Our people

Our team

Emma Bridge, Chief Executive Officer

Emma joined Community Energy England as its Chief Executive and first member of staff in 2014, inspired by the aspirations of the practitioners that came together to create an organisation that could act as a strong voice for community energy. Emma has over twenty years of experience in sustainable development and leadership, working across the public, private, and community sectors in the UK and Europe. She has on-the-ground experience of community energy from a previous role as General Manager at Sheffield Renewables. She is a founding Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commissioner and is a mentor for Mentor Mums.

Jessica Vallentine, Chief Operating Officer

Jessica joined Community Energy England as Chief Operating Officer in May 2025. She is responsible for driving operational excellence and strategic leadership, ensuring efficiency and sustainable growth to support CEE’s delivery for its members and the sector. Previously, Jessica was the Director of Responsible Business at Business West, where she led the organisation’s response to climate change and inclusion. She has been focused on creating positive impact through placemaking and community development in one way or another for the last 20 years, across roles in academia, private, public and third sectors.

Lisa West,  Membership & Operations Officer

Lisa joined CEE in September 2022 and brings administration and operations experience to the team from a career in university professional services. She is responsible for leading CEE’s member relations within our network. She works closely with CEE’s Head of Operations to manage our quarterly and annual board cycles and other internal processes.Lisa’s passion for community and the outdoors, combined with her environmental ideals for her children’s future, inspired her to work with CEE.

Kim Woodcock, Communications & Events Officer

Kim joined Community Energy England in January 2022 as Communications and Events Officer, where she leads on delivering the communications and a wide range of national in-person and online events, including the Community Energy Awards and the annual Community Energy Fortnight campaign. She brings over 15 years’ experience in events management, including seven years at Citizens Advice where she oversaw their national programme of conferences and high-profile events. Kim has also volunteered with the Single Parent Rights campaign, advocating for legislative change to better protect single parents and their families.

Duncan Law,  Head of Policy & Advocacy

Duncan joined CEE in 2019 having co-founded Brixton Energy and Repowering London in 2011. He leads on our work ‘Advocating for a policy and regulatory environment that supports the growth of community energy’. Over the years Duncan has forged strong connections with government and regulators and throughout the community energy sector, increasing the strength and reach of our policy and advocacy work. He has secured several important outcomes for the sector such as the extension to the feed in tariff installation deadline in April 2020.  Most recently, the strong relationship built with the Coop Party led to collaboration with the Labour Party before the election to develop proposals for the Local Power Plan which pledges to deliver “the largest expansion of support for community energy in history”. He continues to work hard to make sure this is delivered in the best possible way. Before CEE Duncan worked as an actor and director until 2006, when he changed his focus to climate change. He co-founded Transition Town Brixton, Brixton Energy and Repowering London. From 2013 Duncan worked as a campaigner for Biofuelwatch. He is passionate about people-led solutions to climate change and re-imagining the way we do everything.

Josh Barnes,  Policy & Advocacy Officer

Josh joined CEE in July 2023. As Policy and Advocacy Officer, Josh works to ensure that policy makers understand and act upon community energy organisations’ priorities. The policy and advocacy team work with politicians, civil servants, NGOs and community energy practitioners to help create an environment in which the sector can thrive and grow. Josh supports CEE’s working groups on energy efficiency, heat and ethical procurement. Before joining CEE, Josh worked in the environmental NGO and higher education sectors in research and public affairs roles.

John Taylor, Head of Capacity Building

John joined Community Energy England in September 2024 as our Head of Capacity Building. He will be leading our role within the Lottery funded Energy Learning Network, working with our members to create new training opportunities and career pathways, to design and share new delivery models, and to develop new partnerships across the industry, with the aim of helping the sector to maximise our scale and impact. He has worked for the past 16 years in local government advisory roles focusing on climate change action and community energy, including 6 years at the Greater South East Net Zero Hub where he oversaw the delivery of the Community Energy Fund. He lives in Ipswich, Suffolk, where he enjoys finding wildlife in the countryside, and volunteers for a woodland coppicing group as well as swimming in the sea (depending on the time of year!) He is a self declared Climate Optimist, who writes, teaches, and speaks regularly at conferences and events, and is a strong believer in the power of stories to inspire and motivate us through imagining more hopeful and positive visions of the future.

Faith Terry-Doyle, Capacity Building Officer

Faith joined Community Energy England in October 2025. Previously the Community Development and Delivery Manager at Bristol Energy Network, she lead community engagement initiatives to engage communities in a just energy transition in Bristol and the surrounding areas, building on her experience working on environmental and social justice projects and in higher education. She volunteers as an active campaigner with the Stop Rosebank campaign and is very passionate about enhancing community climate action and building resilient, equitable systems, where people and planet can flourish.

Josef Davies-Coates,  Heat and Retrofit Coordinator

Josef has been Community Energy England’s Heat and Retrofit Coordinator since May 2024. He works on the Net Zero Terrace Streets project, the Community Heat Development Unit and the Energy Learning Network, and convenes CEE’s Energy Efficiency and Community Energy Heat Working Groups. Josef is well networked across the open source, co-operative and sustainability worlds and brings a wealth of communications and social media experience. He lived for five years at Sanford Housing Co-op, whose Carbon 60 project was one of the UK’s first whole-street heat and retrofit initiatives, and previously worked to improve UK National Planning Policy as part of the Merton Rule campaign. He lives in Bridport and co-founded West Dorset Commons, a community organisation working to make the West Dorset bioregion a home to thriving people, in a thriving place, while respecting the wellbeing of all people and the health of the whole planet. Its current initiatives include community-supported bus routes, fortnightly film and food nights, and a food buying co-op.

