Advisory Board
CHAIRPERSON: Hassan Younes
Co - CEO & Founder - GRFN
Hassan Younes is the Co - CEO & Founder of grfn, a multi-disciplinary consultancy and has over 15 years of extensive experience in the fields of Energy Efficiency, Design, Sustainability, and Project Execution and Management. Hassan has been involved in many high-end projects in the MENA region encompassing MEP designs, energy efficiency, commissioning management , sustainability and measurement and verification for new and existing buildings in the MENA region. He also was involved in energy and sustainability policy studies for many governmental entities in the GCC.
He is a trainer for the ASHRAE Global Training Centre. He is a trainer for the Association of energy engineers’ Certified Energy Manager ( CEM) course, Energy Valuation Organization’s Certified Measurement Verification Professional (CMVP) course and the facilitator for the Emirates Green Building Council Building Retrofit Program. He is an appointed Consultant for ASHRAE 62.1 Standard and is a member of the training committee for the CMVP course.
He is also the current ASHRAE Falcon Chapter president and on the technical committee and was the Vice Chair of CIBSE Regional Chapter. Hassan holds all the ASHRAE certifications.
CHAIRPERSON: Omnia Halawani
Co - CEO & Founder - GRFN
Omnia cofounded grfn as a multidisciplinary consultancy with a mission to realize clients’ visions while sustaining the built environment via progressive, functional and lucrative environmentally-conscious engineering & design solutions for sustainable built environments that serve the wellbeing of your communities. The firm is driven by advanced engineering practices and innovative approaches and embeds environmental and social sustainability as integral to the operational model by embracing UN SDGs that align with our core activities in each and every project.
Through our projects, we add a new dimension to the convention of “doing-good” by revolving our day-to-day jobs around the pursuit to contribute to efforts to solve the global issue of climate crisis and energy efficiency as well as having a positive impact to the communities in which we live.
Omnia brings extensive experience in district cooling, buildings energy efficiency, and corporate sustainability. Her combined education and background in engineering and business is instrumental in the effective management of projects and the firm. She was recognized as a distinguished alumni entrepreneur by the American University of Sharjah in the year 2014 and is a regular speaker at regional conferences and contributor to periodicals and technical magazines.
Khalid Al Qubaisi
CEO - Abu Dhabi Energy Services (ADES)
Ahmed Al Najjar
Senior Market Assessment Specialist - Al Ain Distribution Company
Ahmed Al Najjar has over 16 years of professional experience offering advisory and management consulting for the energy sector. He’s been supporting federal, local governments’ agencies, and NGO’s across the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia developing strategies and business models. He’s also managed implementation of programs that address regulatory reforms, business transformation, and demand management. Ahmed has decade of experience establishing business units, capacity building and management, business planning, corporate communications and social responsibility, and customer service. He also leverages his in-depth knowledge gained through working with world leading organizations and combined with profound understanding of the middle-eastern culture and living environment, key stakeholders and markets.
Deepthy K B
Regional Director, Market Development, GBCI MENA - GBCI & USGBC
Deepthy is a professionally qualified Architect, LEED Accredited Professional (BD+C) and has an ALM Master’s in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard University.
She is a sustainability professional with over 15 years of experience in the built environment sector, as an Architect, Management Consultant and Sustainability advisor. She was instrumental in establishing the US Green Building Council and GBCI HQ for Middle East & North Africa and leads the region as GBCI's Regional Director, based out of Dubai.
Her work experience includes advisory services for clients within the real estate, utilities, oil and gas, financial institutions, retail and hospitality sectors, federal and local governments as well as not-for-profits to guide them through sustainable best practices to transform into tangible, impactful outcomes for the future.
She has been a speaker at various events hosted by Federal Governments, Not-for-profits, green building councils and other sustainability event organizers across MENA. She believes that one small step towards sustainability is a giant leap for mankind.