Beverley is a business leader with a proven track record in early stage cleantech investments and commercialisation. She has over 30 years’ experience in the international energy sector and is a thought leader in the commercialisation of sustainable technologies. She specialises in accelerating innovation to market and scaling companies by providing strategic insights, developing industry partnerships and identifying novel ways to overcome barriers to entry. In 2006 she established CLT whose mission is “scaling transformative technologies for clean growth, sustaining our planet”. Her ambition is to create a better, sustainable world and she firmly believes that this will be achieved through innovation playing a transformative role in our economy.
She has supported low carbon ventures in a wide range of sectors including power, transport, built environment, industry and waste. During her tenure at Shell she gained wide international business exposure and delivered the £500 million subsurface technology transfer programme to worldwide operations. Beverley was founder and Vice President at Shell Technology Ventures in this role she was instrumental in defining Shells technology venturing strategic approach. At QinetiQ she was Performance Director for the corporate venture division managing a portfolio of ventures (total value of £60 million), which went on to yield an IRR of 18%. She Chairs BEIS Energy Entrepreneurs Fund commercial panel which has invested £72 million into early stage, cleantech ventures. Beverley holds a degree in Mining Geology from University College Cardiff.
As Chair of CLT’s Board, Christopher advises on the company’s strategic direction and business priorities, and oversees corporate risk management. He specialises in helping cleantech companies fully understand their customers’ needs, develop a favourable business model with attractive economics, and articulate their value proposition in a compelling way. He has over 30 years of experience in consulting, with particular emphasis on growth, corporate strategy and corporate venturing. Christopher’s previous roles include MD of Strategos Europe and VP Strategy Gemini Consulting.
Christopher started his career at Bain & Company and holds a Chemistry degree from Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD.
Vicki is Non Executive Director of CLT and is responsible for advising on the company’s strategy and financial performance. She is also a Director within the Governance and Sustainable Investment team at BMO Global Asset Management, which she joined in 2006. She has particular expertise on climate change and impact investing. Prior to this she spent five years in the UK government, including as the Prime Minister’s policy adviser on climate change, and as a senior member of the team responsible for the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.
She also spent three years as a leader writer at the Financial Times, and two years as an economist at the Bank of England. Vicki is on the Board of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, chairs the UKSIF Policy Committee, and was also named by Financial News in 2013 as one of the top 100 influential women in finance in Europe.
Vicki holds an MSc in Economics from Warwick University and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Robert is a Senior Market Analyst at CLT. He supports CLT’s public, private and international market programmes across all industries.
Robert holds an MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management from the University of Cambridge. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where he studied Industrial Engineering and specialised in Energy Systems and Sustainable Development.
Prior to joining CLT, Robert worked at a consulting firm in their project advisory and disputes practise area for capital projects. He is also the member of the board at a Swedish SME developing electrically powered wheelchairs.
Sacha is a graduate analyst for CLT. He works across the business and has produced landscape maps of a range of clean technology sectors. He supports incubation tasks and business development.
Sacha holds an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, with his master research in bioinorganic chemistry. Whilst at university he organised and ran several large multi-day rowing regattas.
He has previously worked in front end app development and as an assistant in an auction house.
Natalie’s experience covers small business start-up and growth, business planning, industry and market studies, understanding market requirements and synthesising results. She has successfully built business operations from scratch and secured long-term client revenues and partner relationships.
At CLT, Natalie has provided commercialisation support around market analysis, development of routes to market and practical plans to achieve milestones for a wide variety of low carbon innovators including renewable energy and energy storage companies. She has conducted incubation planning for companies supported by the Energy Entrepreneurs’ Fund and has worked on a project for BEIS to facilitate joint development of an industry / Government Action Plan for decarbonisation of the UK Ceramics Sector, which included convening and facilitating multi stakeholder groups to agree actions, tasks and responsibilities.
With Booz. Allen & Hamilton International, Natalie led consulting projects centred around market strategy and operational process improvements. Natalie holds a degree and MA in Aeronautical Engineering from Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD.
