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Board of Trustees

The Faraday Institution’s trustees bring multifaceted perspectives and experiences from academia, industry, and public service to the role of advising the Faraday Institution. Board members serve as ambassadors and advisers in support of the Faraday Institution’s aims.

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Professor Kristina Edström

Professor Edström leads the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre (ÅABC) and she is a professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Uppsala University, Sweden. The main research interests are lithium-ion batteries for all applications including electric vehicles, 3D microbatteries but beyond lithium batteries (sodium-ion, organic batteries, lithium-sulfur, lithium/sodium-oxygen batteries and solid state batteries). She also develops photon science and neutron scattering in operando methods for studying dynamic processes in materials and batteries, in addition to having a great interest in teaching and guiding young researchers. She is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences. More...

Vice-Chair

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Stephen Heidari-Robinson

Vice-Chair

Stephen Heidari-Robinson is co-founder and managing director of Quartz Associates. He served as former UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s energy and environment adviser and was one of the architects of the UK’s generation strategy and decarbonisation plan. Heidari-Robinson spent nine years as a leader in McKinsey and Company’s energy practice and was a vice president of Schlumberger. Heidari-Robinson read history at the University of Oxford, holds an MA in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute, London University, and studied Farsi at the School of Oriental and African Studies. More...

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Esther Hills

Dr Esther Hills is the Product & Engineering Director at Aggreko. She is responsible for leading product development of the power generation, battery storage and temperature control products within Aggreko’s Rental Solutions. She has worked in the automotive industry for over 25 years, having started her career at Ricardo Consulting Engineers as part of their graduate scheme. She holds a master’s degree in Engineering Acoustics and Vibration, and a PhD in Structural Dynamics both from the University of Southampton. Esther also sits on the board of the Institute of the Motor Industry as a Non-Executive director.

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Hanno Kirner

Hanno was appointed to Executive Director, Tata Group Synergy Programmes in June 2021, to lead the Tata Group activities in exploring opportunities in the battery space. He is a member of the Jaguar Land Rover executive management board.

Hanno has been in financial and strategic management roles for the last 15 years, in roles as a CFO and with a focus on mobility and electrification strategies as well as the luxury automotive sector.

Before his most recent appointment, since 2016 Hanno was Executive Director, Corporate and Strategy as a member of the Jaguar Land Rover executive management board, where his direct responsibilities included leadership of Corporate Strategy, Product Strategy, Global Financial Services, IT, Royal & Diplomatic Affairs and the Special Operations division.

Prior to joining Jaguar Land Rover in 2016, he has held board positions as Chief Financial Officer for the Land and Sea Division at Rolls Royce plc, Chief Financial Officer at Aston Martin Lagonda as well as Director of Finance and IT at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
Throughout his career, Hanno has had at heart to always take a logical and progressive approach to challenges and to create a motivational environment for his teams.

Hanno holds a degree as 'Diplom-Kaufmann' in Business Administration obtained at Freie Universitaet Berlin. He enjoys cycling, playing golf, and has a passion for classic cars.

Senior Advisor

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Sir Oliver Letwin

Senior Advisor

Sir Oliver served as the Member of Parliament for West Dorset from 1997 to 2019. From 2010, he was the Minister for Government Policy in David Cameron’s coalition government and coordinated the push to make the UK a world leader in electric vehicles. He continued to serve as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Cabinet Minister in overall charge of the Cabinet Office until July 2016. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, Princeton University, and London Business School. In a varied career, Sir Oliver has been a research fellow at Cambridge University, a civil servant, and a bank director. He lives in West Dorset and London. More...

Chair

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Peter B. Littlewood

Chair

Peter B. Littlewood is Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He served as the 13th Director of the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, after having served as the associate laboratory director of its Physical Sciences and Engineering directorate. He spent the previous 14 years at the University of Cambridge, where he last served as the head of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Department of Physics. Littlewood is internationally recognized for his research in a number of areas, including superconductivity, semiconductor optics, and magnetic materials. Littlewood holds a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences (physics) and a doctorate in physics, both from the University of Cambridge. More...

