Jesse Norman was appointed Minister of State in the Department for Transport on 26 October 2022.

He was previously Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office from 7 September 2022 to 26 October 2022. Before that, he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2021, where he managed the COVID-19 furlough scheme and set up the UK Infrastructure Bank.

Jesse has been the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire since 2010.

Jesse was previously Paymaster General, and held ministerial roles in the Department for Transport, and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. As a backbencher, he was a member of the Treasury Select Committee 2010 to 2015, and Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2016 to 2017. Jesse was made a Privy Councillor in 2019.

Before entering politics Jesse was a Director at Barclays. He also researched and taught philosophy at University College London, and ran a charitable project in Communist Eastern Europe.

Jesse is the author of numerous books and pamphlets, including ‘Compassionate Conservatism’, ‘Edmund Burke: Politician, Philosopher, Prophet’ and ‘Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why It Matters’, which won a Parliamentary Book Award in 2018. Jesse was Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year and The House Backbencher of the Year in 2012.

Jesse has degrees in Classics (Oxford University: MA) and philosophy (University College London: MPhil, PhD). He has held various academic research fellowships, and was elected as a Two-year Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2022. Jesse is an enthusiastic cyclist, hill-walker and amateur jazz musician.

As CEO of Connected Places Catapult, Nicola Yates OBE works to put UK innovators, businesses and places at a competitive advantage at home and overseas. Nicola led the creation of Connected Places Catapult through the merger of the Future Cities Catapult (of which she was CEO) and the Transport Systems Catapult in 2019.

With experience leading two major British cities (Bristol and Hull) as well as a rural Midlands district, Nicola is an expert in building visionary ‘roundtable partnerships’ which are key to cultivating successful places, and understands the power of technology to transform the destiny of local economies. In 2018, she harnessed these skills to broker the ground-breaking Belfast City Region Deal which secured more than half a billion in investment and an estimated £2 billion GVA benefit to Northern Ireland’s innovation economy.

 

In addition to sparking the innovation potential of places, Nicola has expertise in accelerating net zero transition. Whilst CEO at Hull City Council, she helped catalyse the Humber clean energy cluster, and under her leadership Bristol was the first UK city to be named European Green Capital, delivering one of the most technologically-enabled programmes to date.

Nicola is currently a trustee for the independent policy think tank ‘Centre for Cities’ and is a member of SOLACE (the Society for Local Authority Chief Executives) and the Chartered Institute of Housing. She has featured in the Local Government Chronicle’s ‘Top 50 most influential figures in local government’ and was awarded ‘Woman Achiever in Housing’. In 2010, Nicola received an OBE for services to local government.

Rachel is the COO at Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership. She is also a member of the Jet Zero Council and Chairs the Zero Emission Flight Delivery Group which has been established in 2022 by the government to put the UK in a leading position in the race to achieve zero emission flight.  She has a wealth of experience delivering complex programmes and improving operational effectiveness through people, process and technology. She has a strong background in the aviation, science and technology sectors having worked in leadership roles in IBM, the UK Space Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority.

Gareth is the Director for Strategic Development at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. He is responsible for working with partners across the ecosystem to develop large transformative initiatives that accelerate industrial transformation of the UK economy. Recognising, this is critical to ensure UK industry is positioned to thrive in a Net Zero global economy. Gareth has worked with some of the world’s biggest investors in innovation and is passionate about how technology can deliver Net Zero and future sustainability that enables broader economic and societal benefits. He has been a driving force of the multi-partner collaboration – the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative (HII) which aims to unlock the benefits of hydrogen innovation and position the UK at the forefront of the hydrogen economy.

Christopher has been Policy Director of AOA since May 2020, he is also Chair of Sustainable Aviation’s Quiet Working Group.  Previously he was Head of UK Policy at the Freight Transport Association where his responsibilities included leading on decarbonisation efforts in road freight.  In his 14 years there, Christopher also led on policy issues across rail, sea and air. Prior to FTA, he worked for almost 10 years in public affairs, for corporations and a leading consultancy.  He started his career as a researcher in the House of Commons.

Dawn joined BSI in 2019 as a Senior Standards Manager, having previously worked in academic publishing. She is responsible for leading the programme of standards development across transport, mobility, materials and manufacturing, both nationally and internationally. This covers a broad range, from the more traditional and established aspects, through to new areas of innovation across the sectors.