Rukhsana has extensive technical experience spanning consultancy, industry and academia in process, energy, oil and gas, industrial and municipal sectors. She has a track record of managing projects, people, budgets, facilities and change in complex technical and global business environments.
Rukhsana has provided market research, engineering, cost model and commercialisation support including introducing potential commercial partners and incubation management support for companies supported by the Energy Entrepreneurs’ Fund. She develops innovative techno-business solutions, considering CAPEX, OPEX and whole life costs. She has acted as project manager on behalf of clients on strategically important technically complex projects.
With WSP, Rukhsana developed the Environmental strategy in relation to the Industry sector, and led and coordinated activities contributing to achieving strategic and commercial targets. She defined client management strategies, created business development plans and managed client relationships.
With Syngenta, Rukhsana directed work programmes enabling development of new products and processes from lab scale to full manufacturing scale globally.
Rukhsana holds both Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering degrees, is a Chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Paul has deep experience of innovation programmes and policy for low carbon technologies. He has led three major Government innovation reviews and been responsible for transformation of UK Government policy towards low carbon innovation earlier this decade, working across two Government departments and three public agencies.
As a Vice President and Director of Arthur D. Little, Paul was responsible for its Chemicals Practice in Europe and advised some of the world’s largest companies on strategy, technology, sustainable development and operations. He has advised early stage low carbon technology start-ups on business plans, supplier management, technology development and organisational issues.
Through his work Paul has deep experience in offshore renewables, storage, buildings and biomass. He is also an adviser to Green Alliance and the IEA and reviews all energy deals for an early stage venture capitalist. Paul holds a first-class honours degree in Chemical Engineering (B.Eng) from Imperial College, London and an MSc from the London Business School.
Richard specialises in working with SMEs particularly early stage or scaling ventures. With 20-years entrepreneurial experience in five ventures, Richard now focuses on helping SMEs accelerate their development. Richard’s blend of experiences is drawn from venture capital backed start-ups, corporate venturing and international business turnaround.
Richard founded the UK operations for the growing Canadian engineering practice IBI Group (now a multinational PLC). At Detica (acquired by BAE Systems), Richard created a transportation systems unit that became a core offer for the new owners and won a Webby.
As Managing Director for a family office investor, Richard turned around both an international port operator and an MIT-backed logistics optimisation start-up. Latterly, Richard was CEO for a BP originated energy storage start-up backed by leading VC funds that sold its technology to a specialised industrial group.
Richard holds a degree in Civil Engineering and a postgraduate in Transportation both from Newcastle University.
Alison is a senior strategy and innovation advisor, with an international track record of success in technology commercialisation and new venture development in the Cleantech sector. She has spent her career providing strategic and commercial development support to new ventures and growth-phase businesses, as well as public sector clients developing and delivering innovation support and acceleration programmes. She has variously acted as Interim MD, business coach, mentor, Non-Executive Director and consultant to more than 100 start-ups and SMEs, and provided advisory services to more than 30 regional, national and international agencies. Over the past 25 years she has developed an extensive network of contacts and a deep practical knowledge of technology commercialisation and methods for accelerating market translation.
Alison was a founding Director of Orion Innovations in 2004, successfully delivering specialist strategy and innovation consultancy support to early-stage businesses across the Cleantech sector for more than fifteen years. She was previously one of the original founding team of Intelligent Energy Ltd, a start-up fuel cell development company, where she spent four years as Director of Business Development.
She has developed her skills and expertise on a platform of environmental and management consultancy experience with leading international firms including Arup, RPS, Booz and A. T. Kearney.
Ron is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience in business development and innovation in the UK and internationally. He has extensive Board level experience, as both Chairman and a NED. As a CEO he has successfully led teams of up to 600 people. A visionary leader with a high EQ and the ability to enthuse an audience. He is an experienced mentor of new businesses and of Executive Directors.
Ron has worked in the water, wastewater, environmental and gas sectors both on the client side and as an innovation sponsor. His work experience includes international assignments and he has set up a successful innovation consultancy in Italy.
