Laurence Oakes-Ash
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Previously holding senior trading positions at Investment banks in London and New York Laurence spent his career bringing together vast complex data sets and developing systems to create actionable insights. An adept operator, lead generator and strategist, he managed £30bn of annual deal flow and was consistently achieving a #1 market share on the London Stock Exchange. This exposure to real-time data and automation within Financial Services fired Laurence’s interest in its applications to cities. Laurence is an award-winning management accountant and member of the CIHT. Laurence now lives in Devon, where in his spare time (i.e. rarely), he likes sailing and eating barbeque (with brisket, pulled pork and mac n cheese – New York style).
Glenn Woodcock
CO-FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN
Glenn is a serial entrepreneur, an incredible source of vision, passion and direction. With 25 years in senior management positions across venture capital, product development, and risk, he brings a wealth of experience to the City Science board. He has taken a number of businesses from inception, investment and deep value creation through to successful exit. He holds a number of directorships, including being Director of Oxygen House. Glenn is a physicist and a Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy. When not thinking up ideas for his next start-up, Glenn can be found spending time with his family, sheep and chickens on Dartmoor.
Edward Campbell PhD (he/him)
CTO
Ed joined City Science after a year away from work, cycle touring through Asia and Europe. Before that adventure he was Senior Product Manager for Data Products at the Met Office, driving the development of APIs and the migration of services to the cloud. Passionate about all things data, he’s worked in startups and multinationals, switching between coding and business development throughout his career. Ed studied at Cambridge, obtaining a first in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Astrophysics. When he’s not cycling, running or swimming, you’ll find him baking bread.
Simon Lusby CTPP (he/him)
HEAD OF TRANSPORT & SUSTAINABILITY
Simon is our strategic consulting, policy and planning lead, responsible for expanding our transport planning, sustainability and energy businesses and client application of our award winning transport product – Cadence. He brings experience with numerous transport modelling software packages, and a breadth of transport planning project leadership experience from the public and private sectors in the United Kingdom and Australasia. Most recently Simon was a senior manager within Transport for London’s City Planning Directorate, responsible for public transport strategy. Between his passion for sustainable transport and spending time with his two young daughters, he fits in time to train for marathons. So far he has completed 3 of the 6 World Majors.
Simon Drake ACA
FINANCE & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Simon is our Finance & Operations Director, bringing a wealth of experience from a top 30 accountancy practice where he managed a diverse client portfolio, held a senior position in the firm’s Technology, Innovation and Growth team, and provided technical accountancy support to colleagues throughout the region. Simon also has diverse commercial experience, including working for one of Europe’s largest regional airlines, adding additional commerciality to his strong technical background. Simon left practice to focus his attention on delivering the greatest level of impact to a business that could really make a difference. City Science was the perfect fit and he’s never looked back!
Oliver Stradling (he/him)
SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
Graduating amid a climate crisis, Oli is passionate about making as big of an impact as possible by providing tools, low carbon solutions and actionable frameworks to organisations working with City Science. Previously working in the sustainability team of a large online retailer and being a first class graduate from the University of Exeter, he pairs his technical expertise of climate mitigations scenarios, with an understanding of the issues and barriers faced by organisations in reducing their emissions in a holistic, robust and immediate manner. Outside of work, Oli enjoys chasing waves along the Cornish coast.
Heather Watkinson (she/her)
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, NET ZERO TRANSPORT LEAD
Heather leads our net zero transport offer including road decarbonisation, air quality, zero emission vehicles and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Passionate about addressing the climate emergency, Heather brings over 20 years’ experience of developing successful decarbonisation, air quality and sustainability projects and strategies. Most recently Heather developed and delivered Transport for London’s world leading projects including the Ultra Low Emission Zone, changes to the Congestion Charge Zone and London’s latest electric vehicle infrastructure strategy. Outside of work Heather is bringing up two sustainably conscious young people and is a real people person, so long as she can get to you by bike.
