Speakers
Andy Street
Mayor of the West Midlands
Andy Street
Mayor of the West Midlands
Andy Street was elected as the first Mayor of the West Midlands in May 2017. Andy was re-elected to serve a second term as Mayor in May 2021. The primary function of the role is to chair the West Midlands Combined Authority and brings with it significant powers over transport, housing, skills and jobs.
Before becoming Mayor, Andy combined a career with John Lewis, Britain’s most successful workers’ co-operative, with a host of high-profile economic development roles, working with local and national government.
He was the Chair of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership between 2011 and 2016, helping to build the relationships that have underpinned the economic growth of the region. Additionally, he has been lead non-executive director for the Department for Communities and Local Government as well as a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.
In June 2015, Andy was awarded the CBE for services to the national economy. He was named the ‘Most Admired Leader’ of the year by business magazine, Management Today in 2014. He received the ‘President’s award’ from the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce in for his work in the region. He holds three honorary degrees, from Birmingham City University, Aston University and the University of Birmingham.
Juliet Davenport
President, Energy Institute
Juliet Davenport
President, Energy Institute
Juliet was a pioneer in the climate change sector, identifying early the role for business to deliver the changes we needed in the energy sector to combat climate change.
In 1998, Juliet founded the AIM-listed company Good Energy, a 100% renewable energy utility specialising in decentralised small-scale renewables. In her role as CEO she oversaw its growth to a £130 million turnover business, including developing over 100MW of renewable assets. Juliet stepped down as CEO in 2021, and moved into a Non Exec and advisory career .
She serves on the board of the Crown Estate, Chair’s the Atrato Onsight Energy listed Investment Trust, is Non Exec on Ombudsman Services and the EV infrastructure company Connected Kerb.
Juliet’s advisory roles include working with Solivus, a new think film PV tech firm, Gravitricity a innovative storage company, British Growth Fund, an early stage growth investor and the Grantham Institute, Imperial College and LSE climate think tank.
She has published the Green Start-up in October 2022, a “how to” for entrepreneurs and business leaders looking to take their business on a green journey.
Mark Rose
Sales and Marketing Director, TotalEnergies Gas & Power
Mark Rose
Sales and Marketing Director, TotalEnergies Gas & Power
Mark has been with TotalEnergies Gas & power for over four years , he has extensive knowledge of the energy industry, having worked in it for almost 20 years. Mark is responsible for leading Sales and Marketing across the UK SME and Industrial & Commercial Markets. Leading teams that manage broker relationships, Direct customers, Public Sector and Embedded Generators. Prior to joining TotalEnergies, Mark worked for EDF Energy and Npower in Senior Sales Roles.
Patricia Thornley
Professor, Aston University
Patricia Thornley
Professor, Aston University
Patricia Thornley is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering with 28 years’ experience working on energy projects in industry and academia. She is director of the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute at Aston University and has led the UK’s national bioenergy research programme (the SUPERGEN Bioenergy hub) since 2012. Patricia’s research focuses on sustainability assessment of energy systems (particularly bioenergy and low carbon fuels), evaluating the environmental, economic and social consequences of implementation pathways. She is an appointed member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Department for Transport and Defra’s Tree and Woodland Scientific Advisory group.
Ian Pritchett
Growth & Innovation Director, Greencore Homes
Ian Pritchett
Growth & Innovation Director, Greencore Homes
Ian co-founded Greencore in 2013 and has 35 years’ experience in the construction industry including 20 years running a highly regarded historic building restoration company. Over the last 15 years, he has pioneered eco-building using low-carbon materials such as hemp and lime mortar whilst working on over 250 eco-houses and 70 non-domestic eco-buildings including M&S at Cheshire Oaks, The Wine Society warehouse and Adnams Brewery.
Matteo Deidda
Senior Sustainability Manager, Lloyds Banking Group
Matteo Deidda
Senior Sustainability Manager, Lloyds Banking Group
Matteo is a passionate Sustainability professional, with an Engineering background, an MSc in Renewable Energy and over 10 years’ experience in Energy and Sustainability Management across the retail, technology and financial services sector.
Matteo currently works as a Senior Sustainability Manager for Lloyds Banking Group, supporting the group journey to achieve the operational climate pledges on carbon, energy, water, waste, travel and biodiversity.
Prior to this, Matteo worked five years for Sainsbury’s, developing and delivering the energy management strategy of the retail and office estate and playing a key role in the achievement of the 2020 carbon reduction targets, and for Vodafone UK, where he supported the business in setting the roadmap to deliver the 2025 sustainability targets, whilst reducing the company energy cost base
Caroline Longman
Director, Equilibrion
Caroline Longman
Director, Equilibrion
Caroline is a strategic and commercial leader in the nuclear industry, with over 20 years experience in the sector. She is committed to enabling nuclear energy to play a major role in a decarbonised energy system, during the last 2 years she has driven forward the opportunity for nuclear energy to contribute to a future hydrogen economy through development of cross sector collaboration. Caroline believes nuclear energy can deliver a safe, secure, affordable, low carbon energy supply and deliver on the UK’s net zero targets. To achieve this, she has founded, in partnership, a business, www.equilibrion.co.uk, with a single mission, to be a catalyst for the development of collaborations that can enable nuclear energy to decarbonise transport, heat and industry.
