Previous Speakers

Adam Chase leads E4tech’s work on energy policy and low carbon vehicles and has degrees in Economics, Engineering, Energy & Environmental Technology. Adam has been a Director of E4tech since joining in 2001. His project work often relates to corporate or national strategy and involves an understanding of how energy systems operate, rather than technologies in isolation. Adam’s particular interest is low carbon innovation in the energy and automotive sectors. He also has operational responsibility for the London office. Adam was previously a manager with the global management consulting firm A.T.Kearney, where he took part in and led teams engaged in a wide range of strategic and operational projects across the international energy and chemicals sectors. Prior to this, Adam worked for seven years in the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry and also spent time as a journalist with the Financial Times organisation, focusing on energy, environment and automotive issues.

Dr. Eng. Ali Chirazi, obtained a MEng in applied physics with specialization in nuclear and atomic physics from University of Brussels in Belgium in 1995 and followed by a year course in Ergology, at Ergology business school in Brussels, Belgium. PhD in Multiscale Computational Materials Science applied to light alloys, obtained in 2000 from University of Greenwich in London, UK. Conducted a Post doc from 2000 to 2002, at Imperial College materials department in London UK, combining Image-based characterization techniques with Multi-physics materials simulation for property predictions, applied to Aluminum alloys. Research Scientist at “Institute for Condensed Matter Chemistry of Bordeaux” (ICMCB-CNRS), from 2002 to 2014, responsible for 3D image based characterization techniques. Manager of the “Henry Moseley X- Ray Imaging Facility” (HMXIF) in Manchester University, UK, from 2014 to 2016, heading research in 4D- Image based techniques combined with Computational Physics in Materials Science. Senior Materials Scientist, since 2016, in Materials & Structural Analysis division (Formerly FEI) within “ThermoFisher Scientific”, Bordeaux, France, working on multi-modal and multiscale correlative workflows in Materials science.

Alastair is a Research Director and co-founder with Interact Analysis, a leading provider of market intelligence to the Intelligent Automation sector. With a background in industrial and automotive market research, Alastair has spearheaded Interact Analysis’ leading hybrid and electric truck, bus and off-highway research. Alastair is based in the UK and has helped a wide range of automotive and off-highway manufacturers and suppliers define strategy and understand market opportunities and new technology trends.

Amanda has over 15 years’ experience in the hydrogen and fuel cell technology industry, having previously founded ACAL Energy and working through her consultancy business Burgundy Gold Ltd as a specialist in the commercialisation of clean tech businesses. Her career spanning over 30 years includes various positions at ICI Chemicals and Polymers, particularly Chlor Alkali, which produces hydrogen as a bi-product of the chlorine production process. She is a Director of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and Chair of UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association. She co-founded Liverpool based ULEMCo in 2014 as a spin out from automotive engineering firm Revolve Technologies, to commercialise intellectual property and capability in hydrogen combustion engine technology. The company converts vehicles, having started with diesel Ford Transit vans, to enable them to run on commercially available hydrogen. The technology allows vehicle fleet managers to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions to ultra-low levels. Alongside various partners, ULEMCo already supports a fleet of vehicles across a range of hydrogen hubs in the UK. The company is targeting commercial fleet conversions to grow the market significantly over the next 18 months, and then expand into other vehicle types over the longer term. Its growth plans include creating a hydrogen re-fuelling network, to capitalise on the existing local infrastructure for this ‘green’ fuel.

Angus has over 22 years of experience within the automotive and motorsport industries. Working for OEMs, Tier 1 and R&D start-ups in the automotive sector as well as a number of top level F1 and electric racing teams, Angus gained an in-depth understanding of all areas of all types of active systems from suspension to engine and transmissions as well as developing extensive expertise in hybrid and electric technologies. In the last 10 years Angus has developed electric motors and EV systems including the drivetrain for the car which currently holds the world electric land speed record. In 2013, Angus setup Rockfort Engineering Ltd, a systems engineering consultancy specialising in development and application of Electric and Hybrid Electric technologies and systems.