Ron is currently a NED of the European Marine Energy Centre where marine renewables are tested at sea and hydrogen is being explored as an energy storage vector. He is also a member of an Expert Panel judging the annual Ofgem Gas Network Innovation Competition. Until recently he was the CEO and latterly the Chairman of the Water Research Centre. He has a First Class Honours Degree in Civil Engineering from Edinburgh University.
Ian has over 15 years’ experience advising and investing in businesses and funds in the cleantech and sustainability sector. As well as supporting governments, development institutions and strategic investors to enable market development activities
As an active investor, portfolio manager and business builder with a deep understanding of different investors motivations and risk appetites, Ian has been responsible for attracting significant seed, follow-on and growth capital for start-ups, new business models and breakthrough innovation projects as well as providing strategic advice to a range of corporates, investors and funds.
Ian is a former Director at the Carbon Trust, where he was responsible for managing the investment portfolio and leading the commercial development of the Carbon Trust innovation activities. He qualified as an Engineer at University of Cape Town and was awarded a MBA from Cranfield School of Management, UK.
Ian is currently also a Venture Partner at a London based VC and advises on impact investments in emerging markets across Africa and Asia.
Neil has extensive experience in decarbonisation of the buildings sector, where he focuses on assisting with business planning, market analysis and financial forecasting for new potential markets. He has set up and directed many government contracts for which impact assessment was a key metric, most significantly the £6m Energy Efficiency Housing Best Practice programme which ran for six years under the Energy Saving Trust.
He is currently the independent auditor for the legacy Code for Sustainable Homes certification scheme operated by Robust Details Limited (RDL). Previously Neil was Director of the Buildings Low Energy Futures Centre at BRE. Neil enjoys working with innovative technology and has delivered several incubation support tasks for the Energy Entrepreneur’s Fund.
Neil sits on the government’s SAP Scientific Integrity Group, and is a member of the British Computer Society and a Chartered IT Practitioner. He holds a degree in Physics and Computer Science and a PhD in Thermal Regeneration, both from the University of York.
Howard is a very experienced technical and development professional in the waste management sector.
Howard started his career as a regulator and worked in what is now the Environment Agency from 1986 to 1993.
In 1993 Howard joined the Viridor group and spent 20 years working principally as a project manager developing several types of waste infrastructure. This included managing the financial and technical evaluation of those projects as well as obtaining all necessary regulatory consents and the subsequent construction programme. In addition, he built up a database of competitor facilities as well as waste arisings, especially from local authorities. In 2011 Howard was appointed to the main Board as Business Development Director.
During the 20 years spent at Viridor, the types of waste infrastructure he delivered evolved from principally landfill sites, through composting facilities, several types of materials recovery and recycling facilities and most recently energy-from-waste facilities.
In addition, Howard managed the identification and acquisition process by which Viridor acquired ten independent waste management businesses and then integrated those into the Viridor business.
Howard is educated to Higher degree level, holding a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Geology as well as a master’s degree in Hydrogeology. He holds Charterships in Geology, the Environment and Waste Management.
Andrew helps UK business connect and collaborate, supporting them in growing their capabilities in transport related technologies. He is also currently supporting Warwick Manufacturing Group develop their long-term strategy to support UK businesses as Strategic Development Director, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Prior to this he was Chief Strategy Officer of the Transport Systems Catapult where he was responsible for the strategic direction of the Catapult, promoting sustained economic growth and wellbeing through integrated, efficient and sustainable transport systems. Before joining the Catapult, Andrew spent over 6 years at the Technology Strategy Board as Head of Transport and initially Lead Technologist for Low Carbon Vehicles. In his time there he developed the case for the Transport Systems Catapult, delivered over 15 multi-million-pound research and development funding competitions and delivered the Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator programme which saw more than 340 electric vehicles trialled in the UK in 8 locations.
