Virta secures €85m growth funding

Emma Butcher

As Communications Director for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the organisation representing the UK automotive industry, Emma has helped steer, support and champion the sector’s public profile and interests through many issues, including Brexit, and now the ongoing challenge of reaching Net Zero.

Emma joined SMMT in 2015 and has worked in the industry for more than 20 years in various disciplines. Prior to entering PR and Communications, she was an automotive journalist with roles including Editor of Car and Accessory Trader and, latterly, Consumer Editor of What Car?

AFRY

AFRY Management Consulting works globally to address challenges and opportunities in the energy, bioindustry, infrastructure, industrial and future mobility sectors. We have 500 management consultants focusing on the energy transition. We work with energy utilities, charge point operators, e-mobility service providers, automotive companies, regulators, and investors on sustainable mobility strategies. We understand electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure – be it for passenger cars, trucks, or buses. We understand how to decarbonise fleets across road, aviation and maritime. Contact gill.nowell@afry.com to find out more.

Motability Operations Ltd

Motability Operations Ltd is the company behind the Motability Car, Powered Wheelchair and Scooter Schemes that support disabled people and their families to be mobile. As the UK’s largest car leasing company, we help over 600,000 people to get on the road.

The Motability Scheme has been providing affordable, convenient, worry-free motoring for over 40 years. We aim to meet customers’ individual disability needs by providing a wide range of affordable vehicles on the Motability Scheme, under contract to Motability the national charity (which is responsible for oversight of the Scheme).

With the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) fast approaching, we are committed to supporting our customers when they switch to electric. We have been working hard to find viable solutions to our customer’s EV concerns and have run a range of innovative trials to help us understand how the transition to EVs can be made easier.

Trojan Energy

Trojan Energy was formed in 2016 with one mission: to ensure everyone benefits from the energy transition.

Starting with enabling the switch to eMobility, we developed the Trojan Electric Vehicle Charging System. A system that finally offers an equal chance for EV drivers without a driveway to charge effectively at home, while preserving their streetscape. A system that doesn’t require councils to zone off parking spaces and gives network operators the ability to manage power demand in real time. A system smart enough to offer a convenient way to charge that’s green, cheap, immediate – or a combination of all three – at up to 22kW. A system that delivers flat and flush chargepoints in hubs of up to fifteen, or single units powered by the home, to leave the streetscape uncluttered for everyone. We want to give drivers the confidence and convenience they want to go electric.

We’re doing our bit for the global effort to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality by supporting electrification and the transition to renewable energy. We’re doing this by addressing the lack of EV charging infrastructure in your local neighbourhood.

We’re charging towards Net-Zero.

Fastned

Fastned is on a mission to accelerate the transition to electric mobility. Since 2012, we’ve been at the forefront of European charging infrastructure development, building and operating a rapidly growing network of iconic fast charging stations.

Our yellow, nature-inspired stations create a welcoming environment for drivers during the 20 minutes it takes to charge up to 300 miles of range. By offering Europe’s most reliable, convenient and joyful charging experience, we aim to inspire millions to drive on solar and wind energy so that together we can curb climate change. Fastned is listed at Euronext Amsterdam (AMS: FAST).

Christopher Hammond

Christopher is the Chief Executive for UK100, the only network for locally elected leaders in the UK taking ambitious action to deliver Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions. Previously, Christopher served as the elected Leader of Southampton City Council from 2018-2021 and as a Councillor (2013-2022). In 2020, he was shortlisted for ‘Leader of the Year’ in the LGIU Councillor Awards. Christopher holds a degree from Bournemouth University, which named him its 2019 Alumni of the Year. In 2018, he established an award-winning restaurant in Southampton.

Ed Curwen

Ed joined Motability Operations in February 2023 to help reimagine the scheme for electric vehicles. Before that he worked at Magnetic, a design agency, where he helped develop new products for companies like The Economist, Bupa, Mars, and the Post Office.

Felicity Kelly

Felicity has worked at Motability Operations for almost a decade across a number of departments including remarketing and technology. Felicity leads the connected cars programme and is responsible for the delivery of technical innovation projects.

Craig Hibbert

Craig is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in construction, engineering, and business management. With over 25 years of experience, he has held leadership positions in various organisations.

Craig’s passion for sustainability led him to establish EV Civils Solutions Ltd, a consultancy specialising in the development and implementation of sustainable infrastructure solutions for electric vehicles. With a focus on reducing carbon emissions and promoting eco-friendly practices, EV Civils Solutions is driving the transition towards a more sustainable future.

In addition to his professional achievements, Craig is an active member of the construction and engineering communities. He regularly participates in industry events and conferences, sharing his insights and expertise with fellow professionals. His dedication to fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange within the industry has made him a respected figure among his peers, where he champions sustainable construction practices and ways of working.

Marc Hogan

From an ex-sales and marketing professional with over 14 years’ experience to a stand-up comedian in less than 9 months. Marc fuses psychology, common sense, and humour with real life business examples and tales from the comedy circuit to highlight what comedy taught him about business & what business taught him about comedy.

Marc’s keynotes inspire audiences to seek out opportunities, tackle challenges & improve their communication and influencing skills.

UK Power Networks

UK Power Networks own and maintain electricity cables and lines across London, the South East and East of England and make sure power flows reliably, safely, and securely.

Our priorities are to tackle the climate crisis by connecting renewable energy, electric car chargers and low carbon heating, meet our customers evolving needs by improving our services, support our customers in vulnerable circumstances and go above and beyond for the communities we serve.

Hannah Fairley

Hannah leads the Public Relations and Communications for Fastned in the UK as UK PR Manager. She joined Fastned from the non-profit sector, with her most recent role leading the Communications for Climate Group’s industrial decarbonisation campaigns. Previously she held roles at the Institute of Physics, International Institute of Environment and Development and TRAID. Hannah has a Bachelors of Design from the University of Dundee, and is currently studying for a Masters in Global Environmental Politics and Policy at Birkbeck, University of London.

Gill Nowell

Gill has worked with the electric vehicle and energy industry, and EV driving community for over ten years. A co-founding Director of EVA England, she is now Principal consultant at global sustainable engineering company AFRY, helping accelerate the transition to e-mobility through, for example, new market entry, charging infrastructure growth, fleet decarbonisation and innovation.

Paul Lowbridge

Paul is Head of Customer Management at National Grid Electricity Transmission. He is accountable for working with customers to connect their projects to the high voltage transmission network in England & Wales.

Paul has worked at National Grid for over 12 years, holding a number of roles across strategic, commercial and operational functions. Prior to Electricity Transmission, Paul worked directly with the Group CEO and Executive Team. His experience also includes 10 years within the GB Electricity System Operator, holding leadership roles responsible for delivery of market facilitation, back-office mechanisms, contract management and strategic relationship management.

Lizzie Culwick

Lizzie is Joint Head of the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, leading work on consumer experience regulations, vehicle policy and incentives. Over the last three years she was Head of the Digital Railway team at the Department for Transport, leading large transformational change programmes to deliver digital signalling across the UK rail network.

Prior to joining the Department for Transport she led the energy security stakeholder engagement team at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Before joining the Civil Service, Lizzie worked for a Public Affairs consultancy with clients across renewable energy, finance, low carbon transport and electricity storage sectors.

