ELUK2025 Confirmed Speakers

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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.

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.

 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.

 Abbie Badcock-Broe is the Head of Corporate, UK and Decarbonisation Strategy at National Grid. In this role, Abbie is responsible for Board and Executive engagement on National Grid’s strategy, collaborating closely with UK business units and regulation teams on cross-cutting themes, challenges, and programmes. With a career spanning nearly two decades in the energy sector, Abbie has held various roles in strategy, consulting, corporate development, project management, business development, policy, and market analysis. She has experience working across Renewables, Energy Retail, Infrastructure and System Operations. She studied Complexity during her International Politics and Policy degree, and is passionate about shaping a sustainable future. 

  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. 

 Simon Virley is Vice Chair and Head of Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG in the UK. He leads on energy, climate change and green issues for the UK firm and is part of KPMG’s Global Energy Leadership Team. He advises some of the world’s largest companies on all aspects of the energy transition and the shift to Net Zero.

Simon has over 30 years’ experience advising on energy and climate issues. Before joining KPMG in early 2015, he spent 25 years in the UK Government, including at No10 Downing Street (where he was Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair), the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury (where he led work on ‘green taxes’) and latterly as Director General for Energy in the Department of Energy and Climate Change between 2009-15, where he led the Electricity Market Reforms (EMR) under the Coalition Government, which resulted in the share of renewables in GB power generation rising from 6% in 2008 to over 45% today. 

Simon is a Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI) and was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work on energy and climate change issues.  He is also chairs UCL’s Centre for Net Zero Market Design, is on the Markets Advisory Council of the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the CBI Net Zero Board and the Executive Council of the Parliamentary Group on Energy Studies (PGES).

With a BSc in Fuel & Energy and an MSc in Renewable energy, Kate has experience and expertise across all renewable energy technologies and a passion for delivering Net Zero. Kate believes that not only is Net Zero of strategic importance, in terms of CO2 savings and climate change mitigation, but also with the increased urgency around the UK's Energy security, added to the pressing requirement to dramatically reduce the cost of energy and alleviate the pressure of price shocks.

With years of experience, Kate brings a whole system thinking perspective to our Net Zero transition and recognises the importance that all technologies are included in the mix. Kate is pushing hard to ensure that Hydropower, Pumped Storage Hydropower and Tidal Range are recognised as a key foundational features of a decarbonised grid, fit for the future.

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.

  Asif is an experienced C-Level Executive in the energy market.  Asif has been CEO of Ecotricity for over 5 years, following 4 years as COO.

Asif has previously worked for Ofgem – UK’s energy regulator – where he spent 3 years.  He then spent 10 years at Powergen/E.ON, the World’s largest investor-owned utility.  

Ecotricity has been in the UK market for nearly 30 years, supplies 100% green electricity for its customers and reinvests profits to build and generate renewable energy.

As well as being CEO of Ecotricity, he was recently also appointed as CEO of Green Britain Group.  The focus of the GBG is at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution. Forward-thinking, innovative, low-carbon – our businesses are pioneers in the new green economy.

In addition to Ecotricity, companies in GBG include: Skydiamond, Ecotalk, Britwind, Devils Kitchen and Forest Green Rovers (the Worlds greenest football club).

The companies in the group are fighting the climate crisis by offering consumers and businesses another way of doing things in the industries that create the most atmospheric carbon – energy, transport and food. 

 Leo is the CEO and founder of EdenLab the global green growth and sustainability innovation consultancy. 

EdenLab is 100% focused on switching demand to greener, cleaner products, brands and business models. 

If you need help picturing a viable future he’ll help you figure it out, if you’ve got the right products he’ll help you get them to market at scale, and if you don’t he’ll help you design them.

EdenLab works on commercialising sustainability for clients like The FT, The FA, The Trainline, Unilever, Danone and EDF Ventures as well as a number of promising ClimateTech firms working in carbon capture, biodiversity monitoring and waste upcycling.

