Speakers

Chair – Alex Rathmell, Net Zero Programme Lead, Greater South East Net Zero Hub

Alex is a sustainable energy consultant, entrepreneur and engineer, specialising in business model innovation to drive low carbon investment. He has led a number of consultancy teams, advising corporate and public sector clients on energy strategies and developing innovative business models that make sense of energy efficiency. Alex has recently joined the Greater South East Net Zero Hub where he is leading the Local Net Zero Accelerator programme, supporting local authorities in scaling up their climate programmes through strategic investment partnerships.

Key Note Speaker – Rachel Toresen-Owuor, Senior Director – Climate, Local Partnerships

As Senior Director, Rachel is responsible for work within Local Partnership’s Climate business unit, delivering a wide range of services from carbon accounting to adaptation for climate change. Rachel led the development and procurement of the latest Re:fit framework. Rachel has delivered significant developments to the Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool through her extensive engagement work with local authorities in England and Wales. Rachel led the development of the Climate Adaptation Toolkit, and the development of the support to local authorities and Welsh Government.  Rachel holds an MSc in Climate Change and Sustainable Development and has nine years Local Authority experience, where she led on sustainability, carbon and energy management, utilities procurement and climate and energy strategy development as well as embedding carbon reporting and monitoring into wider organisational processes.

Daniel Coakley, Sustainability Manager, Lloyds Banking Group

Daniel is a chartered research engineer specialising in sustainability and energy efficiency in the built environment. He has extensive knowledge of civil, mechanical and energy systems engineering, as well as broad experience in international business, management and strategy, and is passionate about research and data analytics. His experience also includes patented technology development and dissemination.

Gillian Brown, Senior Manager – Sustainable Design, Lloyds Banking Group

Gillian is an accomplished energy manager with over 14 years of experience in public sector energy management. Prior to starting her current role at Lloyds Banking Group, she worked at the Office of Government Property and prior to that as the Energy Manager at University of Glasgow where she was responsible and accountable for the optimisation of energy sources and active management of the energy consumption within the context of the University’s Energy Strategy. Her role covered all areas of energy management; from legislative compliance to project works and the management of building energy consumption across a technical and varied portfolio. Gillian is also an established member of the academic community. Her current area of research is into the development of positive energy building groups of mixed age construction.

Ian is a Fellow of the Energy Institute as well as a Chartered Energy Manager, ESOS Lead Assessor and ISO 50001 Lead Auditor amongst other credentials. He has over 13 years professional experience as a senior manager in the energy and carbon management industry. His experience comes both from within consulting and FM support services environment as well as Head of Energy for Royal Mail Group. He has been instrumental in enabling the optimisation of energy usage and sustainable solutions across their estate to make a substantial contribution to reducing environmental impact.

Rajvant Nijjhar, Principal, IVEES

Rajvant has over 20 years of experience in the water, construction, and energy and sustainability industries. Currently, she is the project lead for an Innovate UK Industrial Research project to develop an end to end trading solution in London’s South Bank called BankEnergi III, as well as the commercial lead on the GreenScies project, looking at the various commercial model available for energy and flexibility trading. She also operates the independent measurement and verification of energy efficiency savings company, ivees where she is involved in the delivery of M&V services for energy performance contracts. She is an EVO certified trainer in M&V, having trained over 800 individuals globally and remains involved as the BSI expert in developing International (ISO) standards in the areas of energy management systems.

Hilary Wood, Director, EEVS

As one of the first cohort of professionals in the UK to qualify as Certified Measurement & Verification (CMVP) Professional in 2009, and subsequently as a Performance Measurement & Verification Expert (PMVE) in 2022, Hilary is an expert in the field of Measurement & Verification; writing the MVA Manual for UK Government’s Electricity Demand Reduction Pilot, developing technical schedules for Scottish Government’s Non-Domestic Energy Efficiency framework and providing training for clients across all sectors, including courses leading to professional qualifications in M&V. Her experience in delivering independent M&V assurance services spans the major UK Energy Performance Contracting frameworks RE:FIT, CEF, NDEE and Essentia as well as bespoke projects for public and private sector clients.

Nick Keegan, Director, EEVS

An expert in building energy efficiency and energy performance contracting, Nick focusses on working with procuring authorities, funders, and energy service companies to develop, operate and verify robust measurement and verification processes and contractual terms to govern the performance guarantees within EPCs. He directs independent verification services for estate-wide energy optimisation schemes and delivers independent Measurement & Verification (M&V) planning and reporting for NHS and Local Authority carbon saving projects. He led UK input into two European Commission funded market research and development projects – Transparense & QualitEE – that aimed to increase trust in energy efficiency services through standards and quality assurance. A Performance Measurement & Verification Expert (PMVE), Certified Measurement & Verification Professional (CMVP), and Certified Energy Manager (CEMI), Nick has worked on commercial energy saving projects since 2007.

Dave Proctor, Senior Consultant, JRP Solutions

Dave’s experience in energy management has extended across manufacturing and commercial sites in Europe and Asia, including identifying, developing and implementing energy efficiency, onsite generation and energy and utility procurement projects. Dave has set up and managed compliance processes for installations covered by Climate Change Agreements, CHPQA, UK ETS and ESOS. Dave was an active member of the Chemical Industries Association Energy and Climate Change network and the Climate Change Commission for Wales, where he represented CBI members, working closely with Wales and UK Governments and NGOs.

Matt Caville, Senior Advisor – Decarbonisation of Complex Sites – ES Catapult

Matt is a Senior Advisor working in the Sites team at Energy Systems Catapult. Matt has over a decade of experience in decarbonising complex sites, specialising in public sector and industrial estates. Prior to joining the Catapult, Matt worked for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero where he helped set up flagship government public sector decarbonisation grant funding schemes.

Vilnis Vesma, consultant, trainer and author specialising in energy management

Vilnis is a former energy manager in local government but has spent most of his professional career working as an independent energy-management consultant. His particular speciality is the analysis and interpretation of energy-consumption data. He has maintained a web site providing free guidance and information on energy management since 1996 and has been a provider of degree-day data since 1992. He has contributed to the development of several international standards (including ISO 50001) and is the author of numerous articles, advisory publications, and books including Energy Management Principles and Practice. He has presented or organised hundreds of public and in-house training courses and is the original founder of MAVCON. He is a Certified Energy manager and a former Certified Measurement and Verification Professional and Chartered Engineer.

Max Dixon, Analyst – EEVS

Joining EEVS in October 2022, Max Dixon (PMVA-A) brings a unique perspective to energy efficiency verification, shaped by diverse experiences in voluntary refugee work and teaching English in Korea. With a Masters in Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment, Max manages the Royal Mail Account at EEVS, applying academic insights to real-world challenges. Max’s research on trust and governance, published in a peer-reviewed paper, informs their approach to independent verification in energy efficiency services. This work has been further explored in a series of blogs, bridging theoretical concepts with practical applications in large-scale measurement and verification projects.

Pradeep Anthony, Lead M&V Manager – Mitie Energy

Pradeep has been in the energy industry for the past 17 years. He worked within the energy bureau functions providing end to end project management of bill validation. Applying his background in software he worked in energy data management for 5 years before moving into the Measurement & Verification space. Since being certified as a CMVP in 2018, Pradeep has led M&V reporting of Mitie Energy’s multi-site Energy Performance Contracts for various clients.