Bharat Pathania

Bharat is heading the Technology, Digital and Energy programme at Midlands Connect (MC). MC is a Sub-National Transport Body based in England. MC is a partnership of 22 Local Authorities across East and West Midlands, Local Enterprise Partnerships, National Highways, Network Rail, HS2 and DfT. MC researches, develops and progresses transport projects which will provide the biggest possible environmental, economic and social benefits for the Midlands and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Bharat’s role includes developing & delivering strategies/programme across a broad portfolio of transport technologies in Midlands. This includes but not limited to development of business cases and funding asks to DfT/HM Treasury, development of region wide multi-modal contactless ticketing technical solution, developing a regional and a national business case for contactless ticketing, Mobility as a Service, major road network technology, accelerating electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in Midlands, developing regional EV business case, delivery of Local EV Infrastructure Fund (LEVI) fund to deliver charge points across multiple local authorities, 5G revolution, alternative fuels, identifying technology gaps across the region and creating technology route maps/actions plans over the next 30 years.

Transport + Energy

Transport + Energy explores the transition of two sectors who need to collaborate for the first time to facilitate the decarbonisation of transport; bringing news, comment and features on key trends and developments. T+E organises an annual forum, with a particular focus for local authorities, who are able to benefit from fully funded delegate places.

Meel Group

Meel Group is a specialist group of mechanical and electrically biased companies made up of the following:

The Projects division has more than half a century of success in delivering projects safely and reliably. Our M&E Contractors are proud to be part of the NHS SBS Framework Agreement for Hard Facilities Management. We undertake projects across the Northwest region and further afield.

For over 55 years, our Building Services division has designed, installed and maintained Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing installations for residential, industrial, healthcare, education and commercial clients.

We have large dedicated teams for MEP, Planned and Reactive Maintenance, Smart Monitoring, Laboratory Design, High-Pressure Gas and Gas Detection.

Adopting renewable energy is vital in reaching the net-zero emissions target by 2050. Our Sustainability Solutions division provides efficient, renewable energy solutions for your commercial or public building, enabling it to move towards a sustainable future. Additionally, we have a team dedicated to the commercial installation of EV charging stations.

Mobius

Mobius Networks is the UKs leading Internet of Things (IoT) airtime provider in terms of Security, Availability and Customer Service. Our security is validated by Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard which includes a pattern of penetration testing through the year and reflected in our Security Scorecard (securityscorecard.com/security-rating/mobiusnetworks.co.uk) of 98/100.

On availability Mobius invests heavily to ensure 99.999% core availability through two geographically separate locations with high availability pairs and an ‘open mouth’ structure to ensure rapid recovery from any interruption in service.

Our operations team are supported by our Portal – Bifrost but our main focus is a concierge service that delivers a ‘white glove’ level of customer service that has resulted in a Net Promoter Score of 9.8/10 over the last year, possibly the highest in the industry.

To find out more information on our innovative commercial solutions and outstanding technical support please contact us on +44 1530 511 180 or enq@mobiusnetworks.co.uk.

Simon Stacey

Simon is a passionate advocate for sustainable transport and energy technology. He has over 15 years of experience in building ventures and value propositions and is currently Head of Product at ElectriX. Prior to this, Simon was an management consultant at Monitor Deloitte, where he helped large organisations transform to towards the net-zero economy. He has also worked with a range of other organisations in the energy technology sectors, including Enel, British Gas and Vestas.

Neil Madgwick

Neil has been supporting the low carbon transition within UK Power Networks for the past ten years. He, and his team, ensure that customers have all the information and tools they need to connect as quickly and efficiently as possible to the electricity distribution network across London, the south east and the east of England.

Stewart Reid

Stewart has worked in the electricity industry since 1983 and has been involved in managing electricity networks across the UK, in a range of roles including: operations management, planning, policy, project management and asset management in the fields of IT and Power Engineering.

He is a Fellow of the IET and a Chartered Engineer.

He is now the Head of Future Networks, within SSEN with the remit of adapting the business to deal with the challenges of de-carbonisation and introducing better ways of managing the electricity network, translating these new ideas into business as usual as part of the transition to Distribution System Operator (DSO) in a Digitised world.

Key elements of Stewart’s current role include the development and deployment of new technical and market based solutions utilising the principles of flexibility as an alternative to traditional asset based network development.

Other areas of involvement include network monitoring, active network management, robotics, analytics, modelling, frequency responsive demand, embedded energy storage and activities associated with preparations for the large-scale electrification of transport and heat.

Within the Energy Networks Associations Stewart chairs the Energy Networks Associations Low Carbon Technologies Group. He is also a member of the ENA Electricity Networks Futures Group.

EDF Renewables

EDF Renewables UK and Ireland (www.edf-re.uk) is part of EDF Group, one of the world’s largest low carbon electricity companies, and our investment and innovation is reducing costs for consumers and bringing significant benefits for communities.

We played a major role in one of the UK’s most ambitious urban decarbonisation projects to date, Energy Superhub Oxford. Showcasing ground-breaking energy storage capabilities, cutting-edge electric vehicle charging, low carbon heating and smart energy management technologies, the project aims to save 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, rising to 25,000 tonnes per year by 2032.

Cordi O’Hara

Cordi is responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, serving more than eight million customers across the East and West Midlands, South West and South Wales. As President, Cordi is accountable for National Grid’s £6bn investment programme that will be delivered between 2023-28, keeping clean, fair, affordable power flowing to homes and businesses across our region.

Previously Cordi was President of National Grid Ventures, where she led the development, financing, construction and operation of large-scale energy assets; such as electricity interconnectors, LNG storage and regasification, onshore wind and solar generation.
Cordi also served as Chief Operating Officer at National Grid’s US Gas Business and before that she ran the UK System Operator for National Grid, where she oversaw the strategy, planning and operation of over 14,000 miles of gas and electricity networks in Great Britain.

In her time at National Grid, Cordi has been a strong advocate for innovative solutions to a decarbonised energy market, believing clean technology solutions and new demand response initiatives can help to deliver Government targets for net zero.

Cordi became a fellow of the UK Energy Institute in 2016, acknowledging her significant experience in UK and European energy markets and networks. She was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the energy industry.

Stephen Trayner

Stephen has been in the operations and customer experience world for over 20 years. With a career spanning multiple industries, he has delivered award winning functions and services across sectors, and brought transformational change and sustainable improvement to a variety of businesses and clients. For the last 2+ years Stephen has focussed that expertise on the EV industry and users. Working closely with the Scottish Government in overseeing further award winning transformation of the ChargePlace Scotland public network to a highly utilised, reliable, and easily accessible one ready for an increasingly Net Zero future; and now looking ahead to what success means, and looks like, as increasing commercialisation and regulation of the UK market becomes a reality.

Stephen Elderkin

Stephen is responsible for transforming the environmental sustainability of National Highways. An economist by profession, he worked for 10 years as a civil servant in central Government departments. Stephen worked on environmental policy, including leading the government’s analysis for the Climate Change Act and setting of the first four carbon budgets.

