Key Team Members

Brian is Head of Projects (Offshore Development) at SSE Renewables (SSER). During his 18 year career in the renewable energy sector, Brian has taken on an array of roles, from onshore project engineer at the Beinn Tharsuinn wind farm, Asset Manager on multiple development projects including Dogger Bank, North Falls and Galloper Offshore Wind Farms and was the Head of Projects (Offshore Development), which included his role as Project Director on the 3.2GW Berwick Bank and Marr Bank projects in the Firth of Forth.  Brian has played a key role in the growth of the wind sector in the UK and the positioning of SSER as industry leader in offshore wind.

Brian’s career highlights include:

• Leading some of the most high-profile projects in the sector, including the construction of Clyde onshore wind farm and the development of the Beatrice, Seagreen, Dogger Bank and Berwick & Marr Bank offshore wind farms.
• Currently Co-chair of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council and leads the UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal Pathways to Growth workstream.

Paul Blunden is Vice President of Marubeni Europower Ltd with responsibility for technical delivery of offshore wind EPC projects and investment projects in Europe. Paul brings more than 16 years of experience from the offshore wind industry with a successful technical delivery track record at several prominent UK and Scottish offshore wind projects. This includes 10 years at Centrica Renewables, leading to the position of Head of Electrical and 7 years as Vice President in Marubeni. Paul holds a Master in Electronic Engineering from University of Southampton and is an accredited Project Manager.

Career highlights include:

• Leading procurement for the UK’s first offshore wind farm delivered on a multi-contract basis and delivery of onshore grid connection works for the Lynn & Inner Dowsing project.
• Led a team responsible for the development and front-end design for Centrica’s Round 2 and 3 projects.
• On-time and under budget delivery of the development, design, construction and commissioning of transmission works for the Lincs project - the UK’s first offshore wind farm to be connected directly to the National Grid at 400kV.
• Management of Front End Engineering Design for 2 Scottish offshore projects.
• Leading the electrical system design for Japan’s first commercial wind farm, Akita /Noshiro.

Chris is Senior Development Director at Copenhagen Offshore Partners for early-stage development bottom-fixed and floating wind projects. Chris has more than 14 years’ experience in development, consenting and project management of over 3 GW of offshore wind projects in the UK, USA, Taiwan and Korea. Among other projects, Chris led development the 1.2 GW Hornsea One and the 1.3 GW Hornsea Two offshore wind projects, including successfully securing Development Consent Order and CfD contracts for both projects. Chris, was also responsible for E.ON’s UK Round 3 project development and successful bid for the 400 MW Rampion Project. Chris also served as Project Manager on the 219 MW Humber Gateway project where he led delivery of offshore consents (S36) approval. Chris also served as Project CEO for the 300 MW Zhong Neng offshore wind project in Taiwan where he ensured delivery of the final land rights, EIA and consents, site investigations’ campaign and localisation plan approval. Chris holds a Master of Business Administration from Manchester Business School/HEC Paris and is an accredited Project Manager.

With over 25 years’ experience in the renewables, power and oil and gas sectors, David is an industry leader in the field of Health, Safety and the Environment. In his role as the Head of Health and Safety at SSE Renewables (SSER), David has applied his extensive knowledge in the development, implementation, management and monitoring of SSE Renewables’ exemplary health and safety management systems and standards.

Currently Vice Chair of G+. Key skills in Behavioural Based Safety and Safe System of Work (SSoW). Career highlights include:

• Leading SSER on all Health, Safety and Environmental requirements in development, construction and operation of our extensive offshore and onshore wind fleet and Hydro Generation. For offshore wind this culminates in delivery of a safety case.
• Leading the O&M strategy development for > 10GW of pipeline.

Heather is Head of Project Consents for SSE Renewables (SSER), overseeing the team responsible for consenting and land acquisition throughout the development lifecycle across SSER’s portfolio of offshore wind, onshore wind and hydro projects. Heather is a Chartered Town Planner who has been working in development and consenting roles for over 20 years in both the public and private sectors and in the renewables industry since 2009. Since joining SSER in 2018 Heather has led the consents teams on both Seagreen and Berwick Bank Offshore Wind Farm projects before taking on her current role which alongside the team management responsibilities includes developing and maintaining key strategic level relationships with stakeholders at the Regulatory Authorities, statutory consultees and other third party interest groups to manage key consenting risks across projects.

Career highlights include:

• Project Managing multiple onshore wind farm projects throughout their development lifecycle all over Scotland from Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders in southern Scotland to sites on the far north coast of the Highlands.
• Growing and developing the consents and land team at SSER significantly during the last 18 months to meet the ongoing requirements of our development project pipeline including establishing the consents team on Berwick Bank.