Professor Mark Westwood is the Head of Centre and Professor of Aeronautics at Cranfield University.

Mark started his career at QinetiQ, working in aerospace R&D across a range of technology programmes covering navigation, guidance and control, simulation and flight test, taking the role of Head of Systems Engineering for Air Division.

Mark joined the Transport Systems Catapult in 2015 to lead R&D projects developing autonomous vehicle technologies, highlights including the HumanDrive connected and autonomous road vehicle project with Nissan as the lead OEM, and Cranfield University as test partner using the MUEAVI facility.  In 2017 he moved to the position of CTO, and in 2019 as CTO of the newly formed Connected Places Catapult, resulting in the development of the Catapult’s activities in drones, Advanced Air Mobility and sustainable aviation.

He joined Cranfield University in late 2021 as Head of Centre and Professor of Aeronautics, one of the world’s largest centres for postgraduate education and research in aircraft design, aerodynamics, advanced modelling and simulation..  Mark’s research interests include simulation, autonomous systems and zero emissions solutions for air transport.  He is also a member of the CAA’s Environmental Sustainability Panel, providing expert technical advice to the CAA.

Nick is Associate Director of Transport and Mobility at BSI, the UK’s National Standards Body. Nick leads on developing BSI’s strategy for the transport sector and has specialised in supporting emerging technologies and markets through standardization programmes. Nick has over 15 years’ experience working in standards creation and has been involved in supporting several large innovation programmes in Connected and Automated Vehicles, Air Mobility and Decarbonisation of Transport working closely with UK government and industry across road, air and maritime.

Michelle Gardner was appointed Deputy Director of Policy for Logistics UK in October 2022, having previously joined as Head of Public Policy in February 2021. Michelle oversees the development and engagement of Logistics UK policy, including on topics such as road regulation, infrastructure, trade and decarbonisation. Michelle has a background in both policy and public affairs and prior to joining Logistics UK, she was Environmental Manager at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Previously she worked for the British Retail Consortium, first leading on public affairs and then on employment and health and safety policy.

Alistair is passionate about sustainability, both in transport and more generally. He is responsible for Zero Emission Vehicles at Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency.

Alistair’s role includes leadership of the £200m Department for Transport ‘Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstration’ programme which is tackling the decarbonisation of long haul road freight – the most difficult vehicles to decarbonise. This will include multi year on road demonstrations and collect data to inform future policy around decarbonising HGVs.

He also works closely with the Advanced Propulsion Centre in the delivery of the Automotive Transformation Fund, which is investing up to £1 billion to develop an electrified automotive supply chain in the UK.

 

James is Chief Operating Officer for Element 2 – a nationwide developer and operator of hydrogen distribution and refuelling infrastructure, supporting the decarbonisation of heavy transport and municipal fleets.

Prior to forming E2 as a Founding Director, James’ roles included strategic advisory and APAC country leadership roles for Amec Foster Wheeler plc, as well as Managing Partner for a Manchester-based strategy and change management consultancy.

He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Emerging Technologies Taskforce in 2014-15, producing the global agenda council reports on the potential economic impact and commercialisation pathways for the most exciting emerging technologies globally.

In other roles, he has advised the UK Government and the Energy Technologies Institute on the future of low-carbon energy in the UK, The Japanese Government on innovation policy and Foreign Direct Investment markets for renewable power, Sellafield ltd on establishing new capabilities in digital capital project delivery, and sat on the leadership team for the UK Government’s National Digital Twin programme at Cambridge University’s Centre for Digital Built Britain from 2018 until 2020.

In his spare time, he is a Non-Executive Director for the Urban Nature Partnership, and a keen advocate of bringing the green and built environment closer together.

Arnab heads up ZeroAvia’s hydrogen infrastructure team, focused on low cost, low carbon, resilient and reliable H2 to decarbonize airport ecosystems and provision hydrogen electric powertrains. He has been working in the energy and environment sector for 16 years, across technical, investment, strategy and leadership roles. He joined ZeroAvia from Shell, where most recently he was the Global Technology Programme Manager, Hydrogen and responsible for building product and strategy for all mobility verticals. Prior to Shell, he was part of the Cleantech 1.0 journey, firstly as an investor at Sofinnova Partners, the leading EU venture capital fund, based out of Paris and California, where he focused mainly on investments in industrial biotechnology (Avantium, Synthace, BioAmber, McPhy), and then as Director of Product at Bioamber, a portfolio company that developed biobased plastics. In his early career, he did a stint at Mckinsey and Co, serving energy clients in Calgary and London, and worked at Shell in R&D and operational roles. He has an MBA from INSEAD, an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and a DPhil in Physical Sciences from Oxford University. He lives in London with his wife and baby daughter. In his spare time, he is an avid ski-er and mountain-biker.