His early interest in engineering and cars led to a Mechanical Engineering Apprenticeship after which Andrew joined Ford Motor Company where he held various positions in Engineering, Finance and Planning. In 1998 Andrew joined Visteon, a spin out of Ford, to take the role of Manufacturing Planning Manager. He then became Programme Manager for the cooling and air conditioning system to be delivered to Kia for their first European which was manufactured car in Slovakia. Andrew then moved to the Energy Saving Trust as Transport Research and Development Programme Manager managing the Department for Transport’s Vehicle Technology Research and Development Fund.
Andrew holds a BSc in Engineering Management from Anglia Polytechnic University, an MSc in Automotive Engineering Design, Manufacture and Management from the University of Hertfordshire and an MBA from Henley Management College.
Garry is a highly respected figure with extensive experience in the Energy, Energy Efficiency and Low Carbon sectors and has done a lot of work in the area of energy innovation.
He was Chief Executive of the Energy Retail Association, which represented the big six energy supply companies in Britain where he participated in the development work of the supplier obligation for smart meters, the development of the Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation. He was a Non-Exec of the Energy Saving Trust and The Ombudsman Service and Chair of the Supplier Obligation for Smart Meters.
Recently he has been operations manager for the Association for the Conservation of Energy where he re-engineered their business and offering, developed a new offering for the Energy Pension Company that included the use of battery storage and worked on the industry analysis of end-to-end system energy use for the UK looking at generation, transmission, distribution and end use. He supported Deutsche Telkom on their strategy in smart energy and advised start up companies in the renewable and carbon measurement space. He has advised in small-scale energy for the developed world.
Garry was a Director of Delivery at the Carbon Trust building the UK’s most cost effective carbon abatement programme. He has worked for KPMG, A.T. Kearney, Halliburton and IBM. Garry is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and the RSA.
MA, MEng (Hons) (Cantab) MSc, PhD, CEng, FIET
Anna has 12 years’ of experience in Power Networks and Renewable Energy, and has spent the last 6 years as working at Director level with Atkins, TNEI and most recently WSP, where she led and grew the Power Systems and Energy Strategy Consulting teams.
Anna has a broad range of knowledge and experience in areas including electricity regulation, power system economics, technical advisory/ due diligence, support to generation/ demand/ storage developers and multi-disciplinary project management. Anna also has experience in power systems studies for both network operators and generation developers.
Prior to moving into the field of Power Networks, Anna has worked in other industry sectors including Strategy Consulting and Investment Banking, and applies principles gained working for major global clients to projects within the Energy industry. Anna has a strong academic background, and was a member of the teaching staff at Bath University for the MSc in Electrical Power Systems for five years, as well as achieving Fellowship of the IET.
Jonathan is an experienced low-carbon energy technologist, engineer, project leader and consultant. Recent projects have involved energy storage, hydrogen, direct air capture of CO2 and CO2 transport and storage facilities.
At BP, Jonathan was the leader of a multi-discipline team of chartered engineers responsible for providing expertise in low-carbon technologies Informing company strategy, providing access to important technologies and also advising projects and operating businesses. Technologies included power from shore, renewables integration, biogas, hydrogen, CO2 utilisation (including CO2 enhanced oil recovery) and power generation from waste heat. Activities included support to corporate venturing including technical due diligence and adviser to technology start-ups.
Jonathan was leader and Chair of the Board of the CO2 Capture Project involving international oil and gas companies, government agencies and technology innovators developing CO2 capture and storage technologies.
With BP Alternative Energy Jonathan was responsible for CO2 capture R&D and engineering review of hydrogen power projects. Inventing new processes for CO2 capture and participating in development of new industry standards.
With BP Energy Jonathan directed and managed development and implementation industrial cogeneration projects.
At Babcock Jonathan project engineeried power station FGD projects.
Jonathan holds a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Manchester University and is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Marie has extensive knowledge and experience in business development, marketing/branding, user experience and product/service design.
After a career in sales, marketing and user experience roles at Blue-chip tech companies such as Microsoft and Orange, Marie decided to put her skills at the service of purpose driven organisations and went freelance in 2016. She could see that better user experience could help bridge the massive intention – action gap in sustainable consumption.