Martha is a Lead Consent Manager and has been working in the SSE development team for 10 years. She has experience of consenting onshore and offshore wind projects across the UK and Ireland and has supported wind farm projects through the development and construction process, including the discharging of conditions and on the due diligence side of the sale and acquisition of numerous onshore wind farms.

Career highlights include:

• Working on the consultation to the draft Sectorial Marine Plan using this knowledge in the ScotWind team leading on the consenting and environmental input to the projects.
• Lead Consent Manager for Berwick Bank offshore wind farm; established the EIA team for the EIA scoping process. This included ensuring that the baseline surveys were robust and that key stakeholders were in agreement with the methodology.
• Doraville onshore wind farm project; Martha managed the submission of the Doraville wind farm addendum which successfully removed key objections. The project went to Public Local inquiry in September 2019. As the consents lead Martha managed the submission of the Statement of Case and Rebuttals which required an excellent working knowledge of environmental legislation and associated case law to ensure its robustness.

Jonathan is a specialist in the development and consenting of offshore wind projects having over 20 years' experience as a consultant and developer. Jonathan has worked with SSE developing offshore projects for the past 10 years. Jonathan was the lead consent manager on Beatrice and the Dogger Bank offshore wind farms, before taking on the role of Project Manager for Dogger Bank C. Jonathan’s environmental experience and project management skills have helped him to understand the strategic development risks for offshore wind projects enabling him to take developments from early stage consenting through financial close to construction.

Career highlights include:

• Achieving Financial Close on the world’s largest offshore wind farm (Dogger Bank) as Consent Team Manager (2020). Johnathan was part of the management team ensuring the planning and land due diligence aspects of the project were suitably progressed to enable the £6bn A and B phases of the project to proceed.
• Winning the Contract for Difference (CfD) for the world’s largest offshore wind farm (Dogger Bank at 3.6GW) (2019) he was part of the management team (leading consenting and land) that developed the Dogger Bank projects to enable winning the 2019 CfD auction.
• Having a key role in enabling the first large scale offshore project in Scotland (Beatrice) to be constructed (2017). As lead consent manager and part of the management team he ensured that all pre-construction consenting aspects were fully discharged on programme (including the novel marine mammal mitigation).
• Obtaining consent for and then achieving Financial Close for Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm (2012-2016). Achieved one of the first offshore wind farm consents in Scotland, working closely with Marine Scotland to close out any issues ensuring this minimised impact on business case, helping to achieve financial close for the £2.5bn project.

Pernille Skyt is a specialist in development and environmental issues of offshore wind projects having 20 years of experience with project management and development of offshore wind farms in Denmark, northern Europe, Taiwan, Australia, and South Korea.

As a marine biologist having worked on more than fifteen large-scale offshore wind farms Pernille Skyt has extensive knowledge and experiences with the environmental issues and assessments related to the development and construction of offshore wind farms and has also worked with operation and decommissioning of offshore wind farms.

Career highlights include:

• Obtaining environmental consent for two offshore wind farms (800MW) in Taiwan. Issues around impacts on bird and marine mammals were of key importance and required a thorough understanding of challenges and solutions.
• Early development and strategic planning of the first offshore wind farm (1 GW) in Australian waters. Pernille’s involvement in development of Danish offshore wind since 2001 and being Project Manager for the public-funded Danish Environmental Monitoring Programme running from 2001 – 2007, was a clear strength and benefit for the development.
• Being lead consent manager on Kriegers Flak (600MW) and Horns Rev III (400MW) offshore wind farms in Danish waters and responsible for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) related by the combined grid connection between Germany and Denmark.
• Advising New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on the development of a master plan for developing offshore wind in and outside New York State waters.
• As lead consent manager and part of the management team Pernille was responsible for obtaining all consents from Rødsand II Offshore Wind Farm (400MW) and ensuring that all pre-construction consenting aspects were fully discharged on programme.

Isla is a Chartered Environmentalist with 12 years’ experience in environment and sustainability. She is embedded within wind farm development projects, leading environmental management from the planning stages through to construction and handover to the operational team. She coordinates environmental specialist support over the duration of development to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place and monitoring undertaken. Isla performs environmental audits to monitor contractor compliance and support our supply chain in meeting the high environmental standards expected.