Since joining National Highways he has been Chief Analyst, led a £1bn construction project and in the last 2 years been the company’s first environmental sustainability director.

REA

The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (known as the REA) is the UK’s largest trade association for renewable energy and clean technologies with around 550 members operating across heat, transport, power, and the circular economy.

The REA is a not-for-profit organisation representing fourteen sectors, ranging from composting, biogas, and renewable fuels to solar and electric vehicle charging. Membership ranges from major multinationals to sole traders.

National Grid

National Grid lies at the heart of a transforming energy system. Our business areas play a vital role in connecting millions of people to the energy they use, while continually seeking ways to make the energy system cleaner.

• NG Ventures and NG Partners also enable innovations to help revolutionise and decarbonise the future of energy.
• NG Electricity Transmission owns and operate the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales
• NG Electricity Distribution owns and operate the electricity distribution networks for the Midlands, the South West and South Wales.

SWARCO Smart Charging

SWARCO Smart Charging is committed to supporting the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles. It provides electric vehicle charging infrastructure and the systems, and services to support them, and has more than 12,000 charging points installed across the UK with an uptime of 99.1%. SWARCO Smart Charging is part of SWARCO – an international group providing the complete range of products, systems, services and solutions for road safety and intelligent traffic management to support the mobility needs of society and lower transport-related emissions.

James Court

CEO, Electric Vehicle Association England

James is CEO of EVA England, before this he led the work of the Cabinet Office on the COP26 transport policy and helped build the Climate Group’s UK Electric Fleets Coalition (UKEFC), representing the UK’s biggest fleet owners. Before that he was Director of Policy and Communications at the renewables trade body the REA – the Renewable Energy Association.

Shamala Evans-Gadgil

Senior Programme/Project Manager

Shamala is a 3^rd year part time PGR within the Research Institute for Clean Growth and Future Mobility at Coventry University and is also an experienced Senior Civil Engineer and Programme/Project Manager, in the design and implementation of challenging, complex and wide-ranging infrastructure projects. Her experience includes (1) Innovation projects within the decarbonising transport platform, renewables, battery storage and management; (2) Local Transport Plans, including Network Efficiency projects and Waste Management projects; (3) Traffic Management, including traffic calming measures; (4) General roadworks, including road geometry; and (5) Regeneration, public realm and urban environment projects.

Jonathan Murray

Jonathan is the Policy and Operations Director at Zemo Partnership and has responsibility for formulating the policy objectives of the Partnership, in conjunction with government departments and members, ensuring the work programme reflects those policy objectives and disseminating the outputs of the Partnership’s work programme to policy makers. Jonathan has direct responsibility for co-ordinating the Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce and delivery of the work programme and liaison with Taskforce stakeholders. He also has responsibility for operational aspects of the Partnership’s activities.

Jonathan is an environmental economist with over 20 years of experience working in the automotive and fuel industries for companies including the Energy Saving Trust, the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) and Total Oil among others. His experience involves developing policy, designing and implementing programmes to promote markets for environmental vehicles, technologies and fuels working closely with the UK Government and EC during the last two decades.

Jonathan Murray

Policy and Operations Director at Zemo Partnership

Jonathan is the Policy and Operations Director at Zemo Partnership and has responsibility for formulating the policy objectives of the Partnership, in conjunction with government departments and members, ensuring the work programme reflects those policy objectives and disseminating the outputs of the Partnership’s work programme to policy makers. Jonathan has direct responsibility for co-ordinating the Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce and delivery of the work programme and liaison with Taskforce stakeholders. He also has responsibility for operational aspects of the Partnership’s activities.

Jonathan is an environmental economist with over 20 years of experience working in the automotive and fuel industries for companies including the Energy Saving Trust, the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) and Total Oil among others. His experience involves developing policy, designing and implementing programmes to promote markets for environmental vehicles, technologies and fuels working closely with the UK Government and EC during the last two decades.

Matt Adams

Matt is the EV policy lead at RECHARGE UK, the EV forum of the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA). Matt has been actively involved in EV policy for the last three years having previously worked at Drax on among other areas their EV policy. His primary interests lie in accelerating chargepoint deployment and system flexibility while ensuring public chargepoints can be accessed by and are safe for everyone. Before Drax, Matt wrote his master’s dissertation on decarbonising public transport, concluding Local Authorities must be given appropriate resources to provide attractive, net zero public transport to reduce congestion.

Energy Networks Association

The Energy Networks Association represents the companies which operate the electricity wires, gas pipes and energy system in the UK and Ireland.

The ENA helps its members meet the challenge of delivering electricity and gas to communities across the UK and Ireland safely, sustainably and reliably.

Members include every major electricity and gas network operator in the UK and Ireland, independent operators, National Grid ESO which operates the electricity system in Great Britain and National Grid which operates the gas system in Great Britain. The organisation’s affiliate membership also includes companies with an interest in energy, including Heathrow Airport and Network Rail.

EVA England

Electric Vehicle Association (EVA) England is the voice of electric vehicle drivers. It strives to accelerate the mass adoption of electric cars through provision of accessible information to consumers, and strategic campaigning to UK Government on key policy matters.

EVA England is run for EV drivers, by EV drivers. The group promote the environmental and health benefits of electric vehicles to the public in England.

EVA England is a collective voice, working with all stakeholders to pro-actively identify and highlight the specific issues of ownership and driving of electric vehicles and associated infrastructure in England.

Black Country Transport

Black Country Transport (BCT) is a strategic transport partnership between Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton Councils.

BCT brings together officers from the four Black Country local authorities; with a team of central officers to provide project management of cross-boundary transport schemes. By working collaboratively, the group aims to assist the local authorities with developing projects that span more than one borough and encourage consistency of provision across the Black Country region.

Black Country Transport is innovative in its approach to roads by ensuring they cater for all by providing for walking, cycling, cars, lorries, and public transport. The projects developed also work with new technologies, such as optimised traffic signals that can support cycle and bus priority and alter their timings depending on traffic demand, and electric vehicle charge points.

Transport Technology Forum (TTF)

The Transport Technology Forum exists to give leadership, direction and support and to stimulate investment in innovation and technology solutions.

The Forum provides a dynamic space where road operators and their suppliers can exchange information and agree to work more collaboratively in order to achieve a more cohesive approach.

The Forum encourages the adoption of new ways of thinking and innovative technical solutions for the improvement of traffic flow through better network operation and management. This in turn will deliver significant economic, social and business benefit to the UK.

The Forum also aims to ensure that its stakeholders gain and maintain a fair share of voice with policy-makers.

The Forum’s remit includes, but is not limited to:

• Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), including Connected ITS (C-ITS);
• Automotive;
• Smart Mobility and Mobility as a Service (MaaS);
• Smart Cities and communities;
• Logistics;
• and ICT and related developments including Cloud computing and Big Data.

The Forum has no statutory remit and its impact and influence are entirely dependent on the momentum it generates, the soundness of its judgments and the quality of work it produces.

The Transport Technology Forum receives funding from the Department for Transport and Innovate UK to help achieve change and technological innovation with collaborating organisations.

National Highways

National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all four UK administrations, through the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. Within England, it operates information services through the provision of on-road signage and its Traffic England website, provides traffic officers to deal with incidents on its network, and manages the delivery of improvement schemes to the network.

