Our Team

Gerry Jewson

Chairman

Gerry has over 37 years’ experience in the energy industry. Gerry established both West Coast Energy and Renewable Development Company (RDC) in 1996 and assembled a highly motivated and qualified team with a wealth of experience in all aspects of the renewables industry. Both RDC and West Coast had an impressive track record of wind energy development and Gerry was responsible for developing over 655MW of wind in the UK. Gerry was a member of the Welsh Government Energy and Environment Sector panel and sold West Coast Energy to ENGIE in 2014.

Sarah Smith

Managing Director

Sarah has had 32 plus years' experience in the power generation industry and has spent the last 8 years working with Gerry Jewson, initially at West Coast Energy where she led the sale of the company to ENGIE and is now the Managing Director of Wind 2. Sarah is Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Prior to joining West Coast Energy she was the UK Finance Director for International Power (now ENGIE). She has extensive experience of both renewables and conventional power generation including power plant operations, energy trading, project finance and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to International Power she was Regional Vice President at Edison Mission Energy, where Gerry and Sarah first worked together on the development of the Rhyl Flats Offshore wind project off the coast of North Wales, one of the first UK offshore wind energy projects.

Richard Morgan

Solar Development Director

After moving to the renewable energy industry in 2015, Richard worked as Project Manager and then Senior Project Development Manager for British Solar Renewables on a range of solar and storage projects around the UK. Richard was a part of the team working on the largest commercial solar farm in Scotland.
Richard has a wealth of experience including all aspects of Project Development, liaison with stakeholders, lease and easement negotiation, selection and management of specialist and planning consultants, due diligence assistance through the sales process and all aspects of project reporting to stakeholders.

Prior to this, Richard worked for 15 years in the civil engineering contracting sector for Balfour Beatty Rail on large civil engineering infrastructure projects in site and project management roles, finally working in a contracts management position.

Richard has also used his knowledge, as a Director with a local community energy group, in developing their project process.

Ian Thomas

Finance Director

Ian is a Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has worked in the energy industry for 9 years, covering a wide range of financial aspects including financial management, renewable project financial modelling and taxation.

Ian Curry

Technical Director

As Technical Director, Ian heads up the Solar2 technical team. An Electrical Engineer, Ian has extensive experience in the energy industry with a specific focus on Renewable Energy. Ian has been directly involved in the management of operational power plants, as well as the development of numerous energy projects in Southern Africa. Ian’s experience as an engineer and project developer brings great value to the team when it comes to the implementation of energy projects in the real world. Ian is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa, a Senior Member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and holds postgraduate qualifications in Environmental Engineering and Business Management.

Charles Williams

Regulatory Affairs and Welsh Planning Support

Charles has had 30 years experience in the power generation industry. Charles is a qualified Engineer who has focussed on the power generation sector throughout his career. Initially working for Babcock Power in manufacturing and contracting, then for Southern Electric Power Generation and Edison Mission Energy developing and constructing large and medium scale power generation plants. For the last 20 years the focus has been on commercial development of large scale wind farms. Charles was one of the 3 founding members of Falck Renewables in 2002, and oversaw the successful development of a portfolio of 700MW as Business Development Director.

Chris Thomas

Site Search Director

Chris has over 14 years’ experience in the renewable energy industry working on every stage of project development from site identification, development, construction and operation. A Mechanical Engineer, Chris joined Wind 2 from ENGIE where he spent 6 years developing a range of renewable energy projects and portfolios involving onshore wind, offshore wind, solar and battery storage. Chris latterly was a statutory Director of ENGIE UK’s onshore wind portfolio, managing the asset management team including the project financing of a wind farm. Before ENGIE Chris spent 8 years at West Coast Energy developing wind farms as an Engineer and Project Manager, finally heading up their Technical Department. Chris has been active on a number of industry groups including RenewableUK’s aviation working group and was an early board member of the wind industry’s Aviation Investment Fund Company Ltd.

James Bruce

Project Manager – Land

James joined Solar2 in July 2023 and has a genuine passion for renewable energy projects and the UK’s quest to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

James, a Chartered Surveyor with over 20 years qualified experience dealing in all matters regarding the valuation, acquisition and disposal of land and property.

He has worked for National agencies including Knight Frank, DTZ, smaller niche practices and a few property developers. Specialising in land acquisition for wide ranging uses for the development of commercial and residential properties.

James will be working with the Land team and managing site selection and delivery of acquisition opportunities for renewable energy projects and battery storage solutions; up to a gate point to be handed over to the project management team.

