E.DSO confirms Christian Buchel as Chair and appoints the Chairmanship Team for a new two-year term
15 October 2020
Today, E.DSO Board of Directors re-elected Christian Buchel as E.DSO Chair for another two-year term. Five Vice-Chairs of the E.DSO Association have also been reappointed or appointed for the next two years: João Torres , Armando Martínez Martínez, Joachim Schneider, Franz Strempfl and Mindaugas Keizeris.
‘It is an honour and privilege for me to continue my journey as Chair of E.DSO, an Association that in just a decade has become an impressive force and community of leading DSO companies in Europe’ said Christian Buchel. ‘I affirm my strongest commitment to continue our intense work together with European colleagues in the usual trustful, open and transparent way’. Christian Buchel, whose career has spanned the entire value chain of the electricity industry, is a member of the management Board and Director for Clients, Territories and Europe at Enedis. He previously served the Association as Vice-Chair and has been E.DSO Chair since June 2017.
João Torres, CEO of the Portuguese DSO EDP Distribuição, who has acted as E.DSO Chair till 2017 and successively as Vice-Chair said ‘We are entering a decisive phase in our lives as DSOs and as active members of a large European community that has been working together to make this a more electrified, greener and sustainable planet. More than ever, the time now is to build bridges towards a better future.’
“We all need to concentrate on a new message: the greater value that the distribution grid will provide to our society. This renewed message should reach regulators, law makers, customers and society in general with total strength and clarity” said Armando Martínez Martínez, Director of the Global Networks Business of the Iberdrola Group and E.DSO Vice-Chair since 2017.
Joachim Schneider, Senior Vice President Energy Networks Technology & Innovation of E.ON SE will also continue to be part of the Chairmanship team. Joachim has been acting as E.DSO Vice-Chair since 2016 and he is also leading E.DSO Technology Committee, the Association reference point for technology related to smart distribution grids.
Franz Strempfl, Managing Director of the DSO company Energienetze Steiermark, spokesman of the Austrian DSO Association Österreichs Energie and E.DSO Vice-Chair since 2018, said: I am honoured to be part of the Association as Board member and as re-appointed Vice-Chair. Representing one of the smallest DSO member companies in the organisation, I do believe in the crucial importance for E.DSO to be the voice of all European DSOs’.
Mindaugas Keizeris, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of the Lithuanian DSO company Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius (ESO) said: “It is a great honor and pleasure for me to be appointed as the E.DSO Vice-Chair. I would see my participation in the chairmanship team as an opportunity to share my knowledge and contribution to value creation as well as a commitment to be a worthy member of the whole organization and its members. I am inclined to believe that one of the aspects that enables organizations and sectors to improve is knowledge sharing and coordinated, result oriented action”. Before being named CEO at ESO in 2018 October, Mindaugas was Director of Corporate Governance and Member of the Executive Board also Director of Strategy and Development, at Ignitis Group.