The EV Network

The EV Network (EVN) is a leading independent EV charging infrastructure development company, delivering a range of EV charging infrastructure services across the UK, Europe, the US and worldwide. Our primary model is based on ‘infrastructure as a service’ – delivering a turn-key charging site delivery solution – and consolidating multiple interfaces on behalf of the client to decrease the cost. We use our assets to fully fund the entire capital costs of site development and maintenance, allowing CPOs, operators and landlords the ability to introduce charging infrastructure at their desired specification to consumers whilst managing their capital

EVN wants all regions of the UK to benefit from and be part of the EV transition. By working with local authorities, private organisations and commercial businesses, delivering high-value and high-quality EV charging solutions on critical sites, we can significantly increase the sustainability of local communities and drive investment into our towns and cities across the UK.

Green 2 Delivery

Green 2 Delivery is aiming to be the UK’s first zero-emissions, fully sustainable two-person delivery business, providing an environmentally friendly alternative to the fossil-fuel networks currently operated by others.

The company provide expert supply chain solutions for retailers and brands that aid in getting their products to the end-user in a timely, sustainable and safe manner whilst not reducing overall customer satisfaction.

Green 2’s main focus is on helping to reduce the environmental impact of the current home delivery sector.

A modern-day disruptor in the fossil-fuelled warehousing and delivery marketplace Green 2’s mission is to provide a customer-centric delivery solution that doesn’t impact the future of our planet.

Zemo Partnership

Zemo is an independent, non-profit partnership. We bring government, industry and experts together with one ultimate aim – to accelerate transport to zero emissions.

Cenex

Cenex lowers emission through innovation in transport & associated energy infrastructure and operates as an independent, not-for-profit research technology organisation (RTO) and consultancy. It specialises in project delivery, innovation support and market development.

Energy Saving Trust

Energy Saving Trust is an independent organisation dedicated to promoting energy efficiency, low carbon transport and sustainable energy use. We aim to address the climate emergency and deliver the wider benefits of clean energy as we transition to net zero.
We empower householders to make better choices, deliver transformative programmes for governments and support businesses with strategy, research and assurance – enabling everyone to play their part in building a sustainable future.

UK100

UK100 is a network of local leaders who have pledged to lead a rapid transition to Net Zero with Clean Air in their communities ahead of the government’s legal target.

UK100’s primary purpose is to support a local-led rapid transition to Net Zero and Clean Air. We do this through collaboration. To accelerate action, we believe in bringing together the most influential leaders across the country to learn together and agree on priorities for legislative and regulatory change while empowering them to engage with national decision-makers. We provide our network with the knowledge, tools and connections to make this happen.

David Boyer

David is responsible for leading all aspects of ENA’s work around electricity systems, including the organisation’s flagship projects helping to make the UK’s energy grid smarter and more flexible, delivering benefits for customers in the long run.

David joined the ENA from Accenture and has over 13 years of experience in the utilities sector. He began his career with UK Power Networks, where he worked in a host of engineering roles before specialising in putting innovation into practice, as Innovation Manager. At Accenture, he spent five years on strategic projects, often focused on the challenges within energy transition.

Lucy Hayward-Speight

Lucy has 20 years’ experience, including 10 years in consultancy and now more recently at Transport for London where she leads on London’s transport policy relating to the environment. Lucy covers air quality, carbon, electric vehicle infrastructure and climate change. Within this, some key projects and policies include the development of the Ultra Low Emission Zone and its subsequent iterations, the associated London scrappage schemes, changes to the Low Emission Zone for heavy vehicles, and taxi and private hire emissions policies, including changes to the licencing requirements, the London taxi decommissioning fund and changes to vehicle age limits.

With the Mayor’s ambition for the capital to be net zero carbon by 2030, she has been working hard on what changes might need to be made for this in the transport field. Electric vehicles will play a part in this and Lucy led the recent 2030 London Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Strategy, which built on her work with the Mayor’s EV infrastructure Taskforce previously. Before TfL, Lucy worked as a transport consultant advising on the environmental impacts of transport policies, plans and projects, as well as at a county council on their Local Transport Plan.

Dr Euan McTurk

Dr McTurk is a consultant battery electrochemist who has been working on – and driving – electric vehicles since 2009. During that time, he has worked on next-generation cell chemistries; instrumented commercial EV cells to find out how hard they can really be pushed, what causes them to fail and how to stop them failing; and built up a state-of-the-art battery test facility in Edinburgh.

Euan is also the creator of the YouTube channel Plug Life Television, which explains complex battery electrochemistry in a way that anyone can understand and busts several myths and misconceptions about EVs and decarbonisation. Following the success of Plug Life Television, Euan founded Plug Life Consulting, which assists academia, industry, business and government with technical, strategy and public outreach projects relating to battery electrochemistry, electric vehicles, energy storage systems and charging infrastructure.

Warren Philips

Warren is a renewables and EV campaigner and will provide a consumer viewpoint to the board.

EVA England was established to provide consumer advocacy and services – it offers a voice for current, new and prospective electric vehicle drivers to accelerate the transition to an electric England. With a background in IT across transport, local government and power, Warren has a broad understanding of the challenges faced in the transport and energy sectors.

Dr Russell Fowler

Russell is the Senior Manager looking at National Grid’s role in transport decarbonisation – from rapid EV charging to synthetic fuels for aviation.
In previous roles at National Grid, E.ON and RWE Russell: led the analysis for RIIO-2, National Grid ESO’s first price control, helping the ESO to be able to operate the system carbon free by 2025; led the production of the Future Energy Scenarios, electricity demand and was part of the Electricity Market Reform project setting up the first low carbon capacity and security of supply auctions. Russell also holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Birmingham.

Sara Sloman

Sara has been involved in delivering sustainability centred infrastructure projects for over fifteen years both in the private and public sector. She brings an understanding of the lifecycle of EV infrastructure and the necessary steps required to successfully implement an effective sustainability strategy. Sara believes in supporting all modes of transport for a sustainable future and her passion has always been in clean energy and zero emission mobility. Named as EV Champion in 2018 and subsequently named as one of Green TV’s Top Women in EV as well featuring on the GreenFleet “100 Most influential” list in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and Vulogs Women in Mobility awards, Sara wants to help fleets convert away from ICE vehicles and help the UK’s fleet operators reach their net zero targets. She is a host of popular EV Community group ‘The EV Café’ .

Dr Anthony Velazquez

Toni is Manager of Decarbonisation at Bechtel and his responsibilities include net zero strategy, carbon reporting, and disclosures. Some of his previous roles include Head of Environment and Decarbonisation at TRL and academic researcher and UCL. Toni is an expert in the nexus between transport decarbonisation and the whole energy system. He has won many research grants and program managed the delivery of those projects, as well as having a significant list of publications.

Ross Easton

Ross is Director, External Affairs at ENA and joined the organisation in January 2020. He leads ENA’s External Affairs team who deliver high-quality public affairs, digital and media engagement on behalf of members.

