Pen Portraits
Jos (H.J.M) Beurskens
Jos Beurskens, since 1972 active in renewable energy in general with a specialization
in wind energy, headed the Wind Energy Unit of Energy research Centre of the
Netherlands (ECN) from 1989 until October 1, 2005. At present he is the Scientific
director of the Dutch "We@Sea" Programme, which carries out R&D on the
application of wind energy plants offshore. He is attached to ECN's unit wind energy
as a senior scientist and project leader. Among others he is a co-project manager
(together with Peter Hjuler Jensen of Risø-DTU)) of the European Integrated Project
UpWind, which explores the design limits for very large wind turbines.
He was appointed to serve on the Steering Committee of the European Wind Energy
Technology Platform and act as the chairman of Wind Power System Working Group (WG 2).
In 2008 Jos Beurskens was awarded with the Poul la Cour’s prize, which was presented to
him by Mr. Janez Potočnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research.
Ian Burdon BSc, MSC, CEng, FIET
Ian is Technical Director, Energy Strategic Consulting, at Parsons Brinckerhoff in Newcastle
upon Tyne, the successor Company to Consulting Engineers Merz and McLellan. He takes a
particular interest in sustainable energy developments including renewable energy, energy
from waste, advanced energy technologies such as gasification and pyrolysis, and low and
zero-carbon "clean" energy technologies.
He is a founding member of the Energy Leadership Council in North East England, is a
member of the Technical Advisory Panel of the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC)
at Blyth in Northumberland and is also Chairman of the Low Carbon Energy Steering Group
at the Centre for Process Innovation on Teesside. He is Chairman of the Power Conversion
and Application Professional Network at the IET, Chairman of the Renewable Power
Committee at IMechE and a past-Chairman of the IET in North East England.
Sarah Green
Sarah Green is Regional Director of CBI North East. Her role is to represent North East
businesses to ensure they have a strong voice in regional, national and international policy
making.
Sarah qualified as a solicitor at Clifford Chance and worked internationally in their Shanghai
and Hong Kong offices before leaving the law and joining Arthur Andersen Consulting
working as a communications consultant. On returning to her home town of Newcastle,
Sarah completed an MSC in Urban Regeneration whilst working at One North East. Sarah is
passionate about the green new deal agenda and recently launched the Great North
Revolution campaign in conjunction with NCJ media to communicate the real opportunity
for the North East to be world class in a number of low carbon related markets. Sarah has
just been appointed a visiting fellow of Newcastle University.
Graham Hillier
Graham is the Director responsible for Strategy and Futures at the Centre for Process
Innovation. He has a Degree in Metallurgy, PhD from the University of Cambridge and an
MBA. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. He is also a visiting
Professor in the Department of the Built Environment at the University of Salford.
He has a wide-ranging business background including recycling operations, new product
development, business development and low carbon energy. Prior to joining CPI he was
Director of Strategy and Planning for ICI’s Petrochemicals, Plastics and Fertilizers Business
before working for Corus where he was Construction Director. He was responsible for a
global programme in sustainable urban design and construction.
At CPI Graham develops the strategy for the whole organisation focusing on developing
technologies to support the efficient use and reuse of increasingly scare natural resources.
CPI has two main technology teams: one working on Low Carbon and Industrial
Biotechnology and the other on Printable Electronics. The aim is to get printed electronics,
bioenergy systems and sustainable engineering systems applied to everyday applications.
He is also the Chair of Redcar & Cleveland Further Education College.
John Lowther
John Lowther is the Director of the Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit. A geographer and town
planner by training, John has been involved in planning, housing, transport and economic
development for the last 30 years in London, Scunthorpe and the Tees Valley. The Tees
Valley Joint Strategy Unit is responsible for developing sub-regional planning, economic
development, housing and transport strategies and programmes for the Tees Valley. The
JSU has developed the Tees Valley City Region Development Programme and the Tees Valley
City Region Business Case.
The JSU supports Tees Valley Unlimited, our public/private
sector partnership whose task is to coordinate action to improve the economic performance
of the Tees Valley. John has also lead on the preparation of a Multi Area Agreement for the
Tees Valley which brings together the regeneration, housing and transport capital funding
streams into a single city region capital programme to implement the city region business
case. The Multi Area Agreement was approved by Government in July last year.
