The Team

Welcome to our team. If you’d like to get to find out how we can help you transition to a cleaner, greener future, please complete our contact form.

Gareth Mills,
Managing Director

Gareth has over 25 years’ experience in the Energy and Utilities industry. He started his career as an economic adviser to the UK government on energy related issues, before progressing through senior regulatory and commercial roles at National Grid, Yorkshire Water, British Nuclear Fuels and Northern Gas Networks.

Gareth joined N-Gen to take up the role of Managing Director in 2023. He has a BA (Hons) Economics and MSc Energy Economics degree from the University of Surrey.

David Pearson,
Finance Director

For 25 years David has held senior finance, commercial and regulatory roles across the UK’s utility, energy and banking sectors. David is a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) with a BA Economics degree from Newcastle University. He has led successful commercial bids for data services and asset infrastructure provision contracts in the utility and energy sectors and has assessed and modelled multi-billion-pound acquisitions for the CKI group.

David joined N-Gen as Finance Director in 2023, having worked at Northern Gas Networks for almost 20 years, notably leading the RIIO-GD2 business planning process to secure over £1bn of funding and completing the modelling work to support the H21 Leeds City Gate report.

David Gill,
Business Development Director

Prior to joining N-Gen, David was Head of Customer Energy Solutions at Northern Gas Networks. He has over 35 years’ experience in the energy industry and remains passionate about the future of energy. He has been involved in several pioneering energy futures projects including H21 and HyDeploy, liaising with industry partners and lobbying UK decision-makers on the role of hydrogen in a low carbon energy future.

David has worked closely with local authorities and national government on hydrogen transport trials. Building on his whole systems experience, David now leads business development for N-Gen.

Stella Matthews,
Head of Policy and Market Development

Stella oversees N-Gen’s strategic approach to policy development, leading efforts to influence and engage with policymakers to ensure the successful growth and development of the hydrogen market.

Stella has worked in the gas industry for seven years, predominantly gaining skills and knowledge about how hydrogen could be used as a solution for decarbonising the energy industry. In her former business development role at Northern Gas Networks, Stella was involved in the H21 suite of projects and helped develop and implement the company’s hydrogen strategy.

Stella was awarded the Ralph Halkett Travelling Fellowship,  leading to her completing a work placement with Powerco and First Gas in New Zealand.  She is currently completing a Sustainable Energy Futures MBA at the University of Strathclyde, the only UK MBA to specialise in this topic. The course is providing future leaders of the energy industry with the skills to deliver net zero, by improving understanding of strategy, market dynamics and energy developments. In addition, Stella is undertaking a Systems Thinking Apprenticeship to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours to make sense of our increasingly complex world and approach problems to develop effective action, which enables systems change.

Mark Pollard
Head of Commercial

Mark is leading the Commercial Team for the Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen Project, one of the UK’s largest low carbon hydrogen production and refuelling facilities. His responsibilities include commercial management and strategy, risk management and mitigation, value engineering, stakeholder management, project controls, financial planning and reporting.

Mark is an experienced commercial professional with over 38 years of experience in the UK plus the USA, Australian and Middle East. He has worked across a diverse range of industries including aviation, construction, rail, highways, stadiums, marine, civil engineering and utilities including power, water, energy from waste and hydrogen. He has been involved in major UK civil engineering projects, construction for London 2012 Olympics, DP World London Gateway Port and the construction of Dubai International Airport.

Mark’s qualifications include a BSc (Hons) in Construction Management and MSc in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution. He is a Qualified Chartered Quantity Surveyor at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and Qualified at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Association of Project Managers.

 

Tim Harwood
Executive Project Director

Tim is leading the project team which will deliver Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen, one of the UK’s largest low carbon hydrogen production and refuelling facilities and the largest scheme to receive government funding through the first hydrogen allocation round. From 2027 the site will produce low carbon hydrogen using electricity, with the capacity to generate enough hydrogen to fuel 800 diesel buses.

Tim led Northern Gas Networks’ hydrogen programme and has overseen projects including the H21 programme, which carried out pioneering research into a hydrogen gas conversion, Hydrogen Home, HyDeploy blending and proposals for village and town trials of 100% hydrogen.

Tim has 45 years experience in the UK gas industry, covering a wide range of operational and project roles across all pressure ranges and asset types, including distribution and transmission. Previously working in National Grid Transmission, Tim held a number of senior roles as pipeline engineer, project delivery engineer and engineering manager. In a long career he has also held a number of operational roles within gas distribution, covering pressure control and storage, mains replacement and emergency response.

Charles Woghiren
Director of Engineering

Charles is a chartered engineer and member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). He has over 20 years’ experience across related industries including Oil and Gas, LNG and Water. Prior to joining N-Gen, he worked in a broad range of technical, managerial and leadership roles in engineering and asset management. His most recent roles were Head of Engineering Delivery and Head of Asset Reliability, both in the Water sector. He’s motivated by seeking out solutions to challenges and driving business efficiency, which he has successfully achieved several times through the course of his career.

Charles focuses on supporting the delivery of safe operating activities and ensuring hydrogen is supplied efficiently and reliably to our customers.

 

Neil Travers,
Head of Business Development

Neil has over 20 years experience in the gas industry. Following an engineering apprenticeship and a decade working in field operations, Neil moved on to the delivery of gas mains replacement projects, emergency repair activities and network operations.

Neil then spent five years in Northern Gas Networks’ Energy Futures team, determining the compatibility of existing gas operational standards, policies and procedures with 100% hydrogen. He also led the world’s first conversion of an existing natural gas network to 100% hydrogen and subsequent programme to test gas distribution operations with hydrogen. Neil is committed to working collaboratively and chaired the joint network and industry Hydrogen Training, Standards, Policies & Procedures Working Group.

Neil joined N-Gen to work with clients in heavy industry and transport sectors, using his experience to support them in replacing carbon intensive fuels with low carbon hydrogen.

Karen Sroda
Business Administrator

Karen provides key administrative support to the core team, senior team and project team. She is responsible for the day to day running of the office, producing meeting minutes and progress reports and planning meetings and events. She also assists the senior executive team members with diary management and administration.

Karen is highly experienced, having worked in global office sectors, including in banking for 24 years and healthcare equipment manufacturing for 10 years.  Her previous roles span a range of disciplines including customer service, operational, technical (regulatory) and project office, giving her extensive skills in planning,  organisation and communication.