Adrianne Kirby (she/her)
People and Talent Partner
Adrianne is our People and Talent Partner – after working as part of the Oxygen House HR Team for over 6 years, where she provided resourcing support to us, along with other many other clients, Adrianne joined us as an official employee in January 2024 to set up and provide in-house HR and Resourcing services. Adrianne currently heads up all Talent Acquisition while also working to support wider People Team strategies and projects. Adrianne has a first-class degree in Psychology and is passionate about Mental Well-being, DE&I and Inclusive Recruitment. Adrianne has recently moved to the coast with her young family who love beach life. In her spare time Adrianne enjoys reading, upcycling, crafts and finding hidden treasures in charity shops.
Clare Boulton
People and DEVELOPMENT Partner
Clare is a People and Development Partner with experience in driving culture change and engagement, developing leadership capability, managing talent and delivering creative development solutions that improve individual and business performance. Clare joined City Science as an official employee in January 2024 to set up and provide in-house HR and Resourcing services. Clare has coached at a leadership level and has lead on engagement, change, communication and Leadership Development. She has facilitated a range of senior leadership and management programmes, developing in house leadership models, formulating competency frameworks, shaping 360 diagnostic tools and designing and running assessment and development centres to benchmark and feedback on performance. Clare lives in East Devon with her husband and their young daughters who keep her busy and entertained.
Bethany Taylor (she/her)
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME MANAGER
Bethany brings a background in retrofit and project management. She graduated from Swansea University with a master’s degree in Engineering Leadership and Management following her undergraduate in Environmental Engineering. In her spare time, Bethany plays women’s rugby, previously playing for England U20s, U18 TDG and Saracens. Through playing rugby, she has gained additional skills such as effective decision-making, teamwork, and emotional intelligence which she brings to her management role. Additionally, Bethany is big on promoting mental health awareness, filming programmes and hosting podcasts discussing mental health through one of the rugby teams she captains.
Grace Solsby (she/her)
Associate Director, Transport
Grace brings a wide range of strong technical capabilities, gained from small to large multi-disciplinary projects. She leads many of our transport modelling disciplines, specialising in developing technical evidence bases, analysis, GIS modelling and appraisal, for non-technical audiences. She is adept at handling and manipulating large datasets and assisting the build of bespoke tools. She has experience working with strategic models (SATURN, VISUM), micro-simulation models (S-Paramics, VISSIM) and traffic engineering models (ARCADY, PICADY and LinSig), including a secondment to the DfT to scrutinise modelling and appraisal for business cases to support major investment decisions. Grace is originally from the Lake District and enjoys embracing her outdoor roots.
Aoife Dudley
principal TRANSPORT CONSULTANT
Aoife joined City Science in April 2022, after spending three years at Atkins on their transport planning graduate scheme. She has experience in a broad range of transport planning disciplines, from policy and strategy to modelling, economics and evaluation, and she is looking forward to applying this expertise to the decarbonisation of the transport sector. Outside of work, Aoife can either be found making music, out on a run, or creating something new in the kitchen.
Katie Sharp
TRANSPORT & SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
Katie joined City Science in June 2022 as a Graduate Transport and Sustainability Consultant. Her degrees in BSc Geography and MSc Global Sustainability Solutions from the University of Exeter allowed Katie to gain an extensive breadth of academic knowledge in environmental problems and how to mitigate them, as well as develop high quality writing, research, data and geo-spatial skills. She is excited to apply these skills in order to provide support across transport and sustainability projects within City Science. Outside of work you can catch Katie in a boxing ring or playing with her cockerpoo, Odin.
David Fraser (he/him)
LEAD DEVELOPER
David specialises in building complex web-apps while making them look simple. He joins City Science from a career delivering such websites for household names in the travel and automotive sectors. With a degree in Graphic Design and a quarter of a century tinkering with computers David bridges the gap between design and development. He isn’t just passionate about creating powerful digital tools, he also cares about making them clear and pleasing to use too. When he’s not thinking up better UX or writing more elegant code he can be found in the more analogue world passing time with friends and family, in the garage working on motorcycles or out enjoying the open road.
