2024 Judges
To view the judges in full, click on each image
Chair of Judges
Hywel Davies
Hywel leads the technical and policy development work of the Institution, particularly focussed on the ongoing development of the Building Regulations and implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), and other construction related Regulations, Directives, Codes and Standards. He is also part of the CIBSE team working on the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM), particularly as it is related to the mechanical and electrical sector. He has an interest in building services systems and cyber-security, and is leading for CIBSE on a joint project with ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, which seeks to raise awareness of the importance of cyber-security in the design, installation and operation of building systems, and the implications of the “internet of things” for the security of systems
Judges
Claire Aizlewood
Claire Aizlewood is Head of Sustainability in the Technical Team at CIBSE. In this role, she develops and contributes to guidance, research, education and policies within areas covered by sustainability. Claire has 35 years of experience working on topics related to the built environment, including research, consultancy and contributions to standards and policies. Claire’s work has included environmental performance and energy efficiency, environmental design criteria, multiple factors for indoor environment and air quality, construction products, and renewable energy technologies. Claire has had a particular interest in the interactions between building design, performance and environment, and human safety, health, comfort and wellbeing, and is a strong believer in a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to sustainability solutions.
Claire has a degree in Engineering Acoustics and Vibration, a Master’s in Architecture (Environmental Design and Engineering), and is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Quality Professional and a Fellow of CIBSE.
Jan Artemenko
An experienced Buildings Digital Engineering practitioner and strategist with experience of successfully delivering Building projects and digitalization strategies, within an engineering consulting environment. Working with Stantec’s teams and clients throughout all stages of projects to identify, clarify and resolve complex issues critical to clients' strategic and operating success. I focus on improving business digital delivery and efficiency by implementing innovative processes. Developing and applying automation tools enabling focusing on engineering and design. From simple scripts through machine learning to AI, it’s never been more affordable to achieve efficiencies through digitization and the technology is only one part of a successful transformation. I lead a team developing affordable yet innovative solutions that work in the real world.
Jon Belfield
After the completion of an apprenticeship in Machining and Fitting followed by a BSc in Engineering in the mid-1980’s, Jon started his career in the Building Services sector with Landis and Gyr as a Sales Engineer and progressed to a Senior Project Engineer. Over the next decade Jon developed his skills/experience of controls through a variety of different challenges ranging from telephone controlled lighting systems to medical electronics, process controls and automation. After 12 years of controls experience he identified a gap in the market for a customer-led (as opposed to product-led) controls company and as a result InTandem Systems Ltd was formed. This 35+ year career has enabled Jon to experience and contribute to an extensive range of projects and initiatives in the controls sector and to invest significantly in the development of future BMS Controls Engineers. He is a past President of the BCIA and is Fellow of CIBSE and Chartered Engineer with a passion to help anyone with their professional development and professional confidence.
Maria Benazzo
Maria is a mechanical engineer and building physicist at Arup. Her involvement with embodied carbon started with developing a methodology to assess embodied carbon of building services equipment over the building's lifetime. Since then, she continued progressing the firm’s understanding of embodied carbon for building services and consolidated an approach to embodied and whole life carbon assessments for building services engineers. Maria manages the Building Services Sustainability Hub with two other colleagues, together they have pushed the internal agenda on embodied carbon within the firm: they gather relevant resources, produce calculations tools and disseminate knowledge. In the past year, she led the research aimed at producing system benchmarks for each building services discipline which have been widely utilized for early design stage estimates and have been adopted by Zero, the in-house carbon tool for whole life carbon assessments.
Emma Bushell
Emma is the Energy & Carbon Manager at the City of London Corporation. She leads on the management and procurement of City’s energy supplies, the decarbonisation of the City’s housing portfolio and collaborates to deliver the City’s target of net zero in its operations by 2027. With over 15 years’ experience in sustainability in the built environment she has previously led on energy and sustainability for Southern Housing Group and Octavia Housing where she developed a Retrofit Strategy and improved the performance of their heat networks. At Lewisham Council she delivered a £4M Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme project to drive down energy use across seven corporate sites and led on the development of a strategic district heat network. Emma has a strong background in building performance. At Max Fordham she acted as Soft Landings Champion on a range of projects and carried out the post occupancy fine tuning of controls.
