About us

Until April 2022, Tim was Head of Energy, Resources and Infrastructure at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Prior to joining Freshfields in 2013 he was head of Shearman & Sterling’s international Project Development and Finance practice.

Tim has more than 25 years’ experience of advising on the development of energy projects in the UK, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond, including in the oil and gas and power generation industries.

Tim was appointed as the UK Government’s Offshore Wind Champion in May 2022. Tim now sits as Chair of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership and as a NED in other sustainable energy businesses, alongside ongoing consulting work and Angel investing activity Tim was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year’s Honours list for services to the offshore wind industry.

Laura Sandys has been working in energy transformation for 20 years and chairs The Green Alliance, The Food Foundation and Electrify Industry. She is an advisor to the International Energy Agency on smart grids and is on the board of SSE Transmission, Ohme Global, Sero Homes and Highview Power.

She was the Chair of the UK Government’s Energy Digitalisation Taskforce and is now working globally to spread best practise of the digitalisation of the energy system. She was also a member of the UK Government’s Energy Efficiency Taskforce chairing the domestic efficiency working group.

She co-founder of POWERful Women and was former Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency. She chaired the Northern Ireland Energy Strategy Group and is member of the UK Ministerial Council for Carbon Capture and Storage.

She was previously a Member of Parliament for South Thanet, and described by The Times as ‘one of the sanest of all MPs’ and as ‘lateral-minded, original and free-thinking’.

As Senior Vice President for bp wells, Ann Davies is accountable for drilling, completions, and interventions activities across bp’s global portfolio. She serves as a member of the Production & Operations executive team. Prior to her current role, Ann was COO of Lightsource bp where she managed operations and scale up, helping Lightsource bp to become one of the largest solar developers globally.

Ann is a passionate operations and safety leader who has a proven track record of leading through complexity across the energy value chain. She has spent her career in multiple engineering, operational, and management roles for bp in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, UK, Norway, and Canada. Ann holds a Masters of Physics degree from Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

She is driven to solve the biggest challenges for the energy sector, is a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion, and enjoys keeping active and engaged in the STEM and energy community.

Cordi is responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, serving more than eight million customers across the East and West Midlands, Southwest and South Wales. As President, Cordi is accountable for National Grid’s £6bn investment programme that will be delivered between 2023-28, keeping clean, fair, affordable power flowing to homes and businesses across our region.

Previously Cordi was President of National Grid Ventures, where she led the development, financing, construction and operation of large-scale energy assets; such as electricity interconnectors, LNG storage and regasification, onshore wind and solar generation.

Cordi also served as Chief Operating Officer at National Grid’s US Gas Business and before that she ran the UK System Operator for National Grid, where she oversaw the strategy, planning and operation of over 14,000 miles of gas and electricity networks in Great Britain.

In her time at National Grid, Cordi has been a strong advocate for innovative solutions to a decarbonised energy market, believing clean technology solutions and new demand response initiatives can help to deliver Government targets for net zero.

Cordi is a leading member of ELC and a strong supporter for POWERful Women.

Cordi became a fellow of the UK Energy Institute in 2016, acknowledging her significant experience in UK and European energy markets and networks. She was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the energy industry.

Simon Virley is Vice Chair and Head of Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG in the UK. He leads on energy, climate change and green issues for the UK firm and is part of KPMG’s Global Energy Leadership Team. He advises some of the world’s largest companies on all aspects of the energy transition and the shift to Net Zero.

Simon has over 30 years’ experience advising on energy and climate issues. Before joining KPMG in early 2015, he spent 25 years in the UK Government, including at No10 Downing Street (where he was Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair), the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury (where he led work on ‘green taxes’) and latterly as Director General for Energy in the Department of Energy and Climate Change between 2009-15, where he led the Electricity Market Reforms (EMR) under the Coalition Government, which resulted in the share of renewables in GB power generation rising from 6% in 2008 to over 45% today.

Simon is a Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI) and was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work on energy and climate change issues. He is also chairs UCL’s Centre for Net Zero Market Design, is on the Markets Advisory Council of the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the CBI Net Zero Board and the Executive Council of the Parliamentary Group on Energy Studies (PGES).

Mano is a collaborative and curious leader with a passion for lifelong learning and thrives in driving change to create value generating opportunities. Mano leads teams with a strong sense of purpose and connects with people on a personal level to build lasting relationships.

Mano is currently SVP Finance Conventional Oil & Gas and since joining Shell, has held increasingly senior finance roles in Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East. Mano has built experiences across all Shell’s major businesses with roles in project finance, treasury advisory, new business development, business finance, JV asset management, blockchain start-up and investor relations. Mano has shown strong commercial mindset through trust-based engagements with external partners and stakeholders.

Before joining Shell, Mano worked for BT Group plc in Treasury roles and for a private metals trading company managing finance and logistics activities. Mano holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from St. Petersburg State Technical University (Russia), and an MBA and PhD in finance from Imperial College London. Mano is married, with two children.

Marta Oliveira is currently the Chair for the Energy Institute (EI) Young Professionals Network (YPN) London & Home Counties branch. This year, Marta is fostering international collaborations with relevant energy young professionals organizations including European Youth Energy Network and Future Energy Leaders from World Energy Council. She is also active on the EI Generation 2050 initiative, with YPN London leading on the whitepaper delivery and having hosted the latest YPN Global webinar on ‘Turning Regional Transitions into Global Net Zero’. She has been involved in the YPN for more than 3 years, including in a previous role as Vice-Chair of Events. As part of this role, Marta led the delivery of the 2023/2024 events season in relevant energy topics and with an audience of 100+ young professionals each. She has also moderated the panel on The Role of Carbon Markets to Deliver Net-Zero at IEW 2024 last year.

