Is There a Plan ? UK Energy Policy for the 2020s - Speakers

The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, was the longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment the UK has ever had (1993-97). His sixteen years of top-level ministerial experience also include Secretary of State for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Minister for London, Employment Minister and Paymaster General in HM Treasury. He has consistently championed an identity between environmental concerns and business sense. To that end, he set up and now runs Sancroft, a Corporate Responsibility consultancy working with blue-chip companies around the world on environmental, social and ethical issues. Lord Deben is Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, Valpak Limited, and the Association of Professional Financial Advisers.

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Professor Jim Watson is Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and a Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Sussex. He was Director of the Sussex Energy Group from Dec 2008 to Jan 2013. He has over 20 years’ research experience on climate change, energy and innovation policy. He frequently advises UK government departments and other organisations. He has also been a Specialist Adviser with three Parliamentary committees. He is a judge for the Queens Awards, a member of the Global Challenges Research Fund strategy advisory group and a member of the government’s fossil fuel price projections panel. Jim has extensive international experience, including over ten years working on energy scenarios and energy innovation policies in China and India. In 2008, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

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Chris Harris is Head of Regulation at npower.  He is associate fellow in Energy Policy at Exeter University following a period as Visiting Professor of Sustainable Power Distribution at Bath University. He has written four book on economics as applied to electricity. He has a PhD in fracture mechanics from Cambridge and in regulatory economics from Bath.

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Richard is the Head of Research and is responsible for managing and developing Aurora’s suit of market intelligence services. Before joining Aurora he was a Director and Head of Energy and Environment at Policy Exchange, where he authored a number of influential reports on energy and environmental policy and regulation. Prior to that he was the Chief Economist at The Crown Estate. Richard has a first class degree in Economics and an MSc in Environmental Policy.

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Graham is Director of Policy for the UK Green Investment Group, responsible for ensuring the Group’s transactions are consistent with relevant policies and incentives in the markets where it operates. He works across the breadth of the Group’s markets, encompassing the energy efficiency, offshore wind, waste and bioenergy sectors.

Graham has been working at the interface between policy, commerce and finance for 20 years and has been with the Green Investment  Group since 2013. He was previously Director of the UK’s Combined Heat and Power Association (now the Association for Decentralised Energy), Head of Fuels & Heat at the Renewable Energy Association, Policy Director at investment bank Climate Change Capital and worked in consultancy at Ricardo-AEA.

Graham spent his early career as an engineer in the British Army, has an MSc from Imperial College and a BEng from the University of Leeds.

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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.

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Alex is an expert in climate, energy and industry, with international experience in the delivery of independent economic and public policy advice.

Prior to working at Vivid Economics, Alex led high-profile research programmes for the UK and Australian Governments. As Head of Power Sector at the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, he worked on electricity market reform and innovation, as well as advising on the UK’s low-carbon public financing strategy and the competitiveness impacts of climate policy. He was also Director at the Australian Government’s Climate Change Authority during its first major review of Australia’s emissions reduction targets.

He has worked in consultancy roles covering water policy and urban infrastructure in Australia, and in the delivery of water and sanitation programmes in India.

Alex has a Masters (with Distinction) in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics, where he studied as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar, and a first class Honours degree in engineering and science from the University of New South Wales.

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Colin Calder is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of PassivSystems, a developer of software for monitoring and optimising equipment in the home and for managing and reducing domestic heating energy costs and consumption. He founded the Company in 2008 following 12 months of extensive research into zero-carbon homes in Tuscany, Italy. Colin has 30 years of experience in the software and technology sectors, with a significant proportion of his career being involved in the bringing together of mobile and the internet. In 1996 Colin founded Paragon, a software company focused on synchronising data between mobile phones, desktop applications and web-based services, which he sold for $500 million to phone.com in 2000. Along with his work in the technology sector, Colin has also held the positions of Director of X / Open (now The Open Group), a global consortium of technology manufacturers working to promote open standards in the field of information technology, as well as advising the European Commission, European Parliament and the UK Parliamentary Affairs Committee on proposed changes to European legislation permitting the reverse engineering of interface specifications. This significant change in legislation resulted in the dramatic rise in the open systems movement and distributed computing.

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Martin Crouch is Senior Partner, Improving Regulation. His current responsibilities include supporting Ofgem’s regulatory policy development through central teams covering horizon scanning, sustainability, analysis and knowledge management. Martin joined Ofgem in 2003 and has led teams responsible for electricity distribution, European markets, renewable and energy efficiency support schemes and electricity transmission, including interconnector development and offshore tenders. From 2012 until early 2015, he chaired the Electricity Working Groups of the European regulatory bodies CEER and ACER.

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Catherine O’Kelly is the Director of Industry Development at British Gas, where she oversees industry programmes including Smart Metering and the Energy Company Obligation.

