Rt Hon. Amber Rudd, Chair 

Amber Rudd was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Minister for Women and Equalities between 24 July 2019 and 7 September 2019. Previously, Amber was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions between 16 November 2018 and 7 September 2019 and served as Home Secretary from 13 July 2016 to 29 April 2018. She was elected Conservative MP for Hastings and Rye in 2010.

In 2015, Amber led the UK team to the successful completion of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The UN-sponsored Conference of the Parties (COP 21) achieved the first ever legally binding global commitment to reduce national carbon emissions. Since leaving Government at the end of 2019 Amber has taken up roles in cyber security, in the energy transition sector and around women’s empowerment. On Jan 10th 2022 she became a Non-Executive Director of Centrica Plc, an energy and services company in the UK.

Laura McGadie

Laura McGadie leads and develops Energy Saving Trust’s energy advice and renewables services across the UK and has 30 years’ experience as a manager in the domestic energy field. Laura joined Energy Saving Trust in 2009 to establish the advice service for the Scottish Government’s fuel poverty programme and went on to lead the Home Energy Scotland advice network. She has overseen the expansion of the advice and support services that Energy Saving Trust provides across the UK, which include the Welsh Government’s Nest fuel poverty scheme and work in Northern Ireland. She previously worked as head of energy projects for Changeworks and has an MSc in Energy Systems and the Environment.

Mary Starks

Mary is an economist specialising in regulation and competition policy. She has held senior roles at competition authorities in the UK and New Zealand, was Director of Competition and Chief Economist at the Financial Conduct Authority, and Executive Director for Consumers and Markets at energy regulator Ofgem. She is currently a Partner at Flint Global and has recently been appointed by the Government to lead a review of The Pensions Regulator. She was until recently a trustee of Working Families.

Dr Mike Pitts

Dr Mike Pitts leads Innovate UK’s Net Zero Heat programme and is the Deputy Challenge Director for Transforming Construction. He was previously Head of Urban Systems at Innovate UK, covering the priority areas of Urban Living and Smart Infrastructure. He joined Innovate UK in 2012 to lead on embedding sustainability across Innovate UK’s strategy and has run programmes on cleantech, resource efficiency and environmental data.

Donna Ward

Donna Ward joined the Department for Work and Pensions as a Policy Director in August 2017. She is currently Director of Poverty, Families and Disadvantage and has responsibility for poverty policy and analysis, disadvantaged groups and family policy.

Donna trained as an economist and has moved between a number of analytical and policy roles across Government during her career. Her first Senior Civil Service appointment was in the Treasury, as Head of Public Sector Pay and Pensions in 2004. Her most recent role, before joining the Department for Work and Pensions, was that of Chief Analyst in the Department for Education.

Joanne Rowlands

Jo joined bp’s upstream organisation in 2011 where she managed the delivery of complex infrastructure projects and latterly corporate transformation programmes. Prior to bp, Jo held programme and change management roles in both Police Scotland (formerly Grampian Police) and British Airways.

Jo is a chartered project professional (ChPP) and holds an MBA from The Open University. In Jo’s current role at bp she facilitates integration across bp’s business activities in the UK and continental Europe and supports the SVP Europe in leading bp’s transition to an integrated energy company. In 2022 she led bp’s Ukraine humanitarian aid response and shaped bp’s social investment programme in response to the cost-of-living crisis in the UK.

Helen Sunderland

Helen Sunderland is a Partner in EY’s Local Public Services practice, with 15+ years of experience working with local authorities, health agencies and not for profits to identify new ways of improving outcomes for residents. She is passionate about using data and technology to encourage a shift to prevention and earlier intervention, as well as working with communities to collaborate on the redesign of services to support inclusive growth.

Professor Graham Evans

Professor Graham Evans began his NHS career with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust in June 2004 as the director of Information Management and Technology (IM&T). Graham is the Executive Chief Digital and Information Officer/Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) for NHS North East & North Cumbria Integrated Care Board. Graham was previously the Chief Information and Technology Officer/SIRO for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, in addition, Graham was seconded on a part-time basis to the role of Chief Digital Officer for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Integrated Care System (ICS).

Emma Pinchbeck

Emma Pinchbeck is the Chief Executive of Energy UK, a position that she has held since July 2020. She is an expert in whole-economy decarbonisation and the energy transition. She also holds several board advisory positions. Emma has two children and shares childcare with her husband. She is passionate about efforts to improve diversity in the energy industry. From 2016-2020, she served as Deputy CEO of the trade body Renewable UK, in which she also sat on the Board of Scottish Renewables. Prior to this, Emma was Head of Climate Change at WWFU-K. She has an MA from the University of Oxford.

Martin Campbell

Martin Campbell is Head of Consumer Vulnerability and Debt at Ofgem. He has worked in energy and consumer protection for over a decade, focusing on the domestic retail energy market. He has had several roles in Ofgem, including in Retail Policy, Enforcement and in the Office for Research and Economics.  Before joining Ofgem he worked in economic development consultancy for clients across the UK. Martin’s current work is on protections for prepayment meter customers, and on improving data sharing between energy and other sectors.

Louise Kingham CBE

Louise leads bp in the UK and continental Europe integrating bp’s business activities. She represents bp in this region to all stakeholders and works to identify opportunities to deliver decarbonised energy solutions at scale. In doing so, Louise works with her network of 20 European heads of country to tell bp’s story, liaise with governments, build and grow key relationships and seek out partners to collaborate with on the journey to Net Zero.

Louise joined bp in 2021 from the Energy Institute (EI), where she was CEO for 22 years, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience across a broad range of issues within the energy industry and beyond. Louise is a non-executive director of VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities plc. In 2022, she was appointed a Commander of the Order the British Empire (CBE) for services to the energy industry, having received and OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2011. In 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science from University of Bath.

Adam Scorer

Adam has been Chief Executive of National Energy Action, a charity that campaigns against fuel poverty in the UK, since 2017. He has been a consumer rights campaigner for many years including at major UK consumer bodies such as Which? energywatch, Consumer Focus and Citizens Advice. He has been a member of numerous industry advisory boards and committees from civil aviation to insurance fraud. Fuel poverty, consumer vulnerability and the challenge of decarbonisation have been key drivers throughout his career.