Offshore Wind Conference 2026 Speakers

Derek Christie

Government Affairs Scotland and UK Sites, Siemens Energy

With over 20 years in the sector including leading engagement for over 12GW of projects, Derek joined Siemens Energy initially to deliver communications leadership for Siemens Gamesa, before expanding his remit to include all aspects of the wider business. He is responsible for all government and stakeholder engagement for Scotland and across the company’s UK locations.

Claire Mack OBE

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.

Claire was awarded the University of Strathclyde’s STELAR award for executive leadership within the industry in 2021 and is also an honorary fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

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.

Chris Stark CBE

Head of Mission Control for Clean Power 2030, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Chris Stark leads the UK Government’s mission to achieve Clean Power by 2030, heading ’Mission Control’, the nerve centre of its delivery. He is tasked with defining Britain’s path to clean power and ensuring policies and the key institutions are equipped to deliver it.

Chris is a renowned climate and energy policy expert, speaking regularly about the urgency of confronting climate change and the opportunities of developing clean energy. As CEO of the UK’s Climate Change Committee he was the UK’s chief climate adviser, leading independent advice to put the world’s first Net Zero target into law and developing detailed cross-economy pathways to its achievement under the UK Climate Change Act. Chris has also been CEO of the Carbon Trust, a global climate consultancy, and has held a number of senior roles in the UK and Scottish Governments over the last 20 years.

Chris was lead expert for the UK Parliament’s ‘Net Zero UK’ citizens’ assembly. He has also featured in national and international news and media, alongside David Attenborough and other prominent commentators. Chris is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow and serves on the Boards of V&A Dundee and the arts climate charity Murmur.

Alasdair MacMillan

Policy Lead of Electricity Connections, Ofgem

Alasdair leads Ofgem’s Connections Policy team. The overarching policy objective of the team is to ensure we have a GB connections process able to deliver timely connections and quality standards of service for connecting customers, and that connects the projects we need where we need them.
Alasdair joined Ofgem in 2016 and has held various roles across the Retail and Infrastructure groups. This followed a 10 year career in the upstream UK oil and gas industry.

Andrew McCallum

Founder & CEO, Aspect

Andrew is Founder and CEO of Aspect, a 100% employee-owned consultancy delivering communication, marketing and engagement strategies for leaders in energy and decarbonisation in the UK and internationally. Prior to founding the company, Andrew had built a successful career as a corporate affairs executive, helping organisations navigate major transactions, transformations and crises. He is a trusted C-suite advisor, spokesperson and mentor. Known for his clear thinking, bold perspectives and practical advice, Andrew is passionate about the power of strategic clarity, compelling storytelling and influential relationships to unlock opportunity.

Maggie Olson-Jow

Policy Manager – Offshore and New Technologies, Scottish Renewables

Maggie Olson is the Policy Manager for New Technologies at Scottish Renewables. She focuses on hydrogen, wave & tidal, and INTOG. Our vision is for a Scotland leading the world in renewable energy. The sectors we represent deliver investment, jobs, social benefits, and reduce the carbon emissions which cause climate change. Our members work across all renewable energy technologies, in Scotland, the UK, Europe and around the world.

Maggie’s work as the Policy Manager for Hydrogen, Wave & Tidal, and INTOG involves managing and supporting the development of Scottish Renewables’ policy positions, which aim to create the conditions for the sustainable growth of Scotland’s renewable energy industry, and communicating these effectively to key policy and regulatory decision makers.

Colin Palmer

Director of Offshore, Scottish Renewables

Colin is Director of Offshore at Scottish Renewables, the representative voice of Scotland’s renewable energy sector. He is responsible for leading the organisation’s work in supporting and enabling the development and built out of Scotland’s world leading fixed and floating offshore wind pipeline, and in helping realise the tremendous wave & tidal energy opportunity Scotland has.

Before joining Scottish Renewables, Colin was Director of Marine at Crown Estate Scotland for a period of 5 years in which his responsibilities included leading the ScotWind and INTOG offshore wind leasing rounds.

Colin has always been passionate about the development and delivery of renewable energy having previously worked at SSE where, amongst other roles, he was the development phase project manager on the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm project.

He has degrees in marketing and in engineering project management.

Michelle Quinn

Director of Offshore Wind, Scottish Government

Michelle was appointed Director of Offshore Wind in April 2023. From August 2024 until January 2025, she covered the post of Director General Net Zero on an interim basis.

Michelle has held various policy and delivery posts across the Scottish Government. While working at Transport Scotland, she held the post of Director of Major Projects and was responsible for the design, development, promotion, procurement and construction of the motorway and trunk road programme. She was also responsible for all procurement activity across the Agency. In recent years, Michelle has held the posts of Principal Private Secretary to the First Minister of Scotland and Interim Chief Executive at Transport Scotland. Michelle is a graduate of Queens University Belfast, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and has completed the Major Projects Leadership Academy at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

Susan Swan

Partner, Shepherd and Wedderburn

Susan has spent the last 15 years helping offshore wind developers to get connected to the grid and understand and navigate the regulation of offshore transmission. Over that time Susan has legally reviewed many suites of offshore grid agreements produced by NESO (and its predecessors), for offshore wind projects in the Scottish Territorial Waters, Round 3, Round 4, ScotWind, INTOG and Round 5 leasing rounds, and has advised on a range of grid-related matters, including the introduction of Queue Management and Connections Reform, the Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR) and the Holistic Network Design (HND) process, the impact of constraint management measures and the options available to developers to minimise delays in grid delivery. Susan also regularly advises offshore wind and interconnector developer clients on the mechanics of the OFTO regime, the unbundling rules, the emerging regulation of multi-purpose interconnectors and other offshore hybrid assets and the CfD regime.

Alice Tirbooman

Policy Manager – Offshore Wind, Scottish Renewables

Alice is the Policy Manager for Offshore Wind at Scottish Renewables, the voice of Scotland’s renewable energy industry. Scottish Renewables works to grow Scotland’s renewable energy sector and sustain its position at the forefront of the global clean energy industry. Alice has a research background in physics and English literature, with a particular interest in the communication of complex ideas. She combines this with experience in sustainability, decarbonisation and climate adaptation. Alice works in Scottish Renewables’ policy team, where she advocates for offshore wind energy in Scotland and addresses key challenges affecting the sector. Alice is also Deputy Chair of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s Environment & Planning, Data & Route to Market theme.