Meet Biljana Stojkovska – the athlete and academic

“What I get from sport is passion, drive and perseverance: they are the three major ingredients which can help us to tackle the climate crisis and achieve the goals which are in front of us,” says Biljana.  

As COP26 comes to an end, we meet one of National Grid ESO's Climate Leaders, Biljana Stojkovska. Before becoming a role model in the energy sector, Biljana was a professional handball player and athletics champion in her native Macedonia.

From sport, she moved into academia, gaining a PhD in Power Systems and Power Systems Economics from Imperial College, London. She then moved into industry and has held a number of critical engineering roles, focusing on bringing together internal and external stakeholders to find engineering solutions to support the net zero transition.

She says that for tackling climate change it’s important to combine “the skills and knowledge that academia provides, and the skills and knowledge that industry needs.”

As Offshore Technical Manager for the ESO, Biljana is currently involved in coordinating the design of the new offshore transmission network required in the UK to bring together offshore wind power, interconnectors and other technologies. 

Watch her video to find out how the lessons she has learned from sport are helping her play a leading role on our journey to net zero.