ICE Autumn Prestige debate 2024

Prof Jim Hall

Prof Jim Hall is a trustee of the ICE and until recently, held the carbon and climate portfolio.

He’s a professor of climate and environmental risks at the University of Oxford.

His research specialises on risk analysis for water resource systems, flooding and coastal engineering, infrastructure systems and adaptation to climate change.

Prof Hall is a member of the UK prime minister's Council for Science and Technology and is a commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission.

He was a member of the UK independent Committee on Climate Change Adaptation from 2009 to 2019.

He led the development of the National Infrastructure Systems Model (NISMOD), which was used for the ICE’s influential National Needs Assessment and for the UK’s first National Infrastructure Assessment.

Prof Hall invented, and now chairs, the UK Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI).

Among various distinctions, Hall was awarded the ICE’s George Stephenson Medal in 2001 and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018.

He was a contributing author to the Nobel Prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Jane Cooper

Jane Cooper joined RenewableUK as executive director of offshore wind in September 2022. In this role, she leads the team delivering the government’s offshore wind sector deal, providing strategic oversight and advice to the Offshore Wind Industry Council board. Having worked at Ørsted for 10 years, she has a proven record in the industry and a deep understanding of the challenges it faces in meeting its targets for 2030 and beyond. Cooper also chairs the Aura Centre for Doctoral Training’s strategic advisory board and co-chairs Tackling Inclusivity and Diversity in Energy. She holds an MSc from City University and is a chartered mechanical engineer. 

Simon Harrison

Simon Harrison has played key roles in the engineering, development and financing of several infrastructure projects around the world in sectors including water, transport and telecoms. At Mott MacDonald, he works across built infrastructure, energy and international development.

A fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, he chairs its work on electricity decarbonisation, most recently joining Sir Patrick Vallance to co-chair a project to accelerate this transition for the academy and the National Engineering Policy Centre.

Harrison, who holds a PhD in engineering from the University of Southampton, has chaired an independent panel on engineering standards in electricity for the UK government and led other initiatives on behalf of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to develop an underlying engineering strategy for a decarbonised electricity system.

He is a former IET vice president and a fellow of both the Energy Institute and the Royal Society of Arts.

James Martin

In his role at WSP, James Martin helps governments and operators to embed circular-economy principles in policy-making, service provision and infrastructure management. He has worked with the World Bank and the European Commission to find ways to improve circularity among member states and he’s aided the development of policies and strategies to steer the renewables sector and the oil and gas industry in Scotland.

Most recently, Martin created ScottishPower’s first project-level sustainability strategy and worked with the SP Energy Networks and Iberdrola to implement circular practices in offshore, onshore, overhead and underground systems.  

Marco Meloni

In his role at The Crown Estate, Marco Meloni focuses on implementing decarbonisation and circular-economy opportunities in sectors such as offshore wind, subsea cables and marine aggregates. Experienced in research, consulting and advocacy, he has influenced public and private policy with his work and aided the adoption of innovative sustainable strategies and processes in fields ranging from electronics to food.

Meloni, who has a background in industrial ecology, developed his specialism in circularity while working as a research analyst at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

Dr Anne Velenturf

A leading circular-economy researcher, Anne Velenturf specialises in aiding sustainability transitions, with three main areas of activity at regional level through the Yorkshire Circular Lab at the University of Leeds. She collaborates both nationally with resources and foundation industries, and internationally with renewable energy sectors. Velenturf has worked with organisations ranging from the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to Zero Waste Scotland on projects embedding circularity into the design and lifetime management of wind energy infrastructure – efforts that won her the Poul la Cour Award in 2021. 

Dr Jonathan Fuller

Jonathan Fuller is responsible for the National Composites Centre’s development of cross-sector circular value chains for composites. He works to ensure that composites remain an integral part of the race to net zero in a way that maximises resource efficiency and value retention.

Fuller, whose PhD research at the University of Bristol concerned non-linear applications for high-performance composites, has focused on novel applications for composites in the energy sector since joining the centre in 2018. He has led its collaborative SusWIND programme since its inception in 2021, focusing on alternative materials, end-of-life strategies for wind turbine blades and the application of circularity principles. 

Danny Bonnett

Danny is a structural engineer, working in the renewables space for over 20 years, and offshore wind for 15 years. He’s a director at Wood Thilsted leading on sustainability, climate, nature and circularity.

He started his career with Arup working on power stations and oil and gas platforms in Asia. In 2002, he joined RES, establishing their foundation design capability in onshore wind. He was fortunate enough to join RES’ offshore team in 2009 and has not looked back since. He’s always stayed close to manufacture, and his interest in fabrication was the driver to focus on the decarbonisation of steel, and how the wider supply chain can support this transition.