Carl Collins
Carl was BIM Leader and Pioneer for Arup Associates and Global Content Leader for Arup for over 12 years. Carl has worked with various standards institutions writing the standards that support BIM in the UK and internationally. Carl is now a Head of Digital Engineering at CIBSE.
Darren Coppins
With over 30 years experience practicing Mechanical Building Services Engineering and over 20 years experience in Building Physics, Darren maintains a balance between systems design, modelling and in use operational analysis to help understand the intricacies and challenges of achieving real building performance. One of Darren’s previous projects was claimed to be the ‘Most sustainable building in the world’ by The Guardian. Darren has assisted with past CIBSE publications including AM11 and TM54, and was part of the early team of consultants who helped prove NABERS Design for Performance (DfP) use case in the UK. This led to Darren becoming one of the first DfP Independent Design Reviewers and CIBSE trainer for Advanced Simulation for DfP. As an independent engineer, Darren enjoys a wide range of different challenges with no two days the same. He consdieres his role to be stimulating, fulfilling and enjoyable.
Kathryn Donald
Kathryn is the Digital Design and Building Performance Modelling Director at Max Fordham LLP. Through her 14 years’ experience as a building services and low carbon consultant with the Practice, she has developed extensive expertise in low energy building design. As a Project Engineer, Kathryn has also developed a real-world understanding of the opportunities and challenges of deploying digital design on projects and how it could be used to enhance sustainable design. In her current role, Kathryn leads both the Digital Design and Building Performance Modelling teams at Max Fordham. The Digital Design Team are leading the Practice’s transition to a fully digital design environment, developing digital tools, processes, content and training; the Building Performance Modelling Team are delivering complex energy and carbon modelling, working with the Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health (MEP) Engineering Teams to deliver truly low energy building design. LinkedIn Profile - www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-donald-46285418b
Sally Godber
Sally is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Passivhaus Certifier and a member of the UK Technical Panel reporting to the Passivhaus Institut, Germany. She set up WARM with her dad in 2009 to deal with the performance gap she saw in her own projects and continues to be fascinated by understanding errors and how to improve upon them. She will talk to anyone who will listen about this, which led to setting up Coaction CIC training alongside other leading professionals. She has vast experience in the design and construction of larger low energy residential and commercial buildings, as well as building services. She has completed multiple personal builds including her own Passivhaus home and EnerPHit office.
Rob Griffiths
I've been in Engineering for 25 years as I enjoy the challenge of helping to solve the complex Engineering, Energy and Carbon challenges that we all face. I lead the Building Services team based in Wales to deliver the concepts and aspirations of clients across all areas of Building Services Engineering in a manner that offers the best possible service. My experience includes: - Energy Reduction and De-carbonisation of embodied carbon and operational carbon to inform a whole life carbon approach. - Sports and Leisure Stadiums including the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium - Education - Health Care - Transportation / Airports - Retail and Hotels - Elec Infrastructure and HV - Residential / mixed use - Manufacturing I seek an innovative, and efficient approach to Design embracing BIM, Revit and the Digital integration with all stakeholders in the Design process. I have a passion for helping people to become great engineers which I also support as a professional registration interviewer.
Joanna Harris
Jo works for Sodexo, one of the largest Facilities Management companies in the UK and Globally. Her role is developing best practice Hard FM in the UK&I region. Responsible for promoting, programme managing and embedding best practice in maintenance and technical services. She has a long history of working in the Built Environment that includes technical author of industry guidance and working with BSI supporting the development of Facilities Management standards. Her areas of expertise are facilities management, asset management, project management, building services operation, building controls, smart technology, maintenance strategy, statutory maintenance, health and safety, Soft Landings, wellbeing and building performance. She is passionate about closing the gap between construction and operations, delivering best practice maintenance, and embracing technology to increase asset reliability and availability.
