Seven Director appointments bolster Arup energy business

Global sustainable development firm Arup has announced seven new senior leaders to strengthen its energy offering. Jemima Bruin-Bland, Neil Copeland, Mike Copson, Craig McCafferty, Graeme McCann, Sally Prickett and Robert Silver will help the firm to place sustainable development at the heart of its business.

Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working globally. In the UK, its 45-strong Operations Consulting group – mostly based in London and Solihull offices – is a multi-disciplinary group bringing together specialist skills in people, processes and assets to deliver excellence to our clients’ operations.

Part of that includes a growing focus on sustainable development. The firm itself has pledged to go Net Zero by 2030, while also assisting clients with the shift, and supporting numerous clean energy projects around the world.

Jemima Bruin-Bland is one of seven strategic new hires aimed at significantly increasing the breadth and depth of skills within its energy business in addition to contributing to the local economy across the UK. A former strategy consultant with KPMG and PwC working on the intersection of global energy industry, regulated infrastructure and government policy she joins Arup as an Associate Director. Bruin-Bland will focus on developing and delivering products and services at C-suite level that assist clients to consider the impact of the transforming energy system on their business strategy. She will also advise on how businesses can deliver net zero carbon operations.

Neil Copeland meanwhile joins as Energy Regulation Leader providing commercial and regulatory advice to public and private sector clients. He previously worked for Ofgem for 12 years leading on implementation of the Network Innovation Competition, and aspects of Ofgem’s work on several high-profile policy initiatives including developing a model for the economic regulation of new nuclear build power stations. He later led Ofgem’s early work on the ongoing Offshore Transmission Network Review, before leading the Pathway to 2030 workstream.

Mike Copson joins as Associate Director with a focus on growing Arup’s energy work within Liverpool and other UK industrial clusters. Copson has enjoyed a long and varied international career at Shell, with the last six years as Hydrogen Business Development Manager, focused on development and implementation of integrated hydrogen solutions.

Craig McCafferty arrives as Industrial Decarbonisation and Hydrogen Business Leader focusing on the consultancy’s growing hydrogen and industrial decarbonisation capability. Previously Scotia Gas Network’s (SGN) Project Director for the hydrogen neighbourhood demonstration, H100, McCafferty is a process engineer who began his career in the nuclear industry before transitioning into the industrial process sector.

Graeme McCann joins as Resources Director of Renewables leading on the development of technical aspects of Arup’s offshore wind and wider renewables work. His previous roles include Chief Engineer at wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind, and Renewables Leader at DNVGL. McCann has notably worked on pioneering offshore wind projects, including the FEED studies for London Array in the Thames Estuary, Gwynt y Môr in the Irish Sea, and Beatrice in the UK North Sea. 

Sally Prickett becomes Arup’s Director of Hydrogen, CCUS and New Fuels, and will lead elements of the consultancy’s hydrogen work, integrating all its expertise to ensure expansion of its substantial portfolio. Prickett has enjoyed a long and varied international career at BP spending the last three years as Vice President of Hydrogen leading a team of over 100, focused on the development and delivery of large-scale integrated hydrogen solutions.

Robert Silver finally joins as Projects and Programmes Energy Business Leader. Robert worked at Jacobs for the past 19 years, responsible for leading a broad range of multi-disciplinary design, development and construction projects in the energy, waste, water, highway’s, O&G, and nuclear sectors. He has experience in major projects and providing strategic support to organisations on infrastructure, including major hydrocarbon projects in Oman, to Development Consent Projects within the UK.

Mark Neller, Energy Business Leader, UKIMEA, at Arup, commented, “We are excited to welcome our new colleagues to Arup. Their recruitment is part of a wider plan to strengthen the leadership of our Energy Business and more generally, build capacity and capability to accelerate the energy transition and support our clients thrive through the journey to net zero.”