Who is involved
Trustees
The legal Board of Trustees will be appointed as soon as Leapfrog’s charitable status is confirmed, which is expected by end November 2009. In the meantime, the charity is guided by the interim executive team and the Leadership Team comprising the following senior practitioners, all drawn from a wide range of professions, including legal, technical, sustainability, project management, accountancy, banking, insurance/risk and government relations:
Steve McNab, Partner and Head of Environment and Planning at Travers Smith: Steve is the founder of the Leapfrog pro bono concept. He has been refining the model since 2006 when his law firm Travers Smith was investigating offsetting its carbon footprint, but struggled to find an imaginative way of doing so that would engage the firm.
Steve heads up the firm's climate change group and is identified as one of England’s top dozen or so practising Environmental lawyers by The Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession 2009. Travers Smith is a leading City law firm, one of London's "silver circle", providing corporate and commercial advice on a wide range of transactions, regulatory and contentious matters. Steve's specialist areas include advising on business climate change responses, renewable energies, brownfield regeneration and other major development projects. He is a trustee of the UK Environmental Law Association, a graduate of Leeds University and Nottingham Law School and lives in Kent with his wife and three noisy children.
Garry Charnock, Director at RSK Group PLC: Garry is a founder member of Leapfrog and an Executive Director of the RSK Group. He is also the originator of the award-winning Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project, which is supported by Leapfrog and other organisations.
Garry holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and is a Chartered Environmentalist. He is also an experienced technical journalist having worked for more than 30 years for the UK trade press, national newspapers and TV and radio. In 1988 he co-founded specialist communications company - Technical Editing Services - which went on to become one of the largest companies of its kind before merging with RSK in 2007. Garry is married to Anne, a journalist and artist, and lives in Cheshire and London. They have two sons Adam and Robert who also live in London.
Andrew Newman, Finance Director at Low Carbon Investors: LCI is the fund manager to the UK's leading clean technology investment fund, the AIM listed Low Carbon Accelerator. LCA's mission is to provide the capital to accelerate the growth of businesses with products and services that will deliver immediate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, focussing on products and services in clean energy, cleaner fuels, energy efficiency and building sectors. Andrew is one of the founders of the Low Carbon Foundation, a charitable clean-tech investment fund that Leapfog is both supporting, and, for appropriate projects, will co-invest with.
Andrew joined LCI from Deloitte Corporate Finance. Prior to joining Deloitte in 2003, Andrew worked for Triodos Bank in the Netherlands where he was a Senior Investment Officer for Asia for the Solar Development Group, one of the funds co-managed by Triodos. One of the objectives of the Solar Development Group was to accelerate the development of commercial off-grid electrification solutions in developing countries which is an interest he has continued to hold in his contribution to Leapfrog.
Paul Turner, Head of Sustainable Development, Wholesale Banking, Lloyds Banking Group: Paul Turner is the Head of Sustainable Development for Lloyds Banking Group’s Wholesale Division. He has worked for the majority of his career in structured finance in the project finance, property, transportation and utility sectors where his last role was Managing Director of Lloyds TSB’s global transportation finance businesses. He now focuses on the business impacts of environmental issues including climate change and his responsibilities involve risk management, leadership development, staff engagement and supporting the relationship management and business development teams as they engage with their customers on this complex topic.
Paul is a member of the UK Corporate Leaders Group in Climate Change, a member of the Small Business Consortium, a Trustee of Global Action Plan and sits on the Steering Committee of the United Nations Environment Program's Finance Initiative. He is also a tutor with the Cambridge Program for Sustainability Leadership, a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program and the One Planet Leaders Program and he holds a masters level qualification in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University.
Robert Evans, Executive Director of Tripos Consulting: An ecologist by training, Rob founded Tripos, a boutique consultancy which helps both private and public sector organisations to deliver on their Sustainability and CR commitments in a pragmatic and cost-effective manner.
Rob brings to Leapfrog over 18 years of practical experience in implementing environmental, sustainability and socio-economic programmes and projects around the world, as well as a deep understanding of the interrelation of sustainability and business issues. Well known amongst his peers for his tenacity, drive and commitment to deliver difficult projects, Rob’s extensive international experience has also given him a thorough knowledge of working with multi-stakeholder groups from a complete range of different cultural backgrounds. A graduate of Pembroke College Oxford, Imperial College, London and the Cranfield School of Management. When not overseas Rob lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Vicky and sons Nicholas and Alex.
Simon Pringle, Executive Director of Mason Hardy: Simon is Founding Director of Mason Hardy, a management consultancy that provides strategic thinking and delivers sustainable outcomes. Mason Hardy joins up the space between technical knowledge, engagement and implementation. Educated at University of Durham and Imperial College, London, Simon is an experienced Company Director and consultant with over 15 years' experience in developing businesses and managing organisations through periods of rapid growth. His technical experience includes environment, energy and sustainability.
Simon started his career with an Anglo-American environmental consultancy practice. From 2001 until 2008, he served on the UK and Global boards of WSP Energy and Environment. Simon co-developed 'Active Transfer', a sophisticated liability transfer product connecting environmental risk management to the financial services sector. Latterly Simon acted as Partner, Sustainable Business Practice at PIPC, a change management consultancy that has delivered some of the largest and most successful business transformation programmes in corporate history. Simon serves as a non-executive advisor to an award winning PR and communication consultancy and two technology firms. He spent seven years on the advisory panel for the UK Environmental Industries Commission and led the teams that were awarded both the the 2008 Management Consultancy Association award for Corporate Responsibility and the award for Environmental Advisor of the Year in the 2007 Acquisitions Monthly Awards. Simon live in North Yorkshire with his wife Estelle and their two young children.
Sunny Sehgal, Senior Manager, Sustainable Insurance, HSBC: Sunny is responsible for embedding Green & Sustainability into HSBC's global insurance business. Since 2004, his role within HSBC has involved creating innovative advisory and insurance solutions for environmental, climate change and sustainability risks. As a former consultant, Sunny has worked with a wide range of clients in managing environmental risk. Sunny also represents HSBC at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Insurance Working Group.
Susanne Denison-Knowles: A lawyer by academic background and a banker by profession, the two key areas of expertise that Susanne brings to Leapfrog are Public Policy and Banking.
Susanne worked for Citigroup in
Brent Goldman, Partner at BDO Stoy Hayward: Brent is a corporate finance partner at BDO and leads BDO's alternative energy team. BDO Stoy Hayward is the award-winning UK Member Firm of BDO International, the world's fifth largest accountancy network, with more than 1,000 offices in over 100 countries. Within the alternative energy sector BDO has advised businesses on tax structuring, financial modelling, fundraising and provides advice to potential investors into these businesses. Brent started his career at BDO's Sydney office before transferring to BDO's London office in 2000. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australiasia.
Dr Belinda Howell, CEO Decarbonize limited and Interim CEO - Leapfrog: Belinda is a business leader with 18 years experience in business, the environment, and climate change strategy. She has worked in-house for a FTSE 100 corporates and advised international companies at Board level across a wide range of sectors. As a CEO, she has successfully grown a carbon management company from start-up and more recently founded Decarbonize, which works with companies to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. Belinda started her career as a research & development scientist and holds a PhD in Biochemistry. She serves on a number of Advisory Boards, including for ScottishPower, Sustainable Innovation 09 and the Carbon Accountability Programme. She has a 1st class MBA and was nominated in the CNBC Business Low Carbon Pioneers 2007 and 2008.