Who we are
Board
Strone Macpherson (Chairman). Strone is Chairman of Close Brothers Group plc, British Empire Securities and General Trust plc, JP Morgan Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc, is a Governor of Heriot Watt University and is Treasurer and a Trustee of the King’s Fund. Strone has extensive experience of growing businesses, having been part of the core team which built Misys plc into a major international company.
Max Aitken (Director). Max leads on investor relations and marketing for Estover. Max is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor. Max is responsible for fundraising, communications and strategy.
Henry Warde (Director). Henry qualified as an accountant with Deloitte and then ran the finance function of a large property company. Henry is responsible for the financial functions of the business.
Marcus Whately (Director). Prior to Estover Marcus spent 7 years building up a software and IT consulting business which he sold in 2008. Marcus focuses on site and forestry contracting.
Advisory Board & Senior Advisors
Edward Hyams (Advisory Board). Edward was most recently a Partner at Englefield Capital focusing on the renewable energy sector. He has worked in the energy industry since 1970, including as Engineering Director of what is now Scottish & Southern Electricity, Managing Director at Eastern Group, Non-Executive Chairman of the UK Energy Saving Trust, a Board Member of the Carbon Trust and Chairman of The Utility Strategy Group.
John Watson (Advisory Board). John was FD then MD of Fibrowatt, which developed, built, owned and operated three biomass power plants fired with poultry litter and agricultural and forest biomass, generating a total of 65 MWe. John was previously a director of Robert Fleming & Co in Corporate Finance. He is a director of a small hydro development and advises a waste-to-energy business.
Mark Candlish (Senior Advisor, Project Development). Mark has worked in the renewable energy industry for 20 years, and was recently the Business Development Director at RES Group. Mark was also the Commercial Director of Slough Heat & Power, transforming the loss-making coal fired power station into the UK's most prominent biomass CHP plant (subsequently acquired by SSE).
Steve Lavery (Senior Advisor, Forestry). Steve was recently the Managing Director of UPM Tilhill, the UK's largest private forestry management and timber harvesting company. He has worked in the forest industry since 1985 primarily in the harvesting businesses of BSW and latterly UPM. In 2005 he led the Tilhill Harvesting team to establish the wood fuel supplies for the 20MW biomass CHP plant at UPM Shotton Paper and again in 2009 for the 26W biomass CHP plant at UPM Caledonian paper mill at Irvine, Scotland. Programme Board member for the National Forest Inventory, he is currently the Chairman of the Forest Industry Safety Accord.
Team
Andrew Troup (Development Director). Andrew spent 19 years on the board of a FTSE250 planning & environmental consultancy. He has been involved in farming and environmental consultancy for 30 years and recently developed solar, hydro and wind renewable energy projects.
David Frith (Projects Director). David joined Estover in November 2012, and has over 30 years of of experience in the power industry, either working for EPC contractors or managing them. He has spent the last 15 years on biomass power projects in the UK and overseas. This has included working as EPC Project Engineering Manager for the Thetford, UK, 38.5 MWe biomass plant and client project manager for the Fibrominn 55 MWe biomass plant in Benson, MN, USA.
Harry Jameson (Supply Director, Scotland). After an environmental science degree at Newcastle and a career in the Army, Harry has been working on Estover's woodfuel supply chains from commercial forestry in the North of England and Scotland.
Ben Heathcoat Amory (Supply Manager). Ben joined Estover in June 2010 after an agroforestry and diversification project on a rural Estate. Ben's focus is on wood fuel supply chains, harvesting and logistics.
Oliver Hicks (Supply Manager). After a degree in countryside management at Newcastle. Olly worked as a freelance tree surgeon and on small scale forestry operations. Being self employed in this capacity also enabled him to work on his maritime expeditions, from rowing across the Atlantic to sailing in Antarctica and an attempt in 2009 to row around the bottom of the world.
Henry Hamilton Stubber (Project Development). Henry joined Estover in mid-2012 to provide internal legal support to the contracting and planning teams. Henry was previously working for Slaughter & May in London.
Gillon Dobie (Project Development). Gillon joined Estover in 2011 after completing a Masters in Geophysical Hazards at UCL. Gillon has a Degree in Environmental Science from Sheffield University and previously worked at the Institution of Environmental Science. Gillon focuses on developing, planning & permitting projects. |
