THE TEAM
Founder & Group CEO
Luke Jenkinson
Founder of ELIRE Group and ventures of Infra & Aero, is a serial entrepreneur who has started and scaled global ventures. Luke applies innovation and creative solutions with a commercial mind set to real world challenges and purposes. Luke is a successful commercial entrepreneur having lead, started, scaled and divested several global companies already.
Group CFO
Sheereen Stewart
Sheereen is a Chartered accountant (ACA) with over 14 years of experience and joins us from KPMG. She has managed international M&A teams advising on transactions across real estate, infrastructure and the renewable energy sectors.
Sheereen managed the financial diligence of OTPPs c.$1bn investment in GICs international portfolio of offshore wind projects, Brookfield’s investment in Scotia Gas networks (SGN), and others.
VP Energy, Maritime & Sustainability
Derek McGlashan
Derek has over a quarter of a century of experience in infrastructure, particularly ports and energy. He has held a number of senior positions in leading and innovative UK Ports, is a Non-Executive Director of the Forth Estuary Forum and Cromarty Firth Port Authority, as well as Director of Saltire Sustainability Limited.
Group VP Engineering
Patrick Lane-Nott
Patrick is an operations, systems, and technology engineer with more than 27 years’ experience in project managing, executing and driving strategy to deliver cross-continent technical and data projects. Patrick is a Chartered Engineer and has Formula 1, automotive, construction, and heavy industry sector knowledge across both hardware and software domains coupled with substantial commercial and marketing experience.
Group CTO
Rajeev Verma
Rajeev is current Chief Engineer at Lockheed Martin, where he has a demonstrated track record in overseeing cross-functional and geographically dispersed teams in design, transformation, and engineering capacities. Rajeev has experience of working with major players in the global Aerospace and Defence sectors, such as Boeing, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, NATS, and QinetiQ.
VP Maritime & Place Innovation
Tom White
Tom has extensive experience in maritime and innovation over 15 years leading innovation programmes at organisations including Rolls-Royce, Lloyd's Register and the Connected Places Catapult. Tom has led the launch and development of collaborative programmes in themes such as multi-modal hydrogen hubs, predictive digital twins, autonomous maritime systems and smart port energy infrastructure
VP Partnerships & Engagement
Lix Axten
Liz is a senior brand and communications strategist with over 20 years’ experience building meaningful brands through engaging communications and live experiences. Specialising in sustainable mobility brands and smart cities, Liz works across key markets in Europe and the Middle East to connect game changing innovators with the communities whose lives they enrich.
VP Maritime Engineering
Joel Ferreira
Joel has over 25 years of experience in energy technology, renewables, oil and gas, and engineering management. As a Chartered Subsea Engineer, he specializes in global growth strategies, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Formerly at Baker Hughes, GE, and Schlumberger, Joel champions transformative change in energy sectors, leveraging expertise to drive innovation and business growth.
VP Marketing
Louise Starky
Louise is a Chartered Marketer accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, with over 20 years of experience in enhancing and expanding brands on a global scale. Louise has recently specialised in the energy sector, including solutions for offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, and renewable hydrogen. Louise has also led impactful ESG communication initiatives, promoting sustainability and corporate responsibility within the industry.
Group VP PR & Communications
Shareena Ali
Shareena is a comms specialist marketer with over 20 years of experience in strategy, international regional media relations, B2B/B2C PR, corporate comms, thought leadership, and more. Working across UK, MENA, Europe, BRIC, APAC and the US, she has advised UK & international governments, Saudi PIF, Shell, ALAT, ADNOC, ARAMCO, COP27/28, MASDAR City, ClimateTECH Forum, Vision 2030 & Expo City Dubai.
Group VP Strategic Marketing
Georgie Robinson
Georgie operates at the intersection of ESG, brand, finance and innovation. An experienced marketing strategist at HSBC, she brings global marketing experience within the sustainability and smart cities space. Expertise includes developing marketing strategies, launching global propositions and executing campaigns.
Group CPO
Martyn Dalziel
Martyn has over 20 years of experience leading strategic procurement and supply chain operations for global organizations, in highly regulated industries such as Energy, Oil & Gas, and Aerospace. Including leadership roles with global companies such as Honeywell, Aggreko and Wood Group, where he led the transition of the Procurement function into a key strategic business partner.