Previously he was CEO of world famous ad agency Grey London, where he had also been Chief Strategy Officer, before launching Grey Consulting a management consultancy within WPP. 

Leo gained a distinction in Business Sustainability Management from the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership and has an MA from Oxford. He’s a domain expert adviser to Carbon13 the Cambridge-based venture builder for the climate emergency. Leo has recently lectured at The Saïd Business School, the London School of Economics, UCL, Oxford University and The Marketing Society.

 Natascha was Labour Member of Parliament for North East Derbyshire from 2005 to 2017. She set up and chaired the Backbench Business select committee from 2010 to 2015 and served as House of Commons Deputy Speaker. Her policy specialisms are energy, manufacturing and infrastructure.

After Parliament, Natascha was Partner at policy and opinion research agency Public First where she set up the Energy and Infrastructure practice. Since then, Natascha founded cross-party think tank, Palace Yard which hosts policy events and provides succinct and accessible briefings for policymakers.

 Jeremy has worked for the Australian Parliament and has held various roles in energy and environmental policy in the UK Civil Service, including the smart metering program. He spent a decade as an industry representative and lobbyist for manufacturers in the UK electrotechnical sector. He chaired the Technical Working Group of the UK’s EV Energy Taskforce, helped establish the UK Government’s Cyber Security Code of Practice & Partnership with Industry, was for some years a member of EnergyREV’s Strategic Advisory Board, and has contributed to countless other working groups and taskforces on smart metering, EV infrastructure, energy data and demand-side flexibility. 

Jeremy is Policy and Regulation Director (EU & UK) for ev.energy, providers of managed charging servcies. He chairs the smartEn e-mobility taskforce and is a passionate advocate for energy flexibility as the foundation of a clean power system.

 Trevor Hutchings will be joining the REA on 1st July as our next Chief Executive. 

Trevor brings a wealth of experience in net zero, renewables and the clean energy transition. Most recently he was a Partner at international consulting group, BIP, leading their Sustainability Centre of Excellence. Before that he led the growth and diversification strategy at energy services firm Gemserv.

Trevor spent much of his early career in Whitehall and with the European Commission in Brussels working on energy and environment programmes, including policies to support the renewables market in the UK. He also worked at WWF, the global conservation NGO, where he was Director of Advocacy, focussing on improving public policy and environmental governance. 

Trevor is chair of the Green Purposes Company set up by the UK government to safeguard the green mission of the world’s first Green Investment Bank following its sale to Macquarie, the global infrastructure investor. He is a Fellow at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and holds the IoD’s certificate in corporate governance. 

Trevor grew up in Devon and now lives near Midhurst in the South Downs National Park. When not at work he enjoys sailing, renovating his home and time with his wife Natacha and two children, Claudia, and Charlie.

  Jeptha, as a Senior Director - Head of Digital Infrastructure Advisory at CBRE, partners with clients to optimize their IT infrastructure. With his deep understanding of data centres and strategic consulting expertise, he helps businesses maximize asset utilization and reduce costs. 

Leveraging CBRE's extensive experience, Jeptha has successfully delivered global IT strategies for a wide range of industries, including banking, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, and technology, media, and telecommunications. 

As a Senior Director, he works closely with C-suite executives to drive transformative IT initiatives.

Relevant Experience

Jeptha brings over four decades of IT consulting experience to his role as Head of Digital Infrastructure Advisory at CBRE. With a focus on optimizing digital strategies for medium and large enterprises, he has a proven track record of delivering successful IT infrastructure and systems deployments across various industries, including finance, retail, communications, and mining. 

Before joining CBRE, Jeptha served as an independent consultant, advising clients on their IT Strategy and Infrastructure requirements.

  Rosemary Wildblood is Decision Analysis Services' (DAS) Energy Transition Development Lead. She has combined interest and experience in strategic workforce planning, and foresight and risk of critical minerals supply and demand for energy transition and Net Zero 2050.

