Maris Cardenas | Executive Director
Center for Empowerment, Innovation and Training on Renewable Energy (CENTRE)

Maris Cardenas is executive director of the Center for Empowerment, Innovation and Training on Renewable Energy (CentRE), a non-profit multi-stakeholder association in the Philippines engaged in capacity building, knowledge production and sharing, policy advocacy, innovation, and gender mainstreaming in pursuit of inclusive, just and sustainable energy transition in the country. Together with Singapore-based Forum for the Future, the CentRE co-leads the secretariat of the Responsible Energy Initiative in the Philippines (REI-Philippines).  Maris has long years of experience in advocacy and campaign, policy research and development, and public communication on the Philippines energy sector – beginning with the deregulation of oil industry, Congressional deliberations on and implementation of reforms in the electric power industry, development of biofuels industry, and then on accelerating renewable energy adoption. She has performed various roles in civil society-led formations in the Philippines and in Asia-Europe/Southeast Asia, as well as written some articles, on the power industry, social protection, social and economic justice, gender equality, and energy democracy and just transition.  She was a recipient of Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism in 2001 for her article on the privatization of the power industry.