The Board

Richard Clay

Richard is an economist by training and has worked in energy policy development and implementation for over 20 years, including spending more than a decade with the energy regulator Ofgem where he worked in a variety of roles across electricity and gas markets.  This included managing key renewable electricity financial support schemes in the mid-2000s, which is where he first became directly involved with the renewables sector.  He currently leads on energy and regulatory policy for The Crown Estate, supporting the development of offshore wind and other more nascent offshore technologies across the UK, including around the coast of Wales. Richard was appointed to the CEW board in 2018 and supports its work on policy and strategy.  He lives in Newport with his family.

Meleri Davies

Meleri Davies is a founding director of Ynni Ogwen and continues to be an active member of the Ynni Ogwen board. In her day job, she is the Chief Officer of Partneriaeth Ogwen, a social enterprise that develops economic, environmental, cultural and community projects in Dyffryn Ogwen. These projects include the establishment of Siop Ogwen, asset transfer projects such as the Bethesda Library, the development of the Ynni Ogwen community hydro scheme, Dyffryn Gwyrdd environmental project and more recently, EV community transport and sustainable tourism projects. She is also a member of the Cyd Ynni steering board and the board of the GwyrddNi project to develop climate change community assemblies in six areas of Gwynedd.

Sustainability is a silver lining throughout her work and Meleri won two awards - the Cynnal Cymru Sustainability Champion Award and the Green Energy Pioneer Award at the Regen UK Awards in 2019. In a short space of time, Partneriaeth Ogwen has grown into an innovative social enterprise with the foundational economy, community reinforcement and sustainable development at the core of their work. Meleri is also a volunteer Director with Siop Ogwen and a former director with Cwmni Tabernacl Bethesda Cyf which owns Neuadd Ogwen and the Fic in Bethesda. She is passionate about the language and culture, especially so in the context of community entrepreneurship in Welsh speaking communities.

Dan McCallum

Dan, one of the founders of Awel Aman Tawe, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organisation. He is also the founding Director of two community energy organisations Awel Coop and Egni Coop which have installed around 5MW of mainly wind and some rooftop solar. Egni is in the process of developing a further 2-3MW of rooftop solar in Wales. He has a degree in modern history from Oxford University. His work experience includes two years of teaching in Sudan, four years as a director of the Eritrean Refugee Scholarship Scheme, which he set up as a registered charity, two years as a Programme Co-ordinator for Oxfam in Iraqi Kurdistan, and two years as Middle East and Africa Programme Manager for the Minority Rights Group. He worked for Amman Valley Enterprise for two years managing Fforestwr, a sustainable woodlands project.

Dan was a finalist in the 2007 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and is an enterprise role model for the Welsh Government Dynamo programme, undertaking frequent presentations to schools and FE conferences. Dan’s post is part funded by the Welsh Government’s Ynni’r Fro Programme, which uses European Structural Funds to offer social enterprises grant aid and loans, together with free, independent advice, to help them develop their own community-scale renewable energy schemes across Wales. His work involves advising other community groups in the South Wales area on wind and hydro projects.

Gareth Cemlyn Jones

Gareth was born on Ynys Môn, and after graduating enjoyed a career in the power generation industry, mainly hydropwer installations. He worked on site construction, project management roles as well as being Technical Director and Projects Director on high value international projects, including extensive overseas working. He is a Chartered Engineer (C Eng), Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE). Currently semi-retired he is a Chair of Ynni Ogwen, a Community Hydro project in Bethesda.

Gareth Clubb

Gareth has worked in the sustainability sector in Wales for much of the last twenty years, and has been a forthright advocate for renewable energy in general, and community energy in particular. He’s a former Director of the Snowdonia Society and Friends of the Earth Cymru, former CEO of Plaid Cymru, and now Director of WWF Cymru. He is also a former Data Protection Officer. Gareth is a previous Board Member of Cynnal Cymru and Hafan Cymru.

Jeremy Thorp

Through his work with ShareEnergy, Jeremy has been involved with several community energy projects across Wales and England, focusing in particular on promoting the use of and raising awareness of the Registered Societies, financial planning and raising capital through community shares and the registration of projects for Feed in Tariff through OFGEM. His work has also involved managing and administering other aspects including obtaining planning permission, environment licences, obtaining landowner leases and managing the development phase of the project.

Oriel Price

Oriel is a bilingual project manager that has operated at senior account level with a proven ability to develop and implement detailed strategic projects. Having begun her career as a BBC Wales political journalist, she has worked both within Welsh Government and for the National Assembly for Wales. With a particular focus on sustainable development and energy, she has led multi-disciplinary programmes both in the UK and Internationally. As an environmental geologist, with an ongoing interest in sustainable decision–making and socially responsible business, she brings particular expertise to the sustainable development, large scale infrastructure, energy and regeneration sectors. Inclusive of behavioural change programmes. Joining Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd in 2013, responsible for the delivery and management of public affairs and engagement strategies in Wales. She has a detailed understanding of how national and local government works within Wales, the UK and at European Level.

More recently she has worked operationally as a Senior Energy Officer UKAEE and towards the implementation of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard. Oriel warmly welcomes the opportunity to proactively contribute to the future of community energy at this transitioning time.

Cyrene Dominguez

Cyrene has been working in the community energy sector for ten years, with a number of years of experience in EV transport - charge points and back-office infrastructure for fleet, councils or communities. Cyrene is currently working for TrydaNi as a Car Club and Chargepoint Operations Manager. She has experience of graphic design and web design, along with digital illustration and product branding.

Alun Jones

Alun has been working for Wales Council for Voluntary Action for 11 years now, and is currently Head of Social Investment. He’s got a background in commercial banking and has some experience in the finance of energy production, funding on-farm wind turbines and anaerobic digesters. One of his first community energy deals was the support of the installation of 100+ rooftop solar arrays on domestic housing. For several years Alun has worked in support of Energy Savings Trust on their Ynni Lleol project for the Welsh Government, providing oversight and preparation of funding applications to Development Bank of Wales.