Plenary Speakers

Kwasi Kwarteng was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 24 July 2019.Kwasi was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union from 16 November 2018 to 24 July 2019.

Kwasi read classics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then attended Harvard University on a Kennedy Scholarship. He earned a PhD in economic history from the University of Cambridge in 2000.

Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Kwasi worked as an analyst in financial services.

Kwasi was elected the Conservative MP for Spelthorne in 2010. From 2010 until 2013 he was a member of the Transport Select Committee, and in 2013 he joined the Work and Pensions Select Committee where he was a member until 2015.

In October 2016 Kwasi joined the Public Accounts Committee, where he was a member until May 2017.

In 2015 Kwasi was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords, and in 2017 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Twitter Profile

James Richardson has been Chief Economist at the National Infrastructure Commission since April 2016. The NIC is an independent body, providing expert advice to the Government on long-term infrastructure strategy. James heads the NIC secretariat’s economics team and led on production of the UK’s first ever National Infrastructure Assessment, an in-depth assessment of the UK’s major infrastructure needs on a 30-year time horizon.

Prior to this, James was Director, Fiscal and Deputy Chief Economic Adviser at HM Treasury from July 2012 to March 2016 and Director, Public Spending and Chief Microeconomist at HM Treasury from September 2008 to July 2012.

James sits on the Ofgem RIIO2 Challenge Group and was formerly a member of the Economic and Social Research Council

James has a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

Dr Maureen Paul is interim Chief Economist at OFGEM. She oversees a portfolio of work that builds internal and external understanding of how well the retail and wholesale energy markets are working. She is also responsible for developing and providing transparency of the impact that Ofgem’s decisions have for consumers and the burdens that these decisions place on business. Before joining Ofgem, Maureen worked with the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading on a number of market studies, Competition Act cases and mergers cases. She has a PhD in economics from the University of Warwick. Her research has been published in a leading economics journal, was the subject of national radio discussions and received coverage in a number of well-known national and international newspapers, forming the basis of a Cabinet Office roundtable on pay transparent.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

She is a Senior Independent Director at SGN Network and the Energy Systems Catapult.  She is Chair of the Northern Ireland Expert Panel on Energy Transition and was Chair of the BEIS/Ofgem Energy System Data Taskforce.  She was appointed as a member of the Advisory Panel for the Government’s Cost of Energy Review, and is on the Council for Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage.

She is founder of the Food Foundation and co-founder of POWERful Women, a Visiting Senior Fellow at Kings College, a member of the Carbon Tracker Advisory Board and former Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency.

She was previously a Member of Parliament for South Thanet, a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Energy and Climate Change. Described by The Times as ‘one of the sanest of all MPs’ and as ‘lateral-minded, original and free-thinking’.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

Richard was appointed Director of Energy, Technology and Innovation at the UK’s Department for Transport in August 2016. He leads on policy to move the nation’s road transport onto a more sustainable footing, and maximising the economic opportunities for the UK from the move to future mobility. He is the lead Director for the UK Government’s Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

His teams direct and deliver UK-wide policies and programmes worth around £1bn on low and ultra-low emission vehicles, low carbon fuels, air quality, putting innovative new technology on the roads, overseeing related Government R&D expenditure and international negotiation of regulations on vehicle safety and emissions. There is a particular current focus on creating an attractive regulatory and R&D environment for connected and automated vehicle technology in the UK and on making the UK the best place in the world to do transport digitally.

Prior to this role Richard spent four years as head of the UK’s Office of Low Emissions Vehicles (OLEV), delivering Government support for the early market for ultra-low emission vehicles and overseeing a period of unprecedented growth in plug-in vehicle uptake. Richard has also held various roles in the UK Senior Civil Service including DfT’s head of Corporate Governance, leading on smart and integrated ticketing; and as Director of Regional Resilience.

Before joining the civil service he worked at Unilever and at Andersen Consulting. Richard has BA in Industrial Economics and MPhil in the economics of motor vehicle pollution from the University Of Nottingham. Richard is married with two children and lives in London. He gets around by bicycle, Nissan Leaf and campervan.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

Gloria is an environmental scientist with expertise in policy research and development related to low emission vehicles and sustainable low carbon fuels. Her work at LowCVP has focused on influencing a variety of national policy areas and initiatives including the Low Emission Bus Grant, Car Fuel Economy Labelling Scheme and Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme. She has also been involved in producing fuel and technology roadmaps, and low emission vehicle guides for fleet operators. Gloria currently leads Fuel Working Group and LowCVP’s work stream on life cycle analysis.

Gloria has an MSc in Integrated Pollution Control and is Chartered Environmentalist and Full Member of IEMA. Before joining LowCVP, her work focused on local air quality management working in consultancy and the public sector. She’s won several awards including – WWF Community Hero Award, Green Fleet Magazine Public Sector Green Fleet Award and Guardian Newspaper’s Fleet Hero Award for Innovation in Fleet Management.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

Jillian Anable is Professor of Transport and Energy at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. Her research addresses the potential for demand-side solutions to reduce carbon, local emissions and energy from transport. She has researched car purchasing behaviour with expert knowledge on the uptake patterns of alternatively fuelled vehicles. She has also applied socio-psychological theories and methods to evaluate policy interventions at local and national scales designed to influence private and business travel behaviour, including ‘Smarter Choices’ interventions. She has authored or co-authored over 60 academic peer-reviewed journal articles and research reports with projects mainly funded by UK Research Councils (RCUK), the Energy Technologies Institute, the UK Department for Transport, Scottish Government and the European Union. She has sat on a number of advisory boards and strategy panels for UK Government Departments, National Research Councils and NGOs, including currently acting as Chair to the Research and Evidence Group for the Scottish National Transport Strategy Review. She is a founding editorial board member on the journal Energy Efficiency.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

Chris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the public body tasked by the Climate Change Act to be the independent authority on tackling climate change. Chris leads a team of analysts and specialists, offering expert insight into the challenges of reducing UK emissions and adapting to the changing climate.

Chris led the CCC’s work in 2019 to recommend a new ‘Net Zero’ target for the UK – now brought into law. He speaks regularly on the transition to a zero carbon economy and the need to confront climate change with urgency.

Chris has wide experience in government. He has designed economic policy in Whitehall, including in HM Treasury and the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. He was previously Director of Energy and Climate Change in the Scottish Government, leading the development of the Scottish energy and climate strategies.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile

Paul joined the EDF Energy Executive Team in January 2009. His teams are responsible for R&D, Strategy, Policy & Regulation, Communications, and Supply Chain activities across EDF in the UK. He also chairs EDF’s UK R&D centre.

He currently serves on the board of Energy UK, the Nuclear Industry Association, is a Fellow of the Energy Institute, and is the Executive Sponsor of EDF’s BAME Network.

Before their acquisition by EDF, he was Head of Strategy and Business Development for British Energy from 2003.  He joined them from Accenture where he spent 17 years, latterly as Senior Partner, responsible for the UK Energy Strategy and Human Performance practices. His early career included time with Davy McKee (London) Limited, and Ford Motor Company.

Paul holds an MBA from London Business School and a BSc in Engineering from the University of Bristol. He lives in South London with his wife and dog and tries to keep fit with cycling, swimming, and hockey.

Twitter Profile

Linkedin Profile