Our staff & trustees
Staff
Around 110 people work for the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
You can find most of CSE’s staff in the accordion below or on this organisational diagram. For operational reasons, a further 40 or so members of the Household Energy Team who provide energy advice and casework are not listed here.
(Click here to see our trustees.)
We’re pleased to report that our chief executive, Simon Roberts OBE, is making a strong recovery from the stroke he suffered in May last year, and in June 2023 began a very gradual return to work. While Simon is focused on rebuilding his picture of CSE’s current work and the latest policy, regulatory and market developments, Janine Michael, as Deputy Chief Executive, continues to lead the day-to-day operations of the charity with support from other directors and from Anne Obey, the Chair of Trustees. |
Trustees
Andrew is a widely-recognised expert in behaviour and social change, carrying out research for a wide range of public and voluntary sector clients.
Andrew has a background in advertising, followed by extensive experience – and formal qualifications – in market research. As an expert on behaviour change, he developed a new inter-disciplinary model of behaviour which was launched by The Scottish Government in 2013, and is now their tool of choice for maximising the public’s contribution to delivering a Low Carbon Scotland.
Over the years working on behaviour change and public engagement, Andrew has built up a reputation as an authority on using segmentation in the public sector. Between 2007 and 2012, he has acted as an independent advisor to Defra on segmentation models.
Most recently, Andrew acted as research director throughout the process of developing the Welsh Government’s Sustainability Audience Segmentation. Andrew continues to work on segmentation in the context of food-related behaviours (eg. with WRAP) and is completing a scoping study for the Department for Transport (with Aberdeen University) on developing a travel and transport-related segmentation model of businesses.
Andrew joined the Board of CSE in June 2014.
Anne is a non-executive director and university governor. Her executive career included 15 years at Nationwide Building Society, holding positions including Director of Financial Reporting where she led the team responsible for Nationwide’s external financial reporting and financial regulatory reporting, and Chief Internal Auditor. She was extensively involved in Nationwide’s inclusion and diversity agenda, and chaired the pensions governance committee. As well as financial reporting her areas of expertise include enterprise-wide governance, risk management and control, and leading business change programmes.
Anne is a Chartered Accountant and prior to joining Nationwide was a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she specialised in retail banking and mortgage lending.
Anne became a CSE Trustee in 2012. Anne is also a non-executive director of Western Provident Association and an independent governor of Coventry University.
Anne was awarded an OBE for services to financial reporting and sustainable energy in the New Year’s Honours List 2019.
Ariane heads up the climate programme at Wiltshire Council, one of the largest local authorities in the country. It has an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2030 and is top of the Friends of the Earth league table for climate-friendly local authorities.
Ariane has extensive local government experience at county, district and unitary levels and has worked in the not-for-profit sector.
Ariane has led organisational change programmes and is an Executive Coach. Ariane became a Trustee of CSE in June 2014.
Bill Hull is a Partner and Head of Commercial Services at national law firm TLT. He has worked as a lawyer specialising in renewables and energy efficiency for the last 25 years, advising on a range of commercial contracts, procurement and subsidies related matters across a broad client base. He has been recommended by Legal 500 since 2004.
Bill has particular expertise in advising on renewable energy projects across both the energy and public sectors and has advised on some of the most significant and high profile energy efficiency projects in recent years. He has also advised on projects relating to solar PV, off and onshore wind, hydro, biomass, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas generation schemes. He is recognised for his work as an adviser on UK Government and Scottish Executive programmes supporting energy efficiency and renewables.
Bill is regularly invited to speak at industry events where he has in the past commented on the opportunities for energy efficiency, renewable electricity and renewable energy supply.
Dr Jane Dennett-Thorpe is the Deputy Director, Net Zero Transition at Ofgem . Her work informs the regulator and the energy industry about the implications of the energy transition, especially its potential impact on consumers.