Anthony Nobel studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Lausitz in Germany. During his 11 years working in special plant engineering for vacuum coating plants, he acquired deep knowledge in mechanical design as well as technical project management of both national and international small- and large scale projects. Mr. Nobel extended his profile with a Master of Business Administration in General Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Zurich in 2018, before he joined ZELTWANGER as the Head of Business Development.

“Ben, partner at intellectual property firm Potter Clarkson LLP, is a Chartered UK Patent Attorney (CPA) and European Patent Attorney (EPA) with particular expertise in the fields of battery technology, fuel cells, telecommunications, semiconductors and electrical grid systems.”

Industrial engineer, major in Electronics, from the ICAI School of Engineering (Madrid), he has been working on power systems for aerospace applications for more than 10 years. Previously at Crisa and then at the French space agency (CNES) he developed equipment and electrical architectures for future spacecraft. He completed his training with a Space Systems Engineering specialized master from ISAE Toulouse (former Supaero) and the SEEDS Master for space exploration, from Politecnico di Torino. In 2012, he joined Airbus Defence and Space, where he worked as an Electrical and Power engineer. He is currently in charge of the Electrical and Power engineering team and coordinates the Research and Technology efforts for Power and Energy Management at Airbus Group level. He focuses, among others, on Energy Storage, a critical function for aerospace applications, especially for the future of aircraft electrification and new urban air mobility solutions.

Chris is a true engineer at heart, able to realise complete solutions from physical systems through to multi-complex software platforms and algorithms. In 2001 he gained PhD from University of Bath in Digital Signal Processing on Internal Combustion Engines where he developed non-intrusive sensors to gain knowledge of physical processes within a cylinder head using advanced wavelet analysis and adaptive neural networks. From 2003 to 2013, he spent 10 years helping to build a successful engineering consultancy and technology business which was sold to EDIF/ERA. Chris was the TD and responsible for cyber-security, video processing systems, electronic signature management systems to various government programs. He started Blueskytec in 2013 to build upon the cyber-physical knowledge he has in Automotive, Industrial Control Systems and Industrial IoT. He has a special interest in the cyber-physical aspects of Batteries-Control-Drive-MGU power train of personal transport and renewable energy systems.

Christian Miesner holds a PhD in semiconductor physics from the Technical University of Munich. From 2000 – 2008, Christian worked for Infineon Technologies where was initially responsible for the power semiconductor business (IGBTs, power MOSFETs, diodes, SiC), later for memory products. After a couple years of supporting electronics companies as a consultant for business development topics, Christian joined CompuMess Elektronik in 2014, where he took responsibility as a Director Sales & Product Management Power Supplies & Measurement Instrumentation. Since 2016, Christian has been with Keysight Technologies, where he is responsible for selling of Power & Battery Test Solutions in EMEAI.

Claudius Jehle studied Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics at the TU Munich and TU Delft (Netherlands). Since 2014 he is the responsible team leader for battery diagnosis systems at the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI, Dresden.

Dr. Royston Jones is the Global CTO of Altair and Managing Director of Altair’s operation in the United Kingdom & Ireland. Dr Jones received a BSc., MSc. and PhD in Civil Engineering at University College Swansea. For over twenty five years, Dr Jones, has been involved in the application of computer aided engineering (CAE) methods to produce design innovation. He has published over forty technical papers and articles on assessing structures and designs for various industrial sectors. Dr Jones is a Visiting Professor in Structural Optimization at both the Universities of Swansea & Leeds and was directly elected to Fellow at both the Institution of Civil (FICE) and Mechanical (FIMechE) Engineers.

Guy is a Chartered Engineer with a focus on low carbon transport and enabling technologies. He works on batteries and fuels for low and zero carbon vehicles and leads E4tech’s contribution as a delivery partner for APC’s technology developer accelerator programme (TDAP).

Guy joined E4tech from Jaguar Land Rover where he worked in product development. His work has been focused on hybrid and electric products and primarily on system design. He had a lead role for the project management of the battery electric vehicle braking system and a system lead design role for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle hybrid powertrain system. He has experience in automotive hardware and software product development, stability control functional development including regenerative braking.

