ELUK 2025 Advisory Committee Confirmed

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Bill Esterson has been MP for Sefton Central since 2010 and was elected Chair of the Commons Select Committee for Energy Security and Net Zero in September 2024. 

He has previously held the position of Shadow Minister for Transport, Shadow Minister for Business and Industry, Shadow Minister for International Trade and Shadow Minister for Small Business. 

Mr Esterson started and grew two businesses between 1995 and 2010 and was a local councillor before entering parliament. He graduated from Leeds University in 1990 with BSc Hons in Maths and Philosophy and trained as a chartered accountant after graduating.

Tony leads Howden’s work on climate transition planning and finance, helping financial institutions, corporates and governments to accelerate their climate strategies and de-risk their transition investments. Prior to Howden, he led transition planning, transition finance and sectoral transition pathway initiatives at GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero), was part of the delivery group for the Transition Planning Taskforce (TPT), and also led CDP’s disclosure and scoring platforms, integrating the TCFD.

Tony has over 25 years global experience in strategy advisory, risk management, disclosure and programme delivery, with over 18 years as a leader and expert in climate change, environment and sustainability issues affecting businesses, financial institutions and governments.  

 Lynne was appointed by the National Nuclear Skills Task Force In October 23 to head up Destination Nuclear, the UKs first ever cross sector communications programme. This Government backed ambitious programme was launched in February 2024 and aims to support the sectors aim to attract more people, particularly in the critical skills areas, and grow the workforce required to deliver the UKs nuclear ambition in defence and net zero energy.

The programme has gained future support and Lynne will continue her secondment from EDF to develop the national strategy and lead the team delivering the programme in collaboration with the whole sector.

Experienced in Marketing and PR, Lynne joined the nuclear industry as part of a start up team that developed British Energy’s B2B business and took it to market leading position. In a move to EDF Nuclear New Build she has lead on the development of regional and national skills capacity and capability solutions as a key part of project delivery and risk mitigation. EDF having successfully achieved approval and investment for Hinkley Point C, she moved on to lead the early socio-economic work on Bradwell B and supported the early work on the investment case for Sizewell C.

Lynne continued to work closely with Government and Industry as she moved to a short term secondment as Director for The UKs Nuclear Sector Deal. This involved identifying critical areas that required cross sector collaboration and bringing people together to work on solutions. This role included support to the Great British Nuclear Taskforce Capability and Capacity sprint team

Throughout her career she has worked on a number of global projects in Asia and Europe as an SME and Chair of various working groups for IAEA.

Sarah founded Developing Experts in October 2015. Since then, the company has grown from strength to strength, winning Tech Nation's Rising Star award in 2019 and being selected as one of 10 UK companies for Google's Immersion Growth Program in 2020. In 2021, the company was featured in @J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s report on the Top 200 Female-Powered Businesses in the UK and recently secured a place on Tech Nation's Upscale programme. Developing Experts also won the BETT Awards for Best Classroom Resource - Teaching Aid in both 2022 and 2024. In addition, Sarah was recognised as an 'LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leader' in 2022. In 2024, the company won the Best AI Product and Best AI Product for Education categories at the National AI Awards and was a finalist for Best AI Product for Energy and Utilities. Sarah herself was a finalist for High Growth Woman Founder of the Year at the UKBAA Angel Investor 2024 Awards.

Developing Experts works with a range of tier 1 brands from the rail, energy, and construction industries to grow, track and build diverse talent pipelines for industry. 

In 2020 Sarah was honoured with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her services to tech and education and was named by Startup Magazine 'Top 20 Most Influential Female Founder of 2020’.

Sarah is delighted to be working with thousands of schools and clients such as the EDF, Network Rail, Rolls Royce, BEIS, National Nuclear Labs, the Royal Horticultural Society and the Ministry of Defence.

  Ben Hunt is VP communications and public affairs at JERA Nex, the renewables business launched by JERA, Japan’s biggest power company, in April 2024. He joined JERA in 2023, bringing experience of 15 years in senior roles in communications and public affairs. Prior to joining JERA his past roles include Global Head of Corporate Affairs at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Director of Communications at Amadeus SA and Head of External Communications at Nokia. Ben is a former Financial Times journalist, covering the technology and telecommunications sectors. A UK national, he has a degree in Law and Politics from the University of London and an MA in Middle East Politics From Exeter University. 

 I am an experienced engineer and training professional with 15 years of combined practice in the manufacturing, automotive, and nuclear industries.

I started my engineering career in a factory in Jarrow and have since worked for an amazing automation firm in Sunderland (AR Controls), Sellafield, the National Nuclear Laboratory, and Jacobs Clean Energy (now part of Amentum).

My lecturing career spans the National College for Nuclear Southern & Northern Hubs, Furness College, and Hartlepool College, teaching Electrical, Mechanical, and Nuclear Engineering; as well as working to deliver innovative behavioural courses. I was also the Training Lead for Sellafield’s Specialist Equipment Services and Sitewide Services Divisions – combining over 800 specialist engineering personnel.