Kevin Flynn

Senior Consultant (Land)

Kevin has a background in corporate real estate having spent the whole of his career dealing with land and property in one guise or another. He has worked across a variety of differing industries from Minerals, Commercial Agency, Telecoms, Retail and Local Authority leading on both Corporate Estates, Developments and Acquisitions/Disposals of land and property. Kevin entered the renewables industry in 2019 when working for Infinis, the UK’s leading generator of low carbon power from captured landfill and methane, leading their Estates and Planning team and assisting in the development of their own solar portfolio.

John Moisey

Project Manager

John has over 13 years’ experience in the Renewables Industry in the UK. He has worked in a consulting capacity covering all aspects of Client and Development Management including Environmental Impact Assessment co-ordination and preparation of major planning applications including the application of his specialist knowledge in Acoustics and Noise Control. John also has a wealth of experience working directly on the development of Wind and Solar projects with involvement in the design, planning, construction and operation of numerous renewable energy installations across Scotland for a private developer. John joined the Solar2 team in April 2023 to help in the expansion of the portfolio of sites across Scotland, he is based on our Perth Office.

Mark Hensor

Grid Engineer

Mark graduated from Exeter University in 2008 with a Renewable Energy degree and has worked in the renewables industry since.

After a spell in London working as a sustainability consultant, he joined ICP Freedom Agrilek as a Project Engineer delivering wind, hydro and anaerobic digestor grid connections.

Mark joined Wind2 in April 2023 as Grid Engineer following nearly 9 years at Anesco as a Grid Project Manager, where he connected numerous Solar and Battery Storage projects to the grid, in the UK and the Netherlands.

Iain Symon

Grid Manager

Iain has a wealth of experience across compliance, risk, system design and asset management having worked for National Grid Transmission, National Grid ESO, SSE Transmission and SSE Distribution.

As Grid Manager, Iain is responsible for managing Solar2's grid connection portfolio of over 1.2GW of renewable energy project connections, along with grid regulation, strategy and relationship informing future site search.

Iain is a member of The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and holds a professional certification in Asset Management from the Institute of Asset Management (IAM). Iain is also a Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) ambassador mentoring engineering students through the Arkwright Scholarship Trust.

Janet Wagstaff

Marketing & PR Manager

With over 20 years of marketing and public relations experience, Janet has worked across various industries including construction, the public sector, manufacturing and FMCG.

As a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), she enjoys keeping up to date with the ever-changing marketing and PR landscape.

Janet has a genuine passion for renewables and the environment and joined Solar2 in May 2023.

James Sharman

Renewable Project Manager

After studying a master’s in Environmental Consultancy, James worked as an ecological survey assistant before moving into the renewables industry to work on large scale wind projects. He has experience delivering planning applications for major developments, and has a good understanding of the development process for renewables, including stakeholder and consultant liaison, site identification and project management.

Harry Whittaker

Project Manager

Harry has 3 years’ experience in developing solar PV projects. He holds a postgraduate certificate in GIS which enables him to build models for site identification. This has led Harry to managing projects through the planning phase to achieve shovel-ready status.

Pippa Ross

Project Manager - Land

Pippa has a master’s in Renewable Energy Development and comes with experience of working on high profile, strategic infrastructure projects including renewable, electricity and water.

Where she has secured exclusivity agreements, heads of terms, option agreements, negotiated commercial rates for Wind, Solar, Battery sites, substations, habitat management areas and lease terms to ensure land was secured in a timely manner and on mutually agreeable terms.

She will be involved in site selection and delivery of early-stage solar projects up to a gate point to be handed over to the Project Management team. This will involve securing the necessary planning, landowner and environmental consents in a timeframe which aligns with the project schedule.

Lucy Taylor

Assistant Technical and Project Manager

Lucy graduated from the University of Chester in 2020 with a degree in Geography and Natural Hazard Management. Having studied topics including Environmental Sustainability and GIS, she developed a keen interest in renewable energy and pursued a career in the sector after completing her university studies.

Lucy has worked in the renewable sector for around 2 years, focussing primarily on onshore wind projects in Scotland. In her previous role, Lucy worked on site identification, initial feasibility studies, design and development of large-scale wind projects. She also assisted with work on sites already in the planning process, including attending community engagement events and consultations, and meeting with consultants and clients. More recently, Lucy was involved in the initial feasibility studies and landowner identification for a large-scale solar site in England.

Sally Jones

HR and Administration Officer

Sally has a wealth of experience working in office administration, having previously worked in banking, financial services and local government.

Sally began working for Paula and Gerry in 2010 as a personal assistant and joined the Wind2 team in 2021.

Jane Bleasdale

Administration Assistant

Jane has a wealth of experience and joined Wind2 five years ago. Jane provides clerical support to all project managers and the wider team as well as co-ordinating all daily administrative activities, including key documents and any IT issues.