CIGRE 2026

Sandra Baumbach is an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company based in Frankfurt, where she is part of the firm's global Energy Practice with a focus on customer-centric transformations triggered by the energy transition. She advises energy retailers, grid operators, and energy-intensive industries, leading customer-experience and cost-to-serve transformations, target operating model designs, and technology-enabled programs that raise customer satisfaction, efficiency, and growth. Her experience includes ERP and platform transformations in the B2C context, billing and customer-service turnarounds, strategic reviews of product portfolios, and building organizational readiness for large-scale change on both the retail and grid-system side.

Sandra studied at the Technical University of Munich, where she graduated with a master's degree in financial mathematics and business information systems, with study-abroad periods in Brisbane and Santa Barbara, and later earned a PhD at RWTH Aachen researching digital business models and transformation. She co-authors leading energy sector reports, moderates industry forums such as the Energy Startup Breakfast, and champions initiatives including Women in Energy roundtables that bring a broader range of talent into the sector.

Laurie-Anne Clement Charpentier is a Project Contract Manager at Siemens Energy and serves as Chair of the French Women in CIGRE (WiE) Committee. In her professional role, she contributes to the successful delivery of complex energy projects, combining commercial, contractual, and stakeholder management expertise. Through her leadership within Women in CIGRE, she is dedicated to fostering professional networks, encouraging greater diversity in the energy sector, and supporting the next generation of talent. Laurie-Anne is passionate about creating connections across organizations, disciplines, and communities to help accelerate the energy transition.

Dr. Ruth Heuss is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company based in Berlin, where she has worked since joining the firm in 2001.She advises clients primarily in the automotive, high-tech, and industrial sectors, leading large-scale operational transformations, performance improvement programs, and digital and software-driven initiatives. Her experience includes supporting her clients with product development incl. software, manufacturing excellence and ramp-up, governance optimization, and complex program management. Ruth studied at RWTH Aachen and ETH from 1992 to 2001 and graduated with a PhD in mechanical engineering before beginning her consulting career at McKinsey.

She is an active advocate for diversity in engineering and the automotive industry, frequently speaking at industry events and supporting initiatives that promote women in leadership and consulting.

Mark Kuschel was born in 1969 and studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin where he obtained his diploma in 1994 and his doctorate in 1999 in the field of diagnostics for thermoplastic-insulated medium-voltage cables. In 1996, he was awarded the Herbert Kind Prize of the ETG in VDE, with which he carried out a research project in the USA lasting several months. After his doctorate, he worked as a development engineer at the Pirelli cable factory in Berlin. Since mid-2001, he has held various global technical and management positions in the high-voltage products and gas-insulated switchgear divisions of Siemens and Siemens Energy in Berlin and Erlangen.