As a co-operative, Glasgow Community Energy is owned and controlled by its members and managed in accordance with its Rules by a voluntary Board of Directors drawn from its membership. Below are details of the current Directors (the Officers are listed at the top, with the rest in order of first election/appointment). Any member aged 18 years or over can put themselves forward to be elected onto the Board.
Board of Directors
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Calum Watkins – Chairperson (first elected in 2018) first became a Director of GCE whilst studying Electrical & Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. He now works at Smarter Grid Solutions in Glasgow developing renewable energy engineering solutions across the UK and North America. Calum sees community-owned local energy as a key resource to empowering communities and combating climate change. He has volunteered in his capacity as a STEM Ambassador for several years, to organise solar energy workshops in partnership with local schools and community groups. |
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Joe Smee – Secretary (first elected in 2023) is a Community Energy Specialist with over 10 years’ experience supporting community organisations to deliver renewable energy projects. He has played an active role in the development of the community energy sector in Scotland and the UK during this time. Between 2015 and 2021 Joe worked at Local Energy Scotland where he held lead responsibility for supporting projects across Argyll & Bute, Stirling and the Glasgow City Region. Between 2013 and 2015 he co-founded Exeter Community Energy and worked on the development of their first portfolio of rooftop PV installations and a successful community share offer. |
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Ellie Harrison – Treasurer (first elected in 2017) is an artist and activist based in Glasgow. She has been working to develop a community-owned renewable energy co-operative since launching the Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund project in 2015. She has been a Director of GCE since the co-operative was established in 2017 and has spent the last few years developing the project on a voluntary basis, alongside working as a part-time lecturer in Contemporary Art Practice at Duncan of Jordanstone, and campaigning for improvements to public transport and active travel with Carfree Glasgow, Get Glasgow Moving and Bring Back British Rail. |
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Claire Williams (first elected in 2021) is a community organiser and activist who runs a Lanarkshire based volunteer group whose focus in 2021 is addressing the climate emergency through new habitat creation, path network improvements, community growing and active travel. She is passionate about community-led regeneration and delivering on the ground positive change. She is also the director of a social enterprise that works to develop community capacity and deliver community-led projects and partnerships. Claire became a Director of GCE in January 2021, following a period of work as its part-time Community Organiser. |
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Tom Nockolds (first elected in 2021) has been immersed in community energy since 2013. He co-founded Sydney-based community energy group Pingala in 2013 and is director at Community Power Agency (Australia) since 2014, a worker-owned co-operative and Australia’s only dedicated support organisation for community energy. Since moving to Scotland, Tom has found a new home in the Glasgow community where he volunteers for local issues. Tom is employed by Energy4All as project manager, a role that finds him supporting communities across Scotland developing energy projects. Tom is Energy4All’s representative for GCE and was co-opted to the board in September 2021. |
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Sarah-Jane Hamilton (first appointed in 2023) represents GALLANT on the board. GALLANT is an interdisciplinary research initiative at the University of Glasgow which aims to use Glasgow as a living laboratory to address some of the environmental challenges the city faces; implementing sustainable energy being one of these. Sarah-Jane is also completing her PhD in the socially just energy transitions, developing a pilot energy literacy programme in partnership with community-based partners to support a critical understanding of energy systems both hydro-carbons and sustainable energy, to ensure that our incoming energy transition is socially just in all regions across the globe. Sarah also supports our energy workshops currently being delivered in classrooms across Scotland. |
Former Directors
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Jim Lee (2017-2021) is Energy4All’s Development Manager in Scotland. He chaired the board of the Spirit of Lanarkshire Wind Energy Co-operative for many years and is currently on the boards of Edinburgh Community Solar Co-operative and the Highland Community Energy Society. Jim’s role is to develop opportunities for Energy4All in Scotland, helping it to extend the scope of community owned renewable energy. Jim is working with communities across Scotland to help them gain maximum benefit from renewable energy projects in hydro, on-shore wind, solar and district heating. |
