mission to inform her audience, but also to motivate them, for example as editor and presenter of the YouTube format “Diskuthek”, where she inspires young viewers for political talks.
Dr. Nora Baum
CFO, Founder & Management Consultant
After studying sociology, political science and business administration, Nora Baum completed her doctorate on the digitalization of the skilled trades. She then worked for several years as a management consultant at McKinsey in the areas of banking and telecommunications before founding her own digital start-up Pattarina, with which she was in “Die Höhle der Löwen” and was awarded the title of Entrepreneur of the State of Brandenburg in 2020. Today, she is also CFO of the start-up Sonocrete, which uses high-performance ultrasound to develop more climate-friendly concrete and was named Brandenburg’s Company of the Year in 2023.
Oliver Schenk
Member of the European Parliament for Saxony
The economics graduate has been working in politics since 1994 – first for five years as a consultant in the Saxon State Ministry for the Environment and Regional Development, then as office manager of the State Ministry and then of the Minister President. After further positions in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice, he worked from 2010 as Head of Division at the CDU’s federal office in Berlin, where he also became Head of Department at the Federal Ministry of Health in 2014. From 2017, he returned to Saxony as Minister of State in the State Chancellery, where he was elected MEP in 2024.
Tobias Schick
Lord Mayor of the City of Cottbus/Chóśebuz
After graduating from the Lausitzer Sportschule in Cottbus, Tobias Schick completed a degree in industrial engineering at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and gained extensive experience in sports and club management. From 2007 until his election, he was Managing Director of the Cottbus City Sports Association and was committed to the development of local sport, familiarising himself in particular with the areas of administration, organisation and urban development. He would like to use this knowledge to provide new momentum for Cottbus and was elected Lord Mayor of the independent city in 2022.