Regional Net Zero Investment Forum, Bristol

Marvin Rees was first elected mayor in May 2016. On that day, Bristol became the first major European city to have elected a mayor of black African heritage. He describes becoming mayor as another expression of a deeper commitment to building a fairer, more inclusive world.

He began his working life with Tearfund, one of the UK’s leading international development agency. He went on to spend time working in the US with Sojourners, a Washington D.C. based social justice organisation, and President Clinton’s advisor Rev Dr Tony Campolo. On returning to the UK he worked with BBC Bristol as a Broadcast Journalist, with the Black Development Agency supporting the BME-led voluntary sector and NHS Bristol’s Public Health team on Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health.

He is chair of the Connected Places Catapult (CPC), the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place-leadership, and Chair of the UK Cities Commission for Climate Investment (3Ci) which convenes city leaders and urban investors to finance a just net zero transition. He is a Board member of Transport for London (TfL) and the London LEP. He chairs TfL’s new Land and Property Committee that oversees TfL low carbon property and housing company (TTLP).  He is a member of the WEF Global Future Council on Cities & Urbanisation and a member of the Bloomberg NEF Council on Cities.  He is Hon Prof of Urban Innovation at Strathclyde University and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is author of 10 books and 100 reports on cities, innovation, investment and place-leadership. His monthly column: The Planet of Cities, is hosted by RICS. He is Global Cities expert on the BBC World Service Series, My Perfect City.

Greg is a world expert on cities, urban innovation, investment, and the net zero transition. Over 35 years, he has worked with more than 300 cities, 40 national governments, 20 multilateral institutions, and multiple global corporates and investors. His previous roles include Group Advisor, Future Cities & New Industries at HSBC Investment Bank, Chair of the OECD Forum of Cities & Regions, Global Fellow on Cities and Metropolitan leadership at the Brookings Institution, and Global Fellow on Urban Investment at the Urban land Institute. He was Lead Advisor on Cities to the UK Gov, and was Executive Director of the London Development Agency and Managing Director of Greater London Enterprise. He has been a senior advisor on urban investment to the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank.

He has chaired more than 20 internal advisory boards for individual cities that are reformulating their future investment strategies, long term plans, and governance, including New York, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Sydney, Auckland, Barcelona, Vienna, and Oslo. He has led comparative studies on Chinese, Australian, European, North American, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Chinese, ASEAN, and Indian Cities.  Since 2020 he has been tracking the impact of the COVID pandemic on 100 cities globally, and has developed a unique framework for assessing the post-pandemic city.

Steve is based at the Connected Places Catapult where he his Director of 3Ci – the Cities Commission for Climate Investment. Working with the Advisory Board he has overall managerial responsibility for the implementation of the 3Ci’s strategy and operations working closely with leaders from cities, industry, finance and government. As a recognised leader in innovation and sustainability he has over 25 years of experience working in both the public and private sector. Previously, he was Digital Cities Leader for Arup where he delivered sustainability focussed technology strategies for some of the largest developments in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, representing £billions of investment. He has held several senior positions across local government, primarily in London and Manchester. As Head of Low Carbon Economy in Greater Manchester he established the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area and a joint venture alongside the Green Investment Bank. He also established the city’s widely admired sustainability innovation programmes, Triangulum and CityVerve.

Stephen Peacock is Bristol City Council’s Executive Director for Growth and Regeneration.  His responsibilities include planning, transport, energy, climate change and property.  He has led major programmes including the City Leap decarbonisation initiative, the transformation of Temple Meads Station and the delivery of affordable housing.

Stephen is a former partner with Grant Thornton UKLLP and has an international background in technology and energy.

Denise has been the Chief Finance Officer at Bristol City Council since 2016 and has extensive experience of delivering service improvements in large complex organisations. Her local government, voluntary and private sector roles have provided a sound understanding of a wide range of People, Place, Commercial and Corporate functions at county, borough, district and parish level. 

She is an influential senior leader, driving transformational programmes such as devolution and large scale regeneration and has a successful track record tackling the challenges local government face, optimising outcomes using innovative approaches and private investment capital with shared risks and reward.

Denise has long championed Impact Investment, and was a winner of the MJ Award for Innovative Finance with the work she led on Social Impact Bonds. She has subsequently  driven the programme to embed  social value and  ethical and equitable investment principles within Bristol City Council, along with a range of impact investments, City Funds, community bank and more recently City Leap public / private partnership, which is aimed at delivering low carbon energy infrastructure at scale to assist Bristol in achieving its goal to decarbonise the city’s energy system by 2030.

