Meet our judges

Rachel Anderson is RES’ Global Head of External Communications & Corporate Affairs.  At the forefront of the industry for 40  years, RES has delivered more than 23 GW of renewable energy projects across the globe and supports an operational asset portfolio exceeding 10 GW worldwide for a large client base.  Rachel has worked in the renewables industry for 16 years,  across the full project lifecycle from inception to generation and on a range of different technologies – offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, energy storage and green hydrogen.  Prior to her current role, Rachel was the Head of Communications, Marketing & Policy for RES’ business in the UK&I and was instrumental in setting up the company’s innovative Local Electricity Discount Scheme (LEDS) for communities living closest to wind farms.  Rachel has held a number of industry positions including Chair of RenewableNI (a joint venture between RenewableUK and Wind Energy Ireland) and served as a non-executive Director of Scottish Renewables.   

Jenny Blackford leads the Siemens Bank London Branch and heads the Specialised Finance team for EMEA & AA region.  

With more than twenty years of experience in power project finance, primarily focusing on debt arranging mandates and the provision of debt advisory services for energy transactions. Jenny has been involved in the origination and execution of over one hundred mandates across EMEA, with much time spent in recent years on the European onshore and offshore wind and solar PV sectors and the development of renewables in the Middle East. A recent role change sees Jenny spending a greater proportion of time structuring financing solutions for less established sectors in support of the transition to a more sustainable society with increasing focus on battery storage, gigafactories, e-mobility and hydrogen.

Jenny joined Siemens Financial Services in August 2014 as a Director in the Project & Structured Finance, Energy business unit with responsibility for the origination, structuring and execution of transactions, with specific focus on the power and renewable energy sectors in the EMEA region. In April 2019 she became Head of Project Finance, Energy, EMEA and in June 2021 Head of Specialised Finance where she heads a cross-border team of six with team members in London, Munich and Singapore. Jenny balances her current business role with the role of Head of Siemens Bank, London Branch and takes a leading and active interest in SFS’s global network for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Prior to joining Siemens Financial Services, Jenny worked at BNP Paribas for 17 years where, as a Director in the Project Finance Power Group in London, she assisted in expanding the highly successful renewables project finance franchise for the Bank (lending and debt advisory).

Jonathan Cole is the Chief Executive Officer of Corio Generation, the global offshore wind business launched by Macquarie's Green Investment Group in April 2022. Corio is a portfolio company of GIG, operating on a standalone basis.

Headquartered in London, Corio is home to one of the world's largest offshore wind development portfolios, with 20+ GW projects in development in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

Prior to joining Corio, Jonathan helped create and then ran Iberdrola's Offshore Wind Business from its inception in 2010 until late 2021.

Under Jonathan's leadership, the Offshore Wind Business grew to a market leading business, with around €14bn invested in a 30+ GW pipeline of projects and around 800 professional staff, located in four continents and 11 countries.

Jonathan has also held a number of industry positions, including Chairman of the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation, Chairman of the UK's Offshore Wind Programme Board (appointed by the UK Secretary of State) and member of the UK's Offshore Wind Industry Council.

Jonathan is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at various industry conferences.

Kasper Dalsten is Vice President and Head of Strategy and Commercial Management at Vestas Development – the project development arm of Vestas Wind Systems. Prior to this role, Kasper was working on Vestas’s emerging markets strategy and was lead originator and negotiator of multi-billion frame agreements paving the way for entry into emerging local content markets.

Kasper is an economist by training and started his career in the Danish Ministry of Finance working on renewable energy policies. Before joining Vestas, Kasper held positions in multilateral institutions including the World Bank and the European Commission. 

Jo and colleagues co-founded Everoze to offer an entrepreneurial and agile approach to consulting in the sector - while also establishing unique governance structures, new companies and partnerships under the Everoze name. Prior to co-founding Everoze, Jo was a Service Line Leader for the global Project Engineering group and member of the Renewable Advisory Board at DNV. Jo has also worked in senior debt agency and origination at Fortis Bank and management consultancy at PWC. Jo is a Non-Executive Director of the Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust plc. 

Tom is the CEO of Taylor Hopkinson, the world’s leading recruitment partner to the renewable energy industry. Tom founded the business in Glasgow in 2009 with just one employee and a focus on the onshore wind sector. He has spearheaded Taylor Hopkinson’s international growth and expansion into offshore wind, solar, energy storage and green hydrogen. In 2021 Brunel acquired a 72% stake in Taylor Hopkinson, creating a powerful global network with unrivalled capability in recruitment and global mobility for the renewable energy sector. Tom continues to lead the business, driving its strategic direction and coaching and mentoring the team to deliver sustained top performance.

John MacAskill is the Group Managing Director Renewables for independent consultancy ABL Group. ABL Group services the renewables, maritime and oil and gas sectors. John leads their global renewables business line covering technical advisory, engineering and design, marine operations, and marine warranty for offshore wind, and independent engineering and owner's engineering for onshore wind, solar and battery storage. 

