The Saltire Prize - Biographies

John Callaghan, Programme Manager (Wave & Tidal), The Crown Estate

John Callaghan manages the Crown Estate’s activities in wave and tidal energy. The Crown Estate plays a key role in the UK low carbon energy industry, providing leases for offshore projects and supporting their development. This includes wave and tidal projects, notably ten schemes with a total potential capacity of 1.2 GW which resulted from the first commercial leasing round in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters. John is currently working on the development of further leasing rounds.

John was formerly a senior manager at the Carbon Trust, where he created and led several multi-£m technology development projects, including the Offshore Wind Accelerator, a joint venture with five electricity/oil companies. Prior to that he worked on onshore wind projects for developers and investors as a consultant with AEA Technology. John has a MEng from Durham University and a MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Sainsbury Management Fellow.

Paul Neilson - Transmission Development Manager, Scottish and Southern Power Distribution

Paul is Transmission Development Manager for SSE's electricity network business whose interests include ownership, and investment planning responsibility for the electricity networks in the north of Scotland. Paul is a Chartered Engineer who spent many years working for National Grid in both Britain and the United States before returning to Scotland with his family in 2006 to join SSE. He has an overview of transmission system development in the north of Scotland and represents Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Limited (SHETL) in the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).

Alex Reid - Offshore Renewables Team, Saltire Prize, Scottish Government

Alex has worked in the Scottish Government for 10 years. Before joining the Offshore Renewable Energy team, he worked for several years in the field of innovation support. For several years he managed the SMART:SCOTLAND Programme providing grant support to Scotland’s most innovative SMEs before moving to the Innovation Policy Unit. Alex worked on the development of mechanisms to promote grater collaboration between businesses and the science base and managed the Scottish sponsorship of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme. He moved to the Offshore Renewable Energy Team in 2009 to take forward the development of the Saltire Prize Competition which is now fully operational.

Lynne Vallance – Head of Offshore Renewables Policy Team, Scottish Government

Lynne joined the Scottish Government’s Renewables Energy team in 2008. Initially leading the design of the Saltire Prize (£10m international prize for development of marine renewables), she now heads up the Offshore Renewables policy team with responsibility for offshore wind and marine renewables. With the Scottish Government’s strong ambitions for offshore renewables, Lynne’s focus is on working with industry and public sector bodies to support the establishment of thriving offshore wind and marine renewables industries in Scotland, making substantial contributions to the 2020 renewables targets. She is co-chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Group (OWIG).

Lynne’s previous role in Government was leading the EU Strategy team, drafting the Scottish Government’s European Strategy. She spent 3 years working in Brussels where she enjoyed a secondment to the European Commission (DG Competition), before moving to the UK Permanent Representation to the EU (UKRep), the UK Government department working within the EU. Lynne was responsible for representing the UK’s interests in EU Competition Policy and Company Law in EU negotiations.

Lynne graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2000 with a MA in Politics.