Lord Oxburgh KBE (Chair)
Ron Oxburgh (Lord Oxburgh) served as Non-Executive Chairman of Shell Transport and Trading plc from 2004 to 2005. He is an accomplished scientist involved with a number of all-party parliamentary groups, chairing the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee from 2001 to 2004. He trained as a geologist/geophysicist (Oxford and Princeton) and has worked in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Cornell, Stanford and Caltech. From 1982-1988 he was President of Queens' College Cambridge; 1987-1993 he was Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence; and 1993-2001 he was Rector of Imperial College, London. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the US Academy of Sciences. He was appointed to the House of Lords in 1999 where he serves as an independent member. His research and publications have largely been in tectonophysics and the thermal behaviour of the Earth's crust and mantle; current interests are climate change, energy and water futures, and global development.
Professor Julia King CBE (Vice-Chancellor, Aston University)
Julia became Vice-Chancellor of Aston University in December 2006. A researcher and lecturer at Cambridge and Nottingham universities for 16 years, she joined Rolls-Royce in 1994, holding a number of senior appointments. In 2002 she became Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics, returning to academia as Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College, London. She has published over 160 papers on fatigue and fracture in structural materials and developments in aerospace and marine propulsion technology. Julia chairs the Defence Science Advisory Council, is a director of the Engineering and Technology Board and a member of the DTI Technology Strategy Board. She is also leading a Royal Academy of Engineering Working Party on ‘Educating Engineers for the 21st Century’.
Tom Delay (Chief Executive, The Carbon Trust)
Tom was appointed as the first Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust in 2001. A Chartered Engineer with extensive experience of the energy sector, Tom worked for Shell for 16 years in a variety of commercial and operations roles including four years as General Manager of Pizo Shell - a Shell subsidiary in Gabon, Africa. He moved into management consultancy with McKinsey and Co. and then as a Principal with the Global Energy Practice of A.T. Kearney before joining the Carbon Trust. Tom gained a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southampton in 1981 and completed an MBA at INSEAD, Paris in 1988.
Professor Gordon Edge CBE (Founder, Sagentia)
Gordon has spent his career founding and building science based businesses including Cambridge Consultants, PA Technology and Generics Group (now Sagentia). Through these three businesses, he helped change attitudes towards and within science based start-ups. He has contributed to hundreds of patents and founded companies in Europe, the USA and Australia. Currently he is a board member of the Waste Recycling Group (now Infinis Capital) and has additional interests in CMR Fuel Cells. He continues to encourage entrepreneurship through involvement in Scottish Equity Partners, ETeCH (Zurich) and as Chairman of the Cambridge University MIT Institute Advisory Board. He is involved with City University in London, University of Bath and Penn State University. He is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer.
Lord Wade of Chorlton (Businessman and agriculturalist)
Lord Wade is a past Chair of the English Cheese Export Council. In the Lords he has served as a Member of the Science and Technology Select Committee. He was Chairman of 'Campus Ventures', a business incubation unit at Manchester University from 1995 to 2000. He is currently Chairman of 'Rising Stars Growth Fund Ltd', a £19 million fund established to support start-up technology companies in the North West (managed by Enterprise Ventures Ltd), Nimtech, a not for profit technology transfer company in the North West and Midas Capital Partners Ltd, the North's leading fund management company.
Erik Bichard (Chief Executive, Sustainability Northwest)
Erik has spent his entire career working on sustainability issues. He has degrees in environmental sciences, noise control and land use planning disciplines and was Cheshire County Council's first 'Environmental Planner'. Prior to becoming Head of Sustainability Northwest he worked in the private sector as a sustainability consultant. Erik is also non-Executive Director of Greater Manchester Waste Ltd and also sits on the Board of Migrant Workers North West. Along with Lord Thomas of Macclesfield, he was behind the recently launched North West Regional Climate Change Charter, the first of its kind in the UK.
Steve Moore (South Area Manager, Environment Agency North West)
Steve started his career with TARMAC as a construction engineer, working on major civil engineering schemes whilst studying for a HNC. During his time at TARMAC he set up and managed a team responsible for quality, safety and environmental issues. Moving to the Environment Agency in 2000, he was instrumental in forming a national business improvement service before being appointed Head of Operations and then North Wales Area Manager. Steve moved to his current position last year and now leads a team of 7 managers and 450 staff responsible for the day-to-day environmental management of Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
Sarah Mander (Deputy Leader - Energy Programme, Tyndall Centre)
Sarah started her career as a Chemical Engineer, initially working as a project engineer in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Upon leaving industry, she was a founder member of a small urban design, and fabrication, company, where she worked with local communities to promote sustainability measures in urban regeneration projects. Since completing her PhD, Sarah has worked at the Tyndall Centre, and is now deputy leader of the Energy programme. Her research work is focused on climate change mitigation, with specific projects on carbon capture and storage, energy scenarios, the urban environment and governance.