Zoe Jennings is Head of Climate Investment for the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission at the Connected Places Catapult. She has over 25 years of experience working and leading strategic energy and climate change programmes, in both the public and private sectors. As Head of Climate Investment at the Connected Places Catapult she works at the interface between local government and business, seeking to leverage the combined scale of cities to mobilise finance and drive investment into low and net zero carbon projects across UK’s cities.

Previously Zoe worked in local and London government for 15 years, including the GLA and the London Development Agency on climate mitigation and energy, air quality and waste programmes. She led the Mayor’s London Hydrogen Partnership and launched the first national RE:FIT framework, enabling retrofitting of public sector buildings at scale.

Before joining the Connected Places Catapult, Zoe led the SETsquared Partnership Scale-Up Programme at the University of Surrey, supporting ambitious businesses to grow through engagement with research and academia, large corporates, investors, and Government.

Ingrid Holmes is the Executive Director of the Green Finance Institute and Chair of the UK’s Green Technical Advisory Group, which is advising the Government and Minister John Glenn on designing and implementing a green taxonomy in the UK.

Ingrid has 20 years of experience working on environmental policy and sustainable finance.  She was a Member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and ran the Secretariat for the Green Finance Taskforce, which led to the establishment of the Green Finance Institute.  Ingrid has a background working in financial services (Federated Hermes and Climate Change Capital), NGOs (E3G), Government (DEFRA) and the UK Parliament. Her abiding passion is her focus on scaling investment into climate change solutions to address the climate crisis. Ingrid has a BSc in Biological Sciences (Hons Zoology) from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.

Councillor Jane Mudd is the Leader of Newport City Council. Her professional background is rooted in the social policy and housing field, most recently holding the post of head of department for applied community sciences at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Key positions held include WLGA spokesperson for equalities and independent board member of the Regulatory Board for Wales.  As Vice Chair of the Western Gateway Partnership, she plays a key role making decisions as part of the board and takes part in the partnership’s Strategic Rail Steering Group

Stuart is Nature Recovery Manager at Bath and North East Somerset Council, responsible for developing the Council’s approach to nature recovery and investment in the natural environment. As part of his role, he is also leading on the development of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for the West of England, which will establish priorities and map proposals for actions and investment to drive nature’s recovery across the region.

 

Previously, Stuart managed the West of England Nature Partnership (WENP), a cross-sector partnership working to deliver more for nature’s recovery in the West of England by working in partnership on the natural environment. As WENP Manager, he led the production of a Nature Recovery Network Prospectus for the West of England, setting out strategic priorities for investment in the natural environment across the region, and chaired a regional Working Group on investment in nature-based solutions.

 

Inside and outside of work, Stuart is passionate about nature, and can often be found hiking or looking through a pair of binoculars at the weekend.

Luke Grimshaw is a Nature-based Solutions Manager at Avon Wildlife Trust and is the current Project Manager for the Bristol Avon Catchment Market project. Luke’s work is currently focussed on establishing processes for financing habitat creation and enhancement across the Avon region as a means of reversing declines in nature and creating 30% of land managed for nature by 2030.

I have recently joined South Gloucestershire Council as the Climate and Nature Emergency Manager.  In the preceding 28 years I was variously the Director of Development Services at Stroud District Council having risen through the ranks from Lifeguard to Head of Planning before Director and for a brief period as acting Chief Executive.   I am also a nonexecutive Director for HETAS and a Trustee of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust whilst also having been an original member on Gloucestershire’s Local Nature Partnership.  I also sit on several ADEPT (Association of Directors of Environment Planning and Transport) Boards including Sustainable Growth and Environment.   I live in a ‘self accredited’, renovated to net zero house, with my long-suffering wife and 10-year-old daughter, who while not yet understanding ‘thermal mass’ and ‘interstitial condensation’ is well on the way!

With Arup for 24 years, of which 10 years was overseas, Shaun has led a wide variety of multi-disciplinary engineering projects in the UK, Australia and China.  His work has spanned numerous sectors including commercial, healthcare, rail and water, with both public and private sector clients.

He is a chartered engineer with a passion for collaboration and integration across the various components of project delivery.

Shaun is currently seconded into Bristol City Council as Project Director for the Bristol Avon Flood Strategy.  He is guiding the project through the various technical and stakeholder processes to realise what will be transformational change, bringing huge opportunity for the city and region.

Mark is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with over 20 years of experience focused on developing and delivering high quality energy services and solutions for customers.  He is passionate about working on the transition to a decarbonized world and is a member of Ameresco’s ESG Committee leading on Environment. In 2020 he was recognized with an MBE for services to sustainable energy and is a regular contributor to national and international groups. Mark is Chair of IChemE’s Energy Community of Practice and led the publication of IChemE’s global position statement on climate change.