Professor Charles Hendry MP
Charles Hendry has been Conservative Member of Parliament for Wealden since 2001 and was Minister of State for Energy from May 2010 until September 2012. He was previously the Conservative Party’s spokesman on energy issues, holding the portfolio longer than any previous Minister.
The Prime Minister has appointed him as his Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Since leaving Ministerial office, he has been appointed as a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh (in both the Business School and the Academy of Government). He is advising the Energy Secretary, the Rt Hon Ed Davey MP, on ways to drive up UK content in the oil and gas industry. Charles is President of the British Institute of Energy Economics; of the fuel poverty charity, National Energy Action and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute. He is also President of the Advisory Board of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce.
He is Chairman of the Forewind Consortium, which is currently seeking consent to build the largest (7.2GW) offshore wind farm in the North Sea. He is an adviser to Atlantic Supergrid, which is looking to construct a transmission cable to bring low-carbon electricity from Iceland to the UK, and to Vitol, one of the world’s largest energy trading companies
He has also held the business, higher education and youth portfolios for the Conservative Party; as well as the role of Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.
Prior to entering Parliament, Charles had his own communications consultancy, supporting chairmen and chief executives in their corporate networking. He was Chief of Staff to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague MP, when he became Leader of the Conservative Party.
Dave Ernsberger
Dave Ernsberger is currently Global Oil Director at Platts. Dave has served in a wide variety of leadership roles in market reporting, news reporting and market analysis teams, with a particular focus on commodity markets. Much of his time has been invested in the oil markets, and but he has also covered metals, natural gas, electricity, petrochemicals and biofuels markets. Prior to this he had a number of other roles with Platts, including Senior Editorial Director, Asia Houston Bureau Chief Managing Editor, European Natural Gas and Electricity Markets , Managing Editor, European Natural Gas and Electricity Markets
Prof Michael Grubb
Michael Grubb is Professor of International Energy and Climate Change Policy at University College London, with the Institute of Sustainable Resources, and Senior Advisor on Sustainable Energy Policy to the UK Energy Regulator Ofgem. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Climate Policy and is on the editorial board of Energy Policy. His former positions include Senior Research Associate at Cambridge University (Departments of Economics and Land Economy); Chair of the international research organization Climate Strategies; Chief Economist at the Carbon Trust; Professor of Climate Change and Energy Policy at Imperial College London; and head of Energy and Environment at Chatham House, and he continues to be associated with these institutions.
Professor Grubb has also served on the UK Climate Change Committee, established under the UK Climate Change Bill to advise the government on future carbon budgets and to report to Parliament on their implementation. In 2013 he was the Specialist Advisor to a House of Lords European Committee enquiry. ‘No Country is an Energy Island: securing investment for the EU’s Future’ (2013).
Michael Grubb is author of eight books, fifty journal research articles and numerous other publications. He has held many advisory positions with governments, companies and international studies on climate change and energy policy, and has been a Lead Author for several reports of the IPCC on mitigation, including the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. His book Planetary Economics, which brings together the lessons from 25 years of research and implementation of energy and climate policies, was published in March 2014: it has received widespread accolade as a ‘seminal’ contribution, ‘comprehensive and profoundly important’ for its presentation of a new approach to both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical policies for tackling energy and climate change challenges.
Joan MacNaughton
Joan MacNaughton is the Executive Chair of the WEC’s Energy Trilemma flagship study. From 2007 to 2012, Joan MacNaugthon was Alstom’s Global Adviser on Sustainable Policies leading Alstom’s policy department and the company’s clean power advocacy. Prior to joining Alstom, Joan held the position of Director General of Energy, overseeing the energy agenda during the UK Presidency of the EU and leading work on the energy proposals agreed at the G8 Gleneagles Summit. From 2004 to 2006, she was elected Chair of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency, helping redefine IEA strategy and leading the response to supply disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina. An Honorary Fellow and past President of the Energy Institute and the Executive Chair of the World Energy Council Trilemma report, Joan is also Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and, among other appointments, a member of the Board of Governors, Argonne Laboratory at the University of Chicago, and of the Boards of CCSA and IETA. She is a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
Philip New
Philip New has led BP’s Biofuels business since its inception in 2006 and has now responsibility for BP’s Alternative Energy (AE) Business. In 2005, BP made a commitment to invest $8 billion in AE by 2015, and we achieved this two years ahead of schedule in 2013. Since 2006, BP has invested almost $3 billion in biofuels business operations and research. BP became the first international energy company to invest in the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol market and now owns and operates three producing ethanol mills in Brazil. It is developing and commercialising advanced biofuels, including lignocellulosic ethanol made from non-food feedstocks, and biobutanol – an advantaged fuel molecule. The other business in the AE Portfolio includes a significant presence in US onshore Wind.