Additionally, Marta is senior associate at Ikigai Group with experience in strategic advice and co-development of renewable energy and natural capital systems with large infrastructure asset owners and project bankability structuring for institutional investors. Marta has been specialising in the sustainable fuels value chain delivery, including the development of a first-of-its kind multimodal hydrogen hub at an UK airport. Marta also focuses on CO2 asset optimisation, including integration of BECCS and nature-based solutions (carbon removals, biodiversity and water neutrality). Prior to joining Ikigai in 2021, Marta worked in European bioenergy market intelligence and policy, specifically supporting the EU Commission on legislation regarding the scale-up of bioenergy technologies and crowd-in of associated sustainable investment (including EU Taxonomy).

Marta is also a guest lecturer at the UN Renewable Energy Institute, teaching the courses on Carbon Finance and Carbon Capture & Market Strategies.

Natasha is a leader in the Energy practice at Bain & Company. She is dedicated to the energy transition and has 14 years of experience in energy consulting. She has worked with clients across the energy, automotive, transport, government, and infrastructure sectors and with investors on their paths towards decarbonisation of homes, buildings and vehicles.

Natasha is an expert in business growth strategy and customer insight, especially within energy services and e-mobility and has published various thought leadership content on the subject. She is also a passionate advocate for gender diversity and has supported the Powerful Women initiative in its efforts on reporting of gender diversity in the UK’s energy sector.

Natasha began her career at KPMG working in the oil & gas and nuclear power sectors. She subsequently worked for Baringa Partners, heading the firm’s e-Mobility and Energy Services team. She joined Bain and Company last year, with the aim of further progressing her impact on the energy transition.

Natasha was previously a member of the UK Department for Transport’s Net Zero Transport Board from 2020 to 2021 and has also served as a member on LowCVP’s EV Energy taskforce and the Association of Fleet Professionals’ Future Roads Committee. In 2022, she was made a Fellow of the Energy Institute – a recognition of professionals in the industry whose contribution makes a real difference.

Natasha enjoys public speaking and being a panellist, moderator and chair at various energy and e-mobility industry events. She holds a Master’s degree from London Business School.

Lisa is the current Senior Vice President of Emerging & Future Business at Equinor, with a career spanning over 25 years across the energy sector. Lisa has held several senior roles at Equinor having begun as their VP Exploration, moving up to Senior VP Exploration in 2018 before stepping into her current role. Current responsibilities include heading up the newly established 'Emerging & Future Business' team that looks beyond the core business to find new energy solutions for tomorrow.

Lisa began her career at Schlumberger, as a Geophysicist in 1995 working in seismic acquisition and processing, before moving to ARCO & Vastar Resources as a Geophysicist. She spent 4 years at the company with explorations in the Central North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico shelf and deepwater. In 2000, Lisa moved to BP as a Senior Geoscientist where she completed explorations across Angola and Egypt – working at the company for 9 years. Following BP, Lisa worked at Statoil (now Equinor) from 2009 to 2016, working her way up to the role of VP Exploration where she was the Head of Exploration for the Regional Southern Hemisphere. As Statoil rebranded to Equinor in 2018, Lisa remained with the organisation, continuing to progress her career to the senior role she is in today.

Lisa holds a BSc (Hons) in Petroleum Geoscience & Geology as well as an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience, both from Imperial College London.

Laura Hardiman is the co-founder of Black Goldfish Limited, a consultancy focussed on the development and operation of CCS and Hydrocarbon projects. She is a Chartered Engineer with experience in international oil companies and advising financial institutions on the risks associated with field developments and operations. She has been a volunteer for the Energy Institute since 2017 and now chairs the Professional Development Committee.

Laura began her career at the UK Independent Enterprise Oil working in a variety of Petroleum Engineering roles in the UK and Italy. In the following years she gained experience of offshore operations, production system optimisation and development management at Total and BG Group and worked in finance advising banks and private equity on the risks associated with oil and gas projects. Since 2020, Laura has served as a cornerstone member of the WSP team advising DESNZ on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Her deep understanding of both technical and commercial aspects has been instrumental in sequencing and developing the Track 1 CCS Clusters, including defining the regulatory models and licensing framework for CCS transportation and storage. Laura holds a BA(Hons) in Physics from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London.

Victoria is Legal Counsel at EXCEED Energy, an international company founded and headquartered in Aberdeen, specialising in well management and performance improvement solutions for the global energy industry. With over 15 years of legal and commercial experience, she has worked across the energy sector, including a senior role at TETRA Technologies, Inc.

She holds a Master’s degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Aberdeen and a Graduate Diploma in English Law from BPP University, London. Victoria has been active in the Energy Institute for 16 years, starting with the Aberdeen Highlands and Islands Branch Committee in 2009 and later serving as Chair of the Young Professionals Network from 2014 to 2016.

The EI has shaped her career, and she is especially passionate about empowering young professionals, promoting innovation, and sharing knowledge. Outside work, she supports charities, serves as PTA Co-Chair at St Margaret’s School for Girls, plays tennis, is learning golf, and enjoys family life with her daughter, Julianna.