Speaker biographies Martin Wright Chairman, Mojo Maritime Limited / Chairman, Renewable Energy Association (UK)

Far Eastern Federal University, Russky Island, Vladivostok, Russian Federation

Martin is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Renewable Energy Association, and past Chairman of the Ocean Energy Group.

He is also currently involved in three new companies where he is both an investor and director. He is Chairman of Mojo Maritime Limited, and Mojo Offshore Technology which are developing new technology and specialist vessels aimed at reducing the costs of marine energy, and he is a founding director of Gravitricity Limited, an Energy Storage company.

Mr. Wright is a co-founder and former CEO of Marine Current Turbines Limited, the developer of the world's first (and largest) commercial grid connected tidal turbine. He was the overall Project Director for the installation of the ‘SeaGen’ 1.2MW tidal turbine operating in Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland.

The company was developed from a start up in 2002, and since then has be responsible for designing two prototypes, 'SeaFlow', and then 'SeaGen'. To date circa £38m funding has been raised including investments from Siemens, EDF, The Carbon Trust, Bank Invest, Tridos and other overseas investors. The 1.2MW ‘SeaGen’, is the only tidal current turbine anywhere in the world to feed power regularly into a local electricity grid on a commercial basis. It has been operating since 2008 and has the capacity to generate electricity for the equivalent of 1500 homes. He originally joined the company full-time in February 2002, as Managing Director and latterly CEO. He has now left the company together with his co-founder Peter Fraenkel as the moves towards industrialization with Siemens as the new owners.

He has an M.A. (Hons) in Economics from Edinburgh, and an M.Eng in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt. He started his career as an Officer in the Royal Navy. Prior to joining MCT he worked for nine years as a Venture Capitalist with Murray Johnstone Limited, and then latterly with Northern Venture Managers Limited where he was responsible for starting and developing their business in the South of England.

Timothy acquired a unique combination of academic, practical and commercial experience before taking the role of CEO of ARC. Tim has accumulated a wealth of engineering and concept development experience. His roles have included underwater research, sub-sea engineering in the oil and gas sector as well as business development and corporate accountability through director and executive roles.

Tim has a BSc. in Marine Biology from Flinders University, an MBA from Bond University and he remains a fully-certified submersible engineer, ROV pilot and commercial diver. He currently lectures in emissions trading and exotic environmental derivatives at Singapore Management University.

Martin Murphy

Managing Director, Tidal Energy Limited (UK)

Martin is a Chartered Engineer who graduated in electrical and electronic engineering and gained an MSc in power electronics engineering. He has spent the great majority of his career in the marine sector, firstly serving as a Marine Engineering Officer in the Royal Navy for 12 years, and since then, 20 years in managerial positions in industry.

He became the Vice President for Marine and Offshore Systems in Alstom Power Conversion (APC) based in Paris in 2000, before being appointed as Managing Director for APC Ltd in Rugby, UK in 2003. In these roles he had management responsibility for businesses with 1000 employees and turnover in excess of £100M. He was heavily involved in projects such as the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner, and the Royal Navy’s new class of Type 45 destroyer – where the company designed and supplied the ships’ electrical propulsion systems.

In 2005, he joined the American corporation, L-3 Communications Inc, and was tasked to establish a discrete operational entity for the company in the UK. L-3 Communications Marine Systems UK Ltd was created and is now the focus of all L-3’s marine businesses with its UK customers.

In 2009, Martin was invited to join Tidal Energy Limited as Managing Director and will lead the company in the next critical stage of its development, the build and commissioning of its full scale prototype DeltaStream device.

Martin is heavily engaged with stakeholder authorities working to establish the marine renewable industry in the UK as a world leading force. He sits on the Offshore Renewables Steering Committee in the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST), and the Renewable Energy Association Finance Group.

Charlie is a Technology Acceleration Manager at the Carbon Trust, leading their work on wave and tidal stream energy. He is involved in all Carbon Trust activity in the sector including the delivery of the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund for the Scottish Government. This £18 million fund will support the first arrays of marine energy devices in Scottish Waters, due to be installed in 2014 and 2015. Charlie was also involved in the installation of 6 full-scale prototype devices at EMEC through the Carbon Trust’s Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund, and supports CT work on the European SI Ocean initiative. Charlie is a member of several marine industry strategy groups convened by the industry and government.

After having completed a dual master degree in marine engineering and offshore renewable, Claire joined the Black & Veatch Renewable Energy team in UK in January 2007. In 2012, she relocated to the Melbourne office to service the growing Australia and New Zealand wave and tidal energy industry.