- Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chairman, Environment Agency
In July 2008, Chris Smith became Chairman of the Environment Agency. Since July 2007 he has also been the Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority. From 1992 to 2007 he was President of SERA; from 2004 to 2008 he was President of the Ramblers' Association; and in 2004 he was Chairman of the Judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
He was a Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 2001 to 2005. He is also Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust and Chairman of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre. He is a Visiting Professor in Culture and the Creative Industries at the University of the Arts London, and an honorary Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge.
In 1992 Chris joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Environmental Protection, and two years later moved to Heritage, then Social Security and Health. In 1997 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Chairman of the Millennium Commission.
- Steve Kaye, Head of Innovation, Anglian Water
Leading the conference, Steve Kaye will speak on the opportunities for innovation in the water industry to set the scene at the conference after the opening address from Lord Smith.
Anglian Water Services Ltd. supplies water and wastewater services to domestic and business customers in the east of England and Hartlepool. It provides drinking water to 4.3 million customers in towns and villages from Grimsby in the north east of the region to Milton Keynes at its south-western tip; and operates anaerobic sludge digestion plants at Great Billing in Northampton and Whitlingham in Norfolk to treat waste water.
- Rupert Kruger, Head of Innovation, Thames Water
Rupert worked as Policy Adviser for Water UK before moving to Atkins where he was Divisional Director for UK Water. Subsequently he held directorships at Mouchel and Hyder Consulting before becoming Head of Innovation at Thames Water in September 2011. He was educated at Kings School Canterbury and Imperial College London.
- Dr Hans Jensen, CEO, UK WIR (Chairman of iWater 2012)
Hans has over 20 years of power industry experience within regulatory management, policy development, international project development and operations. Appointed CEO of UKWIR in September 2011, Hans is an Executive Board member of several water boards and is a member of the management board of the Environmental sustainability knowledge transfer network (ESKTN).
Hans was educated at Imperial College London, as a geologist/hydrogeologist.
- Kieran Healey, Synergies & Technologies, Veolia Water
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies is the subsidiary of Veolia Water, world leader in engineering and management of turnkey design/build projects and water treatment facilities. VWS has more than 9650 employees worldwide and recorded revenues in 2010 for the group of 2.15 billion euros. Veolia Water is part of the Veolia Environment group.
- Ian Bernard, Technical Manager, British Water
Originally educated as Research Chemist at the University of Hertfordshire, Ian began his career in the laboratories of Thames Water, becoming Programme Manager and Contract Manager as R&D expanded. In the early 1990’s he was seconded to the UK Water Industry Research Board before moving on to found his own consultancy, Effective Water Solutions. He went on to lecture in Water technology at Birmingham University and in 2005 moved to Oxford University as European Project Manager where he managed a Euro Environ Eureka programme designed to accelerate green technology. He joined British Water as Technical manager in 2009.
- Douglas Stewart, CEO, Green Energy UK
He formed Green Energy (UK) plc, with the express intent, of offering a competitive green electricity product that rewarded consumers who acted to combat the environmental issues we face. The unique customer share model of green energy uk is the result. Poacher turned Gamekeeper!
A graduate of Southampton University (Economics & Law), Doug spent his formative career at Ford Motor Company in sales and service including interesting years in 80’s Northern Ireland. From Ford he joined a start-up recruitment exhibition company specialising in IT which became the largest of its kind, before returning to set up an eponymous Volkswagen Audi Franchise.
Having sold the car business, the next blueprint was an ethically sound business, tackling environmental issues through commerce.
- Andy Slater, Director, Sensus Technologies
Andy is Marketing Director for Sensus, a leading technology company focussed on developing intelligent solutions for utilities as they transform their businesses. Andy’s career started at BT Research Labs where he led the Customer Products Unit before moving to Dell Computers where he was Director Dell Online EMEA at a time when Dell online sales exceeded those of Amazon. Returning to the telecommunications sector, Andy was Group Marketing Operations Director at COLT Telecommunications and then Marketing Director at Pipex Business before joining Sensus. Andy is a Chartered Engineer and member of the IET.
The Smart Grid for water value chain is evolving. As with energy, the greatest business gains for water utilities will be in the development of integrated information from within the water distribution network not just from smart meters. Smart water technology enables better management of the water network, meaning leakages, supply interruptions and uncontrolled discharges are fewer, helping combat any potential water shortage and protecting the environment. Through the creation of a smart water network, water companies can monitor and control pressure, flow rates, levels, water quality, detect and locate leakages, and reduce instances of bursts on the network.
- Nick Boyle, CEO, Lightsource Renewable Energy
A dynamic leader and entrepreneur, Nick Boyle is founder and CEO of Lightsource Renewable Energy Limited, a UK supplier of solar energy. Prior to his current role, Nick spent 20 years at Board and Senior Director level in the retail financial services sector. In 2008 he set up Environmental Energy Investments Limited, which marketed solar and wind power packages to super-high net worth investors.
Lightsource has been growing from eight employees to nearly 100 in just under two years. Summer 2012 saw it hit the 100 MW production marker, a major milestone and testament to Nicks innate ability to identify opportunities and build on them.
Lightsource Renewable Energy Limited, the UK’s leading developer and generator of solar energy have recently completed a 5MW utility scale solar plant close to the village of Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire.