Kathryn Mason
Lead DEVELOPER
Kathryn is a scientific software developer at City Science where she creates complex code to model transport systems. Prior to City Science, Kathryn spent 12 years at TRL where she developed software and new features for ARCADY and TRANSYT. She has extensive experience developing software for Smart Motorways and using optimisation techniques to manage real-time traffic flows. Kathryn also likes getting her hands dirty – with physical computer hardware, building robots and finding novel applications for Raspberry Pi’s. She also likes getting her hands dirty gardening – a pastime she describes as the “secret of happiness”. One day she hopes to combine her passion for robotics and nature by building a robotic weeding machine. City Science are eagerly awaiting the patent rights.
Andy Allen PhD
ANALYTICS & APPLIED SCIENCE LEAD
Andy joined City Science from Nottingham University where was Leverhulme research fellow within the Laboratory for Urban Complexity and Sustainability. He has worked on building energy modelling, energy conversion systems, mass flow analysis, transport models & even helped to build the Spaceguard centre’s new telescope dome. He has a PhD in Plasma physics and used to be a ju-jitsu instructor.
Joe McQuillen CEng
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ENERGY
Joe is an experienced energy systems and environmental consultant, with a broad range of experience spanning across the energy sector having worked in the built environment, Combined Heat and Power (CHP), aviation, shipping, heavy industry, carbon capture and Anaerobic Digestion (AD). He’s been involved in some of the UK’s major government energy programmes, having been a key member behind BEIS’s Combined Heat & Power Quality Assurance (CHPQA) programme and audited 100s of renewable heating systems via Ofgem’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. Joe also has a passion for programming and working with data; he hopes to combine his programming skills and his enthusiasm for energy to accelerate our transition towards net zero. When Joe isn’t writing code or thinking about the future of energy, you might catch him running, swimming, or cycling, in preparation for his next triathlon.
Anna Lawson
PRINCIPAL ENERGY CONSULTANT
Anna has a wealth of experience across the heat and energy sector, with an extensive background of masterplanning, feasibility studies and optimisation modelling. Her specialities cover heat networks, Local Area Energy Planning (LAEP), Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) and Energy from Waste. She was the lead modeller for the UK Government’s most recent update to the National Comprehensive Assessment, modelling the UK-wide potential for heat networks, and was heavily involved with the Scottish Government’s development of the LHEES process. Anna has a passion to integrate software and digital processes, to constantly improve the quality and efficiency of the decarbonisation solutions we offer to clients. When not at work, Anna loves a challenge and will be exploring the UK’s offering of mountains and countryside as a competitive triathlete and keen but less competitive ultramarathon runner.
Ben Gilbart PhD (he/him)
SENIOR ENERGY CONSULTANT
Ben is an energy consultant at City Science, who recently completed a PhD in low-temperature plasma simulation at the University of Liverpool. Before that he worked at Western Power Distribution, helping to increase efficiency across the electricity network. He now uses the knowledge he gained to help us reach net zero by forecasting future energy systems through modelling, data analysis and optimisation. Outside of work, Ben is usually found scouring the map to find the steepest possible hill to cycle up, or writing soothing music for the piano.
Jade Baker-Edwards (she/her)
PRINCIPAL ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
Originally from a commercial and project management background, Jade embarked on an engineering degree at The Open University to achieve her life and career goal of making the maximum impact on climate change and decarbonisation. PRINCE2 qualified, she oversees and manages a variety of our key transport and energy projects and contributes to a variety of strategies, reports and white papers. Outside of City Science Jade spends an (un)healthy amount of time on the yoga mat and obsesses over applying structural engineering principles to yoga postures.