Three years later, to scale up her own impact, she founded the C Collective, a consultancy helping entrepreneurs scale their people and planet-friendly solutions by creating outstanding User Experiences.
Marie has supported the growth of organisations and start ups such as Q-Bot, the Ashden Foundation, LightFi, Ethicalfin, Passivhaus Trust, ChangeNow Summit, Neuville Grid Data
Stephen is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Environmentalist. He is an experience Project Director and PRINCE2® Practitioner. He has led a >£1.5bn capital development programme of projects delivering key waste management infrastructure, including a new fleet of energy from waste power plants, state of the art materials recycling facilities, along with strategic anaerobic digestion and composting facilities.
He has negotiated the EPC contracts of Europes largest PFI/PPP projects. He has used PDRI (project definition rating index) and similar tools to evaluate the status of projects, measure project scope completeness and likelihood of successful outcomes.
Stephen was previously Engineering Director at Viridor. Stephen is naturally analytical in style, backed up by a sense of drive. He is collaborative in his approach, with a focus on achievement. Stephen holds a degree in Geology from Durham Unviersity.
Virginie is an experienced coach, with 26 years’ experience as a B2B innovation commercialisation consultant and more than eight years’ Board level experience. She works as an innovation coach for a range of public and private accelerators supporting start-ups and upscaling SMEs upscaling SMEs with their investment readiness, access to market strategy, partnership and organisational development.
Virginie has expertise in quantifying value propositions for investment readiness, business planning and market entry and specialisms in water, energy and electronics sectors. Her technical expertise includes SaaS/iPaaS, blockchain, IoT and AI.
Virginie is currently a Board Member of the Future Water Association. She was a co-founder of Agily3 in 2105 to act as a Foundry to develop productivity solutions primarily to the water industry.
Virginie has a BA (Hons. Marketing and Law) from E.S.C.E., Paris, a Professional Diploma in Mobile Marketing, a Workboard Objective Key Results (OKR) coaching certificate and is working towards EMCC coach certification.
Robin is a trusted strategy and business consultant with broad experience in business strategy, technology commercialisation, due diligence and M&A. He has strong expertise in developing and implementing strategies for growth, from proposition and business case to the leadership required to build sales teams and generate revenues and has worked in client facing strategy and innovation consultancies, and also in in-house roles within established corporates.
He has provided a broad range of support services to clean technology ventures in areas including micro-CHP, energy storage, smart grid and power line communication and waste heat to power. Focus areas have included general strategy development (value proposition / market entry / commercialisation strategy etc), business development, investor readiness, as well as support in negotiating commercial and shareholder agreements.
He holds a Masters in law with Merit from University College London and an MBA from MBA from Imperial College. He is a qualified solicitor and spent five years at international law firm Allen & Overy before moving into consulting.
Sharon has extensive experience creating compelling visual communications for a wide range of businesses, including corporates, public sector, and small business start-ups. Her expertise includes logos and identity, websites and digital experiences, and online marketing.
Her speciality is in transforming communications to capture the essence and values of the brand, and appeal to the target audience.
At CLT, Sharon works with low carbon innovators to present their business as a commercial enterprise by helping them to effectively communicate complex information in an easily digestible way. For companies supported by the Energy Entrepreneurs’ Fund, Sharon has provided design consultancy and support on branding, websites, pitch deck, and digital marketing projects. For many of these companies, she has worked on multiple projects, creating cohesive brand communications across media platforms.
Sharon holds a HND in Graphic Design. She has previously worked as an Art Director in advertising and as a Graphic Designer for a wide range of clients.
Alan is a cleantech innovation professional with over 30 years’ experience of the international power generation, energy and water sectors. Alan specialises in research, development, innovation, intellectual property commercialisation and strategic asset management. Alan has worked in major corporations such as NEI/Rolls Royce, British Gas, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, Shell, Mott MacDonald and Jacobs.