Rosemary has extensive experience working with senior stakeholders across government and the wider public sector. Most recently, in role as Project Director she led the delivery of two influential foresight studies on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade and commissioned by the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre: 1) The foresight study of future critical minerals supply and demand for nuclear technologies; 2) The foresight study and supply chain analysis of aluminium and copper in GB’s electricity grid.  Rosemary is also leading the delivery of the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s Critical Minerals Risk Assessment Model 

 Joe Dutton is Energy Innovation Lead at specialty insurer AXIS. He leads strategy for underwriting teams on the energy transition, climate technology, and insurance product innovation. He has worked on UK and European energy policy, markets, and technology for over 15 years, across various roles in consultancy, academia and think tanks. Before joining AXIS, Joe worked at climate and carbon consultancy South Pole, and at energy think tank E3G where he led research programmes on energy infrastructure, climate and decarbonisation policy, and the future of energy systems under net zero. 

 Fiona Reilly is an accomplished senior leader with over 30 years of experience in the energy sector, specializing in low-carbon solutions, nuclear, and renewable energy. Currently, she serves as the CEO of FiRe Energy Ltd, a consultancy that provides strategic advice on sustainable energy projects, and holds various non-executive and advisory roles, including UK Strategy Lead at Xlinks Ltd, Non-Executive Director of Ansaldo Nuclear, and Senior UK Representative and Co-Chair of the Economic Modelling Working Group for the Generation IV International Forum (GIF).

Her career spans leadership roles in both the private and public sectors, including senior positions at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, PWC, and Atlantic SuperConnection. Known for her expertise in nuclear services, ESG strategies, and governance frameworks, she has been instrumental in shaping energy infrastructure projects and promoting innovation in the industry.

An advocate for gender diversity, she also leads the Global Women in Nuclear Legal Initiative and mentors emerging talent within the nuclear sector. Her leadership style blends strategic vision, financial acumen, and a collaborative approach, making her a trusted advisor to governments, regulators, and industry leaders.

Fiona holds honorary fellowships with the Nuclear Institute and Energy Institute, and is deeply involved in charitable organizations such as the Matt Hampson Foundation and the NSPCC.

 Michael has 23 years of experience in ExxonMobil and the Oil and Gas business. Leadership positions, primarily in Upstream Engineering and Operations have been global with Michael living and working in multiple continents, including America, Africa, and Asia.

From 2020-2022, Michael held the position of Upstream advisor in the ExxonMobil corporate Investor Relations group, supporting the Management Committee and Board with Investor engagements including quarterly earnings calls and coordination of Investor Day and Annual Reports.

In 2022, Michael relocated back to the UK as an Executive in the Europe, Africa and Middle East Low Carbon Solutions business. Michael had responsibility for ExxonMobil’s UK Low Carbon Solution opportunities in the UK - to reduce emissions from current operating assets as well as to grow new businesses opportunities focused on Hydrogen, Carbon Capture and Storage and Biofuels. At the end of 2024, Michael’s responsibility expanded to include European as well as UK Low Carbon Solutions business development activities.

 Lee has held senior leadership positions within the Electricity Generation sector for over 25 years. Initially working with thermal and hydro generation technologies, the majority of his career has been spent within the Renewables Energy Sector (with specific focus on wind power).

Lee was directly responsible for leading the development (from inception) of a fully integrated operations function within a leading global utility to support the largest and most diverse operational wind portfolio in the UK (including the establishment of the UK’s most advanced 24/7 dedicated Renewable Energy Control Centre).

This experience was gained during a period of exceptional company and industry growth, during which the asset portfolio Lee was responsible for grew from 12 projects totalling 120Mws of installed capacity, to 38 projects and around 2GW of installed capacity.  

During this period, an incredible amount of experience was gained across a wide range of operational areas, within a challenging and rapidly changing operational environment such as: Technical Asset Management, Organisational Design and Development, Operational Performance Improvement and Strategic Change Implementation. 

