The Crown Estate - Biographies

Ben Barton, Offshore Manager (Wind Farms), The Crown Estate

Ben joined The Crown Estate in September 2006 to take the role of Offshore Wind Farm Manager, with responsibility for delivery of the wind farm sites allocated in UK waters under leasing rounds 1 & 2. During 2008-09, Ben managed the application process for the leasing of offshore wind farms in Scottish territorial waters. Ben is the landowner’s point of contact with the wind industry and manages the process of granting site agreements followed by leases as the projects progress through the development cycle. He also represents The Crown Estate at a number of industry, government and stakeholder groups.

Before joining The Crown Estate, Ben worked for npower renewables as an offshore wind developer. In this role he had responsibility for the post-construction environmental monitoring of the North Hoyle offshore wind farm and pre-construction monitoring for the Rhyl Flats project, together with a contribution to the consent applications and EIA preparation for the Gwynt y Môr project. Ben is also an experienced data manager and GIS user. Prior to joining npower renewables, Ben was employed by the University of Southampton’s GeoData institute where he worked on a wide range of environmental, energy and educational projects.

Alastair Dutton, Round 3 Programme Manager, The Crown Estate

Alastair Dutton is Development Manager at The Crown Estate and leads the Round 3 programme. He has over 25 years experience in low carbon and renewable energy, including roles in research, projects, marketing and operations. He joined The Crown Estate from BP last year. Alastair is currently recruiting the team for Round 3 and building team capability to work in partnership with developers. He also looks after supply chain as part of his responsibility for enabling actions.

Jamie Moore, MSc, BSc

Jamie has extensive experience in Marine GIS and is currently working with The Crown Estate on the development of its Marine Resource System (MaRS). Jamie has contributed to a large range of marine and coastal GIS projects, working with public and private organisations both in the UK and overseas. More recently these have focused on the renewable energy sector including studies for wave, tidal and offshore wind developers as well as strategic research projects such as the Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources, published by BERR. Jamie maintains an interest in writing papers for academic journals and contributing to industry events.

Martin Simpson, Head of Technology and Projects, The Crown Estate

Martin Simpson recently joined The Crown Estate as Head of Technology & Projects in November 2008 following 22 years in Shell where held positions in Operations & Maintenance, Project Management and Technology Development. This included 4 years in Shell Wind Energy developing the London Array Project in the Thames Estuary and developing CO2 seperation technologies in Shell Global Solutions. Martin holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and a PGD in Offshore Engineering. He likes to spend his spare time in the outdoors hillwalking and golfing.

Bruce Valpy, Director, BVG Associates

Bruce Valpy is a Director of BVG Associates with a history in the wind industry going back to 1987. Before founding the company in 2005, Bruce led R&D activities in the UK for NEG Micon (then after merger, Vestas). Since then he has created a rapidly growing, diverse client base including the market leaders in the wind turbine and tidal turbine sectors, British Wind Energy Association, The Crown Estate, UK Government (DECC), utility providers, multi-nationals and start-ups in the renewables sector.

Significant recent work has been UK Ports for the Offshore Wind Industry - Time to Act on behalf of DECC and UK Offshore Wind Industry: Moving up a Gear for the BWEA. Bruce also leads work for DECC on developing the UK supply capability.

This work places Bruce in routine contact with offshore wind players - developers, wind turbine manufacturers and members throughout the supply chain.