Low Carbon Buildings and Microregeneration - Biographies

Chas Booth, Senior Press and Parliamentary Officer, Association for the Conservation of Energy

Chas Booth is Senior Press and Parliamentary Officer with the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE). He is responsible for ACE's policy and media work in Scotland, working closely with the Scottish Government and Parliament. He has been a member of the Scottish Government's Fuel Poverty Forum since 2005, and is a regular contributor to the energy policy debate in Scotland.

Previously Chas worked as Parliamentary Officer for Friends of the Earth Scotland, lobbying and researching on a wide range of issues from energy efficiency and planning to transport. Earlier employment includes spells in both the Scottish and European parliaments and teaching English in Bosnia and Bavaria. He is a member of the national council of the Scottish Green Party and is a candidate for the party in the forthcoming European elections. He lives in Leith with his wife, Clare.

John Charlick, Chief Executive, Puurgen Ltd

John Charlick is CEO of Puurgen, a renewable energy start-up based in Glasgow, which designs and supplies customised solar pv – based products. John began his career in Nokia’s network infrastructure division before moving to Motorola to support roll-out of their new 3G handset portfolio. John has worked across the whole product development and delivery lifecycle and has over 7 years experience in taking new technology to market and maintaining customer satisfaction throughout the challenging phases of new product integration.

John made the switch to renewables in 2007 and is now working with his colleagues to develop products to optimise the performance of solar pv systems through innovative power management.

John graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BEng in Physics and Electronics before taking his MSc at Strathclyde University in Communications and DSP.

David Gordon, Chief Executive, Windsave Limited

David Gordon is a Glaswegian serial entrepreneur with an acute social conscience. He has several successful business ventures behind him, including BAR-IT and Homelink.

David’s Windsave product provides the first on-site generation of electricity for consumers, reducing CO2 emissions, benefiting the environment, and reducing utility bills.

David has received several awards over the last few years, including two Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2006, and the Baker Tilly National Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2005. Windsave was also the UK winner of the VIBES Award (Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland), and chosen as the only UK entrant to represent the country in the Product Category for the European Business Awards for the Environment 2006 (EBAE)

David was also one of five entrepreneurs who mentored legal firms participating in The Prince’s Trust “Lions’ Den” Professional Challenge in 2007. He is also an accredited mentor with the Scottish Enterprise Mentoring Scheme.

Terry Hogg, Senior Executive (Energy Sector), Scottish Enterprise Energy Technology Centre (ETC)

Terry graduated from Strathclyde University with an honours degree in Chemical Engineering and went on to complete industry sponsored MSC and MPhil postgraduate degrees in product development methodology also from Strathclyde.

Following university he worked in industry within a variety of engineering and manufacturing organisations focusing on improving and developing product development and innovation processes and systems.

Before joining Scottish Enterprise he developed and managed an innovation support service for SMEs for four years, during this time he also lectured at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Terry joined Scottish Enterprise in 2001 and during this time his work has focused on supporting innovation and technology commercialisation within the sustainable energy sector. Terry has developed and currently manages the Energy Technology Centre (ETC) within Scottish Enterprise. He is leading a team which is developing support activities for the low carbon built environment and is also active in the sustainable transport sector.

Rob Lewis, Renewable Energy Strategy Manager, Energy Saving Trust

Rob is currently the Renewable Energy Strategy Manager for the Energy Saving Trust. He is involved in formulating and implementing the Trust’s work on providing renewable energy advice to householders and communities. He also undertakes policy work to provide the Government with an evidence base on the potential for these groups to generate their own energy and recommendations on how this can be delivered. Prior to working at the Energy Saving Trust he was a sustainable design and construction consultant at Creative Environmental Networks, working with architects and developers to develop sustainable schemes that integrated low and zero carbon energy solutions. He also worked with regional governments (including a secondment at SEEDA) to formulate sustainability strategies for large scale developments, and worked with local authorities to develop their policies. Rob holds an MSc in “Sustainable Cities” from King’s College London.

David Matthews, Chief Executive, Ground Source Heat Pump Association

David Matthews, Chief Executive of the Solar Trade Association and the Ground Source Heat Pump Association is a Renewable Energy Engineer who trained in Swansea, Warwick and Zimbabwe. Before being appointed to his current position, he worked in the UK, Africa, Germany & Brussels and ran his own sustainable heating design installation, supply and consultancy business. This foreign work experience gives him a wider perspective on the renewable energy industry.

His two main areas of interest are the building integration of low and zero carbon heating systems with the other building elements and also being part of the significant growth in the solar thermal, heat pump and other renewable heating technologies. He is currently involved in new product development and in new renewable heating training initiatives. His engineering knowledge is very useful for policy development issues as it provides a practical viewpoint on how the policy will function in the field.

Martin Orrill MBA MIDHEE, Head of Energy Technology and Innovation, British Gas New Energy

Martin’s current responsibility is to assist in the development of renewable and low carbon products and services within British Gas New Energy. He has worked in the Gas industry for over 30 years in a range of engineering, operational, sales and marketing roles. Prior to joining the New Energy team he was National Product Manager for British Gas Services which helped develop a passion for low carbon and renewable opportunities.

Examples of Martin’s team’s most recent projects in the low carbon space have been the partnerships and investments with Cerespower, Solar Technologies, Semplice Energy, Baxi, Disenco and vPhase.

Martin is currently chairman of the SBGI’s domestic combined heat and power section. He is a Director of the National Home Improvement Council and an Executive member of the Micropower Council.

Bill Rumble, The Mark Group

Bill Rumble studied Manufacturing Engineering at Nottingham University following a four year apprenticeship with the MoD. After graduating he joined Ford Motor Company and stayed for twelve years. During that time Bill performed a variety of roles, predominately in Sales and Marketing, including Brand Manger for the Ford Fiesta, Advertising Manager for Ford of Europe and Global Product Marketing Manager for Aston Martin.

In April 2006 Bill joined Mark Insulations Group as its Commercial Director. At that time it was a £50m turnover company, employing 500 staff installing insulation. Bill’s role was to grow the business and ensure that its long term future was secure.

Today, the repositioned ‘Mark Group’ is one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing installers of ‘whole house’ energy saving measures with a turnover of over £100million. The business’s recent growth has been entirely organic and currently employs over 1400 staff operating from 14 locations throughout the country installing:

• Cavity wall and loft insulation
• External wall insulation
• Solar thermal
• Solar PV
• Heat pumps
• Wind turbines

Mark Group’s ethos is centred on installing the most appropriate solution for any given property, with no allegiance towards one particular technology. Mark Group’s view is that it is rarely a case of unsuitable technologies - only inappropriate applications.

Mark Group’s client base is broad, covering almost every energy supplier as well as house builders, local authorities, social housing providers, retailers and manufacturers, as well as private domestic customers.