Hugh is a highly experienced technical leader and scientist with a track record of delivering complex development programmes. His broad expertise includes fundamental research into low-carbon energy devices, polymer synthesis and other relevant technologies. Immediately prior to joining Zap&Go, he was working on technology, market and business strategies to facilitate the spin-out of low-carbon energy businesses from leading UK research institutions. Since then (2016), Hugh has augmented research and development capabilities allowing his team to accelerate toward Zap&Go’s ambitious technology targets. In addition to his doctorate in polymer chemistry, he holds an MBA from Henley Business School.

As Engineering Director of Hypermotive Ltd, Jeremy leads a team of engineers specialising in the development and integration of electrical and energy storage systems including fuel cells, battery and supercapacitor technologies, for motive and other applications. He has a background in controls engineering gained in aerospace, defence and automotive. His experience includes the practical and commercial challenges of deploying energy storage systems in motive applications.

Dr. Johan Vanhuyse works as a research and application engineer at Siemens Industry Software in Belgium. After obtaining his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering at KU Leuven (Belgium), he worked on a PhD thesis on the generation and closed-loop evaluation of hybrid vehicle architectures. After graduating in 2018, he currently focuses on making the methodology co-developed during his PhD available to industrial partners.

Senior executive with a broad background of commercial experience across a diverse range of sectors, with particular focus on technology and IT. John has a track record in new business development, John has held board positions in public and private UK company’s and is one of the founders of AMTE Power.

John Tinson graduated from Birmingham University in 1987 where he studied Physics. A career in international sales for UK technology companies has covered sectors such as test and measurement, optics, industrial lasers and most recently semiconductor design. His focus on early stage companies ensures a good fit with ilika as they develop next generation solid-state pouch cells for e-transportation at their new pre pilot production facility in Romsey, Hampshire. Ilika has already successfully launched a range of solid-state micro batteries manufactured at their Southampton site.

John Weir highly entrepreneurial professional with extensive experience of running businesses both large and small, including launching The Wearable Technology Show in the UK and USA - the largest events for emerging technology.

This year sees him and CEO Lisa Doerr launching The Battery Technology Show for its inaugural event in London.

Kariem has over 10 years of marketing experience in providing strategic marketing change and development. He is a recent graduate of Masters in Marketing at Brunel University London with specific interest in the areas of electric vehicles, sustainability and innovative entrepreneurship. His academic research investigated consumer purchase intentions towards Electric Cars in the UK. The research considered consumers environmental concern as well as their attitudes, social influence, perceptions and moral obligation towards electric cars.

Kariem is currently a Strategic Marketing Consultant at Marketing Arrow, a London based consultancy working with start-ups and non-profits. In the past he has worked with several automotive companies such as Volvo, Mack and Isuzu.

Louis Brasington is the Energy & Power Analyst at Cleantech Group, a market intelligence company which has been at the forefront of sustainable innovation since 2002. He is responsible for keeping on top of the emerging trends, leading innovation and key players in sustainable innovation. He is also responsible for business development opportunities in the Energy & Power division of the company.

Dr. Eng. Michele Braglia, obtained a MEng in energy engineering with specialization in renewable energies from University of Bologna (Italy) in 2013. In 2013, experimental master thesis at EPFL of Lausanne in Switzerland on supercapacitors aging investigation. In 2014, attended a Master in European Business at EPSRC of London. From 2015 to 2017, PhD in Electrochemistry and Material Science at University of Marseille (France) on the development of sulfonated aromatic polymers as electrolyte for solid state micro-batteries. During PhD, taught thermodynamics at University of Roma Tor Vergata, vice-president of Club Jeunes of the Société Chimique de France (SCF) and author or co-author of 8 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. From 2018, advanced energy research scientist on innovative energy storage and conversion technologies at HORIBA-MIRA. Responsible for scoping out and leading projects related to new disruptive battery technologies for electric vehicles in the automotive sector.

Mike Bassett graduated from Bristol University in 1993, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. He then undertook a PhD at the University of Manchester focusing on the 1D modelling of internal combustion engines. Mike joined Lotus Engineering in 2000, where he worked in the Software Development Department. He moved to MAHLE Powertrain in 2007 and is currently Chief Engineer in the Research and Advanced Engineering Group, where he is responsible for leading MAHLE Powertrain’s research activities in the UK.

