Mike is the Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK – with a vision to ensure the UK prospers from being the fastest transitioning economy to Net Zero. Between 2015 and 2020 nearly 6,000 companies received Net Zero related grants from Innovate UK worth £1.9bn which catalysed £4.8bn of private investment and created 67,000 new jobs.

Net Zero is a race against time not against each other and more of the same won’t do.  That means we must change the way we do things and that means we must innovate with urgency, because the clock is ticking.

Prior to this, Mike was Programme Director for the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to deliver the research and science that businesses needs to transform existing industries, create new ones and deliver economic impact, jobs and growth.

Before joining Innovate UK, Mike worked in the photonics industry for 10 years after graduating with a masters in physics from Imperial College, London. He is a board member of the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Aerospace Technologies Institute and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

As Strategic Technology Director for Johnson Matthey’s Hydrogen Technologies business, Dr. Mike Petch is responsible for leading the development of the global Hydrogen Technologies technology organizational footprint, developing high level relationships across the customer and supplier base, and developing global partnerships with the aim of developing the next generations of fuel cell and electrolysis products.

In 1994, after a two-year post-doc position with BP, Dr. Petch joined Johnson Matthey, where he has been for 28 years now. His first six years at Johnson Matthey were spent developing technology for onboard reforming of gasoline and methanol for automotive applications, as well as stationary reforming of natural gas for small-scale CHP systems. In this role, Dr. Petch was responsible for the R&D through to product design and manufacturing technology for Johnson Matthey’s fuel cell business, which focused on the development of MEAs and their key components: membranes, catalysts, and catalyst layers.

Once it became apparent that the OEM would put hydrogen onto the vehicles, Dr. Petch moved to the fuel cell side of the business where he has been their technology director for the last 15 years.

Dr. Petch received his PhD in catalysis from The University of Reading.

Pablo has a solid foundation in Civil Engineering and a Master's in Metropolitan Analysis Design & Engineering, and offers a blend of practical and research expertise. His master's thesis on optimizing electric vessel charging in Amsterdam showcases his commitment to sustainable transport solutions. He's explored innovative energy harvesting through his Electrack project, integrating Piezo electric materials into train tracks.

Since joining Cenex Nederland, Pablo has actively engaged in projects emphasizing cleaner energy, sustainable transportation solutions, with a focus on circular economy. 

Paula is LCRIG’s Chief Executive and formerly Director, Government and Strategy at LCRIG. Paula was previously Executive Board Director at Gaist, the multi-award-winning international highways and mobile mapping company working with the Government, local authorities, private sector, and international organisations. Paula has had a career spanning a range of sectors including leading local government frontline services, Assistant Director for a national public sector improvement agency tasked with performance improvement in councils, KPMG Government Advisory, international consulting assignments, political lobbying sector, and independent national government advisory roles. Paula has also worked in executive leadership roles in the charitable sector including a major stem cell cancer charity leading their operations department and a strategic policy and lobbying role in a leading environmental charity focused on behaviour change to improve local environmental quality.

Working in the Highways sector Paula has been a guest on several BBC Radio4 programmes relating to Infrastructure, international radio  and TV programmes, quoted in The Sunday Times, authored articles for IHE, CIHT, RSMA, LCRIG Insights and spoken regularly at national industry conferences both in the UK and internationally. In 2018, Paula was an expert witness to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee on Local Roads Funding and Governance with acknowledgement by the Committee Chair in the House of Commons and Hansards. Paula is a Steering Group Member for the subsequent new change in Road Condition Statistics (PAS 2161), part of the NIC CAM expert group and provides policy advisory support the DfT Transport Technology Forum which LCRIG manages. Paula’s knowledge and insights are also drawn upon regularly by other DfT team including Traffic and Technology and Local Roads. Paula is part of the National Highways strategic Research and Innovation Advisory Board, and soon to be on the editorial advisory board for Highways Magazine. Paula has also been a technical committee member for PIARC (World Roads Association), and has a passion for all things innovation in the highways sector.

Peter is Cenex’s most senior technologist specialising in consultancy and project leadership roles. Since 2010 he has led on delivery of Cenex’s hydrogen and fuel cell projects, including leading on technical analysis and reporting of Hydrogen Mobility Europe (H2ME), ), the largest hydrogen light duty vehicle and infrastructure project in Europe. Supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, H2ME deployed 1,400 hydrogen cars and vans and 49 refuelers in nine European countries. 

Rene has worked in autonomous driving safety engineering since 2009 in various positions, including research collaborations. From 2017 to 2022, he was the Head of Automotive Department at ESE by DB (German Railways), consulting and assessing automotive industry in safety-relevant applications. Since 2022, Rene has been the Head of AD MaaS (mobility as a service) System Definition and Assurance at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles; responsible for customer, safety, security, and regulative compliance of the AD MaaS System, as well as system release and homologation.

Richard Bruce is one of the job-share directors of the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) at the Department for Transport (DfT). He leads the Department’s work to decarbonise all road vehicles: from motorcycles, cars and vans through to the biggest trucks. OZEV is putting the UK at the forefront of the development and deployment of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) to effectively eliminate these emissions by 2050.

To deliver this transition, his teams support early market demand for electric vehicles, including through direct grants and other incentives. Working closely with manufacturers and stakeholders to support delivery of an ever increasing supply of ZEVs by designing and delivering CO2 regulation, including the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate (the largest carbon saving measure across government).  OZEV is also responsible for ensuring the deployment of an appropriate charging infrastructure to support these ZEVs. This includes regulations to ensure that drivers can charge reliably and conveniently, and his teams work closely with the chargepoint industry to ensure that infrastructure is in place ahead of need (particularly for long journeys and on residential streets). HGV transition also falls within Richard’s policy area where live research projects are looking to demonstrate both battery electric and hydrogen technology.

Previously he jointly led the Department’s Transport Decarbonisation directorate, co-ordinating all the wider work to decarbonise the UK’s transport system including in the aviation, maritime, bus and rail sectors. Separately, Richard has also held various roles in the UK Senior Civil Service including DfT's head of Corporate Governance, leading on smart and integrated ticketing; and as Director of Regional Resilience.

Richard has over 20 years’ experience in smart mobility, he started his career as a researcher at the internationally renowned Transport Operations Research Group at Newcastle University before moving to industry. Richard joined Aurrigo in 2011 and began working on smart mobility projects including vehicle tracking for the London Olympic Games, electric vehicle charging behaviour monitoring, and since 2017 delivering autonomous vehicle deployments across the world. Richard has a background in electronic, software and transport engineering and gained a PhD researching the actions of autonomous vehicles in real world dynamic environments.

Richard is Chief Commercial Officer at Oxa, responsible for the commercialisation of Oxa’s Universal Autonomy™ software platform.
Heading up the Commercial team, Richard leads business development, sales, customer success and strategic partnerships.
Richard joined Oxa in 2019 to set up its commercial function, after a 30-year career building and leading global teams and partnerships at large corporates.
Since joining Oxa, Richard has developed relationships and contracted with all of Oxa’s major customers, including Beep, bp, Ocado and ZF. He was also an integral part of the Oxa team during Series B and C fund raising.