Matthew Lumsden – Managing Director, Future Transport
Systems
As a director of TNEI Matthew Lumsden has been involved in energy related consultancy
since 2000. Earlier in 2009 Matthew initiated the creation of Newcastle based electric
vehicle infrastructure consultancy, Future Transport Systems in recognition of the gaps in
expertise and knowledge surrounding the connection of electric vehicles with the existing
electrical distribution networks and other infrastructure. The vast majority of existing
expertise in this area stems from the automotive and not the energy sector. Future
Transport Systems combines the energy related expertise in TNEI with internal expertise
drawn from the automotive and broader low carbon transport sector.
Future Transport Systems is the first consultancy to focus specifically on this area and is now
involved with several projects in the UK and overseas.
In the North East Region, Future Transport Systems successfully wrote the £11m bid to the
Technology Strategy Board to run a 35 car Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Project
which it now manages and has also played a lead role in developing the strategy to roll out
electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the Region
Ray Mills
Ray is a Partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Corporate Finance and leads the UK Local
Government and Social Infrastructure team focusing on advising public and private sector
clients on financing and delivering investment in housing, regeneration and education. He is
also a board member of PwC's national Local and Regional Government team. His expertise
lies in raising finance and value capture through public private partnerships and he leads on
a number of PwC initiatives aiming to develop new funding solutions to support sustainable
growth and regeneration including the financing of enabling infrastructure. Outside PwC Ray
is a non-executive director of Entrust, which offers business development solutions for
businesses across the North East, including finance raising and start-up support.
Paul Mooney
Paul Mooney is Chief Economist at regional development agency One North East. Amongst
other things, Paul is project director of the Economic Implications of Climate Change Study,
which will examine the economic impacts of a changing climate in North East England. Prior
to joining the Agency, Paul worked in central government as an economist, focusing on
employment, skills and European issues. During this time, he also played a role in
international economic development spending two and a half years working in Brussels with
the European Commission, covering employment, social and regional policy. More recently,
his work with the Department for Work and Pensions saw him focus on the value for money
the Government gets from its employment programmes. The results are due to be released
in the New Year.
Neil Murphy
Neil Murphy is Director of Urban and Regional Development at sustainability strategists
Beyond Green. He oversees Beyond Green’s work on sustainable urbanism, low-carbon
economic development and governance for sustainable development. His current projects
include the Legacy Masterplan Framework to guide post-Games development of the 2012
Olympics site in East London, Manchester’s climate change action plan, several projects in
New Zealand cities, and work for the Beyond Green Group’s own development projects.
Trained as a political scientist at Oxford University and as a civil servant at HM Treasury, Neil
has a decade’s experience and knowledge of government, the policy framework for local
development, and economic, social and delivery issues in sustainable development. Prior to
joining Beyond Green, Neil was seconded from the Treasury to Newcastle City Council where
as economic advisor he was involved in neighbourhood regeneration, city-regional policy,
development finance and the establishment of a new city development company for
NewcastleGateshead. As a senior policy advisor at the Treasury he advised at the highest
levels of government on a range of issues including tax policy, welfare reform, housing,
urban policy and local government. Neil is visiting fellow of the School of Geography, Politics
and Sociology at Newcastle University.
Professor Dermot J Roddy, CEng, FIET
Dermot Roddy joined Newcastle University as Science City Professor of Energy in 2008 after
a period of some 20 years in the energy industry and petrochemical sectors. He is also
Director of the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research, which integrates energy
research across Newcastle University and links with a powerful external industrial base in
the energy sector. Outside of the university he is Chairman of North East Biofuels, Finance
Director of the UK Hydrogen Association and Vice President of the Northern England
Electricity Supply Companies Association. Prior to coming to Newcastle University he was
Chief Executive of Renew Tees Valley Ltd – a company which he set up in 2003 to create a
viable and vibrant economy in the Tees Valley based on renewable energy and recycling –
where he was instrumental in a wide range of major renewable energy and low-carbon
projects relating to biomass, biofuels, hydrogen, carbon capture & storage, wind and
advanced waste processing technologies. From 1998 to 2002 he ran the crude oil refinery
on Teesside as site director for a $5 bn-turnover facility before moving to the Netherlands to
work on Petroplus’ international growth plans. Dermot’s experience in the petrochemical
industry began in 1985, involving a variety of UK and international roles in operations,
engineering and technology with ICI and others. Prior to that he developed leading-edge
technology at Queen’s University, Belfast, for optimisation and control in aerospace
applications.