Ross has 15 years of experience advising senior leaders, including CEOs, Board Directors and Cabinet ministers at the heart of government.
He began his career in the energy industry at SSE in 2006, where he spent seven years in the corporate affairs function before holding similar roles at The Weir Group and Network Rail. He moved into the UK Government in 2017 as a civil servant working in the area of building safety policy and supporting Dame Judith Hackitt with the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety.

In 2019 he became Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Julian Smith, where he worked on New Decade, New Approach, a deal which restored the government of the Northern Ireland Executive after a three-year hiatus.

Image courtesy of ENA.

Paul Kirby

Paul has over 30 years of automotive experience including working for an LCV Manufacturer, managing a fleet operation and senior leasing roles focused on commercial vehicles. Having first driven an Electric Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in 2004 and then later helping launch the Electric Vito in 2008, he also headed up the electrification strategy for the UK’s leading vehicle broker, Vanarama. Paul now runs his own consultancy business called EV Essentials.

Recognised by GreenFleet as being in the Top 100 most influential people operating in the fleet sustainability space, his main aim is to help fleets of all shapes and size get started on the transition to an electric/zero emission fleet

Jeremy Yapp

Jeremy Yapp began his professional life managing an independent retail business. He worked for some years in the Australian Parliament and then in several energy and environment policy areas in the UK Civil Service. For BEAMA he previously represented the supply chain of smart metering, smart data, smart buildings, distributed energy storage and EV infrastructure.

Jacob Roberts

Jacob is Senior Policy & Strategy Consultant at Cenex. He was previously Transport Policy Manager at the REA, with responsibilities for the REA EV Forum; the UK’s largest EV charging industry association. Jacob has worked in and around the e-mobility industry for over six years, beginning his career in local government before working for Energy Saving Trust and later for Cenex, always with the broad purpose of supporting the transition to zero-emission vehicles. As an industry representative at the REA, Jacob’s primary goal is to support member organisations to navigate and influence the regulatory landscape of the EV charging industry. However, Jacob is also keen to support public and private sector organisations to understand the EV charging industry, allowing them to make informed decisions, develop ambitious plans, and create new market opportunities in the EV charging infrastructure sector.

Philip New

Philip is the former CEO of the Energy Systems Catapult. The ESC 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.

He is a Commissioner on the global Energy Transition Commission and a member of the Global Futures Council of the World Economic Forum. Philip is also a Fellow of the Energy Institute and sits on various Advisory Panels.

Before joining the Catapult Philip worked for BP for over 30 years in a range of international commercial leadership roles. Philip has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.

Dr Benjamin Silverstone

Dr Benjamin Silverstone holds an MSc in Management and a PhD in Engineering as well as a professional teaching qualification. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Ben has worked in education for almost 20 years and has held various teaching and management positions in Colleges and Universities. At present Ben is the Director of the WMG Skills Centre which oversees the development and delivery of courses that are not part of degree programmes. His role places him as a thought leader in the space of future skills and he is regularly engaged with government bodies in establishing the evolution of skills in the UK. Ben is a founder of, and leads, the National Electrification Skills Framework as part of a coalition of leading UK institutions and industrial partners. As part of this work he also chairs the national forum on Electrification Skills. In addition to his leadership roles Ben has also published in a wide range of media on the topics of skills and human interaction with technology. Early in his career Ben spent a total of 15 years with the Royal Navy and HM Coastguard earning several commendations.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah

Rosamund is a grassroots campaigner in Lewisham raising awareness of asthma and the health problems that can be caused by air pollution, following the death of her 9-year old daughter, Ella Roberta, in 2013. Rosamund is now a leading light in the global fight against air pollution, a position recognised by the World Health Organisation, who made her a BreatheLife Ambassador. She set up The Ella Roberta Foundation which believes the Coroner’s recommendations issued after the landmark inquest into Ella’s death have the power to improve air quality for everyone, everywhere. The Foundation’s work is to campaign for these guidelines to be followed by governments, councils, medical professionals and the general public, all over the world. She uses her experience and position to highlight the inequality of those affected by air pollution.

She is a teacher, lecturer and researcher in psychology and an advocate of Clean Air. She has been awarded a CBE in public health in the Kings Honours list 2023, and is an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association and was named among You Magazine’s 21 Most Extraordinary Women of 2021, British Vogue’s 25 Extraordinary Women of 2021, The Times’ Green Power List 2021 and BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List 2020.

Debbie King

Debbie is Acting Head of Environment and Climate at Lancashire County Council, managing teams delivering the council’s environment and climate programme, nature recovery, the Countryside Service and Public Rights of Way.

Debbie has twenty years’ experience working in local government, moving through different roles in environment and climate strategy and policy development, community projects, partnership development and public health. She is leading delivery of the council’s EV infrastructure strategy and delivery programme, including the LEVI pilot project.

Vicky Read

Vicky has over 20 years of public policy experience in the UK and EU, having worked across the technology, telecoms, infrastructure and media sectors. Motivated by the urgent need to decarbonise our economies, she joined the EV charging sector in 2021, first at Dutch charging network Fastned, and then at on-street charging provider Connected Kerb, where she has been Head of Policy and Public Affairs since January 2023. Vicky played a key role in establishing the charging infrastructure industry body ChargeUK and is currently Vice-Chair, leading on policy and communications.

Edmund King OBE

Edmund King is President of the Automobile Association and Director of the AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety and the Environment. He is also a Visiting Professor of Transport at Newcastle University.

He has written several reports on transport and often appears as a transport commentator on radio, television, and podcasts. He was an advisor to the Citizens Assembly UK on climate change and drives an EV.

He was awarded an OBE for ‘services to road safety’ in 2016. He was runner-up in the Wolfson Economics Prize 2017 alongside his wife, Deirdre, for their thesis on ‘Road Miles’.

In 2020 he was inducted into the PRWeek ‘Hall of Fame’ and with his team won the PRWeek Best Public Affairs Campaign and PRCA Best Automotive Campaign for their work on ‘smart’ motorways.

He is a keen advocate of electric vehicles and often promotes their benefits in blogs, podcasts, articles and at conferences.

Natalie Berry

Natalie works as part of Fastned’s New Markets Team, working to bring Fastned’s ultra fast, highly reliable and really-quite-unmissable charging stations to all corners of Europe. Sitting at the crossroads of public affairs and business development, Natalie and team are experienced in identifying and accelerating opportunities to roll out top quality charging infrastructure. Natalie joined Fastned in 2021 and has experience working in the public and private sector, both in the UK and abroad.

Fastned is a leading charge point operator with more than 260 ultra fast charging stations across Europe, totalling more than 1,500 charge points. Fastned’s mission is to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility, and is delivering on that through its goal of building 1,000 fast charging stations. All electric vehicles are welcome at Fastned stations, where charging is designed to be quick, easy and comfortable for all.

We are EV Civils Solutions Ltd, a company that has dedicated itself to the install of EV charge points and its associated infrastructure. Working nationwide we assist our clients with their civils installation needs. Along side this we also operate EV civils consult. Offering clients bespoke consultation packages for their EV charger installs, predominantly affording clients the option of accessing a reduced carbon install via electric kit and lean management reports in the process. We now also manufacture our own reduced carbon concrete EZ Block, further reducing the carbon footprint of all of our installs.