Catherine’s previous role was as the Chief of Staff to the CEO of British Gas’ parent company, Centrica plc. Her background is in energy strategy, initially as a management consultant with Booz & Company advising energy companies in Europe, Asia and Africa. Catherine then worked at the Carbon Trust on low carbon policy design, before joining Centrica’s group strategy team.

Catherine is also a Trustee Board Member of the Family Mosaic Community Foundation, which is the charitable foundation of one of the UK’s largest housing associations. Catherine read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. She lives in London with her husband and son.

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Catherine Mitchell is Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Exeter. Previous to that, she worked at the Universities of Warwick, Sussex and California, Berkeley. Catherine currently holds an Established Career Fellowship with the EPSRC on Innovation and Governance http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/. The first phase ran from 2012-2016, with the second (2016 – 2019) looking at Innovation and Governance for future energy systems. Catherine has been part of many international writing teams (e.g. a Lead Author in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report in the Policy and Institutions Chapter of WG3) or research teams (for example, PI of an ESRC/EPSRC interdisciplinary research cluster into Energy Security in a Multi-Polar World (2008-2013)). She has worked for Governments and has undertaken numerous advisory positions for a variety of government and non-government stakeholders. She is currently Chair of the Board of the Regulatory Assistance Project (http://www.raponline.org/), on the Board of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit and a Trustee of the Centre for Sustainable Energy.

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Philip joined the Energy Systems Catapult as CEO in November 2015. The Catapult was established in April 2015 with the remit to support the transition of the UK Energy System and enable economic growth from the many commercial and technological opportunities that will be created as the way we make, distribute and use energy undergoes radical change over the coming decades.

Before joining the Catapult Philip worked for BP for over 30 years in a range of commercial and general management positions, mostly in customer-facing businesses, operating in Asia, North and South America, and Europe. He started working in the cleantech sector in 2002, initially building BP’s portfolio of Biofuels businesses and technologies, latterly expanding to include BP Alternative Energy. During this time, he wrestled with, and became fascinated by, the dynamics of the interplay of markets, technology and policy created by the emergence of new energy sources and uses, and the opportunities to create new businesses.

Philip has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, and lives in Oxford with his wife. His three children are now at University.

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Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, has a distinguished background in academia and business. An academic career at Cambridge University led to senior business and engineering roles at Rolls-Royce plc. Returning to academia as Principal of Engineering at Imperial College, she became Vice-Chancellor of Aston University from 2006 – 2016.
Her current interests include climate change mitigation and the low carbon economy: she serves as: Vice Chair of the Committee on Climate Change and Chair of the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change; non-executive director of the Green Investment Bank and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult; member of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Decarbonising Energy. She led the King Review on decarbonising transport (2008), and is the UK’s Low Carbon Business Ambassador.
She is passionate about education and engineering: she was a member of the Browne Review on university funding and Lord Stern’s review of the Research Excellence Framework. She now chairs STEM Learning Ltd., a not-for-profit company delivering science teacher continuing professional development, and the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was awarded DBE for services to higher education and technology. In 2015 she was made The Baroness Brown of Cambridge. She is a crossbench Peer, and a member of the House of Lords European Union Select Committee.

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Darran Messem is Chairman of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and has served as a Board Director since 2005. Professionally he is International Director for the Carbon Trust and Managing Director of Carbon Trust Certification, and has worked for the Carbon Trust since 2010.

Prior to joining the Carbon Trust Darran was Vice President Fuel Development for Royal Dutch Shell, and held a variety of roles in Shell in the UK and internationally, including responsibilities for fuel sales to transport fleets and fuel development with motor manufacturers. Darran joined Shell from Cambridge University with a First Class degree in Economic Geography and subsequently undertook a post-graduate diploma in marketing.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a member of the Hounslow & District Wheelers and Berkshire Triathlon Club.

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Michael Lewis joined E.ON UK as CEO after holding the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO), Wind Power at E.ON Climate & Renewables. He has worked in the energy industry for 20 years. Having joined Powergen in 1993, Michael originally worked in technical and environmental roles, before moving into Corporate Strategy and Development. Following E.ON’s acquisition of Powergen, Michael moved to E.ON’s headquarters in Düsseldorf as Vice President Corporate Development. In 2007 he was appointed as Managing Director for Europe on the Board of E.ON Climate & Renewables, before becoming COO responsible for global wind power development, construction and operations. Michael has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Pollution and Environmental Control from the University of Manchester.

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Simon Sharpe is leading the work on affordable energy and clean growth in the Government’s developing Industrial Strategy. Prior to this he was Senior Private Secretary (head of office) first to Andrea Leadsom, Minister of State for Climate Change and Energy, and then to Nick Hurd, Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry. Before moving into domestic policymaking, Simon worked for ten years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, serving on postings to China and India, and leading on climate change risk assessment, strategy and communications in the run-up to the Paris negotiations of 2015.

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