Innovation and Disruption: the energy sector in transition - Plenary Speakers

Charles Hendry was Conservative Member of Parliament for Wealden from 2001 to 2015 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.

After leaving Ministerial office, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him as his Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, a post which he held until leaving Parliament in 2015.  He has also been appointed as a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh (in both the Business School and the Academy of Government). Charles is President of the British Institute of Energy Economics; Patron of the Nuclear Institute; and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute. He is President of the Advisory Board of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce and of the British Chamber of Commerce in Kazakhstan.

In addition to a number of roles in the energy and trade sectors, he is currently undertaking a review of Tidal Lagoons for the Government and is Commissioner of the UK Pavilion at Expo 2017 in Kazakhstan on the theme of Future Energy.

Prior to entering Parliament, Charles had his own communications consultancy, supporting chairmen and chief executives in their corporate networking.

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Dr. Barbara Buchner is Executive Director of the widely renowned Climate Finance program at Climate Policy Initiative and is based out of San Francisco. Named one of the 20 most influential women in climate change, Barbara advises leaders on climate, energy, and land use investments around the world.

Barbara is the lead author on CPI’s Global Landscape of Climate Finance, which has set the benchmark for climate finance tracking, and Climate Finance in 2013-14 and the USD 100 billion goal – a joint report with the OECD that played a seminal role in the lead up to the Paris Agreement.

She directs the CPI’s work as Secretariat of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab). The Lab’s public-private approach solicits, shapes, and tests cutting edge climate finance instruments that resolve financing barriers hindering alternative energy, adaptation, and land use projects. The Lab has helped raise over 500 million USD for its initiatives, and it was endorsed by the G7 in its first year of operation. The success of the Lab has also helped to shape the new India Innovation Lab for Climate Finance. Barbara also leads CPI’s work as Secretariat of Finance for Resilience (FiRe), a sister initiative to The Lab that focuses on private sector approaches to scaling up investment in green growth.  In addition, Barbara built and directed the San Giorgio Group, which brings together key financial institutions actively engaged in green, low-emissions finance in collaboration with the World Bank Group, CLP (China Light & Power), and the OECD.

Barbara regularly speaks at high-profile events as an expert in climate policy and climate finance, and has presented at Climate Week, at the Climate Finance Ministerial, as part of the GCF Private Sector Facility, at COP side-events, and at the BNEF Summit among many others.

Barbara was promoted from Director to Senior Director in 2013 and Executive Director in 2016. Previously Barbara served as a Senior Energy and Environment Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and as a Senior Researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) where she was involved in a number of activities related to FEEM’s Climate Change Policy and Modelling Unit in the field of environmental economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Graz and was a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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Richard Hepworth,Director  of Digital Transformation at PwC has 20 years experience of digital transformation of Energy Retailing Businesses. He has worked with the both traditional and non traditional energy retailers across Europe, developing a response to a rapidly changing market.
He leads digital transformation programs, developing new digital capabilities & operating models with a particular focus on omnichannel customer experience and advanced analytics.

Richard has been one of the project leaders on the recently launched PwC Disrupting Utilities project focussing on innovation in the market around connected homes.

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Dr. Angela Strank is BP’s Chief Scientist and Head of Technology for BP’s Downstream Segment (which includes the refining of oil and the manufacture and marketing of fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals). Angela is a member of the Downstream Segment Executive Team and is responsible for the development of Downstream’s strategic technology agenda. Angela also represents BP’s Safety and Operational Risk function at the Downstream Segment Executive Team.

Since joining BP in 1982, Angela has held a wide variety of technical and commercial leadership roles. She has a PhD in geology from University of Manchester and the Institute of Geological Sciences and has published over 30 scientific papers.

In 2010, Angela was the recipient of the UK’s ‘First Women Award’ for Science & Technology.

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James Leaton is Research Director at Carbon Tracker Initiative and has been leading its research since 2010. He has fifteen years sustainability experience across responsible investment, NGO policy and private sector consultancy. James was a senior policy advisor at WWF-UK focusing on the oil and gas sector and related finance. He co-ordinated the successful Sakhalin II campaign which prevented the oil and gas project receiving project finance.

His strategic thinking initiated WWF’s work on the tarsands in Canada which was subsequently adopted as a campaign by the Co-operative Bank and other NGOs. James brings experience of the financial sector and international development from his time as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. James is lead author of the Unburnable Carbon series of reports which have introduced the concepts of carbon bubble, unburnable carbon and stranded assets.

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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. Ian is also a former Chairman of Scotland’s 2020 Climate Delivery Group, the immediate past President of Energy Institute and former Chairman of the renewable energy firm, Infinis.

Ian is currently Chairman of the Aberdeen based quoted energy services firm, John Wood Group, non-executive Chairman of the Edinburgh based tidal energy company, Nova Innovation Ltd and Chairman of Maggie’s Cancer Charity. He is also a Non executive director of Aggreko Plc, and through his company, Dunelm Energy, is advisor to Scottish Equity partners and a number of energy related companies including Linknode and Cyberhawk.