Leaving sixth form with awful A Level results, I have since achieved my HNC and BEng in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, an MSc in Management, PGDip in Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors, and a PGCertEd in Education and Training – I begin reading for my MBA in January 2025 and don’t plan to stop being in full time education for the foreseeable future.

My personal passion for lifelong learning, formal education, and fitness is channelled into my work where I consult to develop excellent training and learning solutions, and am a group fitness instructor at my local gym in the evening.

 Derreck van Gelderen is PA Consulting's Head of AI Strategy and AI Lead for Energy and Utilities. He leads the AI and Investment Strategy practice across private and public sector organisations. With over 15 years' experience in designing, developing, and deploying complex models, Derreck bridges the gap between strategic advisory, data and emerging AI technologies. He specialises in guiding organisations through their AI journeys – from understanding AI's disruptive potential and identifying strategic opportunities, to deploying industry-first AI solutions and scaling enterprise-wide AI adoption. Before consulting, Derreck lectured at the University of Bristol while completing his PhD in Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics.  

 Adrian is the global energy advisory lead at AECOM. He advises a portfolio of clients ranging from utilities, oil and gas companies to low carbon players, start-ups and investors.

The topics he covers includes low carbon investments (such as EV charging, hydrogen and carbon capture), energy security, ESG and navigating the energy transition.

Adrian has undertaken senior roles in the management consulting industry, including PwC, Booz Allen Hamilton and EY. He was also the managing director of a boutique energy consulting firm where he worked with the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond.

Adrian has a degree in French and Spanish from Southampton University and a Masters in International History from the London School of Economics.

 Elina is a physicist with over 20 years of experience in fusion plasma physics research and who has worked at several national laboratories across Europe. In 2012 Elina joined UKAEA, where she is successfully leading a group consisting of 10 scientists. In addition, she is now Events Lead at Destination Nuclear, a UK-wide recruitment campaign to provide the Nuclear Sector with the workforce required to deliver the sector’s ambitions and growth. Before that, Elina was leading a highly complex modelling project to improve the understanding of how to optimise the fusion energy production of ITER, a critical next-step multi-billion international fusion experiment that is being built in France. 

Elina is a mum of two and as WiN UK Network Executive (job share), she is taking positive actions across the nuclear sector to create workplaces where everyone can thrive and reach their true potential.

  Chris Gilbert has 40 years industry experience covering the upstream, chemicals and refining sectors. 

For 24 years, Chris worked for Phillips 66 in the UK, Germany and the US. From 2019, Chris was Technical Manager and UK Decarbonisation Lead at The Humber Refinery, one of the most complex in the UK. The facility is positioning itself as the Refinery of the Future, such as processing used cooking oil at scale to produce sustainable aviation fuel with other waste feedstocks trialled. Furthermore, the refinery is unique in Europe as the only producer of specialty graphite coke, a critical mineral in the production of electric vehicle batteries. 

As well as implementing projects to lower the carbon intensity of finished products, Chris and his team identified pathways to achieve a 90+% reduction in operational emissions. This involved cross-cluster collaboration though the Humber region, participating in Humber Zero to capture and sequestrate CO2, and several blue and green hydrogen projects to refuel the refinery’s large industrial heaters. 

Chris held other leadership roles at Phillips 66 in operations, turnaround execution and production planning, as well as several major projects. 

Since retiring from Phillips 66 in 2023, Chris works as an independent consultant assisting companies with their decarbonisation journey, specialising in project development leading to a final investment decision. Chris also has a passion in advocating for industry to attract the talent needed for the energy transition, particularly apprenticeships. 

Prior to joining Phillips 66, Chris worked at Exxon; UOP, the process licensor; and a major engineering contractor. 

Chris graduated from University College London in 1984 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. 

Andrew has over 25 years of experience in the energy and utility sector. He leads the Carbon Trust’s Energy Transition advisory services globally, heading several initiatives spanning coal asset transition, hydrogen and grid development. Andrew is a champion of whole systems thinking and a thought leader in the energy transition field, leading seminal analysis including the ‘Flexibility in Great Britain’ report that considered the wider value unlocked by taking a systems approach across heat, transport and power sectors to reach net zero. Before the Carbon Trust, Andrew spent 16 years with E.ON serving in many senior strategy and innovation roles in the UK, Germany and Europe.  

  Simon is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has been working across different sectors in the TIC industry for 32 years.

Recent roles have included Global Product Conformity Manager for Rail, Medical & mechanical certifications. Global Head of Nuclear (New & in-service nuclear power plants); Lead on Anglo-French joint venture for UK EPR inspection projects.

Externally Simon participates in World Nuclear Association Supply Chain, IAEA & NEA supply chain and until BREXIT the EU Commission pressure equipment guidance forum.

Simon is a Fellow of the IMechE; vice chair of the IMechE Pressure Systems Group Board. He is currently responsible for the LRQA strategic markets initiative. LRQA is the leading independent third party assurance provider, formerly part of Lloyd’s Register