John has almost 25 years experience in business in the engineering and consultancy sector, the last 13 being in renewables. Originally a marine engineer, John has developed a leading profile in offshore wind, started and established two business units in renewables and one start-up, mentored a wind technology start-up, and recently established the ABL Group marketing function and the group’s ESG reporting and strategy before taking over the renewables business line.

Before that, he was responsible for the business development and marketing of OWC, an ABL Group company, while delivering assignments covering TDD, certification, procurement, supply chain and general strategic support for offshore wind clients. John has served on a number of boards including family and PE owned businesses. 

Amisha Patel is Mainstream Renewable Power’s Global Head of Public Affairs and Policy. Prior to joining Mainstream, she was leading corporates for Principle Power – the world leader in floating offshore wind technology. Amisha has worked in the energy sector for over 15 years having built and led the global power and renewables team at the Energy Industries Council where she directed government relations, global supply chain engagement, and energy export campaigns for offshore wind. Having started her career with the UK’s civil service Amisha has extensive experience in international relations and shaping renewable energy policy. She has served in previous roles with developers and trade bodies. Amisha currently serves on the shadow board of RenewableUK and has previously served as a board member of Offshore Wind California as well as the TMA BlueTech cluster in San Diego. She was recently seconded to the California Energy Commission International relations unit. 

Carla has recently joined Ramboll as Head of Offshore Advisory for the UK and Irish markets.

She has more than 18 years of experience in the wind industry, both onshore and offshore. Most of this has been obtained working for consultancies in several different roles. Amongst these DNV, Wood Thilsted and now Ramboll.

Her background is in Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Climate Physics and another in Renewable Energy, and her main subject area expertise is in Wind Resource Assessment and AEP. She has managed teams undertaking a variety of data analytic services such as: day-ahead forecasting, performance monitoring, post-construction AEP, Digital Twin, site assessment for offshore including metocean and loads.

She has been a part of an IEA working group focusing on the development of wind in cold climates (Task 19) and was leader of the sub-working group on Ice Prevention Systems warranties for turbines, and has published extensively on a range o technical subjects.

Joost is a Partner and co-founder at Voltiq - Renewable Energy Finance, a financial advisory & structuring boutique headquartered in Amsterdam. Joost has been active in the energy sector for more than 23 years, among others as Investment Director at Nuon (nowadays Vattenfall) and as a Director at Dutch multinational SHV, before co-founding Voltiq. Voltiq, since its inception in 2009, has arranged equity and debt financing solutions for numerous wind and solar projects and portfolios globally, as well as running M&A processes of energy transition companies.  

Michael has a long track record in the offshore wind industry that started in 2009, when he set up a development platform that acquired the rights to and developed the largest (at the time) offshore wind project in Europe (Gemini). After bringing this project to financial close, Michael founded Amsterdam Capital Partners in 2014, an offshore wind financial advisory boutique active in Europe and Asia, where he advised on landmark offshore wind auctions, acquisitions, developments, structuring, and financings.

Michael started his career in banking, speaks several European languages and has a Masters in monetary economics.

Helen is a project finance professional specialising in sustainable infrastructure for over 20 years. She has completed in excess of $3.5 billion in deals globally including ground-breaking and award-winning transactions. 

Having closed so many projects she understands what is needed to deliver a robust and long-term commercially viable transaction. Her use of project finance risk mitigation disciplines ensures that projects are resilient to potential impacts on performance and are structured to achieve bankable investment opportunities. 

Helen runs her own business where her clients include global industrial organisations, ranging in size from institutional investors to start-ups. She works alongside both project developers to ensure every part of a project is structured to attract investment and investors, originating projects to meet their investment parameters. 

Prior to setting up Andaman Energy & Infrastructure (“AEI”), she led the EU renewable energy business at National Australia Bank and subsequently held senior positions at investment groups including leading an incorporated investment fund in their IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

Michael is CEO and co-founder of Pexapark with the mission to accelerate the energy transition towards net zero.

Pexapark is a catalyst for the energy transition and provides mission-critical energy risk and portfolio management capabilities to the renewable energy industry: portfolio and energy risk management software, PPA reference price data and PPA services to all market participants. With more than 20 GW of PPAs advised in Europe, Pexapark has become a key player in the energy transition.

Michael has more than 20 years of experience in energy trading and renewables. He is a former member of the Executive Board of Axpo Trading, started his career at McKinsey and holds a Master's degree in Engineering from ETH Zurich.

Co-Founded Source Energie in 2019, beginning greenfield development of large scale wind from 2020, backed by Galileo ( shareholders are Institutional Investors in Infrastructure from Australia/New Zealand). Formed JV Source Galileo in 2022. Developing in Ireland, Norway and UK.

Co-founded EMP in 2015, actively developing onshore wind in Ireland, UK and Nordics, backed by Galileo.

Co-founded Mainstream Renewable Power in 2008 following sale of Airtricity. International developer of onshore wind and solar. exited in 2014.

Early joiner in Airtricity in 2000 as Corporate Finance Manager. involved in all fundraisings - equity & debt, corporate and project level.