Meet the team.
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Meet the National Retrofit HUB FOUNDING Board.
Lynne Sullivan OBE.
Hub Chair
Member, UK Green Construction Board Chair, Good Homes Alliance
Lynne Sullivan is an architect, design consultant and visiting professor. She is a design advisor for RIBA competitions, the Design Council, and for local and national design commissions and review panels, including Design Commission for Wales.
Lynne authors and chairs research projects for policy advice on the sustainable built environment, including “A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland” and outputs for the Zero Carbon Hub 2009-2015.
She chaired RIBA’s Sustainable Futures Committee 2014-2017 and was RIBA Climate Change Ambassador for COP21 Paris. She chairs the Buildings Mission 2030 Taskgroup for CLC’s Green Construction Board, which she represented on the UKGBC 2021 Whole Life Carbon Roadmap Steering Group. Lynne is a board member of the Passivhaus Trust and chairs the Good Homes Alliance.
David Adams.
Hub Board Member
Strategic Advisor, Future Homes Hub Consultant, retrofit and new build homes
David Adams has a broad base of experience in retrofit, new home building, manufacturing and policy. He is strategic advisor to the Future Homes Hub, a director of the Good Homes Alliance, and advises the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG).
David shares his expertise in low energy building and manufacturing to help housebuilders, and the construction industry generally, to deliver net zero homes at scale.
Brian Berry.
Hub Board Member
CEO, Federation of Master Builders Member, RMI Working Group of Construction Leadership Council
Brian Berry is the Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), the largest trade association for SME building companies in the building industry. He was previously Director of External Affairs at the FMB. He is also a member of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC).
Before the FMB, Brian was Head of UK Public Policy at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and also worked as a teacher at The Charterhouse Square School in central London.
Brian is a Freeman of the City of London and a director of the Tiverton Almshouse Trust. He regularly provides commentary on construction issues for the media.
Jon Bootland.
Hub Board Member
Chief Executive, Passivhaus Trust Director, Sustainable Development Foundation
Jon Bootland is director of the Sustainable Development Foundation (SD Foundation), which aims to drive the UK property and construction industries towards exemplary sustainability practices. The SD Foundation was recently recognised as a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) International Centre of Excellence for High Performance Buildings. He is also chief executive of the Passivhaus Trust, which is the official body for promoting and protecting the Passivhaus standard in the UK.
Through the SD Foundation, Jon was the founding director of the Good Homes Alliance (GHA) and has helped to develop the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP), the Building Performance Network (BPN), the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA) and the SuperHomes Network. He has also led other projects on sustainable schools and healthcare buildings.
Simon McWhirter.
Hub Board Member
CEO, Federation of Master Builders Member, RMI Working Group of Construction Leadership Council
Simon McWhirter is a lead ambassador for UKGBC across political, industry and civil society audiences, and oversees its corporate communications and political advocacy with national, devolved and local government, including as head of UKGBC Scotland. He spearheads UKGBC’s international activity and also represents UKGBC on a wide range of government-led and independent bodies including the UK government’s Energy Efficiency Task Force, the Green Construction Board’s Steering Group, the Scottish Government’s Green Heat Finance Task Force, and the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Future Homes Taskforce.
With more than 25 years’ experience, Simon is a distinguished leader of communications, business development, industry, policy and advocacy, with previous roles that span the construction, finance, and not-for-profit sectors.
Simon is currently a Non-Executive Director for the Welsh-based sustainable construction and skills social enterprise Down to Earth and for mental health-focused events organisation Peloton Running.
David Pinder.
Hub Board Member
Chair, UK Green Construction Board Executive Chair, DiscreteHeat & Mixergy
David Pinder is Chair of the government’s Green Construction Board and is a member of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) task force. David is also a member of the government convened Net Zero Building Council and sits on the ISCF Transforming Construction Advisory Board.
From 2012-2020 he was the CEO of Baxi Heating managing the UK&I operations of the Dutch Foundation, BDR Thermea Group. Previously, David was the managing director of NSG Pilkington, responsible for UK and Southern Europe. He gained significant international experience operating in a variety of senior roles, including as president of Pilkington Poland and managing director of Pilkington Nordic Region.
David is the executive chair of Mixergy, a cleantech scale-up company focusing on smart hot water solutions. David has recently been appointed to Chair the Board of Dragons’ Den stars DiscreteHeat, the UK-based manufacturer of the ThermaSkirt skirting board heating system, following their scale-up in the heat pump industry. He is also supporting the work of the CLC to deliver CO2nstruct Zero and is a member of the programme board.
Simon McWhirter.
Hub Board Member
Deputy Chief Executive, UK Green Building Council.
Simon McWhirter is a lead ambassador for UKGBC across political, industry and civil society audiences, and oversees its corporate communications and political advocacy with national, devolved and local government, including as head of UKGBC Scotland. He spearheads UKGBC’s international activity and also represents UKGBC on a wide range of government-led and independent bodies including the UK government’s Energy Efficiency Task Force, the Green Construction Board’s Steering Group, the Scottish Government’s Green Heat Finance Task Force, and the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Future Homes Taskforce.
With more than 25 years’ experience, Simon is a distinguished leader of communications, business development, industry, policy and advocacy, with previous roles that span the construction, finance, and not-for-profit sectors.
