Ali Ahmed
Business Development Lead
Ali joined The Agency with extensive experience in strategic partnerships and sustainable technology solutions across both public and private sectors. With a background in Manufacturing Engineering and Renewable Energy, he brings valuable technical and commercial expertise combined with a track record in driving decarbonisation initiatives and energy management solutions. His career spans roles at leading organisations, helping partners with complex energy needs identify decarbonisation opportunities and develop credible pathways to net zero. Ali specialises in building high-value partnerships, developing innovative sustainability strategies, and delivering impactful solutions that drive positive environmental change.
David Schiele
Director
David joined The Agency from an Innovative SME technology company. He brings a wealth of commercial experience from the Clean-Tech, EV Charging, Renewable Energy, and Waste Management sectors. His specialist project management experience includes: local, regional and large scale energy infrastructure projects. David has a proven track record of leading teams, driving strategy and delivering high value strategic innovation and infrastructure projects for demanding stakeholders.
Gary Bateman
Business Development Lead for Low-Carbon Housing Innovations
Gary joined The Agency to support us with an exciting new project with our partners at The University of Salford, working on industry-facing research and innovation activity focused on the technical and scaling-up challenges of Net-Zero and future homes. Gary will work with innovation companies, supporting them in developing their business and scale up emerging low-carbon products and services - enabling them to access the market more rapidly.
Karina Mironyuk
Innovation Project Officer
Karina joined The Agency after a career in Ukraine, where she showcased her versatility across various sectors, including aviation, agriculture, state-sector housing services, logistics, and waste collection and processing. As a lawyer and financier, she brings in-depth legal and financial analytical knowledge and experience in event organization and team management. Karina excels in precise and timely administrative duties, client relationship management, and fostering effective collaborations with colleagues and partners.
Kevin Aisbitt
Innovation Project Manager
Kevin joined The Agency following a role managing the Growth Hub in Worcestershire, supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises. He values the importance of innovation and brings a great deal of domestic and international business engagement experience from Asia, Europe, and North America. He specialises in the development of strategic business / research links and attracting inward investment to help organisations take advantage of trade and investment opportunities in new markets.
Tahir Ali
Partnerships Manager
Tahir joined The Agency having come from a commercial sales background, specialising in Energy Management Systems, Bio Fuels & Carbon Reduction. He has over 30 years’ experience in the commercial sector and brings with him a wealth of business connections across many areas. Tahir has a proven track record in assisting businesses develop and implement their Carbon reduction strategies as well as project management of those solutions.
Amer Gaffar
Manchester Metropolitan University
Amer is the director of the £4.1m Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and a sustainability professional with more than 23 years’ experience in the environmental sector. In 2013, Amer founded the Greater Manchester Hydrogen Partnership to develop and build the strong and diverse network of SME, industry, researchers and public sector stakeholders integral to the work of the Centre today.
In addition to his role at the Centre, Amer continues to lead a number of projects to make Greater Manchester a centre of excellence in hydrogen and fuel cells. He is also leading the Net Zero skills pathway for NetZero North West and has led the development and authored the now formally adopted Greater Manchester Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Strategy alongside working with the UK Government to establish key deliverables for the UK hydrogen opportunity.
Carly McLachlan
University of Manchester
Carly is the Director of Tyndall Manchester - an interdisciplinary team working on policy relevant climate change research based within the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester. Carly is chair of the Greater Manchester 5 Year Environment Plan Implementation Forum and sits on the GM Green City Region Partnership. She is the academic lead for carbon for the University of Manchester, and is the Associate Director of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation.
Mark Atherton
Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Mark has been engaged as Director of Environment for Greater Manchester since 2012. In this role, Mark provides strategic support to the Greater Manchester Green City Region Board and Partnership by leading the development and delivery of strategies, policies, research and demonstration projects for environment and low carbon work areas.
Mark Hughes MBE
The Growth Company
Mark was appointed Group Chief Executive of The Growth Company in 2013. Prior to this Mark was Chief Executive at the North West Regional Development Agency, and was awarded an MBE for services to business in the North West in the 2013 New Year's Honours. Mark has also worked in corporate and economic development consulting at DTZ Pieda Consulting and Ernst & Young (EY) Management Consultancy, where he was responsible for the creation of the European Investment Monitor that established EY as a leading commentator on European inward investment.
Stephen Stead
SSE
Stephen is Director of Strategic Growth for SSE Enterprise in which he is responsible for Enterprise’s strategy and the building blocks required to ensure its delivery.
For the last 15 years his focus has been primarily on smart solutions and low carbon technologies including hydrogen-based energy systems. In his current role at SSE Enterprise his responsibility spans both Enterprise’s existing Distributed Energy business – which encompasses energy networks, heat networks, EV charging, and behind the meter energy assets such as solar and battery – and the exploration of new business areas for both Enterprise and SSE Group. For the latter, his scope ranges from research and innovation through to new business incubation. Within this remit he has created, and is now overseeing, the growth of both a Digital Services business, which is targeting energy flexibility services, and an Interconnector business.
Will Swan
University of Salford
Professor Will Swan is the Director of Energy House Laboratories (EHL) at the University of Salford, where he has led the energy and buildings research for more than10 years. The labs include the award-winning Salford Energy House, a whole Victorian house in a climate-controlled chamber, the Smart Meters Smart Homes Lab and the £16m Energy House 2.0 research facility, which is currently working with Barratt, Bellway, and Saint Gobain on developing demonstrators for the new Future Homes Standard. He has published a wide number of papers on retrofit and building performance and has advised on a national and regional policy level, including a recent appointment to the National Energy Efficiency Taskforce. He is also Director of Sustainability at the University of Salford.
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