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.

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.

Emily Hinshelwood

Emily is a social anthropologist, project manager and creative practitioner. She is co-founder and Creative Director of Awel Aman Tawe (AAT) which has been a pioneer in Community Energy. She has written and designed all AAT’s publications including a Windfarm Consultation Toolkit published by the UK Government in 2002, all Awel and Egni Coop Share Offer Documents, and many academic papers regarding community energy. She established AAT’s arts and climate change programme in 2010 and is currently project managing Hwb y Gors - a redevelopment of the former Cwmgors primary school into a low-carbon arts, education and enterprise community hub. Emily’s passion is in engaging people in climate action and she has carried out many projects to that effect. Among these, her favourites are: AAT’s Naked Renewable Energy calendar 2007; her Sustainable Moon Mission in 2019 involving over 700 people in building a Lunar capsule where she lived as artist in residence for 2 weeks on the top floor of Pontardawe Arts Centre; and her walk across Wales (2012) on which she asked every person she met ‘3 questions about climate change’ creating verbatim poems from their answers which she has delivered at Welsh Government and other climate conferences in UK and Europe. She was selected as one of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Commissioner's List of Changemakers in 2023.

Owen Callender

Owen has worked across the community energy sector for the last 18 years. He has delivered various support programmes for Welsh Government, European funding agencies and Local Authorities to support communities understand energy opportunities for their buildings, support local SMEs with bespoke energy audits and leading delivery of affordable warmth services in Wales when he worked for Severn Wye Energy Agency. Owen currently works for AECOM, supporting public and private sector clients to better understand their decarbonisation objectives and achieve their outcomes, as well as project managing various policy development projects for UK and devolved Governments.