COUNCILLOR PAUL D BETTISON

Born in Preston, Lancashire, 55 years ago, Paul has spent most of his life to date in the South of England. Paul has been married to Jean for 32 years, and they have two daughters, Clare (25) and Emily (23).

Having spent 10 successful years with US based Rockwell International, before setting up his own successful business supplying printing equipment to the UK newspaper and general printing industry during the mid 1980s, Paul turned to local politics as his next challenge in 1991. He was elected to Sandhurst Town Council in May of that year, and to Bracknell Forest Borough Council at a by-election in October 1991.

He rose first in the Town Council, becoming Deputy Mayor in 1992 and Mayor from 1993-1995. In 1996, Paul was elected Leader of the Conservative Group (then in opposition) at Bracknell Forest. In the elections in May 1997, Paul led the Conservative Group to victory, gaining the distinction of being the only Conservative Leader in the country to wrest power from Labour on what was generally not a good day for the Conservative cause!

Under Paul's leadership, the Conservative Group at Bracknell Forest managed a "seamless" transition to unitary status in 1998, and following many innovative local government initiatives, he led his Group to further gains in May 2000, 2003 and 2007, with swings to the Conservatives of twice the national average.

Paul is active within the LGA, and is firmly committed to local government representation at the highest level. From 2000 to 2002, he was Chairman of the LGA's Housing Executive and oversaw the introduction of many innovations in Bracknell Forest's housing service.

From 2002 to 2004, he chaired the LGA's Rural Commission and Executive. Paul was, for five years, the Local Government Association e-Government Champion and is the Conservative Party's National spokesman on local government ICT matters; he has been on the Board of Directgov, Government Connect, and the National Opportunity Card since 2005.

Located in the heart of the UK's 'silicon valley', Paul's authority of Bracknell Forest is seen as the leading UK council in the area of electronic service delivery, with Bracknell Forest on-line, BF Net, a thriving CRM roll-out, and the world's first multi-application smartcard - 'e+'. A long list of awards is testimony to his council's commitment to e-Government.

Paul currently chairs: the LGA Environment Board and also sits on the LGA Executive; the Berkshire Leaders' Group, representing Berkshire on SECL (South East County Leaders); the Environment themed partnership of IESE (Improvement and Efficiency South East) and the Executive Board of IESE; and the new regional Rural Board.

A firm believer in self-help for local government, Paul is also the National Lead Conservative Member Peer at the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA).

Retired from his business activities since 2004, Paul now devotes himself full time to Local Government.

DAVID KIDNEY MP

David joined the DECC Ministerial team on 9 June 2009, as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State. His portfolio covers fuel poverty, skills for a low carbon economy, innovation, energy consumers, resilience and coal liabilities.

Previously David has been Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Elliot Morley, Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in November 2005, in 2006 PPS to David Miliband, the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and PPS to Rosie Winterton, who was Minister of State for Transport in 2008.

David graduated in Law from the University of Bristol and was a solicitor in Hanley and then Stafford between 1977 and 1997. He became MP for Stafford in 1997.

DAVID KENNEDY

David Kennedy is the Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change. Previously he worked on energy strategy at the World Bank, and design of infrastructure investment projects at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.

ANDREW HITCHINGS

Andrew is the Project Executive responsible for implementing the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme for the Environment Agency. He was previously the Policy Manager responsible for Climate Change Regulation including the CRC, EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and fossil fuel power stations.

Andrew has experience working for the Environment Agency as a Process Industries Inspector regulating major industrial processes and users of radioactivity at sites in Cumbria. He has also spent about 10 years working in the chemical and steel industries in a variety of environmental and operational management roles. Andrew has a Natural Sciences degree from Cambridge University and an MBA from Bradford University. He is married with 3 children and still has not realised he is too old for playing football.

ELIZABETH HINDE

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Leicester in 1998, with a BSc in Communications and Society. She began her career in policy at the National Farmers Union as a horticultural policy adviser lobbying on behalf of farmers in both the UK and Europe. Since leaving the NFU in 2002, she has worked for a number of public sector organisations in the areas of transport, housing and environment as a policy manager.