George Richards
Director, JRP Solutions
George Richards
Director, JRP Solutions
George has over 35 years’ experience of working with industrial and commercial clients across a range of sectors throughout the UK and Ireland delivering sustainable solutions that improve business performance and environmental outcomes. He is a passionate believer in the need for immediate action to address climate change and is actively engaging and assisting organisations to develop and implement Net Zero strategies that deliver real, measurable results.
George is a degree qualified sustainability expert who, having started his career as a HVAC engineer, has a practical insight into many of the fundamental, grass roots challenges facing organisations irrespective of their size or complexity.
Since joining JRP in 2011, George has been determined that both he and JRP play an active role in helping organisations to minimise their environmental impacts and to recognise that environmental sustainability will be at heart of long-term organisational resilience and true sustainability.
Tom Maidment
Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager, Hilton Foods
Tom Maidment
Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager, Hilton Foods
Tom Maidment is currently Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager at Hilton Foods, leading the development of the company’s supply chain decarbonisation strategy and providing LCA expertise across the company. Before that he worked for Jaguar Land Rover, where he developed the company’s net zero strategy. He is also an Associate at Oxford Net Zero.
Pete Starr
Managing Director, Chilli
Pete Starr
Managing Director, Chilli
Pete has 20 years of working within corporate sectors across a range of service, sales and leadership positions. He is an accredited trainer, coach and Strengthscope© practitioner, has written papers for the Business Expert Press and has worked with various Universities encouraging graduates into the Sales Profession.
Chilli & Wayvie work with organisations who recognise the link between how their employees behave when interacting with customers and each other, and the subsequent impact on business reputation and performance.
Dr Bahareh Salehi
Building Physics Engineer, Mott MacDonald
Dr Bahareh Salehi
Building Physics Engineer, Mott MacDonald
Bahareh Salehi is a building physics engineer/consultant at Mott MacDonald, a global engineering, management, and development consultancy company. After completing her PhD in this subject, due to her knowledge and experience, she also was invited to occupy a few hours a week as an Industry Lecturer at London South Bank University. In addition to her occupations, she is an active member of the CIBSE Building Simulation Group with the aim of highlighting best practices in using computer simulation codes for building-related applications. She has also recently been selected to join the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)’s commercial retrofit task group to gain clarity on the most effective retrofit interventions for common office buildings found in the UK.
Stuart Taylor
Head of Energy Transition, Bryt Energy
Stuart Taylor
Head of Energy Transition, Bryt Energy
Part of the Statkraft group, Bryt Energy provides British businesses with zero carbon, 100% renewable electricity, sourced solely from Solar, Wind and Hydro. Through pioneering products and services, Bryt Energy empowers businesses to create value from their electricity usage by optimising their consumption and challenging the way they interact with the electricity system.
With 16 years’ experience in the energy sector, Stuart previously spent 13 years at Gazprom Energy, laterally as Head of UK Sales & UK Sales Strategy as well as offering consultancy services for large investment groups & SPAC’s looking to enter the UK energy supply, consultancy & tech space.
Vanessa Eyles
Detective Superintendent, West Midlands Police Force
Vanessa Eyles
Detective Superintendent, West Midlands Police Force
Vanessa has a range of experience in delivering improved performance and raising standards in a number of different departments. This has included working hand in hand with the Professional Standards department to improve cultures within a department of nearly 1000 people, improving Diversity and Inclusion in a number of sections across the organisation and successfully gaining an uplift in officers and staff for a high-risk crime portfolio.
Throughout her career Vanessa has been passionate about prevention of crime. This was in roles such as Offender Management, Neighbourhood Policing where she was the Cybercrime lead for a quarter of Birmingham and then more recently as Director of the West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre.
As a Detective Superintendent within the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands Vanessa aims to reach as many businesses as possible to help them become cyber safer. This is through an innovative partnership of Business, Academia and Policing. The Centre is a part Government funded, not for profit Police led business set up as part of a National strategy to help businesses get safer on line.
Julie Allen
Heat Decarbonisation Programme Lead, King's College London
Julie Allen
Heat Decarbonisation Programme Lead, King's College London
Julie has been in energy management for 25 years, working with industrial, commercial and retail. Four years ago she moved into the Public Sector and 12 months ago took up the challenge of Heat Decarbonisation within Higher Education.
Rebecca Howard
Head of Supplier Relationship Management, Coventry Building Society
Rebecca Howard
Head of Supplier Relationship Management, Coventry Building Society
Rebecca Howard is Head of Supplier Relationship Management at Coventry Building Society. CBS’ Procurement & SRM team, along with the Sustainable Procurement Working Group, are dedicated to transforming the environmental, social and governance elements of their supplier base. Sustainability and lifecycle thinking sits at every stage of their sourcing and supplier management approach, and they run several events each year to engage with their highly committed suppliers. Rebecca is a sustainable procurement evangelist and speaks externally to advocate for the needs of diverse suppliers including small and local businesses, and those owned by underrepresented groups
Dr Jean-Yves Cherruault
Head of Net Zero Pathway, Centrica Business Solutions
Dr Jean-Yves Cherruault
Head of Net Zero Pathway, Centrica Business Solutions
He helps large organisations to plan net zero roadmaps and develop decarbonisation strategies that deliver on their technical, commercial and environmental goals.
