Meet The Team

Helen is a long term co-operator and advocate of community renewable energy, and a member and current Director of the Spirit of Lanarkshire wind energy coop. 

She first became involved in the sector when working for the community development trust in Berwick upon Tweed, which came up with the idea of generating income for social projects through building a community owned wind turbine. 

In 2012 she moved to Scotland and undertook the MSc in Renewable Energy at Dundee University, after a career in transport, regeneration and community development down south. She currently develops low carbon energy projects for a local authority. 

She has also been an area committee member for the Cooperative Group in East Scotland, and is a former Director of The Phone Coop.

Dr Richard McCready lives in the West End of Dundee. His a graduate of the University of Dundee and has a PhD in history and has published on the issues of migration and identity. He is a long-term supporter of the co-operative movement. He is currently a director of Scotmid Co-operative and a member of the National Members’ Council of the Co-operative Group. Richard has also been a trustee of the Co-operative Education Trust Scotland.

Richard is a trustee of the Dundee One World Centre and Convener of the Dundee Fair Trade Forum. He has previously worked in further and higher education, Holyrood and Westminster and been the National Secretary of the Justice and Peace Scotland. Richard served as a member of Dundee City Council for 15 years and currently works for the Co-operative Party. Richard has been a trustee or director of a number of organisations including Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre and Leisure and Culture Dundee.

Stuart is an experienced operations manager within the Renewable Energy sector, with over 13 years of successfully managing a variety of renewable energy projects across the UK. From a food waste Anaerobic digestion plant capable of processing 160,000 T of food waste to the flagship facility for Aberdeen City Council.

He earned a degree in Agriculture from Aberdeen University and found his niche in renewable energy with a focus on anaerobic digestion for the past 8 years and holds a Certificate of Technical Competence in waste treatment.

A career highlight was the establishment of the Anaerobic digestion facility in Aberdeen, working with Aberdeen City Council and Future Biogas. This site, located in the TECA estate, could produce an impressive 63 GW of energy annually, with the potential to power 15,000 homes.

As a chartered chemical engineer, Donall worked in the oil and gas industry for 18 years and has recently been focussing on Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) projects & other pathways to net zero.

Dónall has an interest in reducing pollution, lowering emissions and renewable energy and has been personally investing in Energy4All projects for over 10 years. This was born out of a realisation that renewable energy is essential for net zero, but it's hard to know how to do it, especially if your roof isn't suitable for solar panels, or you don't own a field to install your own wind turbine.

Donall has been living in Scotland since 2005 and moved to Dundee in 2016, where he lives with his family. Being able to help bring clean renewable energy to JHI & the grid and help the people of Dundee through the community ownership and other initiatives like the community fund are three reasons for getting involved in DRES.

Donall has been on the board of DRES since June 2023.

Ryan is a Digital Transformation Officer with a keen interest in sustainability and renewable energy, specialising in process improvements and identifying areas where technology can drive business value and reducing carbon footprint. He also has a passion for data and pulling out actionable insights on carbon reduction and retrofit within the housing sector.

Having studied web development many moons ago, he retains a strong knowledge of the latest developments in IT and how they can be used to support in the transition to net zero. Ryan also continues to study in his spare time, with a focus on data, sustainability and carbon accountancy.

Dave is a recently retired building services engineer with over 40 years’ experience in the construction industry the majority of which were spent in private practice. Dave has a keen interest in energy conservation and renewable energy sources and during his time with NHS Tayside developed sustainable construction standards and these were incorporated into several NHST capital projects.

Dave was the technical lead on an ambitious energy conservation project across three acute hospitals which saw the installation of over 25,000LED light sources across the three sites. The project also included the replacement of an aged gas turbine withe a gas engine, steam and waste heat boilers and associated infrastructure.

He was also the technical lead on a multiphase project to replace the existing high and low voltage electrical installations within a fully functioning major acute hospital. The works included the provision of emergency power generating plant, HV/LV transformers, and distribution networks.

Having been with the James Hutton Institute for 7 years, Alasdair is Director of Operations and a member of the Executive team having responsibility for the implementation of the operational aspects of the Institute’s Corporate Strategy.

He has almost 30 years’ experience gained in the agricultural and food sectors where he managed multi-functional teams in very competitive retail/manufacturing environments. Latterly in publicly funded research, education and consultancy organisations.