Decarbonising the Industrial Clusters for Net-Zero 2040

Bryony Livesey: Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Director – Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, UK Research and Innovation

Bryony leads the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC), which forms part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).  The IDC is a £210m programme with £261m match funding from industry, designed to deploy low carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in heavily industrialised regions of the UK.

Bryony was previously Head of Technology at Costain, with responsibility for the identification and development of new technology. She was a member of BEIS' CCUS Cost Challenge Task Force, a Director of the CCSA (where she co-chaired the Technical Working Group) and has previously chaired the Independent Advisory Panel for the UKCCSRC.

Ben Burggraaf: Chief Executive Officer, Net Zero Industry Wales

Native of the Netherlands, Ben began his career in 2002 at the Corus/Tata Steel research and development facility in the Netherlands and was appointed as the Energy Optimisation Manager at the Port Talbot Steelworks in 2007. 

In 2014, he made the switch to Welsh Water and was responsible for the day-to-day energy costs and carbon management of more than 4000 of the company’s sites across Wales and Herefordshire. Four years later, he was appointed as the Head of Energy, leading on all aspects of energy management for Welsh Water, including developing and leading the company’s Net Zero Strategy.

In 2022 Ben was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer for a newly established body called Net Zero Industry Wales, supporting the industrial clusters in Wales on their Journey to Net Zero.

Paul Rose: Regional Development Manager - Whole Systems Energy Futures Team, SGN

Paul Rose has worked in the Gas Industry since starting his career with British Gas in 1991.

During his 32 year career he has held various positions from Field Engineer to Senior Manager and has gained valuable managerial and operational experience and knowledge along the way.

For the past two years he has worked in SGN's future of energy team as a regional development manager for their Southern network. Looking at how they undertake system transformation from natural gas to hydrogen to enable the UK to meet its net zero ambitions by 2050.

Chris Robinson: Industrial Decarbonisation Project Manager, Tees Valley Combined Authority

Chris Robinson is a Consultant Engineer currently working for Tees Valley Combined Authority as their Industrial Decarbonisation Project Manager. In this roll he has just delivered the Tees Valley “Cluster Plan” – the strategy and roadmap to deliver Net Zero 2040 in the Tees Valley industrial Cluster. 

Over the past 2 years, Chris has worked closely with the other major industrial clusters around the UK and stakeholders from a wide range of existing and future industries; as well as Innovate UK, BEIS (as it was!) and the Carbon Capture and Storage Association.

Chris is a Chartered Engineer and has a PhD in Turbulence Modelling from UMIST– he has worked in a wide range of engineering industries as a Civil Servant, Academic, and a Consultant in large and small consultancies.

Jonathan Briggs: Project Director, VPI

Jonathan Briggs is the Project Director for the Humber Zero carbon capture project at VPI’s 1.2GW combined heat and power plant in Immingham.

Jonathan has 30 years working in the Oil & Gas industry with BP, OGCI Climate Investment Fund, and now manages the Humber Zero project, a decarbonization project at scale around the Immingham refining, power and industrial complex. He has held several roles in upstream, LNG, power and CCUS.

Previously, Jonathan was the Managing Director for the Hydrogen Energy Joint Venture between BP and Rio Tinto in North America and managed both BP’s initial CCS project at the North Sea’s Miller platform and later the Don Valley Power Project that participated in the UK’s CCS commercialisation competition in 2011.

He currently chairs the CCSA (Carbon Capture and Storage Association), an association of over 80 companies representing the cross section of participants engaged in the commercial deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

Jonathan graduated with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College London, and holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Rachel Sutton: HyNet North West Project Manager, Progressive Energy

Rachel is a chartered chemical engineer with extensive experience in the chemicals manufacturing industry with ExxonMobil, during which time she held a wide range of technical and leadership roles.

After taking a career break to explore the world’s wilderness, Rachel redirected her skillset and passion into tackling the climate challenge and joined Progressive Energy in 2020 as the Project Manager for HyNet North West. She now manages a consortium of partners in the development and delivery of this ground-breaking and complex decarbonisation project.