Iris Aquilina Anderson
Our team is led by Iris Anderson who has 40 years of policy, business and research experience specialising in the bioeconomy, agriculture, energy and sustainability issues.
She also has expertise in diversity and inclusion, setting up staff networks and helping to build and lead cross Whitehall diversity networks and help staff development through mentoring and coaching. Her commitment and ability to diversity were recognised in 2015 when she was awarded the British Empire Medal for her work.
Her various roles have included Head of Energy Innovation and Head of Renewable Materials. She is an evaluator for BBI JU and H2020 and the First Ambassador of BBIA, a trade association promoting the bioeconomy in the UK and a Committee member of the Natural Materials Association.
She helped set up and was Chair of the faith and race staff networks in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and subsequently in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). She was also Co-Chair of the Civil Service Race Forum, working closely with other diversity networks to embed diversity strategy and processes across the civil service and in policies affecting all communities.
John Power
John Power is the other senior member of the team. John has 40 years experience of trade and energy policy and delivering and managing ICT in government, defence and education.
He has vast experience in developing staff having led the work to implement project management as a profession in DECC and increase the department’s capabilities. This included planning, designing, delivering and delivering training and other development opportunities as well as facilitating workshops in support of policy and project design.
His roles have included being Head of ICT for two Goverment bodies, Head of IT projects at the University of Surrey and Head of Project Management at DECC. He took part in and led a number of reviews of major Government programmes and projects across Whitehall as part of the Gateway Review process and is a Member of the Association for Project Management.
John was a member of the Executive Committee for DECC’s Religious and Ethnic Minorities (REM) network where in addition to helping define and deliver REM’s strategy, he was a mentor for a number of staff and designed and delivered regular training sessions.