Jeff House
With over 25 years’ experience in the Building Services sector, including consultancy, design and contracting, Jeff plays a key role within Baxi Heating responsible for policy and legislative advocacy. Jeff has a wealth of technical, commercial, and legislative knowledge relating the residential and commercial building services sector, including low and zero carbon technologies In his current role Jeff is widely involved in setting the agenda regarding legislation and policy for the heating sector, regularly representing both Baxi Heating and the wider industry at Government and trade body meetings to offer in depth advice and analysis. www.baxi.co.uk
Aidan Kelly
Aidan is a chartered mechanical engineer with a passion to bring high-quality buildings to life, incorporating the latest and most innovative technologies to deliver low-energy new buildings and decarbonised retrofits. This drive has led him to become a chartered engineer, heat network consultant and digital engineering specialist with a keen interest in the digitalisation of the construction industry and adoption of process technologies underpinned by BIM. He has a wide range of projects under his belt, from the UK’s first Passivhaus Secondary School to the regeneration of 340 council homes in South London.
Outside of XCO2, he is currently a member of CIBSE’s Knowledge Generation Panel and Technical Lead of the CIBSE Society of Digital Engineering Steering Group, working with leads from other consultancies to help to improve the proliferation of digital engineering tools and drive standardisation across the industry.
Laura Mansel-Thomas
Laura Mansel-Thomas PhD CEng., MEI, FCIBSE.
Laura Mansel-Thomas joined Max Fordham and Partners in 1996. In 1999 she moved to Atelier Ten and spent many years as project engineer for the low energy Sloane Robinson Building at Keble College and the refurbishment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, becoming an Associate Director in 2007. She joined Ingleton Wood LLP in 2010 as an Associate, becoming Director of Engineering in 2011 and a Partner in 2014. Laura oversaw the growth of the M&E discipline from around 20 to over 60 people and in April 2021 she became Senior Partner. Laura is also HR Partner and oversees training and apprenticeships across the practice.
Laura has always been interested in the communication of engineering ideas, particularly around low energy building design and sustainability. In 2020 she was appointed as a Commissioner for the Essex Climate Action Commission and is involved in the Built Environment Special Interest Group. Laura is a Vice President and Trustee of CIBSE.
Anastasia Mylona
CIBSE's Technical Director, Dr Anastasia Mylona, is a Chartered Engineer and a CIBSE Member. In this role she is leading CIBSE's Technical team and setting the technical vision and knowledge priorities for the Institution. Previously, Dr Mylona, as CIBSE’s Head of Research, has been leading the Institution’s knowledge and research activities, for the past decade, developing collaborations with academia and industry, focusing on the development of guidance relevant to embodied carbon, circular economy, and delivering the climate information required for the future proofing of buildings and their services, including advising the Government on the delivery of Part O of Building Regulations. Originally trained as an Architect, Dr Mylona undertook PhD studies on the environmental performance of budlings, at the Welsh School of Architecture, and a post-doc to explore the impacts of climate change on the built environment, at University of Oxford.
Ted Pilbeam
Ted is a building services engineer with over 30 years’ experience on a wide variety of building services installations, both in the UK and overseas. He is a Fellow of CIBSE and chair of the Knowledge Management Committee and an active member of the Training and Development Panel. He chaired the CIBSE Commissioning Code M – Management Steering Group and is currently chairing the steering group for Code A – Air Systems. A previous CIBSE Building Performance Award winner in 2015 and 2016, Ted has worked on numerous projects, embracing small domestic refurbishment projects to large multi-million pound installations that include complex, safety-critical hospital systems. Currently Building Services & Sustainability Director for VolkerFitzpatrick Ted’s role covers the management of all aspects of building services for the business and promotion of sustainable construction initiatives. He is tasked with making VolkerFitzpatrick the number one choice for the delivery of innovative, value driven, sustainable building services solutions.