Group VP Procurement
Ben Blezard
Ben is a senior commercial and procurement management strategist and leader, with extensive experience orchestrating start-up development, and optimising procurement functions across diverse platforms. With experience in the automotive industry (McLaren Automotive), and disruptive technologies in the electrification space (Volta Trucks), Ben specialises in bridging engineering innovation and commercial viability.
VP Naval Architecture
Andrew King
Andrew has 38 years experience in the ship design & newbuild industry across the naval, commercial marine, cruise; ferry, and superyacht markets. A Maritime UK Industry Ambassador, and Maritime UK Hydrogen Working Group member, Andrews recent projects have included net zero vessel retrofit solutions, and smart waterborne transport studies.
VP Architecture
Laura Tracey
With a decade of industry experience combining market feedback and sales experience, Laura has worked extensively with CBRE’s Sustainability team advising on developments in the race to Net Zero and tackling embodied carbon in the built environment. Also established a thriving relationship with Streetsense, an experiential place making, and interiors company.
Smart City Architecture
Christian Jakusconek
Christian is a registered architect with over two decades of experience, he collaborated with award winning practices in London and Amsterdam prior to establishing Loop Studio Associates in Italy. He has held the role of professor in Sustainable Design for international institutes and involved in the field of research, focusing on modular construction strategies for the European building industry.
VP Projects
Richard Freston
Richard is a chartered engineer and senior project leader with extensive international experience in novel and complex engineering projects, innovation programmes and digital transformations. Former Lloyds Register, Richard has spent over 20 years working across the maritime, offshore energy and technology sectors, bringing significant domain knowledge in project and process governance, assurance and risk management.
VP Legal Affairs
Greg Leather
Greg is a partner in the Corporate/ Commercial and Dispute Resolution teams at Barringer Leather Lawyers. He advises listed corporations, private companies and individuals from a wide range of industries on all aspects of their corporate, commercial, property and financing dealings, including debt and capital raisings.
Advanced Air Mobility
Mo Ashmawy
Mo has a strong background in engineering, advisory, and engagement and has played a key role in the delivery of transit infrastructure projects around the globe. He has worked with leading companies such as Collins Aerospace and AECOM, where he led the successful delivery of complex aviation programs.
Urban & Future Mobility
Olga Anapryenka
Olga managed projects on new and innovative technologies, such as intelligent infrastructure, shared mobility, Mobility as a Service, Mobility Hubs and smart ticketing. I work for both public and private sectors such as Highways England, Transport for London, Department for Transport and various local authorities. And is also a co-founder of the Women in Mobility London Hub.
VP Investments
Farah Hijjawi
Farah has more than 10 years of experience in the financial services sector with a focus on the investment space. She has experience in both private and public sectors, where she worked at the Central Bank of Jordan, the Social Security Investment Fund, Cairo Amman Bank, INVESTBANK Group, and VentureX.
VP Digital Ecosystem
Mark Skrebels
Mark s a senior leader with 35+ years' experience in successfully delivering multi-site software products and projects in technologies covering high-capacity fibre optic transmission, mobile devices and networks and Cloud-based platforms for major players globally including Microsoft Research.
Managing Partner - ELIRE Aero
Gerry Egan
Gerry is an innovative and visionary executive with over 20 years’ experience solving large scale and complex problems in the airline, helicopter, aerospace, and MRO industries. He has led the electric aircraft revolution and delivered the world’s first all-electric powered commercial test flight in Dec 2019.
Managing Partner - ELIRE Aero
Paul Thorpe
Paul is a highly experienced global sales, marketing and support leader with 35 years experience in the aviation industry. Paul has been directly responsible for >$260m aircraft sales and >$500m aviation system sales and managed sales teams generating further multiples.
Airfreight, Transport & Logistic Partner
Phil Nowak
Phil is an experienced Airline Director with a demonstrated history of working in the aerospace industry. He has strong expertise in supplier management managing more than $300M USD annual expense for GE Aviation, continuous improvement, business development for airlines generating more than $4B USD revenue annually
Advanced Technologies
Joerg Janning
Joerg is a highly experienced engineering executive and CTO with a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Joerg has successfully development a high speed, high power medium voltage drive and industrial drives with the R&D team at Wolong Electrical. At GE Power Conversion he has led engineering experts teams (200 engineers, $300M Revenue)