Since joining BP from Oxford University in 1983, Philip has worked across BP in roles in Europe and Asia. He played a central role in the creation of BP’s lubricants business, including the acquisition of Burmah-Castrol in 2000, went on to manage BP’s business-to-business sales and marketing operations in Europe and North America and then led the team that laid down BP’s fuels strategy and developed and launched BP’s successful premium fuel – BP Ultimate – around the world.
Dr. Steven Fries
Steven Fries is Director of Analysis and Chief Economist at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. Prior to joining the Department, he was Chief Economist for Royal Dutch Shell and held a series of senior positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, including Deputy Chief Economist and Director of Research. He began his professional career as an economist at the International Monetary Fund. He holds D Phil in economics from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree in economics and finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He has published widely on energy and climate change policy, financial reform and development, and the post-communist transition in Eastern Europe
Prof. Jim Watson
Jim Watson is Professor of Energy Policy at SPRU, University of Sussex, and joined UKERC as Research Director in February 2013. He was previously Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex from Dec 2008 to Jan 2013.
Jim trained as an engineer at Imperial College London and has a PhD in science and technology policy from Sussex. He has 20 years’ research experience on a range of energy, climate change and innovation policy issues. His recent outputs include a co-edited book: New Challenges in Energy Security: The UK in a multipolar world (Palgrave, 2013) and co-authoring UKERC’s reports: Energy Strategies under Uncertainty and UK Energy in a Global Context (2014).
He frequently advises UK government departments and other organisations. He was an advisor to the Government Office for Science for a Foresight project on energy (2007-08), and has been a Specialist Adviser with House of Commons Committees on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2006-09) and Energy and Climate Change (2010-11). He has extensive international experience, including over ten years working on energy scenarios and energy innovation policies in China and India. In 2008, he spent three months as a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Ian Marchant
Ian Marchant was Chief Executive of SSE plc, a leading UK energy utility company, for over 10 years until stepping down in the summer of 2013. He is Chairman of Scotland’s 2020 climate delivery group and Chairman for Wood Group, non-executive Chairman of Infinis Energy plc and non-executive director of Aggreko plc, Cyberhawk and Linknode. He is also President of the UK’s Energy Institute and Chairman of Maggie’s Cancer Charity.
Alistair Buchanan
Alistair Buchanan recently joined KPMG as Partner and Chairman of the UK Power and Utilities Practice, following the completion of his ten year term as CEO of the British Energy Regulator, Ofgem.
The keynote projects at Ofgem were:
Major corporate de-merger of the gas networks business, leading thinking on security of supply (Project Discovery), retail market reforms, creating the company “Ofgem E-Serve” to run £5-10bn consumer monies and totally re-writing regulatory rules (called RIIO – replacing the RPI-X approach set up in 1983); set up Offshore regime using tender/auction process.
Prior to joining KPMG, Alistair was on the Council of Durham University and was Chair of the University’s Remuneration Committee. He has also been a Non Executive Director for Scottish Water and was a member of the UK Energy Research Partnership (UKERP). He was appointed CBE in December 2008.
Before Ofgem his working career has been in the financial sector with leading investment banks, as both an award winning analyst and as Head of Research, in London and New York. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, training with KPMG.
Wim Thomas
Wim leads the Energy Analysis Team in Shell’s Global Scenario Group. His team is responsible for worldwide energy analyses and long-term global energy scenarios. It advises Shell companies on a wide range of energy issues, including global supply and demand, regulations, energy policy, pricing and industry structure.