Elizabeth joined the BRC in April this year and is responsible for the policy areas of Property, Energy and Transport. Elizabeth is the lead officer for the BRC on the Carbon Reduction Commitment and worked closely with members to engage with the Department for Energy and Climate Change on the final regulations for the scheme.

SHAYNE REES

Shayne joined EDF Energy's first UK acquisition, London Electricity, in 1998. Since then, he has had marketing roles in both the consumer and business operations of EDF Energy.

He moved to B2B marketing in 2000, to be part of the team that has helped EDF Energy grow to supply more power to British business than any other energy company.

In 2001, he helped prepare EDF Energy's business customers for the first energy tax designed to encourage energy efficiency in the business sector, the Climate Change Levy, and this year has led the team responsible for educating its customers about the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

HARRY MORRISON

Harry Morrison is the General Manager of the Carbon Trust Standard Company - the first certification scheme for organisations that are measuring, managing and reducing their carbon emissions. Harry was responsible for the design and launch of the Carbon Trust Standard, which has been selected as one of two early action measures recognised under the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

Prior to running the Carbon Trust Standard, Harry has held a variety of roles in the strategy team at the Carbon Trust. Harry's areas of expertise include corporate carbon footprinting, emissions trading and carbon markets, low carbon innovation, and UK climate change regulation including the CRC.

Before joining the Carbon Trust, Harry worked at Acturis - a business-to-business internet start-up in business development and product development roles. He previously worked as a strategy consultant for Mitchell Madison Group in the financial services, retail and media sectors. Harry holds a BA in History from the University of Oxford.

PAULA BAKER

Paula is a member of the Local Government Association Environment Board, with a particular interest in Waste and Energy, and has also served on the Environment Working Group of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions. She has been a member of the UK delegation to the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR) since 2006. She was the CoR rapporteur for the Renewable Energy Directive.

Paula has been a district councillor (the Borough of Basingstoke & Deane) since 1987. She comes from an engineering background, originally working in Telecommunications, then lecturing. Now she is a full-time councillor. Paula was Leader of her Council for three years, held an executive post for six years and has served as Mayor of the Borough.

SHAUN MCCARTHY

Shaun is a leading advocate of sustainable business practices. His current portfolio includes Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, an independent assurance body for the London Olympics, Director of Action Sustainability, a social enterprise to inspire sustainable procurement and associate of the Institute for Sustainability, an international research body and charity. He is also a Commissioner on the London Sustainable Development Commission and an advisory group to the Mayor.

Having had lengthy careers with Shell UK and BAA, Shaun has more than 20 years experience in commercial business and has spent the past 10 years as a senior manager specialising in sustainable purchasing and construction and addressing the impact of major business on climate change.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS), Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (MIEMA) and the Institute of Directors (MIOD).

DR ANDY JOHNSTON

Andy Johnston is Head of the Centre for Local Sustainability at the Local Government Information Unit. He is responsible for developing strategy, policy and practical solutions for local authorities wishing to improve their environment.

His previous work was as Head of Education and Learning at Forum for the Future. In this role he produced guidelines on sustainability for universities and ran a masters programme in leadership for sustainable development. For six months he was seconded to the OECD to write a report on education and sustainable development and gave presentations in many OECD countries.

Andy was a local councillor for eight years and chaired the planning committee for seven of those years. He was instrumental in the adoption of doorstep recycling and introducing sustainability into the Local Plan documents.

In a previous role Andy was a lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire in environmental management for business, he has a PhD in environmental performance indicators.

KRISTINA PEAT

Kristina Peat is a long-term environmentalist from her early days as a zoo keeper and conservation volunteer. Her degree in Environmental Planning led to a career initially as a Tree officer and then with the advent of Local Agenda 21 her career took a different course.

Posts in Cambridge and York have led to her current role in North Yorkshire County Council, delivering energy and carbon management in the council's large property estate. Enjoying and protecting the environment play a large role in her non-work life, as well ranging from open water swimming, hill walking and hedge laying to a recent installation of rainwater harvesting, part of an eco renovation at home to complement existing renewable energy.