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Ben Frazer (2018-2019) is an electrical engineer with experience in power converter control and embedded software within the energy sector. He holds a bachelors from the University of Strathclyde and an MSc from the University of Glasgow. He’s particularly interested in the role that low cost computation can enable active consumers to shape demand around a variable energy and constrained energy supply. Ben became involved with GCE in 2017, through a university project investigating Solar PV in Glasgow. This was before any panels had been installed and he remains involved in an advisory capacity on technical areas.. |
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Zoe Dickson (2019-2022) has just completed a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She has been a Director of GCE since September 2019, after becoming aware of the project while completing a summer internship with Energy4All. Zoe has experience working within renewables and is pursuing a future career in the energy sector. She is a strong advocate for combating climate change and hopes to be involved in the decarbonisation and diversification of the UK’s energy portfolio. |
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Fraser Stewart (2019-2022) is a researcher at the University of Strathclyde, specialising in local energy for social and economic justice around the world. Alongside academia, Fraser has worked with governments, NGOs and community groups in Mexico, Rwanda, Nepal, Scotland, the UK and the US to support the design and establishment of socially equitable local energy innovations and policies. He has been a Director of GCE since 2019 and is active in a number of campaigns in Glasgow and beyond. |
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Andy McAvoy (2019-2022) is director at Retool Architecture – a practice focussed on the creation of a cleaner and more sustainable built environment. Passive solar design, low embodied energy and carbon reduction underpin his work. In 2019, the practice completed the ‘Making Places’ community consultation in Pollokshields, which resulted in proposals to install Solar Systems on the roof of Glendale Primary School and other community buildings, which were then Pre-registered for Feed-in Tariff. Andy became a Director of GCE in winter 2019 to help ensure the Glendale Primary School installation was completed. |
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Bill Fraser (2021-2022) has been involved in community development for 20 years originally as Chair of Pollokshields Community Council and co-author of a 2016 community-led charrette. This study identified residents’ priorities for the neighbourhood and led to the establishment of The Pollokshields Trust. As General Manager of The Trust he works with the trustees to develop projects that will deliver preservation of the conservation area, better provision of community green space, active travel, safer streets, and development of sustainable energy. Bill became a Director of GCE in January 2021 as a representative of The Pollokshields Trust. |
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Annette Heslop (Secretary, 2017-2023) is the Finance and Administration director of Energy4All, which she joined in 2002. Annette has been working in the renewables industry for 20 years and was a director of Baywind Energy Co-op up to 2015. Annette is responsible for the professional management and administration of all the Energy4All co-ops. As Finance Director of Energy4All, she leads on financial control, modelling, costing, projections, banking and treasury. Annette acts as the Company Secretary for all Societies in the Energy4All family and serves as a trustee of the Baywind Energy Conservation Fund. |
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Shona Rawlings (Membership Officer, 2022-2024) is a Sustainability & Strategy Analyst at the Weir Group. Prior to this she spent 7 years working in sustainable transport in both the private and public sector. Shona has previously been a Board Member for the 2050 Climate Group and the Vancouver Public Space Network. |
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Johanna Behaim (2022-2024) works as an engineer in the energy sector. She has always had a strong interest in environmental topics and moving towards a more sustainable future. After completing a master’s degree in renewable energy engineering with the University of Exeter in 2018 Johanna briefly worked on pump optimisation projects in the water distribution sector, before moving to Glasgow in 2019. In Glasgow she started a position with Smarter Grid Solutions, a company which provides software solutions to help balance intermittent generation from renewables on the distribution grid. At the beginning of 2022, Johanna joined SSEN Transmission as a System Planning Engineer. |
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Jimmy Brough (2022-2024) has a background as a self-employed mortgage broker for 13 years and worked with Clydesdale Bank for 6 years prior to that. In terms of experience on a board of directors, Jimmy has been involved with Drumchapel Citizens Advice Bureau since 2018 working to take staff off fixed term contracts and ensuring they are offered permanent positions. Jimmy was involved in setting up Friends of Knightswood Park in 2018, with the group becoming a constituted body in February 2019 and he has been the chair since then. |
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