Working across the private and public sectors, his team creates, implements and finances complex multi-technology renewable and energy efficient projects that balance cost and carbon reduction. Typical solutions include on-site solar, CHP and battery storage, together with IoT energy insights and optimisation.
Jean-Yves is a Doctor of Mechanical Engineering and has an MSc in Renewable Energy.
As a visiting lecturer at both the Universities of Bath and Reading, he educates the next generation of energy and environmental engineers – sharing his vast academic and industry knowledge and experience.
His track record of innovation and achievement in large scale carbon reduction and sustainability management spans more than 15 years across multiple sectors in both Europe and the UK.
Bret Willers
Head of Sustainability & Climate Change , Coventry City Council
Bret Willers
Head of Sustainability & Climate Change , Coventry City Council
Bret has a long history of managing change in relation to sustainable development and regeneration having worked at Director level in the public sector in Local Government and also for national charities.
Bret was one of the first Environmental Co-ordinators in the UK leading the City of Cardiff’s Environmental Strategy the first City to be awarded Recycling City and Energy City status and winning an International Council Local Environmental Initiatives Award during the Rio Earth Summit. Bret Set up the Welsh national Environmental Co-ordinators Forum and played an active role in Eurocities, he was a member of the EU’s Urban Environment Expert Group and was on the Team that drafted the European Commission’s Strategy for Sustainable Cities and Towns and the Aalborg Charter. Bret was also involved in the Development of the UN’s Habitat II Programme for Sustainable Human Settlements with the Prepcomm meetings in New York and the negotiating the agreement at the Summit in Istanbul.
Now as Head of Sustainability and Climate Change in Coventry he has returned to his roots engaging with public, private and voluntary sector bodies across the City region in developing a sustainable development and climate change strategy to be collectively owned by the City as a whole.
Richard Davis
CEO and Co-Founder, 51 to Carbon Zero
Richard Davis
CEO and Co-Founder, 51 to Carbon Zero
Richard Davis is the CEO and Co-Founder of 51toCarbonZero (51-0), a platform that enables companies to set, accelerate and achieve their net zero ambitions.
A pioneer in sustainability, he started working on corporate climate action in 2008, helping global brands understand their main emissions hotspots and design carbon reduction strategies that are both impactful and profitable.
Richard holds a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University and an MBA from London Bayes Business School.
Paul Miller
Sales Director, Drax
Paul Miller
Sales Director, Drax
Paul Miller, Sales Director at Drax, has nearly 20 years’ experience in the energy industry setting strategies across TPI and strategic business. He’s an advocate of working in partnership with large customers to help understand and satisfy their complex energy requirements. Drax’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future.
Prash Kidiyoor
Managing Director, Zerogram
Prash Kidiyoor
Managing Director, Zerogram
Prash is an engineer by background with a Masters in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh. He has worked in the energy and carbon industry for over 12 years as a senior consultant . He is very passionate about creating long term trusted partnerships with clients to enable lasting positive environmental outcomes.
Prash currently runs Zerogram – a decarbonisation consultancy that focuses on the creation and delivery of net zero strategies and pathways for clients across sectors with a particular focus on schools and charities. His work involves understanding the clients’ decarbonisation objectives and developing integrated solutions to achieve those objectives in practical and achievable steps.
Michael Kent
EV and Storage Manager, GridBeyond
Michael Kent
EV and Storage Manager, GridBeyond
Michael is the EV & Storage Manager, focusing on partnerships with fleet operators and charge point providers in the transition to EV.
Michael has a varied career, working for large engineering providers such as Babcock, to heading up the Business Development team at Arriva bus and working at Enel X in senior roles.
Michael has a passion in working with various stakeholders in the transition to EV fleets, to provide the best solution and unlock the energy markets as the consumption of energy grows over time. Michael delivered 5 EV projects in 2022 with large scale EV installation activity to support some of London's largest bus depots.
Eamon Grimes
Director of Sales and Service, Laser Energy
Eamon Grimes
Director of Sales and Service, Laser Energy
Eamon Grimes is a highly experienced commercial director having worked in the energy sector for over 15 years. With most of his career operating in the public sector, Eamon has been able to support and drive change for a wide range of organisations within all things Energy. Working with large public sector bodies to optimise energy management and look forward with a range of net-zero and decarbonisation projects.
Jasvinder Aujla
Business Development Manager, SSE Energy Solutions
Jasvinder Aujla
Business Development Manager, SSE Energy Solutions
With over 20 years of experience working in the Energy Industry, supporting businesses with their supply, metering and generation services requirements, Jasvinder has extensive knowledge and expertise in stakeholder, pricing and bid management with strong commercial acumen.