In addition, Alan has held board positions within research and technology organisations such Narec (now part of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult which he helped to establish in 2012) and ITI Energy in Aberdeen, and has operated as CEO for two university spin-out businesses, both in the water sector, as well as holding board positions on others. Alan holds BSc (Hons:1), MSc and PhD degrees in Engineering Mathematics and an MBA from Durham University. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Paul has demonstrable and consistent commercial success in domestic and international B2B live marketing environments. He has grown, cloned, launched, acquired and re energised a broad portfolio of products across B2B exhibitions, awards, conferences and digital media.
Paul’s expertise includes in creating and executing long term strategic growth plans and budgets, while ensuring that organisational structure and skills are fit for growth. He has experience of driving revenue through organic growth, launches and acquisitions, as well as leading, integrating and unifying multiple diverse teams across the globe. Paul provides clear strategic thinking to empowering marketing teams to get closer to their community and develop ‘think big’ solutions.
In his roles as Global Brand Director and then Divisional managing Director at Easyfairs UK & Global, Paul launched an international sales network, Easyfairs’ first event in the USA and China and was responsible for seven countries across three continents.
Paul has a BA (Hons) Marketing from Bournemouth University. Paul has won multiple AEO and Exhibition News Awards and was the winner of The President’s Award, presented personally by Eric Everard (Founder & Owner of Easyfairs), for an unprecedented three years in a row.
Karen McClellan As an investment banker and fund manager in the public and private sectors, Ms McClellan spent much of her career developing and financing climate change projects. While working for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Karen started one of the first private equity funds for energy efficiency projects and carbon emission credits. She represented the Bank at UNFCCC conferences and crafted its climate change risk and investment policies.
As Head of Asset Management at Carbon Capital Markets, Ms McClellan raised and invested a hedge fund focused on methane recovery projects, later shortlisted for the FT Sustainability Award for Carbon Finance. She also invested as principal in large-scale renewable energy projects. Over the last five years she turned to the application of clean technologies for the distributed energy sector, working in a senior management position for Windfire, a wind turbine developer, and in energy project development for Intelligent Energy, a UK-based leader in hydrogen fuel cells.
She recently acted as lead investor for Naked Energy, a hybrid solar thermal/PV company. Ms McClellan has been a frequent speaker at conferences on regulatory innovations in the energy and carbon markets and was a past lecturer in emerging markets private equity at Stanford University. She was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the Tällberg Foundation in 2013. She served as co-chair of the Panel of Experts for the International Renewable Energy Agency lending facility in 2016 and continues to serve as an expert in evaluating energy projects in developing economies for IRENA.
Ms McClellan received a BA in Economics with honours from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is a dual UK/US citizen and speaks German and French.
Graham Oakes entered the energy sector in 2013 when he founded Upside Energy in response to a challenge prize run by Nesta, a global innovation foundation. Upside has developed a cloud platform that uses advanced algorithms and AI to coordinate large numbers of devices such as home batteries, EVs and heat pumps to provide flexibility to the grid and thus enable greater use of renewable generation. It has won numerous prizes, most notably the 2017 Shell Springboard Prize for Low Carbon Innovation and a 2018 Ashden Award for Energy Innovation. Octopus Energy acquired Upside in November 2020.
He acted as Chief Scientist and chaired Upside’s board until the end of 2018, by which time it had raised almost £10m of grant and equity finance, grown to 35 staff, and won contracts with global firms such as National Grid, EDF and Vertiv. He then stood down in order to focus on helping players within the energy system develop propositions and services that enable people to engage with and benefit from the energy transition.
Graham helps people think about complex situations. He helps them frame the problem clearly and so develop solutions and products that can address it. As a systems engineer, he has 35 years’ experience working with organisations ranging from Cisco, Intel, Sony, Skype and Vodafone to Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam and the Council of Europe to develop high tech systems, products and services.
Graham holds a first degree in Geophysics from the University of Queensland and a PhD from Imperial College, London. He is a Chartered Engineer, FBCS and FRSA. His book Project Reviews, Assurance and Governance, was published by Gower in 2008.
