Pearse Buckley is Programme Manager for Biomass and CHP with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, where he is responsible for the promotion of bioenergy and CHP through strategy development and for providing policy advice to Government in this area. He spent 13 years in Canada working as a product engineer. On his return to Ireland he was involved in research into energy from biomass at Trinity College and subsequently worked for a waste management company before joining SEAI in 2002.

Denis Cagney is the Director of Gas, Environment and Legal Affairs at the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). His division is in charge of all aspects of promoting and regulating renewable generation, including its interface with the SEM design and rules, PSOs, guarantees of origin, certification of high efficiency CHP etc. Prior to joining CER, Denis worked at Matheson Ormsby Prentice Solicitors, with the European Commission and with the Department of Finance.

Barry Caslin is Bioenergy Specialist at Teagasc. Barry holds a BAgrSc from UCD and a Masters in Environmental Protection from Sligo IT. Since 2006 Barry has been based at Oak Park, Crops Research Centre, Carlow where he is responsible for advancing Teagasc's role in the bioenergy sector. Barry has several years experience in animal and crop production and practical agriculture. In addition to co-ordinating Teagasc presentations and presence at external events, Barry offers practical advice on cropping options and opportunities for adding value on-farm. Barry is a member of the EU BC&E International Scientific Committee. Prior to his appointment at Oak Park he worked in the Teagasc advisory service.

Joe Corbett is Head of Technical Services at Mainstream Renewable Power. Joe is a professional engineer with more than 28 years experience in transmission systems from design, construction, maintenance and utility management. Prior to joining Mainstream he was general director of a national transmission company and system operator in Eastern Europe. Joe joined Mainstream in 2008 and is currently responsible for Mainstream's engineering, grid strategy and business technology disciplines.

Mike Dolman is a senior consultant at Element Energy, an energy consultancy working across the low carbon transport, buildings and power generation sectors. Mike specialises in the low carbon buildings sector, providing strategic advice to a range of public and private sector clients. Mike has led a number of studies on renewable heat, including investigation of barriers to deployment (for the Committee on Climate Change) and modelling uptake of renewable heat in Scottish dwellings.

Claire Downey joined Indaver in 2006 and has been responsible for connecting, licensing, compliance and the commercial strategy for electricity from Ireland's first waste-to-energy facility. She is a member of a European energy working group with the industry body, CEWEP, and uses experiences from Europe to help support national waste, energy & climate change policy in Ireland.

Jim Gannon is an Associate Director with RPS Group leading the renewable energy business in the firm's Dublin office. His brief spans energy policy and regulation, infrastructure development, and due diligence for clients across Ireland and the UK. He performed the role of moderator for the International Energy Agency Task 28 'Social Acceptance of Wind Energy Projects' workshop in Ireland in September 2010. He Chairs the Energy and Environment Division of Engineers Ireland and serves as an External Examiner to the MSc in Renewable Energy Systems at DKIT.

Ben Hanley is an Asset Management Consultant with IBM, with significant experience in delivering environmental projects across a range of sectors. Ben specialises in renewable energy and sustainability, where he produced IBM's Point of View on wind power. Ben project managed the first UK installation of IBM's Intelligent Building Management (IIBM), which enables energy performance monitoring and asset management across multiple energy assets. Ben previously worked at Birmingham Airport, where he established a leading airline sustainability partnership, launched by Caroline Spelman MP. Ben holds a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies and an MBA.

Laura Fosh is Client Manager for Gemserv's Environment Department. Laura has expert knowledge of the environment sector with a primary focus on government policy and the impacts on the industry. For the past four years Laura has worked directly with the renewable industry in the development of the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. Laura has a BSc with honours in Environmental Science from Sussex University and an MSc in Business Strategy, Policy and Environment.

Bob Hanna is Chief Technical Advisor with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. He was previously Advisor to Sustainable Energy Ireland, Commercial Manager with Premier Power and General Manager of NIE's international business. He has also held positions with the former National Board for Science & Technology and the ESB. He is a chartered energy engineer.

Colin Imrie is Head of the Scottish Government's Energy Division, covering Scottish Government's interests in energy market policy and regulation, fossil fuels and CCS, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy resilience and the low carbon economy. He supports the work of the Scottish Energy Advisory Board and its industry advisory groups on oil and gas and thermal generation and CCS. He also leads on Scottish international low carbon work, and coordinates European Union related work on energy and climate change for the Scottish Government.

