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. He is currently Chairman of D1 Oils plc, Falck Renewables and blue-ng and is President of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association. He advises the Government of Singapore on Energy, Environment and Research Strategy.
Professor Julia King CBE FREng (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 was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, in March 2007 to lead the King Review of low carbon cars. The interim analytical report was published in October 2007, with the final recommendations due in March 2008. She is a director of the Engineering and Technology Board and a member of the Government’s new Technology Strategy Board. She led a Royal Academy of Engineering Working Party on 'Educating Engineers for the 21st Century', which published its final report in June 2007.
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 Chris Rapley CBE (Director, Science Museum)
Professor Chris Rapley CBE is Director of Science Museum. Prior to this he was for almost ten years Director of the British Antarctic Survey.This followed a period as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, and an extended period as Professor of Remote Sensing Science at University College London. He has a first degree in physics from Oxford, an M.Sc. in radioastronomy from Manchester University, and a Ph.D. in X-ray astronomy from University College London. He is President of the International Council of Science’s (ICSU) Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research and is a member of the international steering committee for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. He is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College Cambridge, and is an Honorary Professor at University College London and at the University of East Anglia. His interests are in climate change and earth system science, as well as a more general interest in the organisation, leadership and communication of science.
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 Government climate change and stakeholder groups.
James Barlow (Chief Executive, Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE))
SIE works with all 19 Higher Education institutions in Scotland helping students through enterprise to discover their potential, explore opportunities and make a difference.This is achieved through a range of initiatives including the National Student Business Plan Competition, the largest Student Enterprise Summit in Europe and a suite of business development and support activities focussed on helping students studying in Scotland to become more enterprising. Prior to joining SIE in November 2006 James worked at the University of Bristol heading up enterprise education and training for staff, students and spin-outs. He has significant international coaching and lecturing experience, having acted either as commercial director or advisor to 16 start-up/spin-out companies in a range of sectors. Two of James’ areas of interest are in start-up strategy and sales. Other experience includes performance coaching, strategic management consultancy and corporate sales/management within the pharmaceutical industry.
Professor Janusz Bialek (Bert Whittington Chair of Electrical Engineering,University of Edinburgh)
Professor Janusz Bialek was born and educated in Poland. He has worked in the UK since 1989, initially with University of Durham and since 2003 with the University of Edinburgh, where he currently holds Bert Whittington Chair of Electrical Engineering. His main research interests are in sustainable energy systems, security of supply, and liberalisation of electricity supply industry.This interdisciplinary research links engineering and economics and deals with some of the most important challenges facing power engineering today. Janusz has authored 2 books and about 100 research papers. He has been a consultant to a number of organisations including the former Department of Trade of Industry (DTI) of UK government, Scottish Executive, Elexon, Polish Power Grid Company, Scottish Power, and Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI).He is a Principal Investigator of a number of major research grants funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and DTI. Janusz is Associate Researcher in Electricity Policy Research Group, Cambridge University, and a member of its Advisory Board, a member of the Dispute Resolution Panel for the Single Electricity Market Operator, Ireland, and Honorary Professor of Heriot-Watt University.
Mark Wells (Education and Campaigns Manager, Scottish Environment Protection Agency)
Mark Wells trained initially in ecology and environmental studies, and has more than 20 years’ experience in Scotland’s environmental sector. He has worked for a local authority, for WWF UK (the world’s largest independent environmental charity), as Chief Executive of the Scottish Environmental Education Council (one of Scotland’s smaller environmental NGOs), and for Scottish Natural Heritage (the government conservation agency). He has been with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) since its creation in 1996. SEPA is responsible for pollution control in Scotland, and Mark has held a number of positions there, including Environmental Issues Manager and Education Officer. For the past four years Mark has been Education and Campaigns Manager, responsible for effective communication on a wide range of environmental issues and the role of SEPA, for the provision of environmental information, raising environmental awareness and promoting good environmental practices.
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.
Professor Erik Bichard (Regeneration and Sustainable Development, University of Salford School of the Built Environment)
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 Professor of Regeneration and Sustainable Development at the University of Salford School of the Built Environment, he worked in the private sector as a sustainability consultant and later as Chief Executive of Sustainability Northwest. Erik is 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 North West Regional Climate Change Charter, the first of its kind in the UK. Erik is also the City of Liverpool's Sustainability Advisor and is Chair of the green building company, Eco-Dolphin.
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.
Karen Lawrence (Head of 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 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 Advice, her remit covers all of the Trust’s advice activities to Householders, Communities, Local Authorities, Businesses and the Public Sector.
Daniel Doulton (Co-founder and chief strategy officer, SpinVox)
Daniel Doulton is a true entrepreneur and the co-founder of SpinVox, which he has grown from a simple concept to a global company operating in four languages on four continents with major telecoms, internet and media brands - such as Alltel, Rogers, The Times and Skype - in just five years. Daniel’s path to creating and launching the SpinVox brand started with his 1st Class Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering and Business from Imperial College, London and his professional success in business consultancy and finance at companies such as Arthur D. Little and Citibank. Then, as Head of International Product Marketing for Psion, he launched several world-firsts - including the Psion Series 5/5mx and Revo. In 2001 he helped set up a new business, Psion InfoMedia, and launched the world’s first consumer DAB radio – WaveFinder. Now Daniel is defining and implementing the strategy for SpinVox, has recently launched new services such as SpinVox Blog and SpinVox Social Networks and has just launched a range of services for Enterprise customers.
Ricardo Martinez-Botas (Imperial College London)
Ricardo is a Reader in Turbomachinery at Imperial College London,which is regularly recognised as one of the leading universities in the world for science and technology - ranked 5th in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement. His research activities are part of the Energy Technology for Sustainable Development Group in the Mechanical Engineering Department. His research efforts are directed towards energy efficiency technologies for transportation systems, including turbomachinery and fuel cells.
Rebekah Phillips (Policy Officer, Green Alliance)
Rebekah leads Green Alliance’s climate and energy theme and has managed much of Green Alliance's recent behaviour change work.This has included projects on nuclear power, transport, sustainable heat, emissions trading, the energy market framework and green living. She authored Getting transport right, A manifesto for sustainable heat, A step change in environmental behaviours, our report on behaviour change to Defra which has underpinned their new framework, and joint-authored and edited the report A new vision for energy. She has written frequently for both internal and external publications,most recently for the House Magazine on driving consumer behaviour change. Prior to joining Green Alliance, Rebekah was the Environment and Transport Policy Analyst for BBC News Analysis and Research where she advised all BBC news outlets and programmes on policy significance, programme content and guests. Before joining the BBC, Rebekah worked in the editorial office of Elsevier Science in Amsterdam,working on five leading journals.