Toddington Harper

Toddington is a second-generation solar energy and energy storage professional with a strong background in sustainable energy solutions. He has successfully led multiple sustainable energy and low carbon businesses as CEO for the past 20 years. Toddington’s previous experience includes co-founding and leading BELECTRIC UK, where he oversaw the development and construction of utility-scale solar farm and rooftop projects.

In his quest to combat climate change, Toddington founded GRIDSERVE Sustainable Energy Ltd. GRIDSERVE achieved early success by securing a prominent battery storage contract with National Grid. Since then, the company has become a leader in the UK solar energy and technology market. Despite challenging circumstances, such as Brexit and the global pandemic, GRIDSERVE opened the UK’s first Electric Forecourt® in Braintree in 2020.

In 2021, GRIDSERVE expanded its presence in the charging space by acquiring the UK’s largest existing charging network, the Electric Highway and investing heavily in upgrading it. GRIDSERVE introduced new charging technology, improved payment systems, and expanded the network to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles. In 2022, GRIDSERVE opened over 100 High Power chargers across new Super Hubs and an Electric Forecourt® in Norwich. GRIDSERVE continue to install 350kW-capable High Power chargers in various locations throughout the UK. The company plans to open more Super Hubs in 2023 and expand further in the coming years.

Ian Johnston

Ian has been the CEO of Osprey since 2018, leading the business’ growth to become one of the largest and most popular UK rapid charging networks. Prior to taking the helm, as COO of Temporis Wind he was responsible for developing and installing over 100 grid-connected renewable energy projects, including the UK’s largest portfolio of onshore FIT wind farms. His earlier career at Volkswagen Group UK included roles in Marketing, and Operations Management of 15 franchised retailers.

Matthew Ling

Matthew is Environment Strategy Manager at Suffolk County Council. He has worked in the public and private sector here and in New Zealand. He has managed large operational teams in delivering projects in climate change, travel planning, energy, development and public protection, co-establishing the Suffolk Climate Change Partnership in 2009. He leads on EV infrastructure strategy and implementation (including LEVI funded projects) and the Suffolk Fuel Poverty Energy Retrofit Team. Matthew has a BSc, PhD, and PgCE, and is a Chartered Environmentalist.

Jason Torrance

Jason Torrance is Interim Chief Executive at UK100 – the network for highly ambitious UK locally elected leaders committed to cleaner, more powerful communities. He has led work that delivered three International Clean Air Summit’s in 2018 and 2019, a Resilient Recovery Task Force in 2020 and an International Net Zero Local Leadership Summit in July 2021 that convened 32 Mayors and local leaders together with UK Government Ministers to agree ambitious action to deliver Net Zero climate emissions. He has previously held roles as Campaigns Director at the Campaign for Better Transport, Policy Director at Sustrans and Co-chair of Highways England’s stakeholder advisory group.

For more than a century, the AA has been dedicated to serving fleets at every stage of their journey, providing breakdown cover, insurance, automotive guidance, and additional services to many millions of members, customers and drivers.

As the transition to alternative fuels continues, we remain devoted to being the leading provider of EV support services. We work closely in global partnership with industry organisations, vehicle manufacturers, and innovative infrastructure providers, to ensure we all achieve our net zero goals.

We’re firmly committed to supporting safer and more accessible ways of driving, helping fleets achieve this in the most efficient way possible, alongside our partners at Drivetech and Prestige Fleet Servicing.

Chris Skidmore

The Rt Hon Chris Skidmore MP has been the MP for Kingswood since 2010. He has served in five government departments between 2015 and 2020 including as Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation twice between 2018 and 2020. In 2019, he was also appointed Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth, attending Cabinet, during which time he signed the UK’s commitment to Net Zero by 2050 into law, and helped secure the UK Presidency of COP26. Most recently, he served as the Chair of the Government’s Independent Net Zero Review, and published the 340 page ‘Mission Zero’ report in January 2023. He is currently Chair of the All Party Group on the Environment and is also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Ben Kilbey

Communications Strategist

Ben has been in the media and communications industry for over 20 years. His career spans travel writing to financial publications, including the FT and The Guardian. Ben spent 13 years as a market intelligence reporter/relationship manager at S&P Global where he gained expert knowledge of the metals industry and also became a commentator on batteries and the energy transition.

Jonathan Jenkins

Head of Innovation, Motability Operations

Jonathan is Head of Innovation at Motability Operations, where he supports the Board and the Executive Team on the strategy to support disabled people with a worry-free transition to electric vehicles (EVs).

Jonathan leads the Innovation Team, in facilitating partnerships from emerging start-ups to Global corporations who offer a solution to support Motability Scheme customers. Collaborating with key players on emerging modes of transport, to ensure accessibility remains at the forefront of industry innovation.

Jonathan is a Chartered Accountant and has held roles in strategy and senior Finance positions in both Motability Operations and within an FMCG FTSE 100 company.

Chris Rimmer

Deputy Head of Department, Cenex

Chris is the Deputy Head of Department in Cenex’s Energy Systems and Infrastructure department. Having worked on Connected Homes at E.ON for a number of years, he leads the Infrastructure Strategy work, advising councils, charities, companies and countries on how to get the right number of chargepoints of the right type in the right places. Previously. he led the Innovate UK-sponsored EV-elocity and Cenex’s involvement in the E-Flex V2G projects. He now oversees Cenex’s involvement in the support of OZEV’s LEVI fund, and has recently completed a feasibility study into dynamic wireless charging.

When not thinking about Electric Vehicle infrastructure, he is an active member of his local church, loves walking in the Peak District and spending time with his family.

Quentin Willson

Motoring Broadcaster, Transport Campaigner and Founder of FairCharge

Quentin has been driving and campaigning for electric cars for over a decade. He was one of the first journalists to drive GM’s $1bn EV1 in 1996 for BBC Top Gear, has personally owned a Nissan Leaf, Citroen C-Zero, Vauxhall Ampera, Renault Zoe, Mitsubishi iMiev, Tesla Model 3 – and even a vintage 70s Enfield Electric – driven 70,000 miles in battery-only electric cars and campaigned with Boris Johnson for greater EV adoption.

While Jeremy Clarkson was pointing and laughing at electric cars, Quentin was experimenting with this new technology by driving and charging his own EVs every day. He’s given evidence on transport electrification to government Select Committees, House of Lords round tables and lobbied transport ministers and MPs for greater EV incentives and infrastructure. He won Green Fleet’s EV Champion in 2015 and was ranked 18th on Green Fleet’s list of Top 100 Global EV influencers for 2020. He currently drives a Tesla Model 3 everyday and owns the EV and charging campaigning website FairCharge. No journalist has deeper EV heritage or more passion for the subject than Quentin.

Shayne Rees

Head of Marketing, char.gy

Shayne is Head of Marketing at char.gy, a provider of public electric vehicle charging to communities of drivers who can’t use their home electricity supply to charge their cars.

Most of his career focused on marketing EDF’s range of low-carbon energy solutions to businesses and the public sector. He draws on this experience to help char.gy play a big part in the electrification of transport and its crucial role in delivering the UK’s Net Zero 2050 goal.

Prior to joining char.gy, Shayne led the UK sales and marketing team at ubitricity and helped the company grow into the UK’s largest public charging networks by number of charge points.