The solar plant provides enough ‘green’ electricity during daylight hours to power over 70% of AmeyCespa’s Mechanical Biological Treatment plant in Waterbeach, providing a sustainable, local energy solution. Rather than the plant being connected to export into the grid, there has been significant engineering work to provide 3km of cabling from the plant running directly to local waste management company AmeyCespa.”
Nick Boyle will provide further information on how a solar installation or Power Purchase Agreement with Lightsource can benefit heavy industry users and property owners by cutting electricity costs and providing better control on budget forecasting.
- Fiona Griffith, Director, Isle Utilities
Fiona joined Isle Utilities in 2010 having previously been General Manager at Virotec technology and Technology and Innovation Manager at Mouchel
Isle Utilities is a technology and innovation consultancy specialising in cleantech. Isle’s sector knowledge across water, waste, the built environment, energy and carbon is a valuable resource and is used to identify technology deal-flow, undertake due diligence, provide market intelligence, and work with investors.
- Professor Annie Brooking, CEO, BacTest Ltd
An experienced executive and non-executive Director, CEO and leader of academic, research teams, engineering teams and teams of marketers in high technology and software companies.
Annie founded an Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory raising funding and running it for three years, after which she was recruited by Eric Schmidt (now Executive Chairman of Google) to Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley as a software strategist, later working at Symbolics Corp. in Boston as Director of Marketing.
Annie has been a CEO for over 20 years in the USA, UK and Iceland and has brought fifteen product lines to market to include computer hardware, software, imaging systems and medical devices.
Annie is an honorary research fellow at the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute and Partner Emeritus at ET Capital, a Cambridge, UK based venture capital company.
Annie is an honorary research fellow at the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute, Partner Emeritus at ET Capital, a Cambridge, UK based venture capital company and a visiting Professor to the School of Computing at Newcastle University. She has been an active participant in all of the EEC’s Framework Programmes and is an expert advisor to the European Commission on high technology issues. Annie teaches part time at the Department of Computing and Technology at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK and is an MBA mentor at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.
- Francis Wright, Partner, Turquoise Investments (LCI Fund Managers)
Francis will give an overview of investment trends in the VC market and what investors look for in investee companies
Francis is a Director of Turquoise International, a merchant bank specialising in Energy and the Environment. Turquoise is a founder member of Turquoise Capital LLP, a seed-stage investor, and acts as fund manager to the Low Carbon Innovation Fund. Francis previously worked at Close Brothers, RBS and Merrill Lynch.
- Dr James Jenkins, Water & Waste Management, Senior Lecturer, University of Herts
Dr Jenkins is Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at the University of Hertfordshire. Having previously worked as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, he joined the University of Hertfordshire in 2004, to lecture in environmental management. His research interests are motivated by his background in geography and environmental management and a desire to understand environmental decision-making and problem-solving, particularly in the area of water resources. He has peer reviewed for the Journal of Cleaner Production, the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, the 7th Biennial International Water Association Congress and Exhibition Conference, International Water Association Young Water Professionals Conference (Sydney, Australia), as well as for IWA Publishers and Oxford University Press.
Dr Jenkins is a member of International Water Association (IWA) and the Australian Geographical Society. He also served as a Committee Appointee of the Consumer Council for Water (Thames Regional Committee) from 2003 to 2007 , and as the UK Corporate Education Sector Representative to the governing council of Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) from 2008 to 2010.
Selected projects:
1. Organizational and Political Responses to Drinking Water Supply.
2. The Environmental Performance of Small Firms.
3. Sustainability Strategy Development and More Sustainable Communities.
- Charles Lee, CEO, Futureneering
Charles graduated in Mechanical / Production Engineering and started in metal-cutting manufacturing making diesel engines and aerospace servo-systems. He joined Cambridge Consultants over twenty years ago, where he worked on diverse technology development projects, before moving to Arthur D. Little to work on investments in technology-oriented businesses. In 2002, he joined Sagentia’s Innovation and Technology Management practice. In 2007 he left to form Futureneering Ltd, an advisory business assisting emerging technology ventures with strategy and commercialisation, particularly in bioscience and environmental sustainability.
This talk will outline different approaches to recovering energy from waste material, and will discuss some of the issues raised.
- Dr Philip Gaffney, MD, L2S2
Philip Gaffney was Tutor for Industrial Liaison at Churchill College and received an OBE in 1997. A serial entrepreneur, he founded and is MD of L2S2. L2S2’s framework technology has been adopted by Anglian Water's Regional Tankering Service to provide rapid, flexible reporting, integrated workflow including site applications and business resilience.
- Sam Bose, CEO, AquaMW
Following an early career in marketing within the hotel industry, Sam graduated with an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Finance from the University of Strathclyde and then went on to join Deloitte where he specialised in emerging technology projects. In 2006 he founded Zogix, an on demand carbon management software provider. A brief period as a consultant followed which resulted in him forming AquaMW, a company connecting the physical and digital worlds through SMART solutions that improve "efficiency" and reduce "natural resources" consumption.
Their platform combines: "low power embedded devices, Cloud and Wireless Sensor Networks" delivering services that enable commercial building owners, Process Industries, OEM's and Renewable energy (Solar) generators to improve efficiency of their asset base.