Paul is an innovative and experienced powertrain engineer, with over 20 years' experience in developing high efficiency internal combustion engines and energy management systems, leading programmes from initial concept demonstration through production development and on to post-production support.

Always seeking to find creative and elegant solutions, and to develop and build knowledge and understanding further.

Dr Peter Miller joined Millbrook as Chief Engineer, Battery in June 2018. Previously he worked for Johnson Matthey Battery Systems for 6 years as Chief Electronics Technologist, prior to this he was Director - Electrical/Electronic Engineering at Ricardo a large automotive consultancy where he specialised in batteries. Before that he was European Director of Technology at Motorola AIEG a major automotive Tier 1.

He has worked with a large number of battery chemistries including all the main lithium ion chemistries. He has extensive knowledge of testing, modelling and control of batteries, for function, life and safety.

Dr. Pirmin Ulmann is a co-founder and CEO of b-science.net, an information service that provides strategic analyses of the energy storage patent literature based on a supervised machine learning approach.

Rob is the head of Hydrogen Future, the world’s first political lobbying, media relations and specialist events unit dedicated to the promotion of hydrogen. He is an award-winning political consultant and published author, and he set up and runs the cross-party Hydrogen All-Party Parliamentary Group of MPs and Peers.

Robert Colbourn holds the position of Manager – Benchmark Membership at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a London based research and consultancy firm focused on the lithium ion battery supply chain. Robert’s primary role is as editor of Benchmark Minerals’ quarterly review, covering the lithium ion supply chain, critical minerals, and disruptive technologies.

Techmet is building projects to secure the supply of the key metals critical to the future growth of electric vehicles, battery storage, renewable energy and other disruptive technologies.  It has both producing and development assets involved in the mining, processing and recycling of these metals.

Simon is a geologist by training but has spent the last 15 years in the world of mining finance: analysing, researching and investing in various sectors of the natural resource space.  Having completed a M.Sc. at the Royal School of Mines (Imperial College), he spent time as an exploration geologist in Europe.  After this, he moved into mergers and acquisitions in the metals and mining sector before spending time as a Mining Analyst for two stockbrokers, and a stint as part of a team manging multi-billion dollar natural resource funds at Investec Asset Management.  He believes that the move to electrification of transportation will be transformative for the metals and mining space and is excited to be part of a team that is creating the supply chain to feed it.

WMG SME Group team members:

Simon has over 35 years of experience in industry, including 25 in automotive working in management roles at Toyota. He has also worked as an internal consultant in a FTSE100 company driving continuous business improvement at all levels

A Chartered Electrical Engineer, Simon has spent much of his career working with suppliers to the automotive sector, now at WMG supporting manufacturing in the UK by working with SMEs to help get ready for electrification.

Stefan Gerl began his career at Eirich in 1998 after finishing his his PhD thesis in Mechanical Process Engineering at Karlsruhe University. For more than 16 years he has headed the department of Process technology / Application technology the aim of which is to convince customers worldwide of the efficiency of Eirich mixing technology in lab scale and pilot plant trials. More than 10 years ago, Stefan Gerl started building up knowledge in the lithium-ion battery sector, which was then new to Eirich. Since then, he has been the technical head of this now established industry sector. In addition, he is a member of various industrial, scientific and university committees.

Stephen joined the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) in 2008 as Senior Operations Manager and was later appointed Head of the NFDA’s Commercial Vehicle Division which represents the interests of commercial vehicle dealers. He has a close and successful working relationship with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). This allows him to provide regular guidance on operational issues faced by commercial vehicle franchise dealers and workshops. Before joining the NFDA, Steve had worked in the retail motor industry since 1972 in both sales and service roles and then progressed to become the owner and director of two Vauxhall car and van franchise dealerships in the South West of England. Steve’s contributions to the industry lead to him being granted a Fellowship of the Institute of the Motor Industry in 2000.

Steve Christensen brings deep public and private sector experience ideal to ensure we achieve our mission through impactful multi-stakeholder partnerships and programs.

He has worked seamlessly across government, academia, and business to both improve communication on complex issues and to fundamentally address them. As a senior official at the USDA, Steve was responsible for working closely with the White House, Congress, and stakeholders to develop science-based public policy to support U.S. agriculture.

