Leadership & Governance

Peter Mather

After 40 years at bp, Peter stepped down from his position as Senior Vice President, Europe, and Head of Country, UK. He remains as non-executive Chairman of the bp Europe Supervisory Board.

His varied career has involved many different roles in trading, refining, shipping, upstream gas, B2B marketing, corporate strategy, and power – in London, New York, Paris and Brussels. His last role included: bp’s UK/European integrated business development, particularly focussed on the energy transition to low/zero carbon; corporate governance; advocacy and reputation management; government and external relationships; crisis management; arts, education, and sports sponsorships; and industrial relations.

Peter is now developing a portfolio career with a common thread of supporting the energy transition. In addition to bp and NZTC, he has just been appointed as a non-executive Board member at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). He also chairs the Advisory Board of a new VC company, Two Magnolias, which focuses on investments in sustainability and human health.

Peter has an MA (Oxford), an MBA (INSEAD) and an Honorary Fellowship (from King’s College London).

He is married with three children, and his interests cover the arts and most sports, from tennis to triathlons.

Myrtle Dawes

Myrtle Dawes is Chief Executive Officer of the Net Zero Technology Centre where she leads the development of technology for a net zero energy industry.

She is a non-executive board member of FirstGroup, a non-executive director on the Aquila European Renewables plc board, an advisory board member for the Association of Black and Minority Engineers and sits on the Technology Leadership Board.

A Chartered Chemical Engineer, Myrtle is an established leader with extensive experience in the energy sector both in the UK and overseas. Respected as a prominent voice on the energy transition, she began her career 30 years ago as an offshore engineer for BP, before delivering on leadership roles in engineering, project management, technology and digital transformation. Myrtle’s passion for innovation and technology galvanises her colleagues, government and industry to take action and push boundaries.

Myrtle holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology from Imperial College. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, Fellow of the Energy Institute, Fellow of the Forward Institute and Honorary Fellow of the Association of Project Managers.

In 2017, Myrtle received recognition for her contribution to business, having featured in Breaking the Glass Ceiling and being selected as one of 100 Women to Watch in the Cranfield FTSE Board Report 2017.  In 2021 she was recognised by TE:100 as one of the Women of the Energy Transition.

Myrtle has two children and in her spare time studies mathematics, is a keen cat lover, and gamer.

Jeff Corray

Jeff is CFO of D2Zero, which provides decarbonisation and clean energy solutions through the combination of five well established companies with deep expertise in critical energy infrastructure. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Jeff has held a variety of roles from advisory, industry and private equity over his 30 year career in the international oil and gas industry. These included the role of CEO at ITS Energy Services, an international energy equipment services company and before that a partner at KPMG.

Liz Ditchburn

Liz Ditchburn is a public sector leader and senior policy maker with more than three decades of experience in the UK civil service and devolved administrations and in diverse geographies.   Most recently, she was Director General for Economy for the Scottish Government, leading on all aspects of the economy and the drive towards net zero in Scotland.  Prior to this she was the Department for International Development’s (now Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) Policy Director and it’s first Value for Money Director.   She has worked on climate change action and finance for many years, on both mitigation and adaptation and in domestic and international settings.  Across her executive career she has worked to integrate economic, social and environmental change to secure better outcomes for people, place and planet.

Alex Reip

Alex is an award-winning tech entrepreneur working in several sectors including nanotechnology, cleantech, biotech and B2B voice recognition. He works with several start-ups around the UK to help their early-stage growth, through investment readiness and development of their ongoing technology strategy.

He is a co-founder and now CTO of Oxford nanoSystems (OnS), a nanotechnology company developing energy efficient coatings for sectors including HVACR and Electrolysers, having led the company for five years raising over £6m worth of equity and grant funding and starting to commercialise.

He has a PhD in nanotechnology from Brunel University and has over 15 years’ experience in the development and commercialisation of advanced nanomaterials. He is a Charted Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry as well as being a member of its Professional Standards Board. Alex is also a member of the NCFE technical advisory board.

