Marine Conference 2022 Speakers

Richard Arnold

Policy Director, UK Marine Energy Council

Richard has ten years’ experience within energy policy, public affairs, and communications advising FTSE 100 Companies on engagement with the UK Government, devolved administrations, and EU institutions.

He joined the Marine Energy Council (MEC) as Policy Director in January 2022 from SSE where he worked in a variety of roles including Head of External Relations for its networks business and as Project Director of the company’s Brexit preparations.

He led the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ (SSEN) COP26 engagement programme, launching a first of its kind international knowledge sharing partnership for distribution networks, alongside the University of Oxford, Enel and Ausgrid.

Since its formation in 2018 the UK (MEC) has facilitated collaboration between, and represented the interests of, leading wave and tidal technology and project developers, supply chain companies, consultants, and renewable industry associations in the UK.

Caitlin Byers

Development Manager (Integration & Transition), Crown Estate Scotland

Caitlin has been working in the marine energy industry for almost ten years, supporting developers to deploy their technology in Scotland and further afield. As a marine biologist by training, she understands the challenges associated with operating in harsh environments and, within her role at Crown Estate Scotland, she actively works to overcome barriers in the development pathway. Crown Estate Scotland recognise the critical role that emerging technologies, including marine energy, will play in decarbonising our energy system and are committed to enabling appropriate access to the seabed to allow the industry to fulfil this role.

Rob Flynn

Commercial Manager, EMEC

Rob joined EMEC in 2018 and leads the development of EMEC’s portfolio of research and innovation projects. This means developing partnerships in the marine energy space and green hydrogen space internationally and supporting the development of a global zero-carbon industry.
Previous he spent six years representing Europe’s wave and tidal energy sector at EU-level in Brussels at Ocean Energy Europe. Here he generated a robust understanding of the needs of the emerging marine energy sector and helped push EU support to unprecedented levels.

He chairs the International WATERS (Wave & Tidal Energy Research Sites) network of marine energy test centres and represents the UK on IEC RE WG006 (Finance).

He has a degree in economics from National University of Ireland, Galway and a master’s degree in International Journalism from Dublin City University.

Henry Jeffrey

Head of Policy and Innovation Group, Institute for Energy Systems, The University of Edinburgh

Henry Jeffrey is a specialist in marine energy roadmaps, action plans and strategies, and recently coordinated the EU funded DTOcean project. He is a co-director for the UK ORE SuperGen (Offshore Renewable Energy) project and heads the Policy and Innovation Group in the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Energy Systems. Henry chairs the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) Ocean Energy Joint Programme (JP) and collaborates on numerous European marine energy projects. From 2017-2021 he held a position as the Chairperson of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Ocean Energy Systems (OES) programme, which is a government to government policy group responsible for supporting knowledge exchange and collaboration between countries and organisations active in the ocean energy sector.

Claire Mack

Chief Executive, Scottish Renewables

Claire has been Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, the representative voice of Scotland’s renewable energy industry, since October 2017. She is responsible for leading the organisation’s work to grow Scotland’s renewables sector and sustain its position at the forefront of the global clean energy industry.

Claire is a member of the First Minister’s Energy Advisory Board and is co-chair of the Renewable Energy Strategic Leadership Group. She is also co-chair of the Scottish Government Marine Energy Industry Group.

Claire is a member of SSEN’s Network for Net Zero Stakeholder Group and a member of the Centre for Work-Based Learning in Scotland Advisory Group. She was recently awarded a STELAR award for executive leadership from the University of Strathclyde.

Before joining Scottish Renewables, Claire was Director of Policy and Place at the Scottish Council for Development and Industry. She has previously worked in various roles at Ofcom in Scotland, focusing on economic regulation of telecoms, radio spectrum and the mail market while also looking at developing digital participation of individuals and businesses.

Prior to this Claire worked in retail and the construction industry as well as on regulation of regional broadcasting in the Borders and North East of England.

Cameron McNatt

Managing Director, Mocean Energy Ltd

Cameron is an experienced innovator in ocean energy with a 15-year track record of business success and academic excellence. For the past 7 years as Managing Director, he and co-founder, Chris Retzler, have led Mocean Energy developing novel wave energy technologies with application in O&G and other offshore sectors. He has Master of Ocean Engineering from Oregon State University and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to undertaking these post-graduate studies, Cameron worked as s a naval architect writing software for ship simulations. He also has a BSc from Yale University, majoring in electrical engineering, and is a keen sailor who has crossed the Atlantic under sail.

Gavin McPherson

Head of Policy & Research, Nova Innovation

Gavin McPherson is Head of Policy and Research at Nova Innovation, a world leading tidal energy device and project developer. In 2016 Nova deployed the world’s first offshore tidal array in the Bluemull Sound, Shetland, which has been generating clean power to the grid for over 7 years. In 2018 Nova integrated a Tesla battery into the array and in 2020 they installed the world’s first 100% tidal powered electric vehicle charging point. The company is developing projects in the Sound of Islay, Shetland, Wales and the 15 turbine Nova Tidal Array in Nova Scotia. Gavin heads up Nova’s research programme, including the Scottish Government VOLT project and Horizon 2020 EnFAIT and ELEMENT projects. He holds a PhD in Particle Physics from work conducted at the CERN laboratory in Geneva.

Sean Parsons

Director of External Affairs, SIMEC Atlantis

Sean Parsons is the Director of External Relations for SAE. Sean is responsible for all external engagement, spanning media, stakeholders and investors. Before joining SAE, Sean has worked with some of the largest energy companies in the world, including EDF, Siemens Gamesa, RWE and Statkraft. Sean has been a key member of award-winning teams throughout his career, specifically his work in marketing campaigns, innovation projects and PR have received both internal and external recognition. He also completed his MBA in 2014.

Andrew Scott

Chief Executive Officer, Orbital Marine Power

Andrew leads the team at Orbital Marine Power, having joined the business as CEO in 2015, and has a background of nearing 20 years at the forefront of the marine renewables industry; in both pioneering wave and tidal development programmes.
Andrew has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Strathclyde University and a postgraduate in Energy from Heriot-Watt University. Since taking the helm at Orbital Andrew has directed a targeted engineering process to generate a strikingly innovative technological solution that can enable a new global market in an entirely new renewable energy sector. Complimenting this Andrew is the driving force that generates the vision for the company to engage across stakeholder bases and works closely with the financial and commercial elements of the team to deliver an inspiring breakthrough business focused on helping turn the tide on climate change.

Morag Watson

Director of Policy, Scottish Renewables

Morag is Scottish Renewables’ Director of Policy. Her work involves overseeing Scottish Renewables’ policy function and key projects within Scotland’s leading renewables trade body, working on behalf of 280+ organisations to grow Scotland’s renewable energy sector and sustain its position at the forefront of the global clean energy industry.

Morag has worked in policy for over 18 years and was previously a Senior Policy Officer with WWF Scotland, specialising in climate change, sustainable development and behaviour change.