He has been with Shell for almost 25 years. He previously held positions in drilling operations, subsurface reservoir management, and commercial and regulatory affairs in gas.
Wim is a UK member to the World Petroleum Council and World Energy Council’s energy scenario group and was chairman of the British Institute of Energy Economics in 2005. He holds a postgraduate degree in Maritime Technology, Delft University, the Netherlands.
Sam Fankhauser
Prof Samuel Fankhauser is Co-Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, both at the London School of Economics. He is also a Director of economics consultancy Vivid Economics. Sam serves on the Committee on Climate Change, an independent public body that advises the UK government on carbon targets, and the CCC’s Adaptation Sub-Committee. Previously, he has worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. He has studied economics at the University of Berne, the London School of Economics and University College London.
Angela Knight CBE
Before joining Energy UK, Angela was Chief Executive at the BBA for 5 years. Previously she was Chief Executive of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers for 9 years. She was honoured with a CBE for services to the financial services industry in 2007. She was Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1995- 1997, after being Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and before that to Industry Minister Sir Tim Sainsbury MP.She was MP for Erewash from 1992 – 1997. She graduated from Bristol University with a degree in chemistry and worked at Air Products before jointly setting up and running the company Cook & Knight Ltd for 6 years. She is also a non-executive director on the boards of Brewin Dolphin plc, Tullett Prebon Plc and Transport for London.
Volker Beckers
Volker Beckers graduated from Cologne University with a Diploma (“Dlplom-Kaufmann“1) in Economics/Business Administration. With more than 20 years’ senior experience within the energy industry, he has a comprehensive knowledge of European energy markets.
Volker was Group CEO, RWE Npower plc until the end of 2012 and prior to this, its Group CFO from 2003 to 2009. He has worked in a variety of trade and industry bodies, including the CBI President’s Committee, on the Board of the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce, and since 1999 as Deputy Chair of the Executive Commercial Management Committee at the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) and was also member of the Executive Committee of UKBCSE (now Energy UK). Since 2009 he chairs the Business Energy Forum.
Volker’s current activities include:
- Non-executive Director, HM Revenue & Customs, Chair of Scrutiny Committee
- Non-executive Director, Elexon Ltd
- Chair, Spenceram Ltd
- Chair, Albion Community Power plc
Volker currently sits on the Advisory Board of the EU Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at King’s College, and is Chair of the Advisory Board with Erasmus Centre for Future Energy Business (ECFEB), a specialist research centre at Rotterdam School of Management. In 2014 he joined the Board of Trustees at Forum for the Future. He is also a member of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers and a Fellow of the Energy Institute.
1 German Business Administration degree similar to MBA
David Newbery, CBE, FBA
David was the 2013 President of the International Association for Energy Economics, a Research Fellow in the Control and Power Research Group at Imperial College London, a Director of the Cambridge Electricity Policy Research Group and Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics both at the University of Cambridge, England. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Educated at Cambridge with degrees in Mathematics and Economics, he has managed research projects on utility privatisation and regulation, electricity restructuring and market design, transmission access pricing and has active research on market integration, transmission planning and finance, climate change policies, and the design of energy policy and energy taxation. Occasional economic advisor to Ofgem, Ofwat, and ORR, former member of the Competition Commission and chairman of the Dutch Electricity Market Surveillance Committee, currently member of Ofgem’s Low Carbon Network Fund and the Deputy Independent Member of the Single Electricity Market of Ireland. Recent books include A European Market for Electricity? (co-author), and Privatization, Restructuring and Regulation of Network Utilities. Guest editor of The Energy Journal (2005) issue on European electricity liberalisation, and recently honoured in “Papers in Honor of David Newbery: The future of electricity” in The Energy Journal (2008).
Adrian Gault
Adrian Gault is currently acting CEO at the Committee on Climate Change . Adrian joined the secretariat of the Committee on Climate Change in May 2009, where he is responsible for analytical work looking at UK greenhouse gas emission reduction potential and costs. Prior to joining the CCC secretariat, Adrian has substantial experience of energy and environmental issues – as an economist in Department for Transport, the Energy Group at DTI(now part of DECC) and in the Treasury tax team
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