People

Dr Simon Davies

Simon is the co-founder of UMAS, he is also the managing director of UMAS International Ltd. Simon has over twenty years’ experience in climate change & sustainability management and advisory services. He has held leadership positions in major corporations including the Centrica Group of companies as Head of Environment and leading KPMG’s Climate Change and Carbon team in the UK, focusing particularly on the international shipping sector. Simon has extensive overseas working experience particularly across the EU, S.E Asia, Africa and North America.

Dr Tristan Smith

Tristan is Associate Professor in Energy and Transport at UCL and co-founder of UMAS. He is the Principal Investigator of the Decarbonising UK Freight Network Plus project. Since 2010 he has grown a substantial group focused on modelling and analysis of shipping’s efficiency and emissions. He was PI of the RCUK funded Shipping in Changing Climates project, led the 3^rd IMO GHG Study, is an author in the 4^th IMO GHG Study, is lead author of ISO 19030, co-chair of World Bank’s CPLC Maritime Thread, and has been involved in numerous projects across the academic, industry and policy domains.

Dr Domagoj Baresic

Domagoj is a Research Fellow at University College London (UCL) Energy Institute. He uses mixed research methods to pursue research into the nature of fuel transition pathways necessary to reach a low carbon shipping future. His research interests span policy, political economy, and socio-technical transitions. He has recently completed his PhD in Energy and Transport (Sustainability transitions in the maritime transport industry: The case of LNG in northern Europe) from UCL in 2020. Domagoj also has an MPhil in Environmental Policy and BA in Natural Sciences, both from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining UCL and UMAS, Domagoj worked for several years in the financial sector as an analyst covering natural gas, renewables and emission trading markets.

Dr Jean-Marc Bonello

Jean-Marc is a Principal Consultant at UMAS International. He leads the group’s work on customer/charterers. He is the lead author of the Sea Cargo Charter and a co-author of the Fourth IMO GHG Study. His doctoral research at the UCL Energy Institute investigates information and data use in decision-making related to chartering and owner-charterer relationships the uptake of energy efficiency technologies in shipping towards emission reduction. He has an MSc in Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture from the University of Southampton and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Malta. His work experience includes design and consultancy in mechanical building services as well as naval architecture EPC consultancy in the oil and gas industry.

Alexis Fidgett

Alexis is a research administrator at the UCL Energy Institute. He is currently the network administrator for the Decarbonising UK Freight Transport network, which is a network of over 40 stakeholders from industry and academia. He has worked as an administrator in the Higher Education sector for over 8 years. He studied Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Liverpool.

Marie Fricaudet

Marie is a PhD student at the University College London (UCL) Energy Institute and a consultant at UMAS. She holds an MSc in Urban Policy from the University Sciences Po Paris and an MSc in Local Economic Development in the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). She has previously worked as a consultant in transport planning for Atkins-SNC Lavallin. At UMAS she has worked for the World Bank on the reports “Charting a Course for Decarbonizing Maritime Transport” and “The Role of LNG in the Transition Toward Low- and Zero-Carbon Shipping”. Her interests and areas of expertise include the production of alternative fuels and shipping and freight finance. Her PhD focuses on the stranded assets in the shipping industry.

Akash Kapur

Akash is a Consultant at UMAS International. He has an MSc in Environment and Development from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). At The LSE, he was awarded with distinction for his dissertation, titled: Evaluating Energy Storage Options for Renewable Energy Integrated Urban Community Microgrid Systems. Prior to UMAS, he has worked on various business, technical, and construction projects in high-pressure client facing roles. His experience includes working as a data analyst, business analyst, and sustainability consultant for various Fortune 500 companies, government organisations, and NGOs across Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Dr Eoin O’Keeffe

Eoin is an Associate at UMAS International. He is the modelling lead at UMAS International. He has extensive experience in techno-economic modelling of international shipping and emissions inventory modelling. He gained his PhD in simulation modelling of the dry bulk shipping sector. Before joining UMAS, he worked as a data engineer productionising AI/ML pipelines on cloud based systems.

Dr Nishatabbas Rehmatulla

Nishat is a Principal Research Fellow at the University College London (UCL) Energy Institute, where he has established and leads the social sciences research component of the world-leading multi-disciplinary shipping research group focused on the decarbonisation of shipping. His research focusses on the understanding of barriers to decarbonisation in the shipping sector and exploring solutions, both public and private, to accelerate transitions to a low carbon industry. He co-leads the group in terms of it’s research direction and strategically, overseeing a portfolio of grant funded research and consultancy projects. He gained his PhD in Energy and Transport (Market failures and barriers affecting energy efficient operations in shipping) from UCL in 2014, has an MSc in Energy, Trade & Finance and BSc in Management, both from Cass Business School, City University.

Colin Robertshaw

Colin is a Doctoral Researcher of maritime operations and technology within the UCL Energy Institute. His PhD research is concerned with the transition pathways that are associated with the adoption of hydrogen based synthetic fuels within the maritime industry. He has substantial experience within industry and has held positions involved in the design, construction, survey and technical operation of various vessel types and associated systems. Colin holds an MSc in Marine and Offshore Power Systems and a BEng (Hons) in Marine Technology, awarded by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, in addition to industry specific operational certification, issued by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Dr Alison Shaw

Aly is a Research Fellow at University College London (UCL) Energy Institute. Her work focuses on policy, carbon pricing, fuel transitions, infrastructure and investment. She holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews which focused on the development of regulations to reduce CO2 emissions from shipping. She is currently working on a variety of decarbonization projects, both national and international, in the UMAS group. Prior to joining UMAS/UCL, she spent 18 months working in Deloitte in Financial Services Audit and Assurance. She also holds a Masters in Technical Ship Management from the University of Strathclyde and a Masters in International Business from the University of Edinburgh.

Joseph Taylor

Joseph Taylor is a Research Assistant at University College London (UCL). He holds a MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering, where his master’s thesis focused on accelerating the development of renewable hydrogen production technologies. His work has concentrated on analysing the market development of novel technologies and potential fuels that construct the decarbonisation debate in the shipping sector. Using his knowledge of technology and fuels, Joseph has been involved in defining technical assumptions, in partnership with the Getting to Zero (GtZ) coalition and Department for Transport (DfT), for current and future transitional models. He has since led a fuels and pathways study for international clients, Ocean Conservancy, and delivered analysis on other technical consultancy projects for National Oceanography and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Chris Thorne

Chris is the director of strategy and operations at UMAS. He has extensive experience in successfully delivering large scale collaborative programmes and high-value projects gained during his tenures at Caterpillar and the Energy Technologies Institute. Over the past 20 years, Chris has worked in a range of project management, programme management and senior leadership roles. During this time, Chris has led or managed over 40 complex projects using a range of project management tools and approaches. These projects have focussed on emissions reduction and decarbonisation across both heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. For example, in a previous role, Chris was responsible for delivering the Energy Technologies Institute’s £40M Heavy-Duty Vehicle programme.

Camilo Velandia-Perico

Camilo is a Consultant at UMAS International. He uses data science to interpret green technology trends, GHG emissions and possible decarbonising routes in the maritime sector. He was a co-author of the IMO 4th GHG study and technical feasibility transition paths for the European Investment Bank and the UK Space Agency (UKSA). Currently he is involved in several decarbonization initiatives for the coordination of immediate energy transition measures such as the “Getting to Zero Coalition -GtZ” and the “Mission Possible Partnership -MPP”. He has a BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of Surrey and an MSc in Energy Systems and Data Analysis from the UCL Energy Institute.

Dr June Williams

June is the Director at UMAS International.