Since his time at USDA Steve has advised numerous industry organizations and corporate clients, among them some of the world’s leading commodity groups, chemical manufacturers and energy providers.His work has included:

• Preventing unwarranted EPA regulation on a naturally occurring substace.
• Mobilizing a group of independent health and radiation experts to ensure scientific rigor guided the debate on the safety of nuclear energy following the incident in Fukushima, Diiachi.
• Working with a group of industry experts and outside technical advisors to develop new traceability protocols for U.S. dairy products.

Steve is a graduate of Harvard University’s JFK School of Government and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside.

Tim has over 35 years experience exclusively working in the light and heavy commercial vehicle sector on a global scale, helping many of the household names from OEM’s, Tier 1 and Finance institutions His consultancy and training company operates around the world offering insights into the various aspects of the commercial vehicle sector, particularly looking at the autonomy, connectivity and zero emission vehicles. Tim holds Galileo Master Certificate in Electric Vehicles from the European Energy Centre. Speeches and moderator engagements in the last 12 months include Urban Freight Alexandra Palace London, CV Show Chennai India, Green Truck Show Indianapolis USA, CV Forum Pune India and FTA Future Van Conference Coventry. He has had a home in the US for 17 years and travels around the world reviewing the advances in alternative fuels and connectivity for the commercial vehicle market including countries such as India, China, Japan, South America, Australia, Russia as well as Europe and the US.

Infinity Lithium is developing lithium production in Europe to power a renewable future.He previously worked at IHS Markit where he led the lithium and battery materials research team. The team covers the entire industry’s supply chain from the extraction of the raw materials to their conversion to chemicals and battery materials used in cathodes, all the way to their end uses such as electric vehicles, energy storage systems, portable electronics and others. Earlier in his career, he worked for Talison Lithium located in Perth, Australia, tracking the lithium industry in China and Europe. He also worked for Roskill, an international metals and minerals research and consulting company, where he monitored various metals and industrial minerals markets. Mr Ledoux-Pedailles is a regular speaker at various industry events across the world presenting at chemical, mining, and energy related conferences.

Dr Wasim Sarwar is a Senior Battery Systems Engineer at Williams Advanced Engineering, where he is responsible for the design and development of a range of high performance battery systems, which include OEM hypercars, multiple high-profile motorsport batteries, and novel aircraft. He is also active in the plant design and commissioning of a new UK-based battery manufacturing facility. He gained his PhD in Electrochemical Engineering from Imperial College London, and formerly worked for Jaguar Land Rover.

Speciality topics: Supercapacitor Modelling, Electrochemical System Testing, High Precision Testing, Hybrid Braking Systems, High Performance Braking Systems, Project Management, Event Management, Business Development, Marketing and Publicity, Motorsport Analysis, Engine Acoustics, Engine Simulation (1D, 3D and coupled)

Dr. William Q. Walker received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from West Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Houston. William is employed by NASA Johnson Space Center where his career primarily focuses on the safe design and optimization of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery assemblies for human spaceflight applications. Specifically, William focuses on the thermal management of Li-ion battery assemblies, battery safety in general, and the development of new calorimetric techniques for thermal runaway characterization. Most recently, Dr. Walker has been involved with and supported the development of Fractional Thermal Runaway Calorimetry (FTRC) techniques which provide the capability to discern the fraction of thermal runaway energy ejected away from the Li-ion cell versus that which remains with the cell. Recently recognized with a NASA Trailblazer award and with the RNASA Stellar Award for his early career contributions to Li-ion battery thermal analysis and calorimetry methods, Dr. Walker continues to be engaged in the academic and professional communities focused on battery safety.

Madalin Cernat is an enthusiastic professional with 17 years’ experience in DSO/DNO, Renewables, Infrastructure Rail, Energy Storage and Data Centre market segments. He is focusing on helping business, keeping their mission critical assets round-the-clock with tailored standby power solutions. He brings value, growth and competitive advantage by understating your challenges and developing unique solutions. He has a background is in Electrical Engineering – General Electrotechnics background and Anglia Ruskin MBA.”