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Mark Newman

Mark Newman is Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Strategy for pioneering battery company Nyobolt, the original founders of ultra-fast charging niobium-based battery technology.
Mark previously spent 11 years as Managing Director and Senior Analyst covering Technology at Bernstein, where he was lead author of numerous Bernstein Blackbooks including “The Battery Bible”, “Electric Revolution” (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 editions), and “The New Memory Paradigm”. Mark’s research at Bernstein focused on batteries, electric vehicles and semiconductors.
Prior to Bernstein, Mark worked at Samsung in Korea for six years, during which time he held various strategy and business development roles, most recently as Director of Strategic Planning in Samsung’s Semiconductor Business. At Samsung, Mark was a key driver of several strategic initiatives, venture investments and acquisitions.
Before Samsung, Mark spent four years working in Field Operations at Applied Materials in California, where he supported the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturing companies in the United States, Europe and Asia. He also worked at Singapore Technologies in Singapore and Aker Kvaerner in New Jersey. Mark earned a Master’s in Chemical Engineering from University College London, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Cordi O’Hara

Cordi O’Hara is President of National Grid Ventures where she is responsible for the development, financing, construction and operation of large-scale energy assets, including: electricity interconnectors; LNG storage and regasification; onshore wind and solar generation; and, competitive transmission.

Prior to joining NGV, Cordi was Chief Operating Officer, US Gas Business for National Grid; where she was accountable for the safe, reliable and affordable operation of National Grid’s gas distribution businesses across the New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island service territories on behalf of our 3.6 million customers.

Cordi also ran the UK System Operator for National Grid, where she oversaw the strategy, planning and operation of over 14,000 miles of gas and electricity networks in Great Britain. In her tenure in this role she integrated over 14 GW of renewable clean energy into the UK system. She has advocated for innovative solutions to a decarbonised energy market, including clean technology solutions and new demand response initiatives.

Cordi became a fellow of the UK Energy Institute in 2016, acknowledging her significant experience in UK and European energy markets and networks, and was awarded an OBE in 2019.

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Jorge Pikunic

Jorge Pikunic is CEO of Xynteo, a management consultancy that empowers leaders to reinvent growth by transforming their businesses and wider systems.. He was formerly Managing Director of Centrica’s global Distributed Energy & Power business, established to deliver distributed energy solutions for large energy users as part of a more flexible energy landscape. Born in Venezuela, Pikunic is an engineer and holds a MSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering. He was a research fellow at the University of Oxford before joining McKinsey & Company, where he advised a number of institutions in energy and other sectors. More...

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Isobel Sheldon

Isobel Sheldon OBE is Chief Strategy Officer, Britishvolt, responsible for overall business, manufacturing, technology and customer strategy.
Isobel joined Britishvolt from her role as Business Development Director at UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC). She has 20 years of experience in battery design and development, technology and industry and is a globally renowned automotive battery specialist.
Isobel has worked with many of the world’s major automotive businesses and suppliers including Jaguar Land Rover, Lotus, Nissan, Toyota and Ricardo helping them advance their battery system solutions and has a number of world firsts to her name.

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Mark Spearing

Professor Mark Spearing is the Vice-President, Research and Enterprise at the University of Southampton. Previously he was the Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) and Head of the School of Engineering Sciences, having been appointed as the Professor of Engineering Materials in 2004. He was a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1994-2004. His personal research focuses on structural and functional materials. He holds a BA and PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. More...

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Maurits van Tol

Maurits van Tol is Chief Technology Officer at Johnson Matthey, a global leader in science that enables a cleaner and healthier world.

Before joining Johnson Matthey, Maurits was Senior Vice President Innovation and Technology at Borealis. He was responsible for shaping the Circular Economy business for Borealis as well as being part of the company’s management board responsible for their plastics business. Maurits was a senior leader with Borealis between 2012 and 2019. Prior to that he spent 19 years with Royal DSM in a wide variety of R&D, innovation and business management roles.

Maurits has a PhD in Catalysis and an MSc in Physical Chemistry and Catalysis, both from Leiden University, The Netherlands. Parts of his studies were also performed at the University of East Anglia, and UC Berkeley. He shares the Faraday Institution’s passion for science, having achieved 18 patents and 30 publications, and he sits on a number of advisory boards for technology across the chemicals sector.

Maurits enjoys travelling, discovering different cultures and the great outdoors, and has a passion for running, art and cars.

People committee

Chair:

Mark Spearing

Members:

Cordi O'Hara

Peter Littlewood

Audit, finance and risk committee

Chair:

Stephen Heidari-Robinson

Members:

Mark Spearing

Kristina Edstrom

Andrew Lewis

Business Impact committee

Chair:

Jorge Pikunic

Members:

Oliver Letwin

Maruits van Tol

Isobel Sheldon

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