Chris Norval - Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Chris led the financing and founding activities of Green Gas in 2005. He has extensive senior management experience gained in CEO, general management and CFO roles in the global resources sector. Prior to Green Gas, Chris was CEO and President of SUAL International Group, a business with Russian aluminium, Kazakh coal and African Tantalum production.

He spent a significant part of his career at BHP Billiton. As head of Corporate Finance, he oversaw most of the transactions to create BHP Billiton, including the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Billiton Plc in 1997. His strategic skills were honed in the entrepreneurial Billiton Plc and its predecessor Gencor.

Chris is a Chartered Accountant and graduated with a BCom(Hons) from Rand Afrikaans University in South Africa.

Patrick Krähenbühl - Chief Financial Officer

Patrick joined Green Gas International in August 2008 as Chief Financial Officer. He is responsible for the Group's financial, tax and accounting affairs, with particular emphasis on optimising the funding to support Green Gas' rapid growth.

Prior to joining Green Gas, Patrick was Group CFO of Suzlon Energy, a EUR 3 billion wind turbine manufacturer, where he implemented finance processes and procedures that would facilitate its rapid international expansion into a strong global player and provider of end-to-end solutions in the wind power industry. Patrick has held various senior financial management positions with multinational organisations. He spent the major part of his career with ABB Ltd, where his roles included Group Treasurer and later CFO of its Power Technologies division in North America..

Earlier in his career, Patrick was a solid fuels trader with Marc Rich & Co, a leading, diversified natural resources group based in Zug, Switzerland.

Patrick holds a Masters degree (lic. oec. publ.) in Economics and Computer Science from the University of Zürich, Switzerland. 

Markus Francke - Managing Director CDM Landfill

Markus joined G.A.S. in August 2003 and is responsible for international business development for CDM landfill gas projects. Before joining G.A.S. he was General Manager at Umweltschutz España, where he built a strong base of contacts both locally and in the Spanish speaking countries of South America.

Earlier in his career he was a project developer for Umweltschutz Nord GmbH in Germany, and had responsibility for soil remediation, composting, biogas and water treatment projects in Spain, Greece, Argentina and Mexico. Markus obtained his PhD in Agricultural Sciences on the subject of handling agricultural waste in Indonesia from University Hohenheim/Stuttgart, Germany.

Roland Mader - Managing Director Coal Mine Gas

Roland initiated the concept and helped found Green Gas. He focuses on project development and operations for all aspects of power generation from coal mine gas. He joined G.A.S. Energietechnologie GmbH in 2002 as Director of Coal Mine Gas, following 10 years in the international oil and gas industry.

Roland is Chairman of the Bureau of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane. He is also a member of the Extended Bureau of the UNCECE Committee on Sustainable Energy in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the author of numerous publications on coal mine gas related issues.

Roland has an M.E. in Mining Engineering from the Technical University of Clausthal, Germany and an MBA from IESE Business School, Spain.

Ralf Michels - Managing Director Engineering & Operations

Ralf joined G.A.S. as a Sales Engineer in 1999, and was promoted to Director of Operations in 2002. He is responsible for the successful commissioning and operation of the company's portfolio of projects. His work focuses on all aspects of project sustainability and operation. Previously, he worked for eight years in various positions in the decentralised energy department of Deutsche Babcock.

Ralf is a certified engineer in energy supply and distribution from the Advanced Technical College of Cologne, Germany. He also completed the International Executive Program at the INSEAD Business School in France/Singapore.

Karl Schultz - Consulting Advisor

Karl is consulting advisor to the Executive Chairman and was involved in the founding of Green Gas. He is active in Green Gas developing coal mine methane projects and linking the technologies, markets and partnerships Green Gas deploys and undertakes. He also brings significant experience in carbon credit management and realisation and manages Green Gas' carbon credit assets and strategies.

Karl's career has been devoted to creating value through environmental protection. As a consultant he has advised a wide variety of companies and governmental organisations, including advising the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is a co-founder of the energy strategy consultancy Energy Edge and founded Climate Mitigation Works, a consultancy focusing on greenhouse gas mitigation activities. From 1994 - 2003 he was with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Protection Division, managing its domestic and international coal mine methane initiatives.

He received an A.B. in History from the University of Chicago and a M.Pl. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California, USA.

Jörg Schürmann - Managing Director of Hofstetter Umwelttechnik

Jörg started at Hofstetter in 2003 as a Product Manager and in 2005 he was promoted to Senior Product Manager. Prior to this, he was working as a system and test engineer at Flextronics International. Flextronics is a leading Electronics Manufacturing Service (EMS). From 1996 to 2001 he was a Project Manager at ABB.

Jörg holds the title of Electrical Engineer FH. He is currently attending an in-service Management School in Bern, Switzerland.

Petro Sporer - Managing Director & CTO

Petro joined G.A.S. Energietechnologie in July 1997 as Manager of the project department. In 1998 he became Technical Managing Director of G.A.S., responsible for Engineering, Sales as well as Service (divisions). Petro is an experienced engineering manager with a practical background in design engineering, the assembly & commissioning of waste water treatment plants for leachate and waste water from incineration and power and waste plants.

Petro has an engineering degree, with a major in Nuclear Engineering, from the University of Applied Sciences Aachen, Germany.

Antonín Kunz - Director of Green Gas, DPB

Antonin joined OKD, DPB a.s. in 1986 and has remained with the company following its merger with Green Gas International Limited in 2007, when it became Green Gas DPB a.s. Since 1986 he held various positions in the drilling operation, until becoming Head of the Drilling Division in 1995 and Production Director in 1996. Antonin was promoted to Managing Director in 2008.

He has extensive mine gas and mine services experience, gained in a variety of roles in: management of a gas/electricity company; mine gas utilisation and CHP production; mine and natural gas exploration, production and distribution; as well as international drilling and geological engineering (Slovakia, Turkey, Poland, Switzerland, Greece).

Antonin graduated from the faculty of Mines and Geology, at the University of Mining in Ostrava, Czech Republic in 1986. He is also graduated from the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, in 1996. Antonin is Czech citizen and speaks English, Polish and Russian. 

Kai Vorholz - President Green Gas Americas, Inc.

Kai began working for G.A.S. Energy Technology Inc. in Baltimore, MD, in 2004 and is responsible for the business of Green Gas in the USA.  Overall, he is responsible for the USA company achieving its financial and operational goals. He also coordinates and manages project development and the relationships with partner companies.

Kai joined G.A.S. Energietechnologie as a project engineer in 1999 and was responsible for the first gas cleaning project implemented by the company. He also had responsibility for the company's largest turn key projects. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Aachen (Jülich Department), Germany.