Joining SSE in late 2022, her main focus is engaging and building long term relationships with large businesses to help them decarbonise their operations and supporting them on their journey to Net Zero. Working with single and multi-site businesses across the UK and Northern Ireland, Jaz is passionate about carbon reduction and providing bespoke energy solutions to SSE’s clients by offering access to low cost, sustainable energy
Jon Butterworth
CEO, National Gas
Jon Butterworth
CEO, National Gas
Jon Butterworth is the CEO of National Gas Transmission and Metering, a role which led the business through the process of National Grid selling its majority stake in the company and launching “National Gas” as a standalone entity. Jon has over 40 years’ experience in the gas and electricity industry and a strong track record of building successful businesses in regulated and competitive energy markets across the UK, Europe and US.
Jon is responsible for the ownership and operation of the regulated National Transmission System in the UK, with a network length of approximately 7,620km, connecting upstream gas to gas distribution networks that serve millions of end users, large industry, gas storage facilities and power stations. Through the Gas System Operator function, Jon is also responsible for delivering full control and visibility of the transmission infrastructure to ensure the capability of the system meets the needs of customers and stakeholders. The National Gas Metering arm of the business is the largest asset manager of gas meters in the UK, managing a portfolio of ~7million domestic, industrial and commercial assets, as well as providing installation and maintenance services to energy suppliers within the regulated market.
Jon has previously held a number of senior positions within National Grid, including National Operations Director, Managing Director of North West Gas, and Global Director of Safety, Health, Environment and Incident Command. Prior to his current role, he was Managing Director of National Grid Ventures (NGV), driving growth across a range of commercial ventures outside the regulated energy sector in the UK and the US. Jon successfully created and delivered the NGV strategy, positioning the business as a recognised world leader in renewable energy and subsea electrical interconnectors, as well as securing a binding LNG storage contract for 20 plus 5 years which will contribute c£45m operating profit per annum to the P&L from 2026.
Jon was awarded the MBE in 2009 for services to Britain’s Gas Industry, is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and is a Companion of the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers as well as being the current President of the Pipeline Industries Guild. He is a non-executive director of Pennon Group and chairs the Pennon Health & Safety Committee.
Leanne Broadbent
Commercial Manager, SSE Energy Solutions
Leanne Broadbent
Commercial Manager, SSE Energy Solutions
Leanne started her career over 25 years ago in the GB electricity industry. Joining National Power just at the time of electricity industry privatisation, Leanne has been witness to some of the major structural changes that have occurred. Her early career covered asset management, energy trading, sector analysis and market communications ending this period of her career with RWE Trading as Head of Market Research & Comms. Moving to global upstream oil and gas advisory company, Leanne spent 10 years working on asset transactions, strategic reviews and dispute resolutions in UK, Norway and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2012 Leanne was commercial lead on the Teesside Low Carbon Project (one of the 4 shortlisted CCS projects at the time); undertook strategic reviews at Maersk Oil and Gas, Dong E&P (to become Orsted) and supported a World Bank project in Nigeria (looking at the potential to commercialise flare gas). Leanne successfully made her own energy transition in 2019 initially managing government funded projects that applied innovative technologies to deliver domestic decarbonisation targets, and most recently at SSE Energy Customer Solutions where Leanne is a Commercial Manager with the Strategy & Business Development function. Leanne has been taking a lead on how SSE Energy Solutions can help its business customers on their Net Zero Journeys and specifically how 24/7 CFE solutions can help with this.
Ulf Nahrath
Vice President Shell UK Energy Transition & Infrastructure
Ulf Nahrath
Vice President Shell UK Energy Transition & Infrastructure
Ulf Nahrath was appointed as Vice President Shell UK Energy Transition & Infrastructure in 2022. In this role, he is responsible for Shell UK’s ambitious energy transition programme. This includes the integration of low carbon assets like wind and solar power generation, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage as well as sustainable aviation fuels and EV charging infrastructure into the energy system as part Shell UK’s ambitious investment programme into the UK energy system.
Cordi O’Hara OBE FEI
President, UK Electricity Distribution, National Grid
Cordi O’Hara OBE FEI
President, UK Electricity Distribution, National Grid
Cordi is responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, serving more than eight million customers across the East and West Midlands, South West, and South Wales. As President, Cordi is accountable for National Grid’s £6bn investment programme that will be delivered between 2023-28, keeping clean, fair, affordbale power flowing to homes and businesses across our region.
Previously, Cordi was President of National Grid Ventures where she led the development, financing, construction and operation of large-scale energy assets such as electricity interconnectors; LNG storage and regasification; onshore wind and solar generation.
Cordi also served as Chief Operating Officer at National Grid’s US Gas Business and before that she ran the UK System Operator for National Grid, where she oversaw the strategy, planning and operation of over 14,000 miles of gas and electricity networks in Great Britain.
In her time at National Grid Cordi has been a strong advocate for innovative solutions to a decarbonised energy market, believing clean technology solutions and new demand response initiatives can help to deliver Government targets for net zero.