He is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Centre of Energy Policy at Strathclyde University, a visiting Professor with the business schools at Edinburgh and Durham universities as well as being a member of the Prince’s Council of the Duchy of Cornwall and the President of the RZSS.

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Ed Davey was the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from February 2012 to May 2015.

Ed oversaw the legislation and implementation of Electricity Market Reform, Britain’s world-leading creation of a low carbon electricity market. Under his leadership, the UK saw huge investment in renewables, set up Europe’s two leading CCS projects and signed heads of terms on the first new nuclear power station in the UK for over 30 years. He pushed greater competition in retail electricity and gas markets, made significant strides in policies on everything from electricity interconnectors to shale gas and conducted a major regulatory reform of the UK’s Oil and Gas sector establishing the new Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).

Ed was active internationally – especially on the EU’s Energy and Environment Councils. He set up the “Green Growth Group” of EU Ministers to build a successful coalition for the EU’s ambitious “2030 Energy and Climate Change Package”. He led the UK’s push for a stronger EU Energy Security Strategy and headed the UK delegation at 3 UN climate change summits and has been active in planning the UK and EU approach to the Paris Climate Summit this December.

Ed was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton from 1997 to 2015, and had various Shadow Opposition roles including Lib Dem Shadow Foreign Affairs Spokesman and Shadow Industry Spokesman.

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Michael Pollitt is Professor of Business Economics at the Judge Business School and Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics and Management at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. He is an Assistant Director of the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at Cambridge and is the leader of the university’s grand challenge initiative on In Search of ‘Good’ Energy Policy which brings together academics from 13 academic disciplines. Michael’s research interests include future energy markets and regulatory design, as well as best practice corporate governance and business ethics. He has published over 70 academic journal articles and 10 books. He is co-editor of Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy and a member of the editorial boards of the Review of Industrial Organization, Competition and Regulation in Network Industries and Utilities Policy. He is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Business Research (CBR) and a member of the Faculty of Economics. He is currently a member of the expert advisory panels at the ORR and Ofwat and is an advisor to EdF Energy. Since 2000 he has been convenor of the Association of Christian Economists, UK.
Professor Pollitt has advised the UK Competition Commission, the New Zealand Commerce Commission, Ofgem, Ofwat, ESRC, the Norwegian Research Council, the DTI, the World Bank and the European Commission. He has also consulted for National Grid, AWG, Eneco, Nuon, Roche and TenneT. He is the first Coach on the Cambridge MBA’s Energy & Environment concentration , and is on the steering group of Energy@Cambridge.

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Volker Beckers graduated from Cologne University 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). He held a number of non-Executive directorships including HM Revenue & Customs where he chaired the Scrutiny Committee. Since 2009 he chairs the Business Energy Forum.

Volker’s current activities include:

• Member of the Board of Directors, Danske Commodities A/S
• Member of UK PwC Advisory Board
• Non-Executive Chairman, Albion Community Power plc
• Non-executive Director, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
• Non-executive Director, Elexon Ltd
• Non-Executive Chairman, Spenceram Ltd
• Non-Executive Chairman, Reactive Technologies Ltd.#

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 of Forum for the Future. He is also a member of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers and a Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI). Further, he works for a couple of charity organizations and fund his own family trust supporting charitable initiatives (German Heart Foundation etc).

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In 2012, Sara set up Tempus Energy and began developing the tech platform for the future utility. The Tempus platform uses algorithms, machine learning and DSR technology to reduce energy cost for customers, boosting the efficiency of renewables and reducing reliance on stand-by fossil fuel peaking plant. In March 2015, Sara launched the first flexible electricity retailer in the world. Tempus Energy Supply now services over 100 customers, including Hertz, Avis and EAT. Sara sits on numerous industry committees, is a Director of the Association of Decentralised Energy and a member of the Strategic Advisory Council for Energy for the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council.

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Professor Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) holds the RM Phillips chair in the Economics of Innovation at SPRU in the University of Sussex. Her book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (Anthem 2013; US edition Public Affairs, 2015) was on the 2013 Books of the Year list of the Financial Times. Professor Mazzucato is winner of the 2014 New Statesman SPERI Prize in Political Economy, the 2015 Hans-Matthöfer-Preis and in 2013 the New Republic called her one of the ‘3 most important thinkers about innovation‘.

She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led growth and is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors; the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Economics of Innovation and SITRA’s (Finnish Innovation Fund) Advisory Panel.  She is currently working on two major research projects funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and on research commissioned by organisations including NASA, the European Space Agency and the Brazilian Ministry for Science and Technology.

She has a new co-edited book, Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (Wiley Blackwell, July 2016), and is currently writing The Value of Everything, which will be published by Penguin’s Allen Lane in Spring 2017.

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Michael Grubb is Professor of International Energy and Climate Change Policy at University College London (Institute of Sustainable Resources), editor-in-chief of the journal Climate Policy , and Senior Advisor, Improving Regulation, to the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (the Energy Regulator OFGEM). His former positions include Senior Research Associate in Economics at Cambridge University; Chair of the international research organization Climate Strategies; Chief Economist at the Carbon Trust; Professor 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 Act to advise the government on future carbon budgets and to report to Parliament on their implementation.

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 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 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.

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