Emma is the Ecology Manager at SSE Renewables (SSER) and has worked for SSER since 2011. Emma manages and provides technical expertise in ecology and ornithology across the renewables development portfolio both offshore and onshore, in the UK and Ireland. Emma has a lead role representing SSER on strategic environmental work and stakeholder liaison. She represents the business on external environmental fora, including ORJIP, OWSMRF and SOWEC BtD Environmental Sub-group. Prior to working at SSER, Emma was a Senior Advisor at Natural England and also has experience of working within the NGO sector.

Alan is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He began his career in consultancy before moving into the electricity supply industry in 1996 and renewables in 2008. He has over 10 years’ experience in the planning, design and construction of offshore wind farms. Alan’s strong technical background, allied to a comprehensive understanding of how successful projects are delivered, has seen him involved in the development and/or construction of all of SSE’s offshore wind farm portfolio.

Career highlights include:

• Winning a Contract for Difference for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm (2019) - a key member of the project management team on the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank, in the period leading up to the successful CfD bid in 2019.
• Delivering Certification of Wind Turbine Generator Foundations on Beatrice Wind Farm (2017) – responsible for the delivery of Certification for the world’s deepest WTG jacket substructures at Beatrice.

Kristian is Head of Copenhagen Offshore Partners’ PMO function. Kristian has extensive knowledge in project management and project planning of bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind projects with more than 13 years’ experience in detailed project planning, DEVEX/CAPEX budget development, and interface and risk management. Kristian has been a core member of the EPC management team during construction of five offshore windfarms inlcuding Veja Mate, Westermost Rough, Walney I & II and Walney Extension. Kristian has also worked in early-stage development of several offshore wind projects around the world. Kristian holds a M.Sc in Manufacturing and Management Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and is a certified PMI Project Management Professional (PMI-PMP) and PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP).

John is a qualified Quantity Surveyor with an LLM Masters Degree in Construction Law and a strong background in large-scale construction projects. He began his career in construction working for a civil engineering contractor before joining SSE in 2014. He has been the Head of Procurement & Commercial Services for Major Projects within SSE for the last 8 years.

• John is accountable for all aspects of the development, procurement and contractual/ commercial delivery of major projects across SSER portfolio of renewable/ energy generation projects.
• He was involved in the successful commercial development and delivery of a range of projects including Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm, Clyde Extension Onshore Wind Farm, Stronelairg Onshore Wind Farm, Bhlaraidh Onshore Wind Farm, Dunmaglass Onshore Wind Farm, Galway Onshore Wind Farm, Gordonbush Onshore Wind Farm, Strathy Onshore Wind Farm and Griffin Onshore Wind Farm.
• He achieved FID for Seagreen based on a partial CfD award and during the Covid-19 pandemic leading the conclusion of the procurement and commercial elements of all contracts and establishing the commercial team to deliver/ administer the contracts.
• Achieved FID for Dogger Bank (A & B) (2020) during a global Covid 19 pandemic based upon the contract structures and parameters set for the teams to conclude all the contracts and establishing the commercial team to deliver/ administer the contracts.

Mark has worked in the offshore wind sector for over 10 years, and has held lead roles in the delivery of multiple landmark projects. These include winning a 454 MW Contract for Difference for the Seagreen project, the only Scottish offshore wind farm to have been successfully awarded a CfD in the UK’s third CfD allocation round. A power offtake agreement for 1,140 MW was also secured with Statkraft, one of the largest power offtake agreements in offshore wind to date. Mark has extensive expertise in offshore wind economics and financing, as well as local supply chain development for large scale projects.

Career highlights include:

• Winning the first ever French Offshore Wind Auction (2012), being responsible for all commercial aspects of the successful 500 MW St Brieuc Bid secured by Scottish Power/Iberdrola in 2012.
• Led the production of the first ever Supply Chain Plan for allocation round 1 in the UK.

Oliver is a highly experienced finance professional with 18 years experience in financing infrastructure projects. He joined SSER in 2015 and has contributed to a wide range of projects. Notably he was the finance lead on the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank. In a landmark £5.5bn financing deal, he managed the expectations of 29 banks, three export credit agencies and 10 contract parties in two separate deals. The innovative and multi-award-winning deal was also completed during a global pandemic.

Career highlights include:

• Oliver was Finance Director of the 2.5bn Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm project.
• Oliver co-led EY’s initiative to develop its UK offshore wind advisory business.
• Led EY’s waste sector PPP bid advisory activity, co-ordinating all origination activities and leading the execution on a number of projects.
• Oliver has advised multiple local authorities through to Financial Close on waste PPP projects.
• Other projects include: advising Ofgem on the enduring OFTO regime; advising Defra on the Thames Tideway Tunnel; advising South African govt on commercial and financial close of rounds 1 and 2 projects in the SA Renewable Energy IPP programme.