Cordi became a fellow of the UK Energy Institute in 2016, acknowledging her significant experience in UK and European energy markets and networks. She was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the energy industry.
Daniel Thompson
Founder & Business Development, Window Insulation
Daniel Thompson
Founder & Business Development, Window Insulation
Daniel is a funded start-up veteran, launching several enterprises that deliver technically innovative solutions to overcome stubborn construction challenges. One of the most overlooked areas of the built environment is how to improve the performance of existing glazing. Daniel’s latest passion project introduces an ingenious product that does just that, affordably, safely, and at scale.
Ian Farr
Sales Manager, Edina
Ian Farr
Sales Manager, Edina
Ian Farr is a Sales Manager at Edina and a renowned biogas specialist in Anaerobic Digestion (AD) within the waste and water treatment sectors for over 35 years.
In the 1990s, Ian worked for the Energy Technology Support Unit - a government research and development group for renewable energy and energy efficiency based at Harwell (now part of Ricardo-AEA) in the area of AD of waste. Ian was also the UK's representative to the IEA Task 11 AD of agricultural and household waste. Then before taking a senior position at a commercial organisation developing, proving, and launching Micronutrient Trace Elements for industrial AD plants.
Since joining Edina in 2006, his knowledge and expertise have helped develop AD best practices in delivering over 200MWe installed capacity spanning over 160 biogas projects across the UK, Ireland, and Australia. His keen enthusiasm has supported farmers, food and drink, waste management and the sewage water treatment sectors to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions, advocating the circular economy.
More recently, Ian has been working with several clients to deliver co-located hybrid power solutions using AD, biogas, hydrogen-ready gas engines, battery energy storage, and UPS systems as part of the energy transition.
Kevin Ball
Chief Commercial Officer, Wattstor
Kevin Ball
Chief Commercial Officer, Wattstor
Kevin recently joined Wattstor as CCO following a 30+ year career in the energy sector. Starting at BP back in the 90’s as VP of new power development, Kevin has been pivotal in moving the energy dial towards where we find it now. With further career highlights including the delivery of some of the largest Biomass CHP plants in the UK, and closely aligning with I&C and the agricultural community in the UK to open the gateway to greener operations. All of this is underpinned by his formal training in engineering, giving Kevin the edge when it comes to understanding the moving parts of a project, and making him a powerhouse of knowledge.
Dr Morgan Phillips
Head of Education and Youth Engagement, Global Action Plan
Dr Morgan Phillips
Head of Education and Youth Engagement, Global Action Plan
Morgan holds a PhD in environmental education and leads Global Action Plan's work on education and youth engagement. He also volunteers at The Glacier Trust, a charity that enables climate change adaptation in Nepal, is the author of Great Adaptations – In the shadow of a climate crisis, and has contributed chapters to several books including the Handbook of Sustainability Literacy.
He is a trustee of the National Association of Environmental Education, and on the advisory board of Green Schools Project. Previously, Morgan ran the Eco-Schools programme in England, led an intercultural understanding charity, Global Footsteps, lectured on the politics of climate change at Brunel University, and volunteered with the Common Cause Foundation.
Matt Nunn
Director, EDF Business Solutions
Matt Nunn
Director, EDF Business Solutions
Matt is the Director of EDF Business Solutions in the UK. He joined EDF Group in 2006 having previously worked for the RWE Group. His previous roles include CEO of Citelum Denmark (an EDF Group subsidiary), and Director of SME Customers for EDF Poland.
Declan Allen
Managing Director, Horiba Mira
Declan Allen
Managing Director, Horiba Mira
I’ve spent over 30 years in the Automotive industry, holding several senior roles in Engineering Consultancies and Motorsport. For the past 10 years I’ve been leading the development of HORIBA MIRA.
Throughout my career, my focus has been exceptional delivery to customer requirements and building great teams; resulting in strong business performance and growth.
At HORIBA MIRA, I specialise in delivering vehicle engineering and testing services which provide our customers with capability – such as technology developments, or capacity – such as a variant programme.
Len Hodges
Head of Estates, Betfred
Len Hodges
Head of Estates, Betfred
Len is responsible for the smooth operation of Betfred’s retail estate, totalling some 1,400 Highstreet shops.
Chris Trigg
Managing Director, OnGen
Chris Trigg
Managing Director, OnGen
Chris is a co-founder of OnGen. A Chartered Accountant, his experience in the energy sector started in 2006 when he became a founding director and shareholder at Spark Energy Ltd (Sunday Times Fast Track 2014 – 23rd).
After leaving Spark Energy, Chris started his own consultancy business, Clearer Energy Ltd, advising a wide range of organisations on entry into the UK energy supply market.
Clearer Energy placed an emphasis on assisting community energy schemes to use local energy generation capacity from a range of technologies from wind to solar PV to reduce levels of fuel poverty. This led to him creating the technology that underpins the OnGen solution, and OnGen was created in 2014.