Mark Constable

Head of Business Development, Trojan Energy

Mark drove his first EV in 2008 (a plug-in Prius prototype) and was immediately hooked. He led the Electric Vehicle team at EDF Energy early on in the UK market, and more recently developed a large-scale commercial Rapid Charging Hub programme for TfL. Mark has sat on a number of industry committees and steering/advisory groups in both eMobility and heat electrification, while maintaining his own body of insight data focused on end user behaviour and priorities. His overall goal is to democratise access to infrastructure as electrification accelerates.

Mark joined Trojan in May 2021 as Head of Business Development, leading on marketing, sales and public affairs. As the EV switch accelerates, meeting the infrastructure challenges become ever more urgent. Access, usability and fairness is his mission.

ElectriX

ElectriX is powered by LV= General Insurance to help drivers lease, charge and insure an electric car. ElectriX has everything you need to make the switch, offering a wide range of cars to lease, with many cars available within 12 weeks, as well as home charging and electric car insurance. The website helps drivers decide whether an electric car is right for them, what it costs to own and run one, and how to charge – both at home and on the road.

char.gy

char.gy is the most convenient way for drivers to charge an electric vehicle on their street. We utilise existing street infrastructure to provide two electric vehicle charging solutions:

• A lamppost smart charge point that fits onto existing street furniture

• A satellite bollard smart charge point for greater placement flexibility

Simple-to-use and well designed solutions for councils and parking providers to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles for their residents and drivers.

easy everyday charging

Direct Line Group

Companies under the Direct Line Group umbrella provide insurance to millions of UK customers via well-known brands such as Direct Line, Churchill, NIG and Churchill Expert.

Electrification is rapidly changing the mobility landscape for UK drivers, so we are evolving our products and services to assist the companies we work with, as well as their customers and staff, to make their transition to EVs. We provide insurance, directly or via insurance brokers, for EV Fleets, short term hire, flexible leasing, subscription propositions plus company car and salary sacrifice schemes.

Chris Burton

Marketing Director – Green2 Delivery

A career marketer, Chris has grown businesses and brands for international corporates, start-up’s, family-run and small-mid sized businesses. His focus at Green2 is to help drive the adoption of sustainable distribution by working in partnership with customers that want to be the first to implement.

Ben Owen

TV hunter, cyber spy, intelligence officer

Ben is an internationally recognised expert in covert operations, surveillance and online investigations with over 15 years’ experience working at the very height of national security, military operations and the private sector.

Ben’s experience is leading large covert operations across the U.K. and abroad to combat counterterrorism, counter proliferation and counterespionage operations and attacks against the U.K. and its allies.

Ben’s main role was to lead, direct and manage covert operational teams to gather intelligence against individuals and groups of national security in very high paced and pressured environments. Ben foiled the East London terror plot in 2006, Operation OVERT – also known as the ‘Liquid Bomb Plot’ by identifying the bomb factory in which they were operating.

Prior to joining the British Intelligence services, Ben was a Sniper in the British Forces. Ben served in Cyprus, Kuwait and also deployed on the first missions over the border into Iraq in GWII.

Ben has also been part of a British hit TV show called ‘Hunted’. The show has been airing for over 5-years and now even has a celebrity version. Ben features as the Commander of intelligence and operations on the show where he assimilates vast amounts of intelligence and turns it into actionable tactical plans to ensure the success of the ‘hunters’. The show has been aired across the world and is growing in strength and popularity.

Ben works as a Cybersecurity and intelligence expert and consults across the globe on how to utilise and leverage intelligence sources in investigations. He also reports on threat landscapes in the digital and physical space.

John Marshall

Learning & Development Manager, Green 2 Delivery

John is the Learning & Development Manager for Green 2 Delivery.

From school John is a time served design engineer and a Freeman Of The Guild Of Engineers in his home city of Coventry. John’s first foray into logistics was in 2001, starting out driving a 7.5t for a wine import business, later progressing into Class 2 driving. John entered into the training world in 2012 delivering driver CPC nationwide. John has delivered training in every county throughout England, Wales and Scotland. He’s coached drivers back from fatal incidents and in total trained around 8,000 drivers. Along the way to Green 2 John was also the Operational Training Manager for Arrow XL.

John continues to be an advocate for change: “As a species we change and develop. In respect of the technologies presented to us now to take us towards net zero, this isn’t the end point. As we develop and grow so will the industry. When the Diesel engine or the Jet Engine was invented, we didn’t stop. We didn’t fold our arms and say “Fixed it”. It grew and got better and better. That is exactly what will happen now.”

Katie Black

Joint Head of the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV)

Katie Black is Joint Head of the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, working at the intersection of the transport, energy and auto sectors. Katie leads on the Government’s mission to decarbonise UK road transport, reducing our impact on the climate, improving air quality, and supporting a thriving UK auto sector. Katie’s team set the strategy, policy and delivery frameworks to achieve this mission, including managing over £2bn of Government investment in the transition to a net zero economy.

Katie joined the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles from a role as Director of Policy at the National Infrastructure Commission, the body responsible for providing independent analysis and advice to the Government to ensure the UK meets its long-term infrastructure needs. Katie joined the Commission upon its creation in 2015 and led the policy work on transport, energy and digital for the National Infrastructure Assessment. Prior to this she worked in various roles across the Department of Energy and Climate Change and undertook a secondment to an electricity retailer. A chemist by background, her research concentrated on some of the technical aspects of carbon capture and storage.

Paul van Heyningen

Deputy Director for Net Zero Electricity Networks at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Paul van Heyningen is Deputy Director for Net Zero Electricity Networks at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. His team works to ensure electricity networks are ready for the transformation needed to accommodate new low-carbon generation and demand, including from electric vehicles. Paul is a career civil servant who, since 2001, has held a wide range of posts in the UK Government, with a focus on energy, climate change and environmental policy, and most recently relating to the UK’s exit from the European Union. He has a scientific background, with a PhD in molecular neurobiology.

Tom Hurst

UK Country Manager, Fastned

Tom Hurst is Fastned’s Country Manager in the UK, and has been with Fastned since late 2017. Prior to getting involved in the e-mobility adventure, he spent six years as a consultant with Arup, advising cities, governments, NGOs, and corporations on their energy and climate change strategy. He has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Sustainable Energy, and is a Chartered Environmentalist.

Matt Pumfrey

CEO, Innovation Gateway

Matt has had a lifelong passion for sustainability and has worked in the sector his whole career. A career that has seen him set up and run his own businesses, as well as create and run a sustainability and energy services business for a FTSE100 outsourced services organisation.

He is now CEO of Innovation Gateway, an award-winning innovation company that is enabling the world’s most ambitious organisations to accelerate their progress to net zero, through actionable programmes and innovative technologies.

Matt specialises in identifying and translating sustainability goals for business and developing strategies, processes, and operating models to enable these goals to be delivered. He has a clear understanding of the social, economic and environmental business drivers, the risks they may pose and how to mitigate them along with a pragmatic approach to delivering successful business outcomes. Skills that are becoming more and more important in a world in climate crisis.

