We are a team of ~40 multidisciplinary experts who help lead and deliver ambitious, impactful programmes with dozens of partners across sectors. We also support and collaborate with a broader community of hundreds of professionals across industry, government, non-profits and academia profits in the IB1 Constellation. IB1 is an independent, neutral, public-benefit company headquartered in the UK. You can learn more about what we do, and why, at https://ib1.org/what-we-do.
Advisory Board & leadership
Advisory Board Members include independent, neutral experts who volunteer their time to help advise Icebreaker One in the delivery of its mission.
Members are encouraged to act as a ‘critical friend’ to IB1, and to bring their knowledge and expertise to help deliver its mission to:
- Provide strategic guidance and direction based on their expertise & market insights
- Actively facilitate connections with senior leaders
- Where appropriate, represent IB1 in public forums
Reference: Terms of Reference for the IB1 Advisory Board
Founder and CEO of Icebreaker One, Gavin Starks has founded, funded and run over a dozen organisations including as founding CEO of the Open Data Institute, Co-Chair of the Open Banking Standard and CEO of global environmental intelligence company, AMEE. He has also been formally appointed to public office as Co-Chair of the UK Smart Data Council.
Celeste Connors has twenty years experience working at the intersection of economic, environment, energy, and international development policy. She previously served as the Director for Environment and Climate Change at the National Security Council and National Economic Council in the White House where she helped shape the Administration’s climate and energy policies.
John Elkington is an award-winning world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable capitalism, a bestselling author and a serial entrepreneur. John is the founder and chief pollinator of Volans, which works with leaders to make sense of the emergent future to unlock the potential of their organisation.
Irene Graham is the CEO of the ScaleUp Institute. She is a former senior banker at Standard Chartered Bank and was the Managing Director at the BBA responsible for Commercial Banking.
Founder and CEO of ds30, Volker Buscher is experienced in developing and implementing data and digital strategies. He supports organisations as a non-executive director. He was one of 53 Arup Fellows (out of a global staff of 16,000) and the global Chief Data Officer prior to launching ds30.
Baroness Bryony Worthington is a life peer in the House of Lords—a leading expert on climate change and energy policy, and was instrumental to the adoption of the UK Climate Change Act. She was Executive Director for Environmental Defense Fund, Europe and many other initiatives. Baroness Worthington was part of our founding Advisory Board and a collaborator in the design of Icebreaker One.
Research, delivery and implementation teams
Core
Gea Mikic — Co-founder & Programme Director (all programmes)
Gea leads projects focused on systems-level interventions that reduce vulnerability to disasters and protect livelihoods from climate change by changing the cultural mechanics of data sharing. She has a background in disasters, urban resilience, and languages with a particular interest in how we view and communicate risk.
Rob Young — Officer & Head of Finance
Rob is a legal co-director of Icebreaker One Ltd, alongside Gavin. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW). As well as Managing Director of the LYA accountancy practice, he is a Responsible Individual for audits, he has also held multiple voluntary roles including School Governor, Charity Secretary and vice-treasurer for an investment club. Previously he worked with larger corporations (PwC, Menzies), taking an active role in supporting teams from a technical perspective, assisting with complex accounting, and engaging with board members and department heads of listed companies.
Michelle Prescott — People Development
With extensive experience and expertise in building teams and delivering people management and organisation development services that enable organisations to meet their goals, Michelle believes that people and organisations accomplish so much more if workplaces are collaborative, open, ethical, safe, supportive and enjoyable places for everyone.
Laura Townshend – Head of Communications
Laura has 12 years of strategic communications experience with a focus on digital. She specialises in translating technical complexity into human language and using technology to scale up the impact of campaigns. As a consultant, she’s worked on a range of climate action projects that aim to engage both business and consumers – including work on a green recovery, a business climate pledge, financing for renewables technology, and the climate consequences of Brexit.
Emily Judson — Head of Energy
Emily has a background in R&D with experience across the UK energy system spanning smart systems, data infrastructure, renewable power and heat, governance, and societal engagement. She has worked with Icebreaker One since 2020 and previously held the role of Head of Research. Emily has a PhD which explored governance of the digital energy revolution for net zero by 2050. She is motivated by the challenge of leveraging data and digital tech to accelerate the systems-level changes we need for a sustainable future.
