Vice-Chancellor, Louise Kingham, OBE, is the Chief Executive of the Energy Institute. Incorporated by Royal Charter in July 2003, the Energy Institute is the leading professional body for the energy industries. It promotes and advances knowledge, skills and good practice in energy for society’s benefit. It does so by raising standards, driving forward good practice in the energy industry, and through development of skills and knowledge. Louise promotes the ambition that energy, and its critical role in our world, are better understood, valued and managed. With a global footprint of the Energy Institute across 120 countries, she works with more than 20,000 individual members and 200 organisations to carry on its work.
The use and provision of energy is increasingly important on technical, humanitarian, political and policy levels. The provision of sustainable, secure energy systems, whilst reducing energy poverty, is key to the success of any country. Here at Bath, there is a vibrant community of energy researchers. Our research ranges from novel ways to convert plants, solar irradiation and water to produce useable energy, to the conservation of energy. We analyse the impact of connecting new technologies onto the electricity grid, enabling us to seek and inform policy makers, engineers and industry about the most sustainable ways to provide secure and reliable power for all into the future. Students and staff across the campus are keen to learn about energy and power – sometimes from a cost-saving perspective, sometimes in order to create new ways of converting and storing energy and delivering power.
We recognise that furthering our knowledge in research, teaching and scholarship of this area is key. Louise Kingham is an inspirational figure in this area, leading the Energy Institute to support a wide variety of industry, teaching and research.
Louise grew up and was educated in Surrey. After obtaining her BA and postgraduate qualifications in London, she quickly became a passionate and respected leader in the energy industry. Prior to leading the Energy Institute, Louise was Director General of the Institute of Petroleum and Chief Executive of the Institute of Energy, giving her more than 20 years of career involvement with the energy industry to date. Before working in these charitable organisations, Louise worked in the commercial sector for organisations, including Guinness Brewing and Thompson Publishing. In 2006, she received a Global Leadership in Energy Award in recognition of her achievements in leadership and, in 2011, she was awarded an OBE for services to the Energy Industry.
Louise is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and a member of the Boards of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies and of the POWERful WOMEN initiative. The Powerful Women initiative was set up as a professional cross-sector initiative to encourage the energy industry to develop and re-balance its workforce. Louise was one of the founding supporters of this initiative and has led the Energy Institute to manage the POWERful WOMEN secretariat and their mentoring programme. As such, she is instrumental in helping change attitudes and aspirations amongst those in the Energy Industry.
She is a past President of the Energy Industries Club and former member of the University of Birmingham’s Advisory Board for the Institute of Energy Research and Policy. Whilst doing all this, she makes time for her family, with whom she lives in Buckinghamshire.
She is an inspirational speaker and advocate for energy technologies and energy equality. She is a role model for women working in energy across all disciplines. As the Chief Executive of the Energy Institute, she is a particular role model for women, who are under-represented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Ms Louise Kingham who is eminently worthy to receive the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.