During this Net Zero Heroes webinar we bring together experts from academia. industry and government to discuss decarbonising heat and homes.

Ellie Horwitch-Smith (Assistant Director – Route to Net Zero, Birmingham City Council.)

Ellie is an Assistant Director at Birmingham City Council. She is the strategic lead on net zero for and oversees a wide portfolio of projects and initiatives to deliver upon the councils Climate Emergency commitments and optimise the co-benefits that net zero presents. With a long-standing consultancy background in global and UK businesses, she has led the development and delivery of a wide variety of projects with local authority and other public and private sector clients, with particular expertise in heat and energy infrastructure and housing retrofit. Ellie is also Chair of the Sustainable Housing Action Partnership (SHAP), a not-for-profit member-led network supporting organisations and the supply chain to understand problems and develop solutions for large scale housing retrofit.

 Professor Mahroo Eftekhari (Professor, Loughborough University)

Mahroo has a long-term interest in developing control systems, fuzzy logic, Model Predictive Controller MPC, developing software for airport and strategies for buildings in order to reduce energy consumption while providing thermal comfort and improving occupant’s well-being. Her expertise lie in indoor air quality and thermal comfort, HVAC and pipe network performance, control systems and strategies for zero energy buildings, Digital twin.

 Jeff House (External Affairs and Policy Director, Baxi)

Jeff is the External Affairs and Policy Director at Baxi where he champions their vision to lead the UK and Irish markets in smart, low carbon heating solutions. He is the chair of the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC) Policy Group and has over two decades of industry experience with a strong background in legislation and policy for the residential and commercial heating sector. He regularly represents both Baxi and the wider industry at Government and trade body meetings, offering in-depth advice and analysis.