Lee was also directly involved in developing industry standards within the UK wind industry is an extremely strong Health & Safety advocate.  

This experience was achieved whilst driving company and industry leading levels of operational performance and staff engagement.

Lee was also the global Head of Growth and Development for the wind industry’s first dedicated provider of independent technical training and competency development.  This role involved engaging with, and designing support solutions for, asset owners/operators and maintenance providers across all key global Renewable Energy markets which provided a deep understanding of operational best practice.   

Lee is passionate about developing people and teams withing complex technical environments and optimising operational performance.  His desire to work with organisations in a free thinking, sustainable and constructive way - independent of the limiting factors which can adversely affect progress and innovation within conventional company structures – was the driving force behind the establishment of Vi Renewables

 Ruan Steyn currently serves as Project Manager for the Sizewell C Nuclear Island, a position held since February 2023. Prior to this role, Ruan gained extensive experience at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd from January 2009 to December 2022, focusing on the Nuclear Fuel and Steam Generator Replacement project at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant, with responsibilities encompassing core design, safety analysis, and plant life extension. Ruan holds two advanced degrees from Stellenbosch University, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Science (MS). 

  Ryan is COO at First Light Fusion, the world’s largest Inertial Confinement Fusion company based in Oxford UK.  

In the corporate world he has led as Head of Electricity Construction (VP) for National Grid, as an Offshore Installation Manager on Shell’s flagship oil and gas ‘rig’ in the North Sea and a variety of interim roles.  

His bedrock has been a career in the Royal Navy Submarine Service. His leadership and teamwork have been tested during an operationally focused career operating as far afield as under the Arctic Ice Cap to the Indian Ocean. He has also worked on exchange with the Royal Netherlands Navy and the US Navy. 

His notable military assignments were Captain of the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Turbulent and Commander of the world-renowned Submarine Command Course ‘Perisher’. He was responsible for teaching submarine captains to deal with the challenges of leadership, risk- taking and decision-making in the 21stCentury. 

He is chair of the Plymouth Argyle Community Trust which is the largest English Football League charity. 

He has a MA and MSc, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is alumni of the Windsor Leadership Programme. He is a published author (‘SSN 14’ and ‘A view from Below’).

 Andrew started work as an apprentice at NEI and developed his career through various engineering roles working on large coal and gas fired power stations as well as delivering components for Sizewell B. 

His early career was at Rolls-Royce and became Programme Director for Rolls- Royce’s civil nuclear business, leading customer engagement and bids with new build developers. Before working in civil nuclear, he was General Manager for submarine fleet support, ensuring at-sea availability. Prior to this he was Technical Engineering Manager for primary plant components. He also worked at MoD as part of the visit team restarting the UK / US relationship ahead of the Dreadnought programme collaboration.

He was appointed Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) Chief Executive Officer in August 2017. A key focus was to explore innovative manufacturing and supply chain solutions. He represented the Nuclear AMRC at the Nuclear Industry Council, and led the Winning UK Business work programme as part of the Nuclear Sector Deal. In 2022, he was part of the sprint team convened by the Prime Minister to establish the framework for Great British Nuclear, leading the supply chain, skills and capacity taskforce.

Andrew recently created a spin out company taking the supply chain capability previously at NAMRC into a new organisation called Nuclear Collaboration Ltd (NucCol). The focus is on broad research and intervention for the clean energy sector. Based on sector leading interventions such as Fit 4 Nuclear, with more emphasis on supply chain analysis.

Currently Andrew is an Executive Director of the Nuclear Industry Association; UK representative on the Generation IV International Forum for materials and manufacture; and a member of the Royal Society’s Nuclear Cogeneration Steering Group. 

He is Visiting Professor of Nuclear Manufacturing and Capability Development at the Flinders University in Adelaide and a Fellow of the Nuclear Institute.

 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.