Zack Moss
Senior Energy Modeller
Zack is a Senior Energy Modeller with experience across a wide range of energy system scales, particularly focussing on Low and Zero Carbon technologies. He has previously carried out energy mapping, dynamic energy modelling, and techno-economic modelling for a variety of district heating projects across the UK at energy masterplanning, feasibility, and detailed design stages. Additionally, he has applied his analytical capabilities across a variety of other areas within the energy sector, including: net zero carbon strategies, social housing stock modelling, and energy management & compliance, utilising his tool creation and automation capabilities to scale decarbonisation impact. Outside of work you’re likely to find him playing table tennis, board games, or reading a book.
Bob Hickish PhD
PRINCIPAL TRANSPORT & SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
Bob is interested by networks, values the societal benefit of transport, and is passionate about decarbonisation and sustainability. This combination led to a PhD where he developed software to optimise rail networks specifically for maximum passenger benefit – it is unknown whether or not this was an act of pure self-interest from a frequent rail user. His subsequent postdoctoral research focused on the storage of energy regenerated during train braking. Bob’s passion for environmental sustainability stems, in part, from a love of the natural world and being outside. A keen rock climber and surfer, he enjoys pursuing these activities in wild places and looks forward to this being enabled by sustainable transportation systems.
James Lewis PhD (he/him)
Lead Developer
Before joining City Science in May 2019, James was at Durham University earning his PhD developing breakthrough algorithms to analyse the structure of highly complex functional materials. He went on to become P&G Portfolio Manager at the University, working to develop a range of collaborative research projects to meet industry challenges across Computer Sciences, Engineering, Physical and Life Sciences. James is now using his multi-disciplinary talent at City Science to meet the modelling needs of the future. When he isn’t doing that, James is a keen sportsman having turned his hand to most sports you can name, including Snow Polo and Cheese Rolling. But algorithms are his true passion – he uses them in every aspect of life, and even developed one to create the seating plan for his wedding.
Emily McNabb
SENIOR DEVELOPER
Emily McNabb is a Senior Software Developer at City Science. She began her career as an apprentice in software development and has never stopped learning since. She is always looking for a challenge and for something to get her teeth stuck into. Emily is currently located in the Northampton area and loves to spend as much time as she can with her wife and daughter. In her spare time she is an avid gamer, DIYer and tinkerer of all things electrical.
Nick Maynard
SUPPORT & DEVOPS ENGINEER
Nick is our support & DevOps engineer. He brings over 14 years of experience with a vast knowledge of IT infrastructure and systems improvement, specialising in Microsoft and Office 365. He is a colossal Lego collector who owns more than 163 sets and over 500 mini-figures, and one day would like to build a working computer from Lego.
Chris Underwood PhD
DEVELOPER
Chris is a scientific software developer at City Science. He joined from the University of York where he was completing his PhD on laser-driven particle acceleration in the Fusion Centre for Doctoral Training. Although making electrons travel very fast was highly enjoyable, Chris is now turning his skills to a more pressing need, decarbonisation of transport and energy systems. Outside of work Chris is a keen outdoors enthusiast, spending his weekends getting cold and damp climbing mountains and crags all around the UK.
Lia Palosanu (she/her)
DEVELOPER
Lia is a software developer at City Science. She joined from the University of Essex where she studied Computer Science. After travelling South-East Asia during her year abroad, she discovered her passion for tackling the climate crisis. As a result, her final year project was focused on environmental conservation using machine learning. She hopes to use her skills in the race to net-zero. In her spare time, she likes to play video games, go on hikes and spend time with friends and family.
Sarah McCoy
DEVELOPER
Sarah is a scientific software developer at City Science. Before joining the team, she worked within the Education sector, where she taught Maths alongside her data analysis and IT training roles. Prior to this, she completed her degree in Maths from the University of Exeter. Sarah brings together her love of problem-solving, numerical skills and her passion for tackling climate change within her work. She is currently located in Brighton and Hove and enjoys runs along the beach, long walks in the South Downs and exploring the City with friends and family.