Dr. Yura Sevcenco is based at the Spadeadam Research and Testing site, in their Innovation team providing experienced technical analysis and opinion to customers in the areas of hydrogen and its derivatives and applying full scale research into liquid hydrogen for the energy transition.

He has a decade of experience working with hydrogen in multiple sectors, and another in academic and industrial R&D. The experience spans both aerospace and energy, developed full scale hydrogen combustors, has combusted ammonia and investigated it for storage and safety and been involved in the wider applied combustion research with various gaseous and liquid fuels. He has presented and published in hydrogen combustion, aerospace emissions and led the development of liquid hydrogen experimental rigs for industry and academia, furthering the knowledge in hydrogen, ammonia and alternative aviation fuels.

Yura currently uses his hydrogen expertise to advise stakeholders in the aerospace energy transition, design large scale programmes for validation for fundamental research and advise academic interest for industrial engagement.

Andy Eastlake was a founding member of the Zemo Partnership in 2003 and after serving both on the board and as chair of the members council for many years, was appointed as Managing Director in April 2012. He was formerly Group Head of Commercial and Projects at Millbrook Proving Ground where he was responsible for all the laboratories and commercial activity and led the work on powertrain test and development programmes and alternative fuels, for a variety of global OEM customers. Andy built his career in vehicle engineering, focussing on developing new test methods specialising in powertrain development, fuel economy and emissions.

As Head of Laboratories Andy was responsible for all technical aspects of the Millbrook business and for government and European legislative relations, supporting a wide range of policy initiatives for the UK government. He joined Millbrook after a year’s training with Vauxhall Motors by whom he was sponsored to study for a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Southampton University. Andy has supported many innovation activities in an advisory role including the creation of CENEX in 2005 and the APC in 2013. Andy is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and has supported STEM development throughout his career.

Andy became Zemo Partnership Chief Executive Officer in June 2021.

Tom Pickering as Co-founder of ZeroCarbon Ventures, and executive at Nasdaq and FTSE fast growth technology companies is a passionate supporter of UK engineering entrepreneurs. A renowned corporate turnaround specialist, having led the transformation of over 200 businesses, across multiple sectors including manufacturing, automotive and retail. In 2005 Tom founded IceBreaker Executive, aimed at boosting results and value for companies in the industrial and service sectors. Success led to many international awards for excellence. Tom trained as an engineer and is a Fellow of the Institute for Engineering and Technology. He is a regular speaker on technology at global conferences and teaches company turnaround classes for MBA programs. Tom has a trusted network of investors, commercialisation partners and development engineers that source, put their arms around technology development businesses to orchestrate product development to showcase, commercial and market readiness.

As Director of New Mobility Technologies in Connected Places Catapult, Henry currently responsible for a group of planners, engineers and technologies focus on growing businesses with innovations in mobility services that enable new levels of physical, digital and social connectedness through intersection between public, private sectors, local government, and transport authorities to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, work and travel.

Prior joining the Catapult, Henry was working at BAE Systems leading some of the cutting-edge development in the defence/security solution collaborating with MoD, Dstl, industry and academic.

Henry is an Adjunct Professor, in the School of Electronics & Computer Science, at Southampton University. He is also Chair of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub Strategic Advisory Network, the focal point of the £33m UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Programme; Chair for Future Mobility Challenge at Institution of Engineering and Technology Transport Policy Panel. He is also a Fellow of Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Chartered Engineer and a member of International Council on Systems Engineering,

Andrew Chadwick is a Chartered Engineer and is the Connected Places Catapult Aviation Technology Innovation Lead. His current work includes Solution Architect on a number of Future Flight Challenge aviation sustainability projects, the UK Government Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme, plus Solution Architect on the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project studying the introduction and transition of hydrogen and electric aircraft and supporting infrastructure into airports. Andrew also leads on Future Air Transport, Advanced Air Mobility, and Aviation Sustainability innovation initiatives.

