Welcome Stephan Gross, LF Energy’s New Community Director for Europe
We’re thrilled to announce that the LF Energy team is continuing to grow! Please join us in welcoming Stephan Gross as our new Community Director, Europe.
Stephan joins LF Energy from EU DSO Entity, where he served as Senior Technical Advisor focused on network planning and digitalization. Over a decade coordinating EU-funded RDI initiatives – from RWTH Aachen University to the Fraunhofer Institute to EU DSO Entity – Stephan has built and facilitated expert communities across Europe, working closely with the wider European energy ecosystem: the European Commission, ACER, CEER, national regulators, TSOs, DSOs, researchers, solution providers, and the many associations representing the sector. That breadth of experience, including building consensus not just among grid operators, but across the whole European energy landscape, is exactly what LF Energy needs as it grows its community. Stephan’s new role represents a further investment by LF Energy in our European community at a crucial moment in energy digitalization and digital sovereignty through open source.
Now let’s get into some questions to better understand Stephan’s role, what he’ll be working on, and his own aspirations for LF Energy.
What got you interested in working on LF Energy and open source in the energy sector?
I first fell in love with Linux and the open source world during university, and I’ve never really left that mindset behind; I believe open source has an enormous amount to offer society. My professional background is in energy engineering, but years of managing large-scale European RDI projects gave me a deep appreciation for technology too, along with a healthy scepticism toward industry hype. LF Energy lets me bring those two passions together, and I’m genuinely grateful for the chance to work at one of the most impactful open source organizations in the world.
Stephan Gross, Community Director, Europe
What are your main goals now that you’re part of the LF Energy team?
At the core, I see my role as helping our members reach their shared goals around open source and open standards development. More specifically, I want to be a bridge between the energy sector and the technology world, helping to build a European understanding of why open source is such a natural fit for digitalizing the energy grid, and strengthening the case that open source is a key enabler of sovereignty, competitiveness, and affordability as Europe moves through the energy transition.
What do you think is most important for LF Energy to focus on in the next year in terms of community growth?
The energy sector needs to become dramatically more efficient, and digitalization is what will get it there, but it isn’t naturally a tech-heavy industry. So the priority for LF Energy is simple: explain and promote what open source actually means for energy companies, and show how pooling IT resources across organizations is the fastest way to build the tools this sector needs for planning, operations, markets, and customer connections.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
That it’s never really about having the best solution or the most interesting technology, it’s about the people. That’s especially true in communities driven largely by volunteers: keep people engaged, and the community will thrive. Lose that, and even the best tools in the world won’t matter.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Cooking for family and friends, tinkering with my ever-growing homelab of self-hosted services, and getting out on or under the water whenever I can – swimming, diving, and sailing.