Jane has more than two decades’ experience on sustainability and low carbon energy matters. In over 13 years in government she held policy and analytic roles. She led industrial energy efficiency policy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and served as DECC’s Deputy Head of Science (2014-16). She has also been active in developing innovative approaches that seek to tackle social justice and environmental challenges in a holistic way both locally and internationally – including a stint with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
She has strong academic credentials: a PhD in astrophysics from Cambridge and Masters degrees from Harvard (history of science) and Loughborough (renewable energy systems). She is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.
Jane was appointed to the Board in October 2018.
Kaye is deputy Chair of Trustees and has been on the Board since 2014. She has over 20 years’ experience in sustainable energy and has held senior positions including Assistant Chief Executive of Severn Wye Energy Agency and Chair of Energy Advice South West. She cofounded and was Managing Director of The Glass Lift, developing leadership and supporting gender diversity in the work place. Kaye is currently a Non Executive Director at HETAS and Partnership Director of EVOLVE Home Energy Services Ltd.
Peter is co-founder and Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE), a local community enterprise operating since 2010 that own and operate 12.5MW of community solar PV and one small hydro scheme and has to date distributed £250,000 of surplus back into the local community. BWCE is developing a new pipeline of community owned renewable energy assets and is delivering several innovation projects providing Demand Side Response and grid services that seek to minimise peak time use of heat pumps, hot water heaters and electric vehicle charging.
Peter has 35 years’ experience of working on renewable energy, energy efficiency and fuel poverty programmes at national, regional and local levels, with a strong focus on local & community action. He was chief executive at CSE until 2002 when he resigned due to family illness. As well being a trustee at CSE, Peter is deputy chair of Community Energy England and a director of COAM Members Ltd, the community owned parent company of the asset manager, Bright Renewables. He was awarded an MBE for services to sustainable energy in 2015 and has an MSc in Energy Resource Management.
Peter is a professional town planner who has spent much of his career working for central government. For over seven years, he was Deputy Head of the Infrastructure and Environment Division in the DCLG’s (now MHCLG) Planning Directorate, responsible for planning and environmental policy including climate change. Earlier in his Whitehall career, he worked on a broad range of planning policy including housing, design and waste management. He also has hands-on planning experience having worked in local government and for a national house builder. Since leaving central government, Peter has freelanced (part-time) including for the Right to Build Task Force.
Peter has had a long interest in planning and climate change. In Whitehall, he led on the first national planning policy statement on climate change and played a major role in developing the, then, Labour government’s zero-carbon housing policy. Since leaving the department, Peter has continued to work on climate and planning issues in advisory roles. These have included Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) research looking at the climate content of local plans, a joint TCPA / Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) good practice guide on climate change and research on Planning for a Smart Energy Future.
As well as being a trustee of CSE, Peter sits on the TCPA’s Policy Council and the RTPI’s England Policy Panel. He is also the Honorary Secretary for the RTPI SW.
Shantha is CEO at Workfinder, a platform which connects talented diverse, young people with work opportunities at growing, innovative organisations. He started his career in the civil service, first on the fast track working on renewables policy in the DTI (2002) then HM Treasury’s climate change team (including the Stern Review). Shantha went on to work for NESTA then KPMG before joining Dyson in 2010 as Global Strategy and Product Director. He served as Dyson’s Europe Commercial Director. He joined ROLI, a music tech start up, as Chief Commercial Officer in 2019. He has a PhD in Molecular Biology. Shantha was appointed to the Board in October 2018.
William was Managing Director of Warm Zones community interest company until his retirement in March 2018. Warm Zones is a not-for-profit social enterprise wholly owned by national fuel poverty charity, National Energy Action (NEA). The company contributes to the achievement of NEA’s objective of addressing fuel poverty by delivering energy efficiency improvements and related services targeted at low income and other vulnerable households.
William was involved in the establishment of Warm Zones in 2000, was a founding director of the company and was appointed as full-time Managing Director in 2008. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of NEA for nine years having been initially appointed to the charity as Deputy Director in 1988. William has been a member of a number of government and industry fuel poverty and energy efficiency advisory bodies.
Before joining NEA he had extensive experience working in local government in housing management and the delivery of capital programmes, together with general community development. He has also been involved in a range of voluntary housing and energy projects.
William has a degree in economics and holds the Institute of Housing Professional Qualification.