Professor Patrick Corbett (Total Professor of Petroleum Geoengineering, Heriot-Watt University)
Patrick is a leading voice in the area of petroleum geoengineering. He is based at Heriot-Watt University where he is Head of the University's Institute of Petroleum Engineering and also manages the University's activities in Marine Renewables in Orkney. He is also Head of the Energy Academy at Heriot-Watt University and a member of the Joint Research Institute in Energy with the University of Edinburgh with a keen interest in finding sustainable energy solutions. Current research interests include well testing, petrophysics, geoengineering and sustainability. Patrick's commercial experience prior to joining Heriot-Watt took him to Chief Geologist position for Unocal in Indonesia.
Clifton Bain (Senior Conservation Policy Officer, RSPB Scotland)
In his current role, Clifton has responsibility for RSPB climate change policy in Scotland. An Honours graduate in Zoology from Aberdeen University, he has worked for RSPB for 20 years covering a wide range of research and policy work throughout the United Kingdom. He is convenor of the climate change task force for Scottish Environment Link, an umbrella body for environmental NGOs and sits on a number of Scottish Executive climate change, stakeholder groups.
Sharon Bamford (Chief Executive, The Scottish Institute for Enterprise Ltd)
Sharon has launched businesses herself and works to support new businesses. She has started five companies, ranging from an international project management consultancy to Montessori pre-schools. She has lectured in entrepreneurship at Robert Gordon University, managed an incubator facility and been Director of the University of Edinburgh's £100 million science park development. The Scottish Institute for Enterprise Ltd is passionate about stimulating talent and enterprise from within Scotland’s higher education institutions - to help students enhance their future, whether starting their own business or working for others.
Monica Straughan (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency)
Monica has spent much of her career in the environmental field. Before working as Head of Communications for SEPA, she worked for Scottish Natural Heritage and both Scottish Natural Heritage's predecessor bodies, the Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and the Countryside Commission for Scotland. SEPA regulates activities that could pollute Scotland's air, water and land, as well as maintaining a national flood warning system and implementing the National Waste Strategy.
Martin Harper (Head of Sustainability, RSPB)
Martin was educated at Oxford and London Universities. He has nature conservation field experience in the Comores and Mongolia, and has worked in environmental policy and advocacy since 1996. For three years, he worked for Wildlife and Countryside Link, the network organisation for voluntary organisations interested in wildlife and the countryside. He then spent five years as Conservation Director for Plantlife International prior to joining the RSPB as Head of Government Affairs in 2004. In November 2006, Martin became Head of the RSPB’s Sustainable Development department, responsible for policy and advocacy in the following five areas: climate change, planning, marine, economics and sustainable development.
Karen Lawrence (Head of Business Unit Renewables and Advice, Energy Saving Trust)
After graduating with first class Honours in European Management Science and French, Karen started her career in Shell working in procurement, property and retail, before joining Kingfisher. After the birth of her first child she changed career path to the field of sustainable energy and started working for the Energy Saving Trust. Currently Head of Business Unit for Renewables and Advice, her remits covers numerous programmes, including the Low Carbon Buildings Programme and UK Energy Efficiency Advice Network for householders. In addition to this she is also leading on the EST’s proposal for Sustainable Energy Centres.
Daniel Doulton (VP Marketing & Development, and Co-Founder, SpinVox Ltd)
Daniel is the Co-founder of SpinVox Ltd where he has been involved from concept through to creation. Prior to SpinVox, Daniel set up Zenfly, a niche company marketing high quality holidays to make learning to fly widely accessible. Daniel has also worked for Psion as Head of International Product Marketing for InfoMedia: a start-up company within the Psion incubator. Daniel was involved in the original concept, strategy, and product roadmap and managed the introduction of 1st generation DAB/wireless products, WaveFinder and digital mobile media player concepts. As a consultant Daniel developed the business plan, brand and launched Lime Hill Search Consultants.
Dr Klaus Hellgardt (Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology, Imperial College, London)
Professor Hellgardt was appointed to his current role in 2006 following an academic career spanning two decades. He studied for his Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany before moving to Imperial College, London to complete his PhD and DIC. His first lecturing role took him to Loughborough University in 1995 and he stayed for 10 years before coming back to Imperial. His research focuses on the interface of reaction engineering, chemistry and materials science, membrane science and smart materials applications.