Caroline Fraser — Programme and Policy Manager
With experience in non-profits, government agencies, and the private sector, Caroline works on projects delivering net-zero and addressing resilience, environmental policy, and planning. She focuses on stakeholder-driven innovative approaches to socio-environmental challenges to protect and improve our environment.
Zoe Swiderski — Head of Project Management
With a background in Computer Science, primarily focused on user experience, Zoe has worked in a variety of software development and test roles for small companies, as well as a large financial institution. For the last 12 years, she worked as a project manager on public sector projects and she is particularly interested in leading initiatives that can make a positive influence on everyday life.
Jakob Howard – Sales and Bid Coordinator
Jakob has experience in planning, managing, and delivering a wide range of projects. With a background in engineering, he is passionate about using technology to solve pressing social and environmental problems. He has previously worked as a commercial manager scaling an AI start-up from a niche university spin-out to an established player in the UK’s autonomous vehicle sector. He was project manager for an Innovate-UK funded consortium delivering a framework for establishing the safety of operating autonomous vehicles on public roads in the UK.
Jack Hardinges – Philanthropic fundraising
Jack is an experienced consultant that helps to build new data products, infrastructure and organisations. At IB1, he’s evolving how we talk about our work to philanthropic audiences and identify new funding opportunities. Prior to this, Jack spent nine years at the Open Data Institute, where his work advanced the understanding and practice of responsible data stewardship. Jack is passionate about the potential for data to tackle the big challenges of our time – provided it’s governed and used responsibly.
Jenna Ilic – Executive Assistant and HR Coordinator
Jenna has experience in administration, executive and business support, previously playing an integral part within senior management on building and growing a small-scale charity. She has 12 years’ experience within the Charity/ Third sector with a particular interest in Learning Disability and community-based organisations and projects.
Janice Holloway- Senior Administrator
Janice has 35 years experience in administration and business support with extensive knowledge of implementing systems and processes. Working mainly within education and the charitable sector she has particular interest in child poverty and has been involved in the delivery of a nationwide Poverty Proofing® programme within schools.
Ned Chappell – Account Manager
Ned Chappell is an Account Manager at Icebreaker One, working with members and partners to unlock collaboration, innovation, and creating data-driven use cases with real-world impact. His experience across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK spans the built environment and sustainability, with a strong focus on strategic relationships and practical outcomes.
R&D
Toby Staveley – Perseus Project Manager
Toby is a 4x founder with over 25 years of leadership experience overseeing start-ups go to market and supporting purpose-driven organisations to maximise their impact. Most recently Toby has helped conceive and pilot a new tool to help companies measure, manage and reduce their employees’ Scope 3, category 7 emissions. A technophile and enthusiast for clarity as the most effective way to solve problems.
Charlotte Horler- Project Manager
Trust Services
Frank Wales — CTO & Delivery Manager
Frank has over 25 years of software development, management and innovation experience. From his start as a software engineer for mission-critical systems, he has developed products for many organisations including Hewlett-Packard, Oxford University Press, and the BBC. At Net-a-Porter, he built and ran the teams responsible for the customer, order and payment systems behind their world-class e-commerce service, invented their real-time fraud analysis system, and fostered innovation across the business. He co-founded one of the UK’s first Internet companies, Limitless, is a founding partner at data protection consultancy Corrick, Wales & Partners, and is Head of Data at The Floorr.
Chris Pointon – Product Manager
An internet entrepreneur and technologist, Chris has led the design and development of large-scale data products in areas including marketing, social media, cybersecurity and personal data management. He has been technical co-founder of six companies. Two exited, two are still operating, and two were “learning experiences”. Chris has a BEng in Computer & Electronic Engineering and is a Fellow of the RSA.
Kip Parker- API/Back-end Developer
Kip is a software developer who has built a wide range of web platforms and other digital things, from ecommerce sites to streaming platforms to social networks. For the last few years he has focused on projects working with data specialists. He likes finding simple ways to do complex things.