Andrew is a Member of the Jet Zero Council Zero Emission Flight Delivery Group Infrastructure Subgroup, Member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Autonomous Vehicle Systems and Dynamics MSc at Cranfield University, a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Working Group on the Safety and Ethics of Autonomous Systems, a member of the UK Government Drones Industry Action Group, and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society Remotely Piloted Aircraft & Autonomous Systems Specialist Group Committee.

Alan is a Lead Systems Engineer at Connected Places Catapult. He is a Transport Planning Professional and Chartered Engineer. Prior to joining the Catapult in 2014, he worked on a wide range of transport planning projects for over 11 years.

He is a keen advocate of investing in technology and infrastructure that reduces the environmental impact of transport and is leading Catapult projects relating to road-based transport decarbonisation, including the Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstrator programme. He was the primary author of the Catapult’s published report on creating an excellent electric vehicle user experience.

Brian was formerly the Global Transport Fuels Advisor for BP and has held several senior leadership positions in prestigious petroleum and automotive research organisations.

More recently, he led and advised on several initiatives to lower the carbon intensity of fuels and has been successful in enabling the introduction of new lower carbon fuels and fuel additives that improve the efficiency of vehicles.

Brian is a recognised leader in the interface between the petroleum and automotive industries. He has deep expertise and experience in the project management of fuels development and deployment including the relationships between products and the human factors essential to promote the rapid deployment of the products that will provide societal and environmental benefits.

Since becoming a Connected Places Associate Brian has provided expert advice to the Net Zero Pathfinder projects and the End to End Hydrogen project.

Alison is a Global Export and Investment Specialist with the Connected Places Catapult, focusing on FDI into the UK around Smart Cities and mobility, working across NetZero mobility projects at the Catapult. She spent six years living and working in the Middle East, with the Department for International Trade as a Trade & Investment Advisor. Based first in Muscat, Oman, where she spent four years leading on a number of sectors, from Education to Infrastructure, followed by two and a half years in the UAE, based in Dubai, setting up the Technology and Smart Cities sector for DIT, with a core focus on AI and Fintech. She has lived and worked in over six different countries and is passionate about international trade & investment, and the green agenda

Catie Hosker has a love of Aviation and a passion for sustainability. She is a Systems Engineer in the New Mobility Technology team at Connected Places Catapult. With a background in Physics and experience in Aerospace and Defence prior to working at Catapult, Catie has been focussing on Aviation projects since joining. She led the technical team working on the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project this year, overseeing the development of the model and the creation of the “Hydrogen Infrastructure Options for Airports” report. When she’s not helping to decarbonise aviation, Catie spends her free time volunteering for St John Ambulance, with whom she is currently training to become Emergency Ambulance Crew.

Christopher Brook is a Lead Systems Engineer at Connected Places Catapult where his main responsibilities are delivering maritime, and aviation focussed de-carbonisation projects alongside industry and academia. In addition, he is responsible for convening industry consortiums to understand the most pertinent challenges and develop routes to funding to solve them.

Currently Chris is the Maritime Lead for the UK’s Hydrogen Innovation Initiative (HII) looking to work with industry to better serve the UK supply chain and develop international ties. His passion for engineering comes from solving the most pressing problems and finding the best mix of people to do this with.

Outside of work he is a keen athlete, and can be found running, in the gym or open water swimming.

Matthew is a Systems Engineer within the New Mobility Technologies team at Connected Places Catapult. Matthew has technical expertise in transport decarbonisation, technology integration, and innovation through working on projects across the transport ecosystem, including maritime, aviation and road sectors.

 

Matthew is currently working on transport decarbonisation projects, including Catapult’s Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project, and Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstration project. Through these projects Matthew is identifying viable infrastructure to deliver hydrogen zero emission flight implementation, and addressing key planning and regulatory barriers to the delivery of zero emission heavy goods vehicles and their supporting infrastructure. Alongside this, Matthew is contributing to the development of a Digital Twin Roadmap, the delivery of Manual for Smart Streets, and is a member of the Catapult TRIG team for 2022 looking to support new innovation projects.

Prior to joining Catapult, Matthew held a role as a Transport Planner in Bristol, focusing on strategy development and providing technical advice to support bids and planning applications.

Tom Marsh is a Systems Engineer in the New Mobility Technology Team at Connected Places Catapult. Trained as a Mechanical Engineering, Tom’s enthusiasm for zero emission transportation solutions stems from his passion for both road transport, and the environment & climate change mitigation.

