Editorial Board

Transport + Energy is fortunate to have assembled a group of highly experienced experts from both sectors to make up its editorial advisory board.

Members will offer insight about marketplace happenings; give thoughts and opinions on topical issues, provide ideas for features and news contributions and help to steer the editorial direction of the brand.

Editorial board members have been considering issues and working in fields related to transport and energy for many years. We are pleased to share with readers their background and experience:

Gill Nowell, Head of EV at LV= General Insurance / EV advocate/EVclicks

  • Gill has 20 years’ experience across the sustainable energy, utility, and environmental technologies sectors, including many years working on electric vehicle-grid integration projects. In February 2019, Gill founded EVclicks – a free online EV image library for use by schools, communities, projects and businesses in aid of the transition to zero emission transport. In June 2020, Gill was selected as one of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) 2020: Sustainability and is a regular speaker and panellist on electric vehicles and data-driven transition to a low carbon, sustainable world. An advocate for electric vehicles since 2012, Gill is an EV driver and smart charger. Gill was a co-founding Director of the Electric Vehicle Association (EVA) England, and represented the organisation across a variety of media channels. 

Quentin Willson, Motoring Broadcaster and Transport Campaigner

  • 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.

Philip New, Chair of Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce

  • 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. 

Jacob Roberts, Senior Policy & Strategy Consultant at Cenex

  • 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.

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. 

Jeremy Yapp, Head of Flexible Energy Systems at BEAMA 

  • 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 represents the supply chain of smart metering, smart data, smart buildings, distributed energy storage and EV infrastructure.

Paul Kirby, electric van expert and former head of LCV and EV strategy at Vanarama 

  • 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.

Ross Easton, Director of External Affairs at Energy Networks Association 

  • 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.

Dr Anthony Velazquez, Manager of Decarbonisation at Betchel

  • 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.

Sara Sloman, Director of Future Fleet, Paythru

  • 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 Russell Fowler, Senior Project Manager – Decarbonisation of Transport, National Grid

  • 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.

Jason Torrance, Assistant Executive Director, UK100 

  • Jason Torrance is Assistant Chief Executive at UK100 – the network for highly ambitious UK locally elected leaders committed to cleaner, more powerful communities. Most recently 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. 

Ben Kilbey, Strategic Communications Advisor

  • Ben is the former Director of Communications at Britishvolt. He is passionate about the race to zero and decarbonisation of society and wants to do everything within his power to connect and collaborate towards a sustainable future. For everyone.
    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.

Dr Joanna White, 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.

Warren Philips, Founding Director, EVA England

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 Euan McTurk, Consultant Battery Electrochemist, Plug Life Consulting Ltd

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.

Find out what our members had to say about joining the editorial board here.

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