Ben Summers – Solutions Architect
Ben is an entrepreneur and technologist. He founded a software company where he designed and delivered research administration software for universities until the company was acquired. He now works with organisations that have an environmental or social purpose. He is a non-executive director of the Welsh Government’s Centre for Digital Public Services, and a trustee of the Centre for Alternative Technology.
Richard Atkins – Front End Developer
Rich is a tech lead and solution architect operating across multiple sectors including Technology, Digital Media, Retail, Automotive, Telecommunications, Financial Services, FMCG, Education and the Public sector throughout the last few decades. Focused on delivering fluid, user-centric solutions from ideation through development to final production who enjoys shaping and delivering strategic visions by solving problems and encouraging close collaboration.
Membership and Community
Julia Higginbottom – Community and Events Manager
Julia is a digital specialist with passion for community, open source data, and working in the open to the benefit of a wider sociocracy. She has experience of data and digital development, communications through technology, and event management. She enables organisations and communities through prototyping and experimentation. She has also worked to disrupt storytelling over the past 2 decades, experimenting with contracting, equity and creative commons attribution in her role as a tv and film producer.
Ross Crear – Comms & Content Production
Ross is an experienced Financial Journalist and Digital Creative specialist with a focus on sustainability,
finance, energy and agriculture. Ross is skilled in simplifying complex topics like open data and net zero for diverse audiences. Proven success in delivering impactful communications and digital content to support environmental initiatives. He is also an established Musician & Producer, amassing over 1 million streams across all major platforms.
Alumni
We convene domain experts into the team based on the specific work required. These Icebreakers are part of our broader network and we recognise all of their contributions.
Ewan Jarvis – Researcher
Rhiannon Flemming – Bid Coordinator
Daniel Thomson – Senior Project Manager
Emily Brown – Core Project Support
Sheree Hellier – Researcher
Paul Johnston – Technical Analyst
Ceri Stanaway – Researcher
Kathryn Corrick – Development and Strategy Director
Lewis Just – Researcher and Designer
Charlotte Mitchell – Perseus Senior Project Manager
Poppy Joyner- Project Support
Megan McHaney – Project Manager
Stefan Haselwimmer – Technical Analyst
Sam Haines – Project Support
Michael Bird — Researcher
Tom de Grunwald – Membership and Supporter Manager
Tim Werkhoven – Customer Development Manager
Jeremy Hindle — Insurance and Financial Products Lead (SERI)
Emmanuel Coker – Business Data Analyst
Sheree Hellier – User Needs Researcher
Trevor Hinkle – Interaction Designer (Open Energy)
Ed Dowding- UX/Web Developer (Open Energy)
Adrian Philpott – Creative Lead
Zoe Philpott – Experience Director
Ceri Stanaway – User Researcher (Open Energy)
Srini Sundaram – Product Innovation (Co-chair) / Agriculture Cluster Lead (SERI)
Nick Tyrone – Legal and Regulatory Lead (SERI)
Tom Hukins- API Developer
Tom Oinn- Information Architect (Open Energy)
Ann Edimo – Communications Team
Kasia Kulma- Data Scientist (Open Energy)
Chris Adams – Developer
Lily Zhang — Researcher (SERI)
Vichi Chandra — Open Engagement Manager (SERI, Open Energy)
Miles Cheetham — Data Infrastructure Lead (Open Energy)
Jennifer Cassidy- Researcher
Alpesh Doshi- Commercial Development Manager
Charlotte Hillenbrand- Product Strategist
Gary Lake- Front end/ UX Developer
Siobhan McVeigh – Executive Assistant
Manu Di Biase- Executive Assistant
The Icebreaker One Constellation
Icebreaker One engages a trusted network of domain experts across Climate, Environment, Finance, Infrastructure and Data (aka ‘CEFID‘).
They include dozens of peer-recommended domain experts in disaster risk modelling, insurance, investment, financial instruments, ecosystems, risk analysis, communications, design innovation, urban infrastructure and systems design. If you would like to get involved, please contact us.
Collectively they are the Icebreaker One Constellation.