Whilst new to the Catapult, Tom’s experience solving problems in high impact business scenarios, utilising broad data to identify optimal solutions to problems, is now being applied to the real-world landscape of future transport systems. He is currently playing a key role on various projects across the decarbonisation of road transport with a particular interest in hydrogen as an alternative fuel for the future.

Luiz is Senior Urbanist at Connected Places Catapult. He is an architecture and Urbanist chartered in Brazil and holds an MSc. in Sustainable Urbanism from UCL. He has over ten years of professional experience across the public and private sectors, on developing urban policies and action plans (sustainable mobility, air quality, public spaces) as well as engaging with stakeholders (from organised civil society to all levels of governments, NGOs and, business).

He is a keen advocate of fully integrating all subjects of city life when urban planning and in providing a digital government administration to allow speedy, impartial and efficient public services, as well as, allowing third parties to access such services and data to develop and offer products and services.

At the Catapult, Luiz has worked in projects such as “A pathway to decarbonised growth” funded by DfT, and currently is working on the Innovation Twin Cities Programme (South Korea, Australia), the Latin America Net Zero and Resilience Programme, (both funded by DSIT), and two Future of Transport projects, the Air Mobility Ecosystem Consortium (AMEC) and the Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstrator (ZERFD).

Michael worked on airport related projects for over 12 years; the varied roles included airport engineering, master planning, airport concepts, feasibility studies, project and contract management. The airport projects he worked on ranged in size, complexity and geographical location where he was able to recognize the economic, social, geopolitical and environmental impact that these can have in society.

Michael joined Connected Places Catapult as an aviation systems engineer to work on exciting innovation related projects and initiatives in the UK transportation industry. One of the most significant of these is the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure (ZEFI) programme where the team aimed to identify the fundamental infrastructure changes required to support the introduction of zero emission aircraft and to support the UK Government’s commitment to net zero by 2050 under the Ten Point Plan through facilitating Zero Emission Flight (ZEF) implementation in UK aviation.

The aviation industry will be driven by three factors in the coming years: a global market, sustainability, and transformative technologies. Michael is looking forward to driving the change needed to ensure a clean and prosperous aviation future.

Kruti is a Systems Engineer in the New Mobility Technology directorate at Connected Places Catapult. She is an Aerospace Engineer by qualification and, prior to joining Connected Places Catapult, she has worked as a Systems Engineer at Rolls-Royce where she contributed to the development of a key defence engine programme. Through her career she has also worked on a number of civil aerospace engine programmes as a Design Engineer. Given her Aerospace background, she is leading the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure roadmap work package at the Connected Places Catapult.

Chris has over 30 years of experience in airport and infrastructure planning and is passionate about sustainability and the need for aviation to decarbonise. Prior to joining Jacobs, Chris worked for the Aerospace Technology Institute’s FlyZero programme, leading studies into the airport infrastructure requirements needed to supply liquid hydrogen for the operation of zero-carbon emission aircraft. Chris joined Jacobs to further develop the understanding of hydrogen infrastructure requirements at airports, working closely with both their airport planning and hydrogen teams. Chris has a background in airport planning, working for both airports and airlines, including 15 years at Heathrow and Gatwick airports responsible for their capacity planning processes. He holds MSc degrees in both Airport Planning and Sustainability, as well as a BSc degree in Civil Engineering.

As Costain’s Transport Energy and Clean Mobility Adviser, Jamie brings excellent strategic and practical knowledge of the decarbonised transport infrastructure industry. He has experience in end-to-end battery electric vehicle infrastructure planning, design and delivery as well as undertaking strategic studies around the potential demand for hydrogen in transport, most recently for Cardiff Council, Welsh Water and Welsh Government. Previous roles in decarbonised transport space include B2B EV lead at EDF and Clean Mobility Infrastructure Funding Consultant for Horizon Energy Infrastructure. These positions have given him deep experience and expertise around the challenges and opportunities involved in the roll out of zero emissions transport solutions within large scale private and public sector entities.

Jenny Kavanagh joined Cranfield Aerospace Solutions in 2017 as Head of Airborne Systems, moving to the role of Chief Strategy Officer in 2020 following the successful launch of Project Fresson, an ATI funded project to convert a 9-seat Britten Norman Islander aircraft to gaseous hydrogen fuel cell propulsion. Jenny has been a Chartered Engineer for over 20 years, has led product development projects in aerospace for the past 17 years and is now responsible for the strategic exploitation of Cranfield Aerospace’s technology developments. A mother of two, she is passionate about the aviation industry’s ambition to decarbonise and to help create a cleaner world for future generations.

