About the team
Cate Blanchett, Patron, has a string of film successes, Vogue front covers and a highly coveted film Oscar to her name. Recently she and her husband Andrew Upton announced that they plan to run the first completely off-grid mainstream theatre group, the Sydney Theatre Company, which will be powered by solar panels. Cate is mother of two, Dashiell and Roman, and lives in Sydney, Australia.
Jeremy Leggett, Chairman, has been described by Time Magazine as 'one of the key players in putting the climate issue on the world agenda.' Jeremy is Executive Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company, winner of multiple awards for innovation and sustainability, and Chairman of SolarAid, a charity set up by Solarcentury. After doing a PhD at Oxford, he began vocational life as a creature of the oil industry, teaching at Imperial College, researching the history of oceans and oil source rocks, funded among others by BP and Shell, and consulting for oil companies in Asia. Becoming very worried about global warming in the late 1980s, he became scientific director of Greenpeace International's climate campaign, and won the US Climate Institute's Award for Advancing Understanding. He is also a director of the world's first private equity fund for renewable energy, Bank Sarasin's New Energies Invest AG, and was a member of the UK Government's Renewables Advisory Board from 2003-6. His books "The Carbon War" and "Half Gone" have been critically acclaimed.
Nick Sireau, Executive Director, started out in financial journalism, working for thinktank Independent Economic Analysis (IDEA) and newswire Bridge News (now part of Reuters). He worked in charity communications and fundraising for mainline church charity CWM and for international development agency Progressio as Director of Communications. He has travelled widely the world over and recently finished his PhD on the social psychology of Make Poverty History's communications and marketing. He is also co-founder and Chairman of the AKU Society, a medical charity that works in partnership with the Royal Liverpool University Hospital to find a cure for AKU, a rare genetic disease affecting his two sons. He is also a non-executive Director of GenSeq, a bioinformatics company that carries out gene sequencing.
John Keane, Head of Programmes, started off as an urban planner before developing a deep interest in international development and solar energy. As a volunteer with Student Partnerships Worldwide in Tanzania, he became acutely aware of the pressing need for affordable, renewable energy in the rural communities. Once back in the UK, he researched the concept of micro solar and raised his own funds to go back to Africa and train solar entrepreneurs in Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Malawi and a number of other countries. He is the world leader on micro solar and a committed development expert.
Philip Angier, trustee, is founder of Angier Griffin and an independent consultant in social enterprise. After 10 years in the City of London, he made a vocational career move to become Finance and Resources Officer in the Diocese of Liverpool under Bishop David Sheppard. He joined Traidcraft's staff as Finance Director in 1987, and becoming Managing Director in 1991 and then Chief Executive. Philip left Traidcraft in 2001 to found Angier Griffin, a social enterprise consultancy. Philip is Chair of Just Pensions and a director of the Shared Interest Society and the UK Social Investment Forum. His social enterprise links include directorships of AnyBodyCan Limited, Aspire Group Limited and Jesmond Swimming Project.
Vicky Phillips, trustee and Company Secretary, is a lawyer who has previously served on the Board of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland and EarthRights. She has worked as a legal advisor to Solarcentury for eight years and is involved in a number of environmental projects on a voluntary basis.
Graham Young, trustee, has worked since 1980 to promote Fair Trade: he was chairman of the International Federation for Alternative Trade; and founder chair of the European Fair Trade Association and the Fair Trade Foundation. He established Traidcraft Exchange in 1980 and was General Director from 1986 to 1999. He has been an advisor to governments and the private sector on corporate social responsibility (CSR). He is at the forefront of thinking on values based, integrated approaches to Corporate Responsibility.
Grace Mukasa, trustee, is outgoing Head of Programmes for Africa at VSO and incoming Head of Programmes and Advocacy at AMREF. Grace has also been VSO Country Director for Zambia, Diaspora Director for VSO, and worked for Save the Children Norway in Uganda.
Kat Johnston, trustee, has been a senior manager at Solarcentury for eight years and used to work at IBM. She previously spent four years as operations manager for environmental charity Global Action Plan. In October 2006, Kat climbed Kilimanjaro to raise funds for SolarAid, which had gained charitable status only one month earlier.
