Ed Davey
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. He 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.
Prof Jonathan Stern
Jonathan Stern is Chairman and Senior Research Fellow of the Natural Gas Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Honorary Professor at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum & Mineral Law & Policy, University of Dundee; and Visiting Professor at Imperial College’s Centre for Environmental Policy in London and Part Time BP Professor at the Moscow School of Management Energy Centre at Skolkovo.
Over the past two decades Professor Stern has become an internationally known speaker and author on natural gas and security issues in Europe, the former Soviet Union and Asia. He is the author of several books and many shorter works on energy and natural gas issues in: the UK, Europe (western and eastern), the former Soviet Union and Asia. He is co-editor of Natural Gas Markets in the Middle East and North Africa, and editor of: The Pricing of Internationally Traded Gas, both published by Oxford University Press in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Seb Henbest
Seb is Head of Europe, Middle East & Africa for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London, overseeing the firm’s European power and carbon market analysis, long-term forecast and the development of its European business. From 2008 to 2012 Seb was Head of Research and Manager of BNEF in Australia, establishing the firm’s Sydney offices. Seb writes extensively on clean energy and carbon market economics, and presents regularly at energy industry conferences and events. He is quoted widely in print media, and has appeared as an expert commentator on ABC TV, Sky News, ABC Radio, and Bloomberg TV. In 2012 he gave evidence before the Australian House of Representatives Economics Committee on the pricing dynamics of linking Australia’s Carbon Price Mechanism with the EU emissions trading scheme. Before joining New Energy Finance, Seb worked with research consultancy FreshMinds, activist investment firm Hanover Investors Management and taught maths and atmospheric science at Monash University. Seb is a physicist by training with degrees from Adelaide University and Monash, but has also spent time at Cambridge University where he read International Relations, specialising in emissions trading and environmental markets.
Tim Tutton
Tim Tutton is an expert in economic regulation, especially in the energy sector. He is currently a freelance consultant in this area, a Non-Executive Director at Bristol Water plc, a Panel Member of the Competition and Markets Authority, an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Exeter and an Advisory Board member at the Regulatory Policy Institute. Previously, he has been UK Director of Regulation at National Grid, Director of UK Utility Regulation at PwC and a Senior Adviser at Oxera.
Jonathan Brearley
Jonathan Brearley runs a consultancy focussed on the energy sector. He advises a range of public sector and commercial clients on energy markets, policy and regulation. He helps clients formulate their commercial strategy in response to regulatory changes and advises governments on regulatory and market design issues.
Until last July, Jonathan was the Director of Energy Markets and Networks at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. In this role, he focused on ensuring the security of supply and driving the low carbon transformation of the UK electricity sector.His work programme included: Electricity Market Reform – changing trading arrangements and incentives to drive the transformation to low carbon (through contracts for difference) and secure power (through the introduction of a capacity market), developing onshore and offshore grids and wider ‘system balancing’ technologies , monitoring and assessing security of supply risks and implementing any necessary response. Prior to this, Jonathan was Director of the Office of Climate Change – a cross government strategy unit focussed on climate change/ energy issues. Jonathan has also worked at the Prime Ministers Strategy Unit, focussed on UK public services and before that as a consultant at Bain and Company.
Mike Tholen
As Economics Director for Oil & Gas UK, Mike Tholen seeks to foster a business environment which sustains the competitiveness of this mature oil and gas province. Particular responsibilities within the oil and gas industry trade body include fiscal and energy policy and regulatory affairs. He is actively engaged with HM Treasury and DECC on the future of the UK oil and gas fiscal and regulatory regime which will be critical to deliver the full potential of the basin.
Prior to joining Oil & Gas UK he worked with Shell for 20 years, latterly holding a variety of commercial positions including economics and planning manager for their upstream UK gas business and Offshore Infrastructure Manager in the Netherlands.
Kirsty Hamilton
Kirsty Hamilton leads the Renewable Energy Finance Project, as an Associate Fellow at Chatham House: working since 2004 at the intersection between leading mainstream financiers and senior policy counterparts, to bring about more effective ‘investment grade’ policy conditions. More recently, she has been involved in the establishment and policy work of the Low Carbon Finance Group of senior finance practitioners to engage in power sector policy developments.