Kim uses her strategic vision and value chain engineering skills to drive the energy transition. Kim focuses on the most difficult to decarbonise sectors that require really ingenious and innovative solutions, both in technology and business model. Kim has more than 25 years’ experience in optimising global value chains. In the last 15 years, she’s focused on re-engineering value chains for sustainability, with a specific focus on the decarbonising heavy industry and international transportation (Aviation and Maritime).

Before joining PA, Kim spent 13 years at Royal Dutch Shell, supporting their evolution from a fossil fuels company to a sustainable energy provider, using innovative technology and future fuels. Kim is working extensively on the commercialisation of sustainable fuels, hydrogen and waste to create circular petrochemicals, delivering the sustainable downstream industry required to meet SDGs.

Chris joined the RHA in September 2019 to lead its policy on environmental and regulatory issues. Prior to this, he was a Civil Servant for 18 years, mainly at the Home Office where he developed policies to reduce offending by heroin and cocaine addicts and to address domestic abuse. Together with a family background in haulage, he brings extensive experience and insight into how central and local government decision-making, policy-making and Parliament works at the highest levels.

Chris’ focus is to balance the needs of both hauliers and the environmental reform agenda. He is actively engaged in shaping the Net Zero agenda to ensure sustainable outcomes are achieved for commercial vehicle operators and, in particular, for our vital SME sector

Alan Welby is the Executive Director of Delivery of the Connected Places Catapult. His role is to coordinate the delivery of a broad portfolio of projects accelerating innovation in cities, transport and place leadership. Alan’s career has spanned leadership roles in Economic Development, Local Government, Higher Education, and the Civil Service. He has worked in Newcastle, Madrid, Brussels, Birmingham and Liverpool.

Dr Hadi Moztarzadeh is an R&D and innovation specialist with background in both academia and industry. He collaborates with research and technology organisations, academia and industry, to de-risk innovation, accelerate technology transfer, and drive growth in the UK manufacturing and automotive sectors.

Dr Moztarzadeh is the Head to Technology Trends at APC, where he is in charge of technology strategy, and a portfolio of supply chain and insight analysis as well as technology and system-level roadmaps, working closely with the Automotive Council, industry and innovation ecosystem.

Prior to joining the APC, he was the Associate Dean (& Director) for Research, Innovation and Enterprise at the University of Salford, and before that, he led the cross-Catapult portfolio at WMG High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult, at University of Warwick.

Hadi has a PhD in Engineering from Warwick University and an MSc from University of Sheffield. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE).

Ben Richardson is one of the founders at Filton Systems Engineering and holds the position of Commercial Director and Fuel System Specialist. The company offers a range of consultancy services with a specialism in both compressible and incompressible fluids. The company has worked on a number of sustainable projects since its formation on 2012, these include renewable energy schemes, clearance for SAF, and hydrogen in aviation. In 2020 work began to expand their existing fuel facility at Kemble Airfield to include both liquid and gaseous hydrogen testing, to achieve this it was necessary to develop a hydrogen source and liquefier on-site. The facility was commissioned on the summer of 2021 and is now offering the only known liquid hydrogen test facility in Europe. Filton Systems Engineering is based in Bristol UK and is owned and operated by its employees as an employee ownership trust.

Ben qualified with a degree in Physics from the University of Southampton and has worked in the engineering for 19 years. Outside of work he enjoys sailing and spending time with his wife and two children.

Prof. Ramchurn is co-Founder and Co-CEO of Empati. He is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence and leads the technology strategy of Empati. His research encompasses number of fields including Machine Learning, Data Science, and Game Theory. He is also the director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub, the focal point of the £33m UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Programme, a Turing Fellow, associated with the Alan Turing Institute, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Marina is an engineer by education, working as a Transport Sustainability Consultant at TRL. Marina has extended experience in research on zero-emission technologies across the road, flight, rail and maritime vehicles and a broad stakeholder engagement background exploring new technologies uptake or developing standards. In addition, she has broad working experience expanding from decarbonisation and monitoring and evaluation to traffic management systems, contract management and road safety audits. She is also passionate about active travel, accessibility, and vulnerable users’ mobility.