Carolyn Hayman, trustee, has been Chief Executive of Peace Direct since 2004. Carolyn has worked in the civil service (the Department for International Development and the Cabinet Office) and the private sector as a consultant and Joint Managing Director of the Korda Seed Capital Fund. In 1996 Carolyn became Chief Executive of the Foyer Federation. Carolyn has degrees in Classics and Philosophy (Cambridge University) and Development Economics (School or Oriental and African Studies). She is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers).
Will Day, International Development Advisor, is former CEO of CARE International. Will is Senior Associate in the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry. In 1994, he was the first Director of a micro-enterprise NGO called Opportunity Trust and then joined CARE International UK in 1996. Will is a Trustee of BBC Children in Need and of the Disaster's Emergency Committee. He became a Council Member of the Overseas Development Institute in December 2000.
Aki Maruyama, Programmes Advisor, worked for the Energy Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Paris, France. Previously, she worked for the Climate Policy Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan. She has also worked for the World Bank and Japan's Treasury Department. She has an MSC in Environmental Management from Oxford University.
Sorious Samura, Media and Africa Advisor, is a journalist from Sierra Leone. He is famed for his TV documentaries on the plight of Africa, shown on CNN, BBC World, Channel 4, CBC, Al Jazeera and other networks. Ron McCullagh, who runs Insight News Television, is his constant collaborator. Together they have won Baftas, Emmys and hosts of other awards. Sorious is a man of great wisdom and integrity who has a burning motivation to help some of the more serious issues affecting much of Africa.
Ron McCullagh, Communications Advisor, is the Managing Director of Insight News Television, a London based documentary production company that has reported from over 150 countries worldwide since its launch in 1991. Before founding Insight News TV, Ron worked as a reporter for the BBC, including five years on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and a year with BBC television news. In 1998 at the One World Broadcasting Trust Media Awards he won the UNICEF UK Award for the Advancement of Children's Rights for his report on child workers in Bangladesh. He co-directed "Blood on the Stone", a documentary commissioned by Warner Brothers to accompany the recently released Hollywood film "Blood Diamond" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2004 he won the Rory Peck Freelancers Choice award for the "important role he has played in supporting freelancers and enabling them to develop".
Steve Andrews, Fundraising Advisor, is Chairman and Managing Director of Whitewater, one of the UK's leading fundraising consultancies. He has worked as a fundraiser for over 20 years, advising a number of development charities, including Christian Aid, Practical Action and the World Development Movement. His passion for helping development charities is borne out of personal experience working in Sudan during the 1984 famine.
Andy Milligan, Branding Advisor, is a leading international brand consultant with almost 20 years experience of advising and helping businesses build brands around the world. He graduated from Oxford University and then worked for VNU Business Publications before he joined the Interbrand Group in London in 1990, moving to Singapore in 2002 where he was Managing Director of Interbrand's South East Asia operations. He then established his own company, Ambrand, which specializes in advice, training, development and management education on business growth and brands. He is also a founding partner of The Caffeine Partnership.
Jason Mills, Media Advisor, is a broadcast journalist with 15 years experience. He currently edits the ITV Evening News, and before that he edited the News at Ten Thirty. Previously, he spent 10 years at the BBC working as a producer on national and regional news programmes, and at Sky News.
Dima Rifai, Strategy and Fundraising Advisor, is a senior executive with over 20 years' experience, most recently in investment banking where she built and lead a high growth, global business. As a graduate in Electrical Engineering, she enjoyed a number of roles in technology and consulting prior to Finance. Dima has also completed the Corporate Strategy Executive programme at University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. She is currently working on a variety of financings in the environmental sustainability/renewables space, primarily aimed at providing renewable companies and projects with accessibility to optimal funding. Having worked across a broad range of industries and geographies, Dima brings a uniquely commercial and innovative point of view and is driven by the belief that solar is one of the key technologies to have significant impact in improving the quality of people's lives, while reducing their carbon footprint.
David Lloyd, Business Planning Advisor, is an energy partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has been working with SolarAid in a personal capacity to help us develop our business plan. With his many years' experience of private sector investment in energy systems and technologies, David's involvement has been a really welcome addition to our advisory group.
Pro bono legal advisors: we have two top legal firms providing us with pro bono legal advice: White & Case and Covington & Burling.
