The Renewable World Board of Trustees provides strategic oversight and direction for the organization. Our Trustees listed below, are experts drawn from a number of complementary fields, including: renewable energy, business, development, academia and policymaking.
Michael Bullock
Michael is a founder Director of Renewable Risk Advisors, a risk management consultancy & insurance intermediary firm. Michael previously served with Narec Capital as Head of Risk Mitigation and SeaRoc Group as Commercial Director after more than 20 years working in the international insurance markets in London and Bermuda, including helping to establish Ascot Renewco, an insurance underwriting operation dedicated to the renewable energy sector. Michael also has extensive experience and contacts in various emerging markets.
Michael has a Masters degree in Finance from London Business School.
Dr Patrick Spaven OBE
Patrick is a specialist in evaluation and organisational performance management. He founded the consultancy Spaven Research and Evaluation in 2005 and is a Visiting Fellow at Manchester Business School. Prior to that, he was the British Council’s Director of Research and Evaluation.
Patrick has lived and worked in Pakistan, Kenya, Catalonia and Sweden and conducted assignments in another 25 countries. He lives in Brighton and Hove, where he was born. Patrick has a doctorate from Warwick University and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Dr Ray Thomas OBE - Chair
Ray Thomas studied History and International Relations in the UK, Trinidad and Switzerland and took his D.Phil from Sussex University. He joined the British Council in 1974 and worked in Morocco, Pakistan, Malaysia, Belgium and Turkey, as well as holding a number of senior management positions in London, including Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa from 1995 to 2000. He has extensive experience in the management of projects in developing countries.
Ray retired from the British Council in 2006.
Chris Tomlinson
Chris Tomlinson has a background in Planning, qualifying in Bristol in 1995. He spent six years working as a project manager in urban regeneration across three London Boroughs, before moving into the renewable energy field in January 2002 when he joined BWEA (the British Wind Energy Association - now Renewable UK).
Chris spent eight years working on behalf of the renewables industry, developing and lobbying for positive policies at all levels of Government to facilitate a growth industry.
After building RenewableUK to an organisation of 35 staff and leading a team of 12, Chris moved to E.ON in April 2010 to take up a new challenge; to support the successful development of the proposed Rampion Offshore Wind Farm off the Sussex Coast.
Dr Jim Watson
Jim is Deputy Director of the Sussex Energy Group, SPRU, Sussex University and Joint Deputy Leader, Tyndall Centre Climate Change and Energy Programme. Jim has worked at SPRU since 1997, first as a Research Fellow and more recently as a Senior Fellow. He manages and conducts research energy and climate policy.
His UK-based projects focus on the economic and policy aspects of distributed energy systems (particularly micro-generation), the economics of carbon capture and storage, and the potential impacts of a new programme of nuclear power. His international research includes participation in a UK-India project within the G8 Gleneagles Dialogue on barriers to low carbon technology transfer, and managing Tyndall Centre projects on international technology transfer and future energy and climate scenarios for China.
Jim is a Council Member of the British Institute for Energy Economics and a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Louis FitzGerald
Louis FitzGerald is Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (1971) His professional career has covered a broad spectrum of commercial activities in many
In 1997 Louis co-founded Airtricity (now SSE Renewables) a leading global renewable energy company embracing development; construction; wind farm operation and energy supply. His executive responsibilities covered Finance; Corporate & Strategic Development.
In 2007 Louis was instrumental in Airtricity becoming a friend of Renewable World and has been an Ambassador for the charity since that time. Louis has recently been appointed to the Board of The Community Foundation in Ireland.
Gemma Grimes
Gemma Grimes is Director of Onshore Renewables at RenewableUK where she oversees all aspects of onshore wind development policy. Having initially trained in industrial design in Newcastle she worked in North America and Asia before gaining a Masters in planning at London South Bank University. Gemma is a Chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and currently chairs the RTPI's energy policy committee.
Katharine Fogerty - Treasurer
Katharine Fogarty is Head of Finance for EDF Energy Renewables, which develops, constructs and operates wind farms all over the UK. She trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen, working mainly with oil and gas exploration and production companies. Having left practice to work in first the consumer electronics industry and then for a recorded music company, she sought out a role within the renewable energy industry four years ago and is very happy to have settled there.
Katharine first became involved with Renewable World when she took part in the London Triathlon team relay with two of her colleagues in summer 2011, together raising £1,000 of funding for Renewable World. She joined the Board of Trustees as Treasurer in late 2011.
Christian Kjaer
Before becoming CEO, he was Policy Director of EWEA for three years. He represents the Association in external forums, engages actively with international institutions, key stakeholders and NGOs, members of EWEA and the media.
He was Expert Reviewer on the IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report on Climate Change (2007) and Review Editor on the IPCC’s Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources (2011).