Lily Cairns Haylor

Co-Founder & Head of Product, Advanced Infrastructure

Lily is the Head of Product at Advanced Infrastructure. She has led OZEV and BEIS funded innovation projects – identifying and mapping challenges to the energy transition across transport, heat and generation. She led the design and early pilots of LAEP+ a web based GIS visualisation and planning application which is being used by energy network operators, consultants and local authorities to identify and plan energy interventions across transport, generation and heat. Currently she is heavily involved in project LEO and project RESOP where LAEP+ is being used to support collaborative and digitalised local area energy planning.

Rhys Williams

Innovation Project Manager, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN)

Rhys works as an Innovation Project Manager within the Future Networks Team at SSEN. He has worked within the Energy Industry for over 10 years, 7 of which have been at SSEN. He has been involved in a large number of innovation projects including the following data related projects:

• Regional Energy Systems Optimisation Planning (RESOP), which is developing tools to assist whole system collaboration work between utilities and local councils.

• Modelling the Economic Reactions Linking Individual Networks (MERLIN), which developed network tools to enable flexible services

• Risk Assessment Modelling of Smart nEtwork Solution (RAMSES), which investigates the risks associate with flexible services in a future Distribution System Operator (DSO) world

• Informed Lightning Projection, which utilises machine learning to understand where to optimally install lightning protection for highest return on investment.

Paula Claytonsmith

Director, Government and Strategy at Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) and policy support advisor to DfT’s Transport Technology Forum (TTF)

Paula is Director of Government and Strategy at TTF/LCRIG and formerly Executive Board Director at Gaist, the multi-award-winning international highways and mobile mapping company working with the Government, local authorities, private sector, and international organisations.

Paula has worked in local government leading frontline services, a national public sector improvement agency tasked with performance improvement, KPMG Government Advisory, international consulting assignments, political lobbying sector, and independent national government advisory roles. Paula has also worked in executive leadership roles in the charitable sector including a major stem cell cancer charity leading their operations department and a strategic policy and lobbying role in a leading environmental charity focused on behaviour change to improve local environmental quality. Latterly she has been involved with PIARC, World Roads Association technical committee on accessibility and mobility in rural areas.

Paula’s passion for technology, data, and public services means that she has spoken on more than one occasion on BBC Radio4’s programme “In Business” about technology and infrastructure. Paula has authored articles about infrastructure, data, and its social impact for the Institute of Highway Engineers. In 2019, Paula gave evidence directly to the Transport Select Committee on Local Roads Funding and Governance in 2019. Paula is also a member of the Royal Meteorology Society, with a strong personal interest in extreme weather, climate change, and other weather phenomena.

HGVZero

HGVZero is a cross-industry action group focused on the decarbonisation of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and features some of Europe’s largest shippers and hauliers including Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Tesco, XPO Logistics, Eddie Stobart and DPDgroup.

The new HGVzero taskforce will bring together these companies to help accelerate the decarbonisation of their collective fleets across the continent.

Within the first six months of the programme, HGVzero members will co-develop solutions in support from key industry collaborators to tackle the complex pinch points that have so far hindered successful low-carbon HGV rollouts.

Reza Shaybani

Co-Founder & CEO, The EV Network

Reza has over 25 years of experience in managing public & private technology-focused companies in the semiconductor and solar photovoltaic industry, possessing vast management, Directorship and CEO experience. Since 2006 Reza has played an active role in the solar PV industry globally building some of the best companies in the sector. He has an extensive political, industrial & financial global network.

In 2017 Reza co-founded The EV Network. In 2021 EVN raised £300M to build a network of ultra-fast charging hubs across the UK. In 2022 the company raised a further £100M to its property arm to buy the freehold of sites. EVN has long-term contracts with major oil& gas companies, energy companies and utilities.

Graeme Cooper

Head of Future Markets, National Grid

Graeme leads National Grid’s work on transport decarbonisation enabling the journey to Net-Zero transport (Road, Rail, Aviation & Maritime).

Graeme also leads the drive towards the Net-Zero 2050 target, by delivering a pathway for critical connections in the East of England by 2030 to enable delivery of the target of 40GW of Offshore wind.

With over a decade in communications infrastructure and over a decade in zero carbon electricity, Graeme is a well-known and highly respected energy industry expert.

Graeme is a graduate of Oxford Brookes University (BSc ‘97) and Bi Norwegian Business School (MBA Energy ‘16). Graeme also sits on the Governments ‘EV Energy Taskforce’, the Committee on Climate Change ‘Advisory Group’ and Chairs his local councils Climate Emergency Advisory Board.

Graeme takes his decarbonisation work home with him as he drives an electric car and heats his home using ground source heat pumps.

Dr Nicholas Head

Environmental and Sustainability Lead – UK and Ireland, XPO Logistics

Dr Nicholas Head is the Environmental and Sustainability Lead – UK and Ireland, at XPO Logistics. He has specialised in the environmental sector over the last 12 years, including achieving an MSc and PhD from the University of Northampton, focusing on circular economy and assessing the viability of business models structured around sustainability. During his PhD studies, Dr Head lectured on his specialisms of circular economy and systems thinking approaches to environmental issues at the University of Northampton and the Open University, before moving back into the private sector as a consultant and then for various FMCG companies in Head of Sustainability positions over the last four years.

A member of the CIWM, Dr Head has sat on and contributed to various steering groups over the last five years and has also been an active member of the Schumacher Institute (looking at societal issues from systems thinking perspective); IEMA and the Sustainability Committee for the British Coffee Association.

In his spare time, Dr Head is a keen walker, particularly on rugged coasts and areas of rolling hills.

Dan Clarke

Head of Innovation, ENA

Dan is the Head of Innovation at ENA where he provides a collaborative environment for Gas and Electricity Networks to identify strategic and technical challenges, develop solutions through innovation projects, and collectively progress towards Net Zero. Dan leads several key projects including Digitalisation of Connections, as well as providing expertise across Network Innovation, Low Carbon Technologies, Connections and Data & Digitalisation. He works closely with Ofgem, Government and key stakeholder groups and contributes to several industry Taskforces.

Dan joined ENA in December 2020 having previously delivered projects in several related sectors including sustainable transport and aviation.

Dr Joanna White

Acting Roads Development Divisional Director, National Highways

Dr White leads a division focused on environmental policy and standards, intelligent transport systems, energy and road design. Her teams have successfully delivered electric vehicle charge points near to the strategic road network to enhance existing infrastructure and support take up of EVs.

Jo started her career in 1999 at TRL working as a Researcher. Six years later she joined the Highways Agency as a Senior ITS Engineer in the Traffic and Travel Systems Group.

In April 2012 she took up a new role, leading the National Operational Systems team in Traffic Technology Division, looking after all the systems that the Traffic Officers use to manage traffic and incidents.

In 2014 she returned on promotion to the standards and research part of the organisation leading the Intelligent Transport Systems group.

In February 2020, she became a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

Kester Sleeman

Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle Programme Manager, Black Country Transport

Kester is the Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle Programme Manager for Black Country Transport. He works across four councils in the West Midlands, serving over a million people, to help deliver the objectives of their shared ULEV Strategy in a collaborative way. He has a background in Mechanical Engineering and the Automotive Industry and is passionate about equitable and zero-carbon transport.

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