Joe Fuller-Gray
DEVELOPER
Joe is a software developer at City Science. He used to work for a utilities asset manager as a GIS developer, where he learned his craft. Before that, he read Computer Science at the University of Essex. He lives on a small farm in Fenland where he keeps chickens and grows vegetables, keeping his Dachshund, Pointer, and farm cat company.
Lucy Champ ACMA CGMA
CARBON ACCOUNTANT
Lucy joined City Science in April 2023 as a Carbon Accountant. Lucy is a CIMA qualified accountant, prior to City Science Lucy completed a three-year graduate scheme with Ocado Retail where she studied for her accountancy qualification. Whilst completing her graduate scheme she gained experience business partnering with their internal sustainability team. Through her experience working with the sustainability team Lucy realised that she wanted to pursue a more purpose led career particularly in Carbon Accounting. Outside of work you’ll find Lucy swimming, biking, and running or enjoying time with friends and family.
Maia Priestley
ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
After graduating in Sustainability and Environmental Management from the University of Leeds, Maia is excited to bring her passion for sustainability to City Science as a Graduate Sustainability Consultant. With a drive to make a difference both through her career and daily life, she applies her skills gained through her studies to create a greener future. In her gap year after University, Maia solo travelled to South East Asia which heightened her dedication to sustainability, fuelling a stronger desire to make a positive impact. Outside of work, Maia enjoys cooking vegan food, exercising at the gym and spending time with friends.
Alex Puddick (he/him)
Senior transport planner
Alex is an experienced Transport Planner with extensive experience in Spatial Planning, Business Cases, Transport Feasibility Studies and working across multi-disciplinary projects across the natural and built environments. He specialises in the development of robust, proportionate and high-quality evidence bases which are sufficiently flexible to accommodate existing and forecasted future societal needs. Passionate about the need for decarbonisation of the transport sector and the wider environment, Alex is eager to apply this knowledge and experience to help achieve the best outcomes for City Science’s clients and projects. Originally from the North East of England, Alex can found in his spare time either looking after his Dahlias in the garden or cycling around the local area to find new pit stops for cake and tea.
Will Whittaker (he/him)
ENERGY CONSULTANT
Will is an energy consultant at City Science, having joined in August 2023 after 2 years at Buro Happold. He has experience designing energy infrastructure such as power, district heating, and district cooling networks. Will has worked on master planning projects Saudi Arabia, as well as smaller feasibility studies around the UK, through which he has developed an interest in automation and geospatial analytics. Outside of work, Will enjoys running, travelling, music, and teaching equestrian to his pet lobster.
Richard Wightman
Associate Director – Sustainable Transport
Richard joined City Science in January 2024 bringing over 15 years of experience in the transport planning industry. He has a worked on wide range of projects across both the private and public sectors in the UK and internationally, with an in-depth knowledge of the planning and development process. Richard has extensive experience in developing transport strategies, transport impact assessments & modelling, sustainable travel planning, servicing & logistic strategies, and transport related infrastructure design; he is particularly passionate about active travel and the development of supporting infrastructure to promote sustainable movement and decarbonisation. In his spare time, Richard enjoys exploring new places on his Brompton, sounding out new music, and anything health & fitness related as a qualified personal trainer.
Aidan Bennett
Graduate Consultant
Aidan joined City Science in 2023 as a Graduate Consultant after completing his master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Bath. Aidan’s degree focus and experience helped him gain a holistic understanding of how to monitor, manage and mitigate negative environmental impacts from a local to global scale. He also spent time as a glaciology research assistant in the Swiss Alps studying subglacial weathering and it’s role in the reduction of atmospheric carbon. He is now applying these learnings within a range of projects spanning energy, sustainability, net zero and transport. In his spare time, you’ll either find him producing music, DJing or playing hockey.