Mark has extensive commercial and managerial experience in both the renewables and buildings sectors. He is particularly experienced in the role of project lead, coordinating consultants and specialists managing processes for equitable selection, financial management, contract management and reporting. Projects of note include the MaRS project (The Crown Estate), Offshore Wind Accelerator and Marine Renewables Proving Fund (Carbon Trust) and the Marine Energy Array Demonstrator (DECC).
In addition, he has carried out strategic technology prioritisation for the ORE Catapult exploiting his marine and offshore renewables experience. He co-authored the report “Maximising Opportunities for UK Financial Investors to support India’s Renewable Energy Ambitions” for DFID.
Mark’s early background is in industrial design and construction . He has implemented numerous construction projects including a programme for the Home Office to refurbish 16 office buildings.
Leveraging many of these skills he has delivered SME business analysis and support for the Energy Entrepreneur Fund to advise SMEs engaged in energy efficiency innovations on the route to market.
David is highly experienced in the commercialisation of innovative clean technology solutions. He has set up and programme managed business incubation services, delivered incubation support directly to over 100 companies and been part of several clean technology startups.
He has worked with SMEs, university spinouts and corporate venturing units for which he has secured project financing, early stage equity investments and innovation grants. David was recently part of a team that designed and built the UK’s first industrial waste heat to power system on a lime kiln.
Previously David was Director of the prestigious SETsquared Business Acceleration initiative at the University of Surrey. He has an MBA from the University of Warwick, an MSc. in Mathematical Modelling and a First Class Honours Degree in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.
Dave is an expert in commercialising new technology, with a specialty in the built environment. He has experience running one of the UK’s largest clean tech business incubators and founded and led a start-up internet security company as a spin-out from a FTSE 250 company. Dave has run engineering teams in factories in Germany and the USA, and headed up research and development activities for five lines of London Underground.
Previously at the Carbon Trust, Dave led the Entrepreneurs Fast Track, which was a new service designed to ‘turbo charge’ and stimulate investment in early-stage clean tech companies. At the time, the scheme had better results than any other Government-funded incubation scheme in the clean tech sector, ever, in terms of the private inward investment and growth of supported businesses.
Dave is also CEO of LoftZone, a company introducing new energy efficiency technologies to the built environment. He joined as CEO when its first product, StoreFloor, was a good idea on a piece of paper, and commercialised it to the point where (by 2017) it had been fitted into 20,000 properties around the world. LoftZone is profitable and growing, without having had any external investment.
Dave holds a Postgraduate degree in Design, Manufacture and Management from the University of Cambridge, and an MEng, Engineering, Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.
James is an experienced grant fund programme manager, with expertise in project development, regulatory compliance, set up, implementation and operational management. He has directed and managed programmes addressing environmental, sustainability and skills agendas within complex regulatory frameworks. He has conducted business analysis and incubation planning sessions for SMEs from a range of cleantech sectors. He has developed processes for organisations to manage data and ensure its protection and transparency.
He understands the issues facing high growth businesses and has helped to develop business support solutions including business incubators and hatcheries and a Local Growth Hub. He has solved complex problems with project delivery and partnership management and has planned the implementation of major regional and national funding programmes, making decisions in negotiations of million pound contracts.
Previously James was European Programme manager for SEEDA. He is a PRINCE2 Practitioner with a degree in History from University of London and MA in Medieval Studies & M.Litt from the University of Bristol.
Richard is an economist with a long career in emerging markets, working for commercial and investment banks such as Bank of America and Santander Investment Securities, asset management companies and specialised debt broking and consulting firms. Beyond traditional analysis of securities markets and macroeconomies, he has developed unique term structure and sovereign risk models. Integral to emerging markets research is an awareness of corporate governance, and he has broadened this more recently with a focus on green and sustainable finance. He has published capital markets guidebooks on Russia and sub-Saharan Africa, and has participated in private sector efforts to cooperate with the Paris Club, notably in the area of sovereign debt restructuring.
Separately, he is an avid writer of fiction in the action and adventure genre, along with travel writing, and his latest work is The Guest House. He takes a keen interest in public policy with regard to financial regulation and fiscal optimisation, and has had articles published in the Society of Professional Economists quarterly bulletin.