Dominic Griffiths
PPA Manager, Novus Renewable Services
Dominic Griffiths
PPA Manager, Novus Renewable Services
Dominic manages the energy sales from Novus’ [1GW] of new solar projects which are due to be constructed between now and 2030. He has spent the last 10 years working within the renewable PPA space on both the buy and sell side. Starting out with the energy sales team at Drax, he has gone on to lead business development activity for both Zeigo and Schneider Electric, focusing on helping large energy buyers gain access to clean energy PPA’s.
Tom Woolley
Smart Product & Strategy Director, SMS
Tom Woolley
Smart Product & Strategy Director, SMS
Tom has spent over 6 years working on the technical performance and roll out of Smart Meters in the UK. This involves a strong focus on these assets maintaining smart performance- ensuring the reliability of smart meter data and consumer experience- and then utilising the connected smart meter system as an ecosystem for innovation. He has developed several new products and services that uses the Smart Meter Ecosystem and its data. Tom led the acquisition of n3rgy data in 2022, a platform that enables consented access to smart meter data, agnostic of energy suppliers. This has enabled digital energy to become accessible by industries outside of the energy market. A core focus now for Tom is developing platforms and a marketplace for further innovation, using digital energy.
Matt Mullaly
School Governor, Truro High School for Girls
Matt Mullaly
School Governor, Truro High School for Girls
Matt is a passionate advocate of an independent Cornish community model.
Traditionally Cornwall was a self sufficient model. Not anymore.
Reducing dependencies, decentralising energy and demands. Rebalancing the traditional values of ‘village community’ with 450 school pupils and staff within a city suburb.
Reducing consumption and changing behaviours to our transport, energy and buildings is the challenge.
He has written the road map for Truro High School for Girl’s School Master Plan which provides a potential road map for the surrounding community and offers solutions for strategic local government issues.
He has identified the school’s vulnerabilities and the need to ‘circle the wagons’ to provide our school pupils with a model for locally based low carbon infrastructure.
With Zero gram’s appointment we have identified layers of need and waste in our estate building’s heating and power provision.
Humbling and wasteful but nevertheless poignant lessons have been learnt for the School and for our community. He is a keen advocate lessons learnt, the more fundamentally embarrassing the better. Truth is key.
Future resilience and redevelopment will need holistic change. The micro will start to affect the macro.
Developing the School in terms of thought leadership through our ‘customers and custodians of the planet’ the pupils, their staff and their families.
We hope to lead this programme with stakeholders in fellow school, colleges, Exeter University and the National Trust. We are keen for businesses to develop within a circular economy for our exported surplus energy.
No more short term business models. No more quick fix commercial lucrative deals that ignore our vulnerability and our planet’s scare resources.
For our teaching staff and our estate management team to lead this transformation the children’s opinions will need to be at the centre for us to judge success and gain their respect.
We don’t have a firm goals set or best practice agreed. But with ‘Zero gram’ as our chosen delivery consultant we have a pathway to substantial 25`% decarbonisation and reduction in energy pathway within the coming year.
Paul McCorquodale
CEO, Grid Edge
Paul McCorquodale
CEO, Grid Edge
A people focused innovator, delivering solutions successfully through technology and collaboration in both fast-growing start-ups and FTSE 100 companies. Experience in Energy, AI, and networks has enabled excellent results delivered through transparent data driven decisions, technology, innovation and empowered cultures.
Phil Best
Head of Sales, Optima Technology
Phil Best
Head of Sales, Optima Technology
Phil has over 15 years in the Energy Industry working directly with Energy Consultants/TPIs and Major End users. Working for 2 Major suppliers Npower & Total before then, moving to Optima Technology to support Partners on the road to Net Zero.
Robert Gorby
CCO, Open Energy Market
Robert Gorby
CCO, Open Energy Market
Robert is the Chief Commercial Officer with Open Energy Market and has over 20 years of experience in commercial management at many global technology companies, playing a key role in owner exits and IPOs.
Experienced across VC and PE-backed businesses as well as large corporates and privately-owned companies, he is repositioning Open Energy Market to take advantage of the changing sustainability landscape. A native of Ireland, where he graduated from Trinity College (B.Sc. Mgmt. & M.A).
Dr David Pugh
Head of Sustainability, Digital Catapult
Dr David Pugh
Head of Sustainability, Digital Catapult
As head of Sustainability at Digital Catapult, David's role places him at the interface between digital innovators and industrial adopters to create real business impact for the UK. David works with the UK's most forward thinking companies on understanding how to utilse digital technologies to enable new business opportunities, decarbonise their organisations and build new supply chains to address some of the UK's most exciting sustainability opportunities. David's work at Digital Catapult over the last year has supported more than 100 early stage technology companies that are addressing industrial sustainability challenges in access to expertise, funding, facilities and mentors as the UK looks to support 480,000 green jobs by 2030.
Darren Davies
Senior Business Manager, Engie Impact
Darren Davies
Senior Business Manager, Engie Impact
With qualifications in Maths, Statistics and Computing, Darren started in the energy industry in 2006. Before joining ENGIE Impact C3NTINEL, he held a range of senior Energy Intelligence positions becoming Team Manager in 2016.