Rifat Foysal
Graduate TRANSPORT AND SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
Rifat began his career as a Civil & Environmental engineer in 2016 spending his early years serving as a junior consultant to Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority in the construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant where his role was to ensure safety and quality of the construction and installation works. However, his passion for decarbonisation and sustainable development led him to change his career where he can make more meaningful impact on climate change. That his why Rifat left his role in Bangladesh and joined City Science as a part-time intern in 2023 while pursuing his master’s degree in Transport & Planning at Cardiff University. Inspired by the passionate team at City Science and the data driven approach of City Science to tackle the environmental issues in both transport and energy sector, Rifat jumped at the opportunity to start as a Graduate Transport and Sustainability Consultant after his graduation. Rifat is often found building lego models with his 2-year-old in the afternoons, cooking (his absolute favourites are the traditional bengali cuisines using his mom’s recipe) or with his nose buried in a new book.
Catherine Hollins
Graduate CONSULTANT
After completing a degree in Social Policy BA at University of Birmingham, Catherine was interested in expanding her skills and completed a Master of Science at the University of Exeter in Social Data Science. She brings these combined skills in policy and data analysis to the company and is passionate in helping City Science create data-driven sustainability solutions. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking and spending time with friends.
Hazim Zaidi
Graduate ReseARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME MANAGER
Hazim joined City Science in January 2024 after finishing his master’s research degree under the Cabot Institute for the Environment, the University of Bristol. His area of study was on energy efficiency where his work has been presented at international conferences in the UK and in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, Hazim leads Solarable, a solar energy project he started in university, motivated by the need to accelerate the sustainable energy transition. In his spare time, he enjoys playing weekly football league games or any outdoor activities with his friends.
Tomos Alderman
product sales graduate
Tomos joined City Science in 2023 as our Product Sales Graduate for our flagship GIS product, Cadence 360. As the Account Manager for all Cadence 360 users, his primary role is to help users get the most from the software. Tomos’ background is in chemistry, having completed his master’s from Durham University, with a year of research at Queen’s University in Canada. Throughout his degree, Tomos used computational programmes to help solve chemical problems and he is excited to apply these skills to the GIS sector. In his spare time, Tomos is a keen sailor and has spent the last four summers teaching the sport in Greece.
Helen Fanstone (She/Her)
traffic modelling specialist
Helen is a Transport Modelling Specialist and after 20 plus years of experience with Halcrow, CH2M Hill and more recently Jacobs she joined City Science in December 2023 initial for a short-term contract, becoming a permanent employee in March 2024. She has worked a wide variety of traffic modelling projects over the year, helping develop large strategic transport models from the inception stage to the forecasting and economic evaluation. Outside of work, Helen is a keen tennis and Padel player, enjoys spending her holidays walking and loves sharing her latest bakes with her friends.
Ted Taylor
Data analyst/ scientist
Ted is a Data Analyst/ Scientist at City Science. Ted joined City Science in Feb 2024 after working as a Machine Learning Engineer and Data Scientist for 2+ years following his Bachelors degree in Computer Science which he completed in 2021. Through his studies and experience Ted has developed skills in data analysis, machine learning model development, database management and data visualisations. In his spare time, Ted enjoys working on his various hobbyist projects, going for hikes with friends and playing a variety of sports, currently he is trying out Chess-Boxing.
Jasin Trimble
IT Support analyst
Jasin embarked on his career journey as a graphic designer, where his creative flair flourished. However, he soon found himself drawn more towards the technical intricacies and challenges of IT than the design aspects. For over a decade, he has immersed himself in various IT roles, honing his skills and expertise. Beyond the digital realm, Jasin finds solace and inspiration in nature walks, city exploration, and architectural wonders. His passion for creativity extends beyond the screen, indulging in painting, drawing, and the occasional gaming session to unwind and fuel his imagination.