Michael Powers
An experienced Building Services engineer and Director, with extensive experience in PFI, Healthcare, Education, Residential and Leisure developments. In addition i have acted as an expert witness on various cases including a large number of PFI cases. I have extensive experience developing people and mentoring developing engineers, most recently acting as CIBSE's trainer for Mentoring courses. I have ben responsible for the development of training and development schemes and the implementation of these leading to the development of engineers progressing upto CEng status.
Rob Redfern
Since graduating in 1998, Rob has held numerous roles as a consultant and as an end user, delivering projects both in the UK and Internationally. Rob has been with Tesco since 2011 where he has held a number of technical and delivery roles, with a recent key focus on the property decarbonisation and electrification plan. In his current role as Group Energy Manager, Rob helps shape the energy strategy whilst delivering energy, cost and carbon reductions across the estate, with particular attention in developing & delivering the onsite renewable energy programme in the UK. He is also actively involved in the development of young people and champions STEM activities in schools. In his free time, Rob runs a Scout Group and enjoys family time with his wife and two children. Rob also serves on the CIBSE Technology Committee.
Craig Robertson
Craig joined AHMM in 2014 and is an architect, researcher and teacher with expertise in environmental design and engineering. Prior to joining AHMM, Craig led architectural projects in the education, commercial and housing sectors before moving into academia. He completed his PhD at the UCL Energy Institute focusing on the potential for energy consumption information to inform and justify strategic and detailed building design decisions. Craig is responsible for AHMM’s sustainability agenda and leads the building performance team, which supports designers with performance analysis, environmental input, post occupancy evaluation and research. Craig’s current research focusses on the relationships between architecture, performance, place and investment. He recently led an Innovate UK funded project focussing on information sharing for performance based design. He is an invited environmental design tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, lectures in Sustainable Design and sits on the London Borough of Haringey’s Quality Review Panel, as well as the RIBA Sustainable Futures Group and UKGBC Whole Life Carbon Roadmap Steering Group. He became Head of Sustainability in 2016 and an Associate in 2018, and is one of two Employee Directors on AHMM’s Employee Ownership Trustee Board from May 2021. He is also a member of the Architects Declare Steering Group.
Jon Saltmarsh
Jon Saltmarsh is Chief Technology Officer at the Energy Systems Catapult. The Catapult was established to accelerate the transition to a net zero energy system and to help UK businesses innovate and capture the opportunities for growth that net zero presents. He is responsible for identifying the key innovation needs and technical strategy for the Catapult to have most impact, including in decarbonisation of homes, sites and local areas; future energy networks; and digitalisation of the energy system. Prior to joining the Catapult in January 2023, Jon had over 30 years’ experience in the public and private energy and defence sectors, identifying and exploiting opportunities for new technologies to deliver transformative change. This included initiating the government’s innovation programme on hydrogen for heating. More recently, as a Senior Civil Servant he was responsible for providing technical, engineering and research based evidence and advice to all policy teams delivering the net zero energy system.
Peter Thorns
After completing an honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Peter joined Thorn Lighting in 1985 as a graduate engineer developing automatic test equipment for the electronics manufacturing facility. He also developed and managed the UK CAD database across three manufacturing sites. In 1991 Peter joined the Lighting Applications Department, managing the section responsible for development of scheme design software and software to manage photometric data and produce technical datasheets. The responsibilities gradually expanded and Peter became involved in optical design and managed the three laboratory photometers and two integrators. In 2008 Peter became Head of Strategic Lighting Applications. Peter is involved in BSI, CEN, ISO, he is chair of ISO/TC 274, and Vice President Standards in CIE. He is also involved in the LIA and LightingEurope and is the UK representative to Lux-Europa.
Fabrizio Varriale
Fabrizio is an architect with research experience in low-carbon materials and design. He gained his PhD at the Welsh School of Architecture while also teaching in the environmental design masters. In their position at RICS they produce thought leadership outputs on building sustainability and contribute to shaping RICS's position on related policy matters. They also coordinate the development of the Built Environment Carbon Database. They were a member of the Technical Expert Group that produced the draft EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, and are currently a member of the Energy Efficient Mortgage Label Committee.