He oversees the requirements of many significant energy consumers making sure that the full benefits of the Information services and alerting are maximised.
Chris Maclean
CEO, Open Energy Market
Chris Maclean
CEO, Open Energy Market
Chris is an expert on energy procurement and net zero strategies. His career in the energy sector spans 18 years, where he has consulted on carbon management, energy reduction and strategic procurement.
Chris set up Open Energy Market (OEM) in 2012 with the aim of making the energy industry more transparent and accessible to businesses. OEM specialises in utilising data and insights to inform Risk Management, Trading and Sustainability experts, delivering cost savings, confidence and control to clients in a volatile market. OEM now supports some of the largest energy users across the country and boasts a highly successful buying fund that protected its customers from the energy crisis last year.
OEM launched True in May, a groundbreaking platform that unites real energy procurement costs and Net Zero strategies in one platform. Championing ChangeMakers True brings project viability, transparency and simplicity to the complex energy world, enabling any user to build stronger financial grade business cases to help their business overcome the hurdles of renewable investment.
Chris supports a number of industry forums that collaborate across energy procurement and Net Zero giving him a broad understanding of the key challenges different businesses in different verticals face.
Net Zero Heroes
Dr James Cadman
Head of Consultancy and Carbon, Action Sustainability
Dr James Cadman
Head of Consultancy and Carbon, Action Sustainability
Dr James Cadman heads up Action Sustainability’s Consultancy team. He has worked in product sustainability and sustainable procurement for more 20 years, having worked at AEA Technology and ERM prior to Action Sustainability. James’ work is focused on understanding the sustainability impacts that products have through their life cycles and applying that to supply chain sustainability initiatives. He has led many projects on developing sustainable procurement policies, devising product standards and guidance, and undertaking carbon footprinting to improve product and market sustainability performance. Past clients include the likes of Network Rail, Unilever, Tesco, IKEA, Vodafone, and Defra.
Reach out to James at [email protected], call him directly on +44 (0) 7884 654 827 or visit www.actionsustainability.com for more info!
Matteo Deidda
Senior Sustainability Manager, Lloyds Banking Group
Matteo Deidda
Senior Sustainability Manager, Lloyds Banking Group
Matteo is a passionate Sustainability professional, with an Engineering background, an MSc in Renewable Energy and over 10 years’ experience in Energy and Sustainability Management across the retail, technology and financial services sector.
Matteo currently works as a Senior Sustainability Manager for Lloyds Banking Group, supporting the group journey to achieve the operational climate pledges on carbon, energy, water, waste, travel and biodiversity.
Prior to this, Matteo worked five years for Sainsbury’s, developing and delivering the energy management strategy of the retail and office estate and playing a key role in the achievement of the 2020 carbon reduction targets, and for Vodafone UK, where he supported the business in setting the roadmap to deliver the 2025 sustainability targets, whilst reducing the company energy cost base
Tom Maidment
Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager, Hilton Foods
Tom Maidment
Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager, Hilton Foods
Tom Maidment is currently Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager at Hilton Foods, leading the development of the company’s supply chain decarbonisation strategy and providing LCA expertise across the company. Before that he worked for Jaguar Land Rover, where he developed the company’s net zero strategy. He is also an Associate at Oxford Net Zero.
Julie Allen
Heat Decarbonisation Programme Lead, King's College London
Julie Allen
Heat Decarbonisation Programme Lead, King's College London
Julie has been in energy management for 25 years, working with industrial, commercial and retail. Four years ago she moved into the Public Sector and 12 months ago took up the challenge of Heat Decarbonisation within Higher Education.
Ulf Nahrath
Vice President Shell UK Energy Transition & Infrastructure
Ulf Nahrath
Vice President Shell UK Energy Transition & Infrastructure
Ulf Nahrath was appointed as Vice President Shell UK Energy Transition & Infrastructure in 2022. In this role, he is responsible for Shell UK’s ambitious energy transition programme. This includes the integration of low carbon assets like wind and solar power generation, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage as well as sustainable aviation fuels and EV charging infrastructure into the energy system as part Shell UK’s ambitious investment programme into the UK energy system.
Haydn Young
Founder, Rutland Fourms
Haydn Young
Founder, Rutland Fourms
Haydn Young is a former Sustainability & Energy Manager, Consultant and Policy Advisor with a wealth of expertise and experience in driving low carbon initiatives in large organisations. Over his career Haydn has led many energy saving and generation projects, trained over 100 energy managers for the UK Gov, facilitated training courses on employee engagement and spoken frequently at public events.
After appreciating the value of peer-to-peer collaboration his early energy management career within the retail sector, Haydn founded Rutland Forums, a collaboration network for the UKs leading sustainability and energy practitioners.
Through Rutland Forums, eligible members meet in sector aligned groups to collaborate, access confidential topical workshops and back ambitious projects that are recognised as solving a genuine net zero problem. The Rutland Forums network has grown rapidly and now involves over 300 of the UKs leading energy and sustainability practitioners from the 60 member organisations and five sectors currently supported.
