Keynote Speaker
Claire Dykta
Speakers and Panel Members
Tom Carlucci-Davies
James Earl
Sian Hamson
Lucy Hopwood
Chris Huhne
Tommy Isaac FIGEM MIChemE
Dr Angela Needle FEI
Dr Nick Primmer
Josja Roest MA
Luke Rowlands
Professor Goran Strbac
Claire is the National Energy System Operator's Strategy and Policy Director and a member of the Executive Committee. Her role focuses on the long-term strategic development of energy systems, and she is responsible for NESO strategy. Her previous role was ESO’s Director of Markets.
Claire has over 20 years’ experience across a diverse range of roles in the energy industry and has been at the forefront of changes in the UK power sector, including being responsible for optimising the power grid for the first UK coal-free day. Claire has previously been named in a list of the top 25 UK influencers in the energy industry and the top 1000 global influencers on Climate & Energy.
James is Chief Executive of Future Energy Networks (FEN), the membership organisation for the UK’s gas networks. He has 15 years of experience in the energy sector at the intersection between policy, regulation, strategy and economics, in both gas and electricity.
Prior to his role at FEN, James led on gas issues at the Energy Networks Association and has held a number of other private and public sector roles in the sector.
Siân is responsible for helping deliver PepsiCo’s sustainability ambitions across its UK supply chain and spearheaded the company’s recent biomethane purchase agreement with ENGIE. She has more than 20 years’ experience across PepsiCo’s Supply Chain, having developed and delivered a wide range of transformation projects before taking the lead across its supply chain sustainability agenda.
Siân has a degree in Physical Geography and grew up on a farm in Shropshire, giving her a long-standing connection to agriculture and the natural environment.
Lucy has over 20 years’ experience as a consultant and adviser in bioenergy and anaerobic digestion (AD). At Alder, she provides strategic advice, planning and technical support on policies, technologies and markets to public and private sector clients in the UK and beyond.
Lucy and the team at Alder have core strengths in feedstock, sustainability, markets and policy, supporting investors, developers and operators whilst also providing technical support to policy makers to help shape the future policy landscape.
Tommy is a chartered engineer with nearly a decade of experience in the hydrogen market, spanning operational, project management, commercial and financial roles.
Tommy began his career with ExxonMobil as an operations engineer, before moving onto Progressive Energy for 6 years where he was the Head of Hydrogen Research, since April 2023 Tommy has been with KPMG leading on strategy and transaction advisory projects within the UK and European hydrogen markets.
Dr Angie Needle is Cadent’s Director of Strategy and Fellow of the Energy Institute. In her current role Angie is responsible for defining and driving the company strategy which includes decarbonisation strategies through green gases: hydrogen and biomethane. This includes supporting the development of new hydrogen and biomethane infrastructure in the UK and supporting the necessary policy, regulations and influencing to deliver the ambition. She is also responsible for all company communications, marketing, brand management, consumer insights and business development.
Prior to joining Cadent in 2019, Angie held several senior roles at Centrica and Anglian Water, developing energy and customer services propositions and supporting both organisations on their moves towards cleaner energy, reduced carbon emissions and more sustainable business models.
Nick leads Future Biogas' engagement with government and associations, ensuring effective policies and regulations are in place for the delivery of Project Carbon Harvest – a venture to design and operate the UK’s next generation of AD plants delivering Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).
Previously, Nick worked as policy lead at the World Biogas Association (WBA), where he has authored the report “Biogas: Pathways to 2030”, recommending key policies to help scale up the biogas sector to its full potential.
Josja heads the government affairs department of Rheem in Europe. Rheem is active in the UK as Intergas Heating, a manufacturer of heating boilers and heat pumps, based in Kidderminster.
Besides his work for Rheem, Josja is an executive member for the Dutch association of manufacturers of heating solutions, the Dutch association for sustainable heating.
Luke has 20 years of energy experience working for international asset businesses and private equity groups.
Previously working within National Grid Group and subsidiaries in both regulated and non-regulated venture activities across both electricity and gas activities.
After leading Asset Management & IT investment on behalf of National Gas Transmission for the RIIO-2 submission, Luke has Directed Business Development activities for National Gas across all areas of its interests.