She has 22 years experience of international climate and energy policy as an Observer at the UN climate change negotiations, and is on the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Renewable Energy; Steering Committee of ‘REN 21’ the international RE policy network; a former Advisor to UNEP’s Finance Initiative and an expert reviewer and contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Tom Clarke
Tom Clarke is Science Editor for Channel 4 News. Since joining Channel 4 in 2003, he has covered energy and the environment in from the Arctic Circle, seen some of the world’s most endangered whales in Russia’s far East, and followed the growing pains of the UK’s landmark Climate Change Bill.
Tom started out as a scientist studying insects in the America’s deep south. After leaving the lab, Tom trained in journalism in New York. He worked as a science producer for American National Public Radio before returning to the UK to work for the science magazine Nature.
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.
Baroness Bryony Worthington
Baroness Bryony Worthington is the UK Labour Party’s Shadow Minister on Energy & Climate Change in the Lords. An experienced climate campaigner who has worked for Friends of the Earth, Wildlife and Countryside Link, in government, and in the energy sector for SSE, Bryony was a key member of the team that campaigned for and drafted the UK’s world-leading Climate Change Act. Bryony is also the founder of Sandbag, an NGO focused on research & campaigning for effective carbon markets, and a patron of the Alvin Weinberg Foundation, advocating next-generation nuclear power.
Simon Virley CB
Simon Virley is a Partner and UK Chair, Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG. Prior to joining KPMG, Simon was Director General of Energy Markets and Infrastructure at the Department of Energy & Climate Change between 2009-15. In this role he advised Government on a wide range of energy policy issues, including oil, gas, shale, nuclear, renewables, Carbon Capture and Storage and energy security. Simon was awarded a CB in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work on UK energy supply and energy security issues. He is an economist by training, and spent his early career at HM Treasury, No10 Downing Street (where he was Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair) and the Cabinet Office, before an earlier spell at KPMG on secondment to their Corporate Finance team. He now advises clients on strategy and deals in the UK energy market and abroad.
Ian Ellerington
Ian Ellerington is the head of Innovation Delivery at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). In this role he is responsible for the department’s £160million Energy Innovation budget. He joined DECC from KBC Advanced Technologies, where he worked internationally for clients on organisational improvement projects.
Ian is an Engineer who graduated from Cambridge University with an M.Eng. in Manufacturing Engineering in 1993. His early career was spent working on Gas Turbine engines with the Ministry of Defence before moving to project management at QinetiQ where he was responsible for the commercial arrangements and delivery of the large test programmes. He left QinetiQ to join Meggitt Defence Systems as UK General Manager where he set up and ran a new manufacturing plant for Aerospace products.
Chris Laurens
Chris is the Vice President of Innovation & Future Energies in the Projects & Technologies of Royal Dutch Shell. In this capacity, Chris is responsible for managing the investment portfolio in ‘green’ and ‘clean’ technologies that will support Shell’s long term growth aspiration. Chris also oversees our externally oriented innovation activities, including Shell Technology Ventures, Shell Techworks, Gamechanger and our technology collaborations with global research institutes and corporate partners.
Before joining Shell, Chris was a partner at McKinsey & Company, based in Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi. At McKinsey, Chris was a global leader of the Energy practice and the leader of the Abu Dhabi office. He served a broad range of energy clients and governments on topics in upstream oil & gas, renewable energy, clean city development and CO2 abatement.
Jo Coleman
Jo is the Director of Strategy at the Energy Technologies Institute. This encompasses using the ETI’s Energy System Modelling Environment (ESME), other sectoral models and analysis to explore energy transition pathways and define technology areas in which ETI’s investment can help deliver an affordable and secure low carbon future energy system in the UK. Prior to joining the ETI, Jo worked in Shell for over 20 years in a variety of technical and managerial roles spanning engineering design and construction, oil and gas field development, national energy planning, economics and new business development. She has worked in the Netherlands, Brunei, Oman, UAE and Malaysia before returning to the UK in 2011.
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