Simon is currently a Non-Executive Director for the Welsh-based sustainable construction and skills social enterprise Down to Earth and for mental health-focused events organisation Peloton Running.
Russell Smith.
Hub Board Member
Managing Director, Parity Projects Founder and Director, RetrofitWorks
Russell Smith has been at the forefront of recognising the need for the building industry to transform all existing homes as part of the UK’s drive to meet it’s net zero carbon targets.
Russell is a Chartered Civil Engineer, founder and managing director of Parity Projects, and founder and managing director of RetrofitWorks. He brings a wealth of experience to the drive toward a National Retrofit Programme and is co-author of the National Retrofit Strategy proposal issued by the Construction Leadership Council in 2021.
Meet the National Retrofit Hub Co-Directors.
Rachael Owens.
Co-Director, National Retrofit Hub
Rachael is an architect and has experience designing and delivering commercial and residential retrofit projects. Her previous role was at Buckley Gray Yeoman, a practice that champions retrofit and adaptive reuse, where she led the response to sustainable and regenerative design, supporting projects to develop and implement strategies to reduce embodied carbon, material use, operational energy and to enhance biodiversity and user wellbeing.
Rachael sits on the New London Architecture Retrofit and Conservation expert panel and is a WELL accredited professional. She was named 2021 RIBA Journal Rising Star for her work in practice to communicate sustainable design and within the Architects Climate Action Network to campaign for the regulation of embodied carbon emissions.
In 2023 she joined the RIBA Stirling Prize jury as the sustainability expert and in 2024, she won the AJ100 Sustainability Leader of the Year award.
Sara Edmonds.
Co-Director, National Retrofit Hub
Sara Edmonds is an architect and activist. She co-founded Home Energy Action Lab (HEAL) a framework test bed for community based domestic retrofit services. She is a director of Studio seARCH, a consultancy that advocates for systemic change around low carbon domestic retrofit.
Previously she spent 3 years as head of Citizen Engagement at Built Environment – Smarter Transformation, the innovation centre for the built environment in Scotland, 3 years as a coordinator at the Architects Climate Action Network, and a year as social housing associate at the Passivhaus Trust.
Working in the face of a climate emergency, the focus of Sara’s work is to drive essential change in the built environment and wider communities through connecting bottom-up, grassroots projects and top-down strategies and initiatives. Collaboration is a fundamental part of this work.
Meet the National Retrofit Hub Internal Team.
Rachel Brown.
Head of Marketing & Communications – National Retrofit Hub
Marketing Consultant and Executive Coach, Hyping Fox
Rachel is an experienced business leader and accomplished marketing consultant with two decades of expertise in marketing and communications. Rachel’s journey includes progressing from an entry-level position to a Board Director at Baxi Heating over her 15-year tenure. In this role, she successfully managed a diverse portfolio of 9 residential and commercial brands.
Drawing from her extensive background, Rachel excels in comprehending customer needs, formulating effective marketing plans, and executing award-winning digital programs to meet business objectives. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Rachel is a passionate advocate for diverse and inclusive (D&I) practices. As a certified Coach, she finds fulfilment in guiding others to recognise and achieve their full potential.
Jason King.
Project Associate – National Retrofit Hub
Jason has experience working across national funding streams including Hug (1 & 2), SHDF (1 & 2.1) and LAD (2), working with social landlords, Local Authorities and government bodies.
Whilst working at the South West Net Zero Hub, he helped secure funding for the South West under SHDF 2.1. Jason also delivered the Local Energy Advice Demonstrator, working with 6 organisations across the South West, and helped share learnings and insights from that programme through a series of webinars, events and toolkits.
Jason looks forward to continuing his work on a national & regional scale, looking at the issues facing retrofit, and working with those in the community sector, supporting them to make the most of the work that they are doing.
Ben White.
Senior Marketing Executive – National Retrofit Hub
Ben is an MA Environmental Humanities graduate with hands-on experience in marketing & operations for an online marketplace startup in Bristol. Alongside his studies, Ben started his marketing career working as a freelance SEO mental health/addiction copywriter, producing well-researched and sensitive articles for clients in both the UK and the US.
Blending his marketing experience with research and writing skills developed during his studies, he is able to turn important outcomes and learnings about housing retrofit into coherent and engaging communications.
He is passionate about effective and holistic solutions to social/environmental issues which is why he is keen to support the delivery of housing retrofit at scale.
Talisa Denny.
Project Coordinator – National Retrofit Hub
Talisa is a geographic researcher and graduated with an MSc in Human Geography: Society and Space. Interested in the collective imagination and practice of alternative futures, she specialises in political ecology, spatial theory, environmental policy, and post-growth. Her thesis explored post-growth perspectives on Critical Raw Materials, through the role of Cornish lithium mining in the UKs low-carbon transition.
She has experience producing policy relevant research, often focusing on ethical material supply chains in low carbon transition. She also worked as a seminar leader at the University of Bristol, leading seminars on Sustainable Development.
More recently, she volunteered with Dorset Community Energy to research the role of natural materials in reducing embodied carbon emissions in retrofit and strengthening local economic resilience. She is inspired by community and place-based approaches which contribute to shared and just governance of energy systems.
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