He has a degree in economics from MIT, where he specialised in international and labour studies, along with the economics of environmental control.
John has over 30 year’s professional practical experience in global quality, manufacturing and supply chain from start-up companies to global corporations. He has successfully delivered scalability and optimisation through strategic direction and cultural change both internally and throughout multiple supply chains.
He has worked with several global household names in the telecoms, consumer electronics, aerospace, home energy and e-mobility industries as well as key suppliers from printed circuit boards and injection moulding to military aircraft and heavy industrial components and products.
Working from concept to delivery has always been John’s key focus, driven by business case and customer requirements and expectations.
He works closely with cross functional leadership and stakeholder teams to agree, create and implement bespoke step change strategies for supply chain, manufacturing, resource and quality enabling growth plan and investment confidence.
John leverages his skills and experience to support investors and SME’s on their journey to bring innovative new product and customer solutions to market.
Martin is an accomplished technology innovation manager with considerable expertise in product development, science and engineering from concept to production. He has worked in R&D for international materials and consumer electronics companies, initially in photonics and optics, and latterly in renewable energy. Most recently Martin has provided support for the commercialisation of new renewables through technical services, due diligence, project monitoring and programme management.
Within the energy sector, Martin has founded research in renewable heating and cooling, heat pumps, photovoltaics, new battery materials, energy systems, demand response and water purification. He was part of start-up team that established the Faraday Institution, ‘the UK’s go-to place for energy storage research’, and as interim Head of Programme Management initiated projects with £70M in grant funding and actively managing the portfolio of research.
Martin is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and holds a degree in Physics and a PhD in photonics, both from the University of Exeter.
Seasoned business transformation consultant with twenty-six years of consulting experience in the global Energy sector, helping organisations improve operational and business performance, through a combination of technology, business processes and people. He has previously worked with international oil and gas companies such as BP, Shell, Total, Exxon and Marathon, state owned national oil and gas companies such as Kuwait Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Benzina, and related companies in the chemicals, retail, technology and finance sectors.
David is focused on renewable energy and sustainability, and recently completed an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Engineering at the University of Surrey. He has recently helped the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) on learning the lessons from its past five years and structured intervention approaches, an Eastern European oil company on an assessment of options for meeting RE and GHG emissions reduction targets in transport, the EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre on the potential supply of advanced biofuels to 2030, the Carbon Trust Leadership Team on developing strategy for the Portfolio Management Group, and Origin Oil on developing governance models and processes for its global renewable energy joint ventures.
David started his career with Texaco and Mobil, then worked in the management consulting sector, initially with PwC and Arthur D. Little, before forming Creating Our Future management consulting in 2002. He has worked in Europe, US, South America, Middle East, India, Australia and Africa, and has lived in England, Scotland, Sweden, Belgium, Australia, Uganda and Tanzania.
For over 30 years, Nigel has worked directly with circa 400 start-ups and SMEs across a range of business development activities, not least in market research, new product/service development and planning, open innovation, raising finance, planning RD&I activities, securing grants, marketing and sales planning. Nigel has worked on a range of projects where he has on-boarded and assisted businesses seeking incubation and business planning for a range of clients, including the Welsh Government, LEPs and Growth Hubs, and specialist centres such as the Nuclear AMRC.
Within the energy sector, Nigel has supported companies in PV, PVT, wind turbines, tidal flow, transpired solar, energy storage (heat, battery, flywheel) and building energy management systems that integrate renewables, solar heating and cooling, internal/external insulation, heating booster devices, AD, energy from waste, micro hydro and heat pumps.
Nigel’s qualifications include a BSc in Management, MSc in Marketing and a Diploma in Innovation and he is a Fellow of the International Institute of Licensing Practitioners. Nigel provides due diligence for a range of early-stage, debt and equity investors in the Clean Tech space and works closely with the wider incubation stakeholder community, including the universities, local/national government, trade associations, employer federations and institutes.