Kevin Rowan
Kevin Rowan is Regional Secretary of the Northern TUC, representing half a million trade
union members in the Northern Region.
Kevin represents the TUC on the Regional Employment and Skills Partnership, the Regional
ESF Committee, the ERDF Programme Monitoring Committee, the Interim Regional
Transport Board, chairs the Employment, Skills and Enterprise Group of the North East
Equality and Diversity Board. He is also Chairs the Regional Employability Framework and
Equality North East and is a member of the Regional Economy, Health and Wellbeing group
and is a founding member of Work Wise NE.
Kevin is a member of the North East Learning & Skills Council. He is also a board member of
NORCARE. Kevin represents the TUC on the region's European Strategy Group and as an
associate member of the North East England European Office in Brussels.
Frances Rowe
Frances Rowe is Strategic Policy Manager at One North East, the Regional Development
Agency. Frances’ career has spanned the private, public and voluntary sectors. Frances
qualified in agricultural marketing and business administration from Harper Adams
University College and subsequently trained as a technical journalist in the agricultural
industry. She moved to the voluntary sector in 1987 to become Assistant Director of the
Council for National Parks in London, and then to Newcastle in 1989 to take up the new post
of Marketing and Development Manager with Northumberland Wildlife Trust.
Frances was appointed to the Northumberland National Park Authority as a secretary of
state appointee in 1991. She became Chair of the Authority in 1996, a position she held until
2000. She was a Board member of the former Countryside Agency, from 2000 to 2005 and
in 2001 joined One North East to work on rural development following the foot and mouth
outbreak. In 2006 Frances secured a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to the USA to
study local food development. She is currently an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Rural
Economy at Newcastle University, where she is working on issues around rural land use in
the context of regional strategy, and rural mainstreaming. She is also a member of the
Project Executive of the North East Commission on Rural Health, and is a Board member of
Barnard Castle Vision.
Professor John Tomaney
Prof. John Tomaney is Professor of Regional Development and Director of the Centre for
Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University; Professor of
Regional Studies at Monash University, Melbourne; Associate Director of the UK Spatial
Economics Research Centre (SERC) and is an Academician of the Academy of Social Science
(UK). He was educated at the London School of Economics, University of Sussex and
University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
He has published widely on questions of local and regional development including Local and
Regional Development (Routledge, 2006) co-authored with Andy Pike and Andrés RodríguezPose. He has undertaken numerous research projects in the UK and elsewhere. Among the
organisations for which he has conducted research are: UK Research Councils, UK
government departments, the European Commission, the OECD and local and regional
development agencies and private sector and voluntary organisations. He has given
evidence to Royal Commissions and Parliamentary Committees in the UK.
Andy Williamson
Andy joined Narec in 2009 with responsibility for Business Development and Marketing
across the group. After several years in the electrical products distribution industry he
graduated from Newcastle University in 1994 after which he worked in the Japanese market
in both Government and Corporate roles, including as Head of Business Development with
Marubeni Corporation plc in London. Andy has also worked in economic development with
regional development agency One North East in addition to starting and running a successful
franchise business in landscape architecture and construction. He gained an MBA from
Lancaster University Management School in 2001
Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement
Professor Paul Younger is an environmental engineer and hydrogeologist with a worldwide
reputation for his pioneering research and outreach programme of community-based
projects to remedy the serious threat to the environment caused by water pollution from
abandoned mines – work which won a Queen's Anniversary Prize for the University in 2005.
Until this appointment he was Director of the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research.
He was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2007, and is the
University's Public Orator. Professor Younger will provide leadership on the University's
engagement in the economic, social and cultural development of the North East, and its
strategic positioning as a civic university, nationally and internationally.