Richard Linger joined Pöyry in 2011 and is the Associate Director with responsibility for Pöyry in Ireland. He has worked on smart technology start-ups, economic assessment, energy management, sustainable construction/design, ICT and renewable energy projects in Ireland and in the rest of Europe. From 2006 to 2009 he was the Sustainability Director for WYG (White Young Green). Prior to 2006, while abroad, Richard worked with Deloitte and Ernst & Young in the global energy sector.

Robert Lorentz is currently Policy Officer in the Renewables Policy Unit of the European Commission. He is a former advisor to the German Federal Environmental Ministry on international cooperation in the field of renewable energy and has held various other posts in the federal government, including the German emissions trading authority. He has worked as an assistant to a Member of the environmental committee of the German Bundestag and as associate researcher at the London based think-tank Policy Network.

Dr Brian Motherway is Chief Operations Officer and Head of Strategy and Innovation in the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. He is responsible for SEAI's work on strategy, policy and analysis, primarily in energy efficiency and smart economy issues. Prior to joining SEAI in 2006 he was a consultant on energy and environmental policy. Brian holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Engineering and a PhD in Sociology.

Gary O'Callaghan is Head of Energy Sector in Ireland with Siemens Limited, having joined Siemens in 1992, where he first worked in enterprise communications, selling solutions and applications to Irish businesses. In 2004 he moved to work in the energy sector - power transmission and distribution, which was later brought together within Siemens along with power generation to become the company's 'Energy Sector'. Gary previously worked in ESB and in the IT sector.

Joe O'Carroll is Managing Director with Imperative Energy. He has 16 years experience in the agri/energy industry in Ireland, UK, USA, central America and East Africa, covering senior management roles in both public and private sector organisations. He is a Board Member of the Biorefinery & Bioenergy competence Centre, a national R&D programme funded by the Irish Government to drive bioenergy innovation.

Fergus O'Dowd is Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources and has responsibility for the NewEra project. He is a TD for the Louth constituency and lives in Drogheda, where he has held office as Mayor on three occasions. He was elected to the Seanad in 1997 and elected to the Dáil in 2002 - he was named TD of the year by Magill magazine in 2007 for his campaign in exposing abuses in Irish nursing home care.

Hermann Pengg-Bührlen is Chief Technology Officer at Solarfuel GmbH, Stuttgart; he is responsible for patents and R&D. Before that, he co-founded a company operating in the biomass field and ramped up a solar technology department for a roof building company. For more than ten years, he worked in senior management positions in four multinational industrial and management consulting companies.

PJ Rudden is Group Business Director for RPS and chairs the all Ireland Strategy Board for RPS. He is consultant to EirGrid for transmission network upgrades to facilitate renewable energy connections and to Coillte on wind farm development. He is also Project Director for the Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study (ISLES) on Offshore Renewables for the three Governments off the coasts of Scotland, Ireland & Northern Ireland. He is currently President of Engineers Ireland.

Fintan Slye assumed the position of Operations Director at EirGrid in January 2007. For the previous two years, Fintan worked for McKinsey & Co in its Dublin office. Prior to that, he held a number of project and management roles in ESB National Grid and ESB International. Fintan completed a Masters in Business Administration from UCD in 2001 and a Masters in Engineering Science in 1993.

Neil Stewart is Managing Director of Dimplex Renewables, a new business unit set up by the Glen Dimplex Group in 2010 to focus on developing a successful renewables business in the UK and Ireland. This includes a major investment in two new manufacturing facilities and two new R&D laboratories for renewables in Ireland. Neil was previously responsible for the Seagoe Technologies electric heating business and latterly had responsibility for all manufacturing and logistical operations for the Glen Dimplex Heating Division in the UK.

Robert Wasson was appointed as Northern Ireland Electricity's Asset Management Director in 2011. He led the post-merger process after the acquisition of NIE by ESB in 2010. An Electrical and Electronic Engineering graduate of QUB, Robert's initial career was in ESB and ESB International, where he held a number of senior roles both in Ireland and overseas. In 1999 Robert moved to the consulting sector, where he led KPMG's organisational review practice in Ireland.