Transforming the way we live.

Chief Executive Officer

Dan has over two decades worth of experience in roles across the world from Australia, Asia, Latin America and the United Kingdom working across many fields including surveying, climate and biodiversity action, equity, diversity, inclusion, landscape, property, sustainability and regional development.

He has direct experience in built and natural environment, local government, planning, charities, education and training sectors. He’s a leader, strategist and influencer who is passionate about making a difference. He has extensive experience and understanding of politics and public policy especially in regard to the built & natural environment which has helped him in his latest role as Chief Executive of the Active Building Centre where he has overhauled the organisations operations and helped it deliver its Transforming Construction Challenge work, showcased in the recently launched ABC Blueprint. He’s help build collaborative partnerships and secured a future for the centre’s work.

Prior to joining ABC he led and transformed the Landscape Institute which resulted in a growth in the organisations membership. Before that role he was Director of Strategy at RICS and led on their leading  “RICS Futures” insight programme as well as the organisations growth into emerging markets. 

Chief Operating Officer

Andy is Chief Operating Officer at ABC. He is a chartered civil engineer with over 25 years’ experience of leading significant construction projects and coordinating multi-disciplinary design teams on new-build and NetZero Carbon buildings. Throughout his career Andy’s focus has increasingly moved towards the design and implementation of business systems and processes to make built assets, functional teams, and technical organisations perform more efficiently. In keeping with his core belief that “…there must be a better way…”

Head of Corporate Affairs

Chris leads the Corporate Affairs team at ABC. He has a wealth of communications experience from a variety of backgrounds. From a multimedia broadcaster with the BBC for over a decade to serving as Gloucestershire’s first Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner, where he led on the PCC’s communications and engagement strategy. Chris is passionate about the climate change agenda and believes in the power of people and organisations in delivering real change.

Head of People and Culture

Saran is ABC’s Head of People and Culture and a member of the SLT. She has over 5 years’ experience in the field of recruitment and HR. Saran previously worked as a Primary School Teacher and has volunteered as a Beaver Scout Leader for the last 5 years. Her roles have always focussed around education and the promotion of good ethical values. Having done a degree in Geology with Environmental Sciences Saran feels privileged to work in an organisation with NetZero at its core which has the ability to influence and make a difference for future generations.

Head of Finance

As ABC’s Head of Finance Kate leads on all aspects of finance, procurement and legal. She is a fully qualified accountant with a wealth of experience across a number of sectors mainly in the SME environment. Kate is passionate about the net zero agenda and would like to ensure that finance remains “front and centre” in delivering the sustainability agenda.

Head of Building Engineering

Dr Jo Atkinson is ABC’s Head of Building Engineering, working with public and private sector organisations, supporting them in the delivery of NetZero / low carbon developments. Jo has a wealth of knowledge and experience from retrofitting and advising on new build developments, to get the best performance from buildings using the best-suited technical approach. She is a strong advocate of an appropriate fabric-first approach to the retrofit and development of new buildings.

Head of Programme

Mathilde is ABC’s Head of Programme, leading the delivery of the outcomes for the ABC programme of work. Mathilde brings a wealth of experience in programme management and science, having previously successfully managed large scale funded R&D programmes working with public and private sector to deliver innovation and change. Mathilde is driven and passionate about making a difference that will bring benefits to future generations.

Keith Clarke CBE – Chairman of ABC.

With more than forty years’ experience, Keith has worked in all sectors of the UK and international construction industry, including as Executive Vice President of Skanska AB, Chief Executive of Trafalgar House Construction and Chief Executive of Kvaerner Construction. He has held executive positions at Olympia & York and New York City Public Development Corporation, as well as working as an adviser to the Qatari Government.

As Chief Executive of the UK’s largest engineering consultants WS Atkins for the eight years to 2011, Keith led the business to considerable growth, supporting its investment in the Middle East and its involvement in the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. He is also credited with shaping Atkins to respond to opportunities created by the low carbon economy.

Non Executive Director

Kerry is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has worked for many years in sustainable manufacturing and construction, energy transition and the circular economy. 

She initiated and led Innovate UK’s Building Performance Evaluation programme which began in 2009 and carried this interest into her role as Chief Executive of the National Energy Foundation (2012 to 2018). She led the Each Home Counts Measurement, Monitoring and Verification workstream and has chaired and co-authored the British Standard on Building Performance Evaluation of buildings in-use, published in January 2022.

Kerry serves as a non-executive director of the Ecology Building Society and Active Building Centre Ltd and chairs the energy strategy group of Worcestershire LEP. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2017 for her services to energy and the built environment and is currently planning her fourth self-build home.

Non Executive Director

Lynne Sullivan is an Architect, practising for over three decades. She is a past winner of RIBA Regional Design Award, and was co-author and winner of the UK’s first government-sponsored Zero CO2 housing competition. She is a recent Chair of RIBA’s Sustainable Futures Committee and RIBA Climate Change Ambassador for three years culminating in COP21 in Paris. She is now a design consultant, Visiting Professor, and industry Board member; sits on and chairs local and national Design Commissions and review panels; and is an RIBA Competitions Design Advisor.

Lynne is now a design consultant, Visiting Professor, and industry Board member including for the Active Building Centre and the Passivhaus Trust; sits on and chairs local and national design commissions and review panels, and is an RIBA Competitions Design Advisor.  She has authored and chairs policy review and research projects for UK governments, including the Scottish Government’s Expert Panel for “A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland”; and the Buildings Mission Taskgroup for the CLC’s Green Construction Board, which she represented as a Steering Group member for the UK Green Building Council Whole Life Carbon Roadmap launched at COP26. 

She was awarded an OBE for services to Architecture in 2011, Chairs the Good Homes Alliance, and a member of the Green Construction Board since its inception.

Non Executive Director

Is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. She spent a few years in both Monaco and Switzerland where she was working in a Private Equity/Family Office environment as Director of Corporate Finance, Treasury and Tax, with a focus on small and medium enterprises specialising in Engineering & Food Technology, Business Services and the Oil and Gas Sectors.

Before this Lynne gained extensive experience in structured finance, mergers and acquisitions, business support, treasury, restructuring, transactional, operational accounting and tax management with world-leading blue chip technology companies including Vodafone, Colt and Skype.

Lynne was the Interim Chief Financial Officer at Innovate UK from September 2015 to December 2016.

Lynne is a linguist who speaks French, German and Spanish.

Director of Clean Growth, Innovate UK

Leader and influencer across UK businesses and government shaping the UK’s Net-zero transition. Developing funding strategies, partnering with government on policies and collaborating with a network of organisations to unlock net zero investment, growth and jobs.

He sits on the cross-government Net-zero Innovation Board and is accountable for delivering a range of Net zero programmes including OFGEM’s Strategic Innovation Fund

Previous roles at Innovate UK include running the Low Impact Buildings programme, Head of Agriculture and Food, and interim Operations Director while a new COO was recruited.