Leonie Cooper is the London Assembly Member for  Merton and Wandsworth, a seat she has represented since May 2016. She also serves as a Councillor in Wandsworth. Prior to entering politics Leonie worked as a Sustainability Manager for a large Housing group and as a Sustainability Consultant. She is Deputy Leader of the Labour Group at City Hall and since May is Chair of the Assembly’s Environment Committee, which she has sat on continuously since 2016, mostly as either chair (2016-18) or deputy chair (2018-21, 2022-23).

Councillor Ryan Jude is a Labour councillor in Westminster City Council, where he has served as Deputy Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Biodiversity since Labour won the council for the first time in history in May 2022. Ryan has also been a member of the Future of Westminster Commission’s Energy and Green Transition group. Outside of the council, Ryan is the Programme Director for Green Taxonomy work at the Green Finance Institute, with a focus on advising the UK Government on implementing a UK Taxonomy – a common framework setting the bar for economic activities and investments that can be defined as environmentally sustainable – through the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG). Ryan previously led the Institute’s Zero Carbon Heating Taskforce and Local Climate Bond (LCB) Campaign, among other initiatives and policy commissions. He also co-hosted the Institute’s Green is the New Finance podcast series. Before joining the Institute, Ryan worked in investment banking, specialising in power, energy and infrastructure transactions.

Dr Giovanna Speciale is co-founder and CEO of South East London Community Energy (Selce); selce exists to support our community to navigate the transition to cleaner greener energy system and make sure that no one gets left behind on that journey. We offer a range of impartial advice services, to help people who are struggling with their energy bills, want to invest in greening their property, or are organisations that are looking to become more sustainable.

Giovanna has been involved in Selce from day one. She has overseen development of our energy advice services that has, for the past 8 years, has provided tailored expert one-to-one energy advice to over 10000 household. currently owns and operates half a megawatt of community financed solar PV across 11 sites including schools, a church and two leisure centres. She manages a team that support help individuals, businesses and community organisations to lower both their energy costs and their carbon impact

After completing an MSc in energy policy, she used the financial freedom afforded her by living on a solar-powered boat on Deptford Creek to volunteer to establish Selce. She is a community research and participation specialist as well as an environmental activist She brings 14 years’ experience working as a social researcher in the community sector.

Councillor Ria Patel is a Councillor for Fairfield, Croydon. They chair the Streets & Environment Scrutiny Sub-Committee for Croydon Council, are a member of Croydon Community Energy and are the Equalities and Diversity Spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales.

Councillor Ian Manders  has been a councillor in the London borough of Kingston upon Thames, off and on, for sixteen years and is presently portfolio holder for Climate Action and Sustainable Transport, having held several front bench positions previously, including chair of a planning committee.  He owns his own eponymous energy consultancy and over a long career, has done various jobs such as manager of MCS (the Microgeneration Certification Scheme), UK energy policy advisor to the Danish Embassy, and deputy director in both the parent organisations which merged to form the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE).

Ian developed the 2013 proposal on district heat networks with the then Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which resulted in the Government’s Heat Network Development Unit (HNDU), state funding of DHNs, the Heat Trust customer protection scheme, and the CIBSE-ADE Code of Practice.

Dave Powis – An energy consultant specialising in the fabric first approach to demand reduction, and decarbonisation of heat in domestic homes. A strategic leader with 20+ years experience in the energy industry, a degree in environmental management and a passion to urgently engage and empower people to tackle the climate crisis.

Dave co-founded Home Energy Action Lab (HEAL), a framework test bed for community powered retrofit in 2022, after serving on the steering committee of Stokey Energy for a year. He is an active member of CEL, co-opted to the Board in early 2023, mentor and co-author of an in depth study into the potential for heat pumps in community buildings. He has contributed to the Local Energy Bill roundtable discussions, and worked closely with Hackney council on their newly launched Community Energy Fund. He is also a Director of Studio seARCH, an architectural practice focussing on regenerative design and retrofit, and contributor to external publications from industry leading bodies such as LETI.

Afsheen Rashid – Afsheen Kabir Rashid MBE is Co-founder CEO of Repowering that specialises in creating local energy projects across London. Until recently Afsheen was chair of Community Energy England and a board member of Friends of the Earth. She was a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. She has more than 15 years’ experience working at local and national levels. She has a MA in Geography and MEnv in Environment, Science and Society as well as an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Essex. In 2016 Afsheen was awarded an MBE for her work delivering renewable energy to deprived London communities.

Syed Ahmed has almost to 20 years working in the sustainable energy industry, in a wide variety of roles and organisations ranging from Friends of the Earth, the Combined Heat and Power Association, the Greater London Authority, Arup, and as a director of a trade association working in the insulation sector.

Syed established Energy for London, an independent think tank supporting London’s progress to becoming a low-carbon city. In 2014, he was seconded into the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) undertaking a review of linkages across the Government’s demand side policies. He is also a Director of the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group (PRASEG), a Trustee for national fuel poverty organisation National Energy Action (NEA), and a policy advisor to the Green Gas Certification Scheme. In 2015 he produced a report on the opportunities for green infrastructure investment in cities for the Green Investment Bank.

To find out more about Energy For London visit: www.energyforlondon.org