As a Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence for Brunel University, Alex also works to develop an Open Innovation approach to commercialisation, advises the spinouts and is a member of the university’s Commercialisation Panel.

Alex is also part of The Net Zero Technology Centre’s Audit Committee.

Sarim Sheikh

Sarim Sheikh has nearly three decades of international experience in the renewables and energy industry working in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia with General Electric and Shell.  

Recognised as a true leader, who has made outstanding contributions to international business growth, Sarim is a recipient of the GE Chairman’s Leadership Award. Under his leadership, Shell Pakistan Limited was awarded the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s “Top Companies Award” for corporate governance, financial performance, shareholder value, and sustainability. 

Sarim has served as both chair and non-executive director on boards of several listed and non-listed companies, and government advisory boards, and is currently a non-executive director at Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT). 

Kevin Reynard

Kevin is a Chartered Accountant who retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2022 after a 35-year career in the UK and overseas. Kevin spent much of his career serving clients in oil and gas, power, renewables and oilfield services sectors, providing primarily audit but also controls and capital market services across the spectrum of listed, multinational, private and government owned companies.

Latterly he was the senior partner for PwC’s Aberdeen Energy Centre of Excellence and was responsible for their thought leadership on the sector and the need to achieve, and then accelerate, readiness for an orderly and sustainable transition.

Kevin now spends his time supporting education, sport and energy – all sectors that interest him as they navigate the ever-increasing challenges of sustainability, quality and stakeholder relevance.  He is currently the Chair of Governors at Robert Gordon’s College and serves on the audit and risk committees of Scottish Swimming and the University of Aberdeen. He also supports two charitable trusts and is the finance director of Scottish Orienteering’s major event company.

Kevin spends his spare time enjoying the outdoors – cycle touring, hillwalking, canoeing, working in the garden – as well as swimming. Kevin was brought up in Aberdeen and returned to the North East after attending the University of Edinburgh and working in Edinburgh, San Francisco and Kuala Lumpur. He lives close to Aberdeen and is married with three grown up daughters.

Karin Hagemann

Karin works with entities intent on optimising their strategy, identifying priorities, achieving organisational efficiency and effectiveness and working towards best-practice standards in governance.

Karin’s professional history spans business and for-profit environments and the world of international development and the not-for-profit sector. She has over 30 years professional experience, of which 15 have been in management consulting at Board- and CEO-level, but also with operational units, working for the Boston Consulting Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG and since 2013 in her own company, developing her specialisation in questions of strategic analysis and planning, and operationalisation and management of change.

Her professional assignments have covered the pharma industry, machine-building, investment banking, mining, insurance as well as the health sector, where she has worked both in a consulting capacity and as the Director of Project HOPE Switzerland, an NGO active in health development activities in the Balkans and in Africa. Swiss public sector assignments include work with the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), several Swiss University Hospitals and the State Council and University of Fribourg, where Karin has been instrumental in creating Switzerland’s first Master’s in Medicine programme which specifically promotes family medicine as a student orientation.

In the UN system Karin’s recent clients include UNICEF, UN Women, WHO, WFP, UNHCR, UNESCO, IFAD and she has managed several multi-agency projects, such as the Comprehensive Review of Governance and oversight of the UN, Funds, Programmes and Specialized Agencies, or the governance module of the UN Treasury Harmonization Study.

Karin holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University, and a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Geneva.

Sian Lloyd Rees

In a career spanning over 25 years Sian has extensive business experience as a Senior Leader in both Energy and IT industries, having held several leadership roles in both blue chip and start-up Companies.

The domain knowledge and global focus gained in the Energy industry; coupled with the pace of evolving digital strategies and entrepreneurship encouraged in the IT industry, have contributed to a proven track record in developing new and profitable business opportunities.

Sian is Vice Co-Chair on the Board of Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and the industry Supply Chain Champion supporting delivery of the North Sea Transition Deal, sits on the Board of the Aberdeen Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) and is a member of the steerco for the Deepwind Cluster.