Peter Capener

Community member, interim Chair of the Board

Peter Capener is co-founder and Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy and co-chair of the BEIS ministerial advisory group on Community Energy. Peter has nearly 40 years of experience of working on renewable energy, energy efficiency and fuel poverty with a strong focus on community energy. This time includes experience at senior management and board level for national and regional NGOs as well as delivering practical projects and programmes in partnership with national and local government and key stakeholders across the energy sector. Peter has an MSc in Energy Resource Management.

Alastair Mumford

Community member, Chair of the Finance & Governance committee

Alastair brings his experience of working in the low carbon sector, particularly in the public sector and renewables but also in the areas of electric vehicle infrastructure and building retrofit. He is a committed supporter of the community energy sector and is a director at the Devon Energy Collective. Alastair is currently Programme Director at the MCS Foundation where he works to deliver his purpose to work with others to make every house in the UK a low carbon, affordable, healthy, and regenerative home.

Alistair Macpherson

Community member

As Chief Executive of Plymouth Energy Community (PEC), Alistair has successfully led the development of a family of community-owned enterprises delivering local generation, retrofit and fuel poverty advice, as well as net-zero housing projects and services. As a founding member, he has had the pleasure of supporting PEC’s growth from a small start-up into an organisation with over 30 staff, 500 community investors, 6MW of local solar power, and a turnover exceeding £3 million.

Emma Lower

Public member, Wellbeing lead

Emma Lower, CEO of Lendology CIC, brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role. With a background in finance and community development, Emma is deeply committed to driving opportunities for business growth while ensuring accountability and transparency. Her leadership at Lendology CIC has been instrumental in achieving B Corp status and pioneering carbon-neutral lending in the UK. As the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) and with oversight of compliance, Emma holds certifications in project management and mortgage advice, underscoring her commitment to compliance and governance. Her impressive track record in business growth has earned recognition on prestigious lists such as the Wise100 and Big Issue 100. As a Board member at Community Energy England, Emma leverages her expertise to support the organisation’s mission of empowering communities throughout England to embrace renewable energy and sustainability initiatives.

Helen Ryder

Community member, Treasurer, Finance & Governance committee member

Helen is regularly described as positive, bubbly and helpful. Helen has spent the last 15 years working and volunteering for various Charities and Non-Profits, of which the last 5 has primarily been in a financial capacity. In December 2016 she established herself as a Self-employed Bookkeeper to support local charities and start-ups and become their finance officer to allow them to concentrate on what they do best.In April 2021 Helen was asked to become a Trustee of Hartlepower and has enjoyed getting involved in their Green Energy initiatives and other projects that benefit her area. She is always very keen to be hands on and involved in projects that benefit and support the North East.

Kate Gilmartin

Community member

With a BSc in Fuel & Energy and an MSc in Renewable Energy Kate has been working in developing renewable  energy and low carbon project delivery for many years. With a passion for energy equality, Kate has been a keen advocate for community energy, where communities have their own stake in energy assets and return revenue back into their communities. As a founding member and now a director of Community Energy England, Kate also serves on the board of Rossendale Valley Energy, where they are leading the Net Zero Terrace Streets project, aiming to decarbonize terraced homes through integrated smart local energy systems. Kate was appointed to the start-up board of Great British Energy, and uses that opportunity to advocate for the value of community and local energy.

Noël Lambert

Community member

Noël is a founding Director of the Big Solar Co-op and has worked as the Community & Content Lead on the project for the last five years. She has a longstanding background in community building, online software systems configuration, digital strategy and technical communication. Noël manages the Volunteer Member community and Sol knowledge hub, helps develop digital tools and coordinates Big Solar Co-op communications through events and social media strategy. Noël has a keen interest in permaculture, social justice, local sustainability and gift economy systems.

Ollie Pendered

Community member, Finance & Governance committee member

Ollie has worked in the energy sector since 2002, having started with National Grid in a team to establish and deliver their UK wide national community relations programme. In 2011 he developed a Rural Community Energy Plan for Barcombe Village and founded Barcombe Energy as well as joining pioneering Community Energy Group OVESCO. He is a founder director of Community Energy South, a regional support organisation in south east England. Ollie has worked on multiple community energy projects from field scale solar, solar roof and energy efficiency campaigns to community-led district heating, innovation projects and community energy supply. Since 2013 he has been a Big Energy Saving Network Champion supporting the vulnerable, targeting fuel poverty and helping to establish the Energy Cafe brand across the South East offering energy bill and home energy advice to communities. In 2016-17 he was seconded into the Local Energy Team at BEIS to represent community energy and support partnerships for the energy sector.

Syed Ahmed

Community member

Syed has over 20 years experience working in the sustainable energy industry with a focus on decentralised energy issues and the role of cities and climate change. He has worked for a diverse range of organisations from the environmental NGO sector to industry trade associations, and from the Mayor of London to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. In 2012 Syed established Energy for London, an independent research and campaigning organisation to support London’s journey to become a Net Zero city. Syed is a Director of the All Party Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group (PRASEG), a Trustee for national fuel poverty organisation National Energy Action (NEA), and a Board member of the Solar Energy UK. In 2017 Syed helped establish Community Energy London, where he is currently the Chair. He was awarded an OBE for his work in 2022.