Full Team Bios
Charlie Clay
In 2004, he began working for a small energy-saving company that specialised in lighting and controls. The business developed to provide heating control and small renewables, ESCO projects were implemented. By the time Charlie left as a director in 2010, sales had increased five times, and contracts for councils, the MOD, and HMPS had all been delivered successfully.
By 2011 Charlie controlled a business focusing on renewable generation, completing >1MW thin film PV arrays and installing numerous wind turbines.
By 2015, Victre was established to distribute Italian turbines in the UK. With Kingspan, Victre pioneered the ‘free wind power’ model for remote sites in inaccessible regions.
Holding wind assets secured the company’s future and Victre now provides oversight and delivery of multi-MW wind projects to clients, which includes site identification, de-risking, PPA/lease negotiations, and value extraction. Current projects include a 50MW wind/PV energy park delivering power to a >10 hectare hydroponics farm for growing and for producing hydrogen for transport.
Graham Allen
Graham Allen has had a career spanning 40 years in Financial Services. For the last 32 years, he has been the Managing Director of Corporate Money Matters Ltd, a bespoke Business Consultancy and Finance Brokerage.
During the last 21 years, Graham has held Directorial or Consultancy posts for a number of UK-based companies specialising in Finance, Sustainable Energy and Agricultural Technologies. In addition to this, he has held Consultancy roles for 5 International, European-based companies, specialising in Sustainable Energy Technologies.
Graham currently has a broad range of business interests, and was recently a mentor on the Barclays Eagle Lab AgriTech Accelerator at the University of Lincoln. He is currently a Small Business Ambassador for the University of Nottingham’s Business Network and one of his companies is a contributor to the VTTESS Project for alternative heating in the UK. He holds directorships in 5 UK Companies, one of which purely consults on Sustainable Energy.
CSR: Graham provides talks in his role as UK volunteer ambassador for Mines Advisory
Group (MAG)
John Henry Looney
John Henry has over 30 year’s experience in delivering environmental and sustainability projects. From the US originally, he moved to the UK in 1979 to do his PhD in Physiological, Community and Statistical Ecology on the Isle of Rhum, Scotland.
Since then, he has taught at university, carried out UNECE funded air quality research at the Natural History Museum; and then worked for 22 years in consultancy, including power (M&E), civil, process and chemical; and environmental engineering before setting up Sustainable Direction to help companies move in a sustainable direction. He has worked in over 26 countries, on projects up to £80M and is focused on delivery.
He published probably the UK’s first carbon footprint in 1989, for a coal-fired station in the ES for Bilsthorpe, Notts. His main areas currently are the link between carbon and energy with the environment; as a MAS advisor, leading the Renewable Energy Funding LLP technical and project side, and continuing to add value to his client’s performance.
Gary Burgess
Gary Burgess holds a BSc (Hon) Engineering Degree, together with a Diploma in Industrial Studies (DIS) for development work in production automation cells. Gary took his initial step into the renewable energy sector by taking a development position in BioenerG Ltd.
Staying with the renewable sector Gary partnered with Environmental Energies Ltd to lead the development of applications in large-scale Solar PV, Wind turbines & Bio-mass heating. Drawing on his engineering background Gary then supported the burgeoning Anaerobic Digestion (AD) activities for the business, particularly for containerised AD plants, successfully introducing the technology into small-scale use for the hotel sector and also man-camps used by exploration and disaster recovery organisations.
Building on his AD technical knowledge, Gary teamed with a major renewable’s consultancy, to provide technical input and design for a number of AD projects. This lead on to his successful sole design project with Bio Dynamic (UK) Ltd; including input for the planning and permitting approval, civils construction, and operation of a 5MW CHP biogas AD plant using collected packaged food waste as the feedstock.
He then joined EcoDev Group Ltd as Technical Director, leading and consulting on the commercial development of Waste-to-Energy projects and associated sustainable technologies including anaerobic digestion, gasification, waste pyrolysis, depolymerisation by cavitation techniques, and
production of hydrogen by electrolysis.
Gary then went on to form Gegan Solutions Ltd and consolidated his expertise and knowledge to design and develop the CompactAD containerised anaerobic digestor and dual fuel hybrid CHP products. The company is going from strength to strength and has won environmental accolades from Rushlight, ABDA and the World Biogas Association for its technology
David Parsons CBE
Appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen (New Year’s Hons 2009) for services to Government. Former politician (local and national) and Chairman of Environment and Planning for the Local Government Association. Advisor on planning and local government issues, with an emphasis on environmental sustainability.
Under his political leadership, Leicestershire County Council became Council of the Year in 2011. Following this, David was also given responsibility for the improvement and impact of all Local Authorities in England and Wales with wide-ranging results.
David is passionate about a sustainable environment both nationally and internationally and his position within East Midlands Green Transit has a particular emphasis on Local Authority sustainability. Whilst he was Regional Assembly Chairman he headed up the largest green regional infrastructure program ever seen in the East Midlands, including the A46 upgrade from Widmerpool to Newark, the A16 reconstruction north of Peterborough and upgrades to rail networks at East Midlands Parkway and the Corby extension.
As a European member, David was appointed Rapporteur for the Single Market Opinion being responsible for its passage through the European legislative process.
Ben Donnelly
A passionate and driven environmental entrepreneur, starting businesses since his teenage years and in his early 20’s working as a regional manager for two rapid growth recruitment companies, identifying, developing, and launching new branches across the UK and Europe.
In the 2008/9 financial crash, Ben launched an environmental company that went on to become the fastest-growing social enterprise in the UK, this lead to Link Recycling, established 2015 and now a rapid growth waste recycling company that has acquired several other businesses, growing to 8-figure sales revenue with sites across the Northwest of England.
The group successfully secures local authority recycling contracts and offers total waste management solutions to businesses across the UK, with a zero-to-landfill policy Link Waste, specialises in maximizing recovery rates from general waste.
The business is now one of the largest independent Energy from Waste fuel producers in the Northwest and within the next 24-36 months will be processing over 1 million tonnes per annum.