Who we are
We have a board of directors and an executive management team.
Our executive management team
Philip Sellwood, Chief Executive
Philip Sellwood joined the Energy Saving Trust in 2003 after twenty years with Marks & Spencer (leaving as director of group strategy), and a period as commercial managing director for the Thresher Group. Philip has worked with the DTI/Defra, for an educational charity, and as a ministerial advisor at the Home Office. He is currently a non-executive director at Local Government Improvement and Development, and sits on the editorial board of Sustain magazine, the LGA Climate Change Commission, and the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership board. Memberships include the UK Energy Research Centre and several government taskforces, including the Government & Industry 2016 Zero Carbon Housing Force. He is a trustee of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and a fellow of both the British Institute of Management and the Royal Society of Arts.
Roger Ponting, Director of Finance
Roger Ponting joined the Energy Saving Trust in 2010. From 2000 he acted as finance director to a number of commercial organisations, where his focus was on transaction-based activity, deal support and fundraising for private and public ventures across a broad range of sectors including software development, intellectual property, manufacturing, leisure and advertising. Roger began in practice providing accounting and commercial support services to the SME sector before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1997, where he provided audit and deal-based advisory services, IPO and post-deal integration support to large, blue-chip and entrepreneurial organisations. Roger is a chartered accountant and also holds an MBA from the University of Hertfordshire.
Mike Thornton, Director of Energy Saving Trust Scotland
Mike Thornton, who joined the Energy Saving Trust’s Scottish team in 2002, was the first director at LEEP (now Changeworks), a regional NGO working on energy efficiency, transport and recycling. He spent three years as development co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth (Scotland) after periods as systems analyst, and software research engineer, with what is now Rowntree in York (after originally planning a life of academic research as a PhD student in ecological genetics, studying grasshoppers in East Anglia). While in York he was Chair of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Conservation Committee. Mike holds a First Class Honours degree in genetics from the University of Nottingham.
Karen Lawrence, Director of Business Development and Marketing
Karen Lawrence came to the Energy Saving Trust in 2003 from Kingfisher PLC, where she worked in key roles in the commercial department including the leading of key strategic projects. She joined Kingfisher from Shell UK, where she held senior roles in procurement and category management. Karen is a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, a Fellow of the RSA, a Commissioner for the London Sustainable Development Commission, and a member of the IoD.