Haydn’s happy to talk about anything energy management related especially:
- Sustainability communications
- Senior management engagement
- Or even career suggestions
Rebecca Howard
Head of Supplier Relationship Management, Coventry Building Society
Rebecca Howard
Head of Supplier Relationship Management, Coventry Building Society
Rebecca Howard is Head of Supplier Relationship Management at Coventry Building Society. CBS’ Procurement & SRM team, along with the Sustainable Procurement Working Group, are dedicated to transforming the environmental, social and governance elements of their supplier base. Sustainability and lifecycle thinking sits at every stage of their sourcing and supplier management approach, and they run several events each year to engage with their highly committed suppliers. Rebecca is a sustainable procurement evangelist and speaks externally to advocate for the needs of diverse suppliers including small and local businesses, and those owned by underrepresented groups
Chris Love
Senior Manager IT & Change Procurement, Coventry Building Society
Chris Love
Senior Manager IT & Change Procurement, Coventry Building Society
Chris Love is Senior Manager for the technology procurement team at Coventry Building Society. Chris has over 25 years’ experience in a range of senior sourcing roles, buying direct and indirect categories. He is now responsible for the team that manages software, hardware and technology services.
Natalie Oliver
Senior Supplier Manager, Coventry Building Society
Natalie Oliver
Senior Supplier Manager, Coventry Building Society
Natalie Oliver is Senior Supplier Relationship Manager at Coventry Building Society. Natalie chairs the sustainable procurement working group, facilitating the team to support initiatives to tackle food poverty, improve compliance to sustainability ratings and increase the proportion of local and diverse suppliers at the Society.
Brian Lim
UK Energy Transition Integration Manager, Shell UK
Brian Lim
UK Energy Transition Integration Manager, Shell UK
Brian leads the development of Shell UK’s ambitious energy transition roadmap and acts as strategic business advisor on infrastructure investments, future energy systems and policies for Shell UK’s businesses.
Brian has worked in a variety of roles across Shell including business development and the management of capital projects.
Dave Horton
Head of Delivery and Asset Management, Shell Energy
Dave Horton
Head of Delivery and Asset Management, Shell Energy
Dave Horton has worked within the energy industry for over 27 years. Working across energy supply, energy networks, data aggregation & analysis, legal compliance, education and energy solutions design and delivery.
After implementing ISO 50001 for his last employer, he reduced their energy bill from circa. £5.5 million to under £1.6m over five years.
Dave is currently working in partnership with customers across Europe to decarbonise their estates and reduce energy usage.
Lukas Fleming
Head of UK Onshore Renewable Generation, Shell UK
Lukas Fleming
Head of UK Onshore Renewable Generation, Shell UK
Lukas Fleming was appointed as Head of UK Onshore Renewable Generation in 2022. In this role, he is responsible for Shell’s solar, onshore wind and co-located battery business. This involves working with partners to develop, construct and manage onshore renewable generation assets in the UK, and includes sourcing customer offtake for the associated green electrons.
Jamie Colquhoun
Decarbonisation Consultant, Horizon Energy Ventures
Jamie Colquhoun
Decarbonisation Consultant, Horizon Energy Ventures
Jamie Colquhoun is Decarbonisation Consultant who specialises in Transport Energy Solutions and Clean Energy Asset Funding. With a background in energy and electric vehicles whilst at EDF, Jamie has since played a key role helping Costain to deliver on its pledge to transition its fleet to clean sustainable fuel sources by 2030, as part of the EV100. He is also a contributor to the recent Institution of Engineering & Technology report published on Hydrogen in Transport. Jamie has been working closely with Costain’s public sector clients to help them develop their strategies and roadmaps for transitioning to decarbonised fleets, including the impact this has more widely on their operational sites. In conjunction with this, Jamie has been part of the core team at Horizon Energy Ventures exploring funding solutions to help organisations accelerate the roll out of energy related asset installations that support decarbonisation measures.
Irun Kalar
Procurement Analysist - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Irun Kalar
Procurement Analysist - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Irun Kalar is a Procurement Analyst at Coventry Building Society. Irun supports the team with data analysis and insight across category and expenditure data.
Tracey Wood
Supplier Relationship Management Specialist - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Tracey Wood
Supplier Relationship Management Specialist - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Tracey Wood is a Supplier Relationship Specialist at Coventry Building Society. Tracey supports several supplier relationships including waste management where she is working to improve the recycling performance across all sites.
Harriet Lucas
Procurement Manager - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Harriet Lucas
Procurement Manager - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Harriet Lucas is a Procurement Manager at Coventry Building Society. Harriet is responsible for a range of indirect spend categories and was responsible for the effective sourcing of new staff uniforms that supported the Society’s sustainability and diversity goals.
Reah Dhillon
Procurement Graduate - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Reah Dhillon
Procurement Graduate - Procurement & SRM, Coventry Building Society
Reah Dhillon is a Procurement Graduate at Coventry Building Society. Reah is responsible for supplier engagement related to supplier carbon improvement plans and works closely with the Society’s carbon analysts.