Dharm Kapletia

Dharm is a director of The Schumacher Institute. He is an established senior researcher, manager and consultant, with over 15 years of experience across a range of innovation projects, working at the nexus of government, industry and academia. Dharm’s career has specialised in complex systems, delivering research/insights to advance solutions (technologies, managerial tools, policy) in high-value industries. More recently, his work has involved investigating actions required by businesses and the economy to address the nature crisis.

Dharm’s research interests focus on transdisciplinary innovation; wicked problems (economic, environmental, political/security); working with nature; environment and biodiversity; and regenerative agriculture and aquaculture.

In the past, his research has focused on advanced (decentralised) manufacturing, public procurement and public-private collaboration, industrial strategy, business transformation and innovation in complex products and systems.

Dharm has an MSc (2004) with Distinction from the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex. He holds a PhD (2010) from the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge (Wolfson College).

Dharm has also co-produced various academic papers and professional reports and enjoys operating as a ‘bridge’, providing translation and support between policy, managerial and technical disciplines.

Dr Jenneth Parker

Jenneth has a BA Hons (Cardiff) and Msc (London School of Economics) in Philosophy and an interdisciplinary DPhil from the University of Sussex drawing on ethics, philosophy of science and social movement theory to discuss ecofeminist ethics for sustainability. She has recently worked with the University of Bristol QUEST Earth System Science climate change team on interdisciplinary synthesis and as a researcher on the EU funded CONVERGE project.

Jenneth is a former Co-Director of the international Education for Sustainability distance learning Masters programme set up by NGOs after the first Earth Summit in 1992 at London South Bank University, and has worked on the African Commonwealth Scholars programme. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate School of Education, Bristol, working on interdisciplinary research and learning for sustainability. She has published on critical realist philosophy, and ethics of sustainable development in addition to many publications on education for sustainable development (ESD), most recently for UNESCO. She is currently working on the links between critical realist frameworks and systems theory with reference to examples of interdisciplinary research for sustainability.

Ed Langham

Ed is a director of The Schumacher Institute. He is a specialist in low carbon energy transitions, working with new and emerging energy market players to develop Decentralised Energy Resources to accelerate climate action. Australian by background, he is currently based in Bristol collaborating with the Schumacher Institute via his PhD in decentralised energy business model innovation for a post-growth economic transition. He is also a Research Principal at the Institute for Sustainable Futures,  University of Technology, Sydney working on energy strategy and planning, business model development, open data mapping tools and regulatory reform for the new energy landscape.

Emma Collier

Emma is a voluntary sector advisor and fundraiser with a keen interest is getting projects off the ground and “fit for funding”.

Emma originally trained as a town planner-urban designer and the lessons learned then have never been wasted. After a brief stint in consultancy where she worked on a major transnational economic development project, she joined UWE in 1992 as part of the team that launched a new Urban Design MA programme. Her interest in the importance of community involvement in planning and design led her to the voluntary sector when she left academia after 5 years to take theory into practice. She joined a charity supporting communities in the numerous regeneration initiatives going on in Southwark at the time. It didn’t take long to realise that funding concerns – and ensuring projects and organisations are fundable – underpin so much of the voluntary sector. Since then, she has worked for many membership and infrastructure organisations, eventually becoming the second Chief Officer of CVS South Gloucestershire in 2006. She then turned from poacher to gamekeeper by joining Quartet Community Foundation to guide and evaluate the last three years of the Lottery-funded Fair Share Trust programme in North Somerset. Emma has now turned her full attention to fundraising and funding advice and has worked for numerous charities on their fundraising strategies and securing grants.

Emma now works as a freelance consultant – as Chora Consulting – offering skills and experience in developing projects, people and organisations. She has a perspective on the many aspects of the fundraising process from research and evidence of need, project development and funding application to grant assessment and project management to monitoring and evaluation. She specialises in supporting and developing small-medium voluntary organisations underpinned by a belief in sharing skills, capacity building, and developing an in-depth understanding of the organisation and cause. Bringing all her thoughts and ideas together is a concern for fairness, resilience and sustainability.

Emma has been a trustee of Children’s Scrapstore in Bristol for too many years, including periods as Chair and Treasurer, helping to steer the charity through its ups and downs.

Emma has an MA in Urban Design from Oxford Polytechnic, is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, and an OCN-accredited Funding Advisor.

Hugh Atkinson

Hugh is a Director of the Institute and a Distinguished Fellow. He is academic background in political science. He has written, edited and contributed to a number of books on local democracy, sustainability, the politics of climate change and new economics. His current area of interest is new economics and football.  He is a supporter of Crystal Palace FC.

Hugh used to work in local government and was for 4 years an elected local councillor in the London Borough of Croydon.

Ian Roderick

Ian is the director of The Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems.

His first degree was in Mathematics with Physics and then obtained an MSc in Operational Research and an MSc in Responsibility & Business Practice. He started his career at the Building Research Establishment before heading up strategic forecasting for a large American multinational company. He then co-founded a successful software company, which was sold in 2000. Since then he has pursued interests in applying systems sciences to problems in environmental and social justice. He was president of the UK Systems Society from 2005-2008 and is a member of the System Dynamics Society, the Operational Research Society and the Society of Professional Economists, also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Kate Swatridge

Kate is an operational researcher and business modelling consultant, helping organisations when they are struggling to define a problem, the solution or have a big decision to make.  This work often involves developing data-driven tools and models, which enable clients to explore scenarios and test assumptions, and which ultimately inform tactical and strategic decisions. She is working on Permaculture education in East Africa.

Katie Dick

Katie is a director of the Schumacher Institute. She is passionate about environmental and social justice issues and is enjoying continuing her learning on systems thinking through the institute. Katie’s journey in systems thinking started with a Schumacher institute course run by Martin Sandbrook in 2014. This was part of what inspired her to spend a year at Schumacher College completing a Masters in Economics for Transition. She finds systems thinking to be a good complement to her earlier scientific training (a first degree in Biochemistry and Masters in Human Nutrition) and enjoys the challenges it presents. She has worked for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for 10+ years in various policy roles, including on international sustainable development, sustainable procurement, climate change adaptation and chemicals policy.

Mike Thomas

Michael is interested in how systems thinking can shift the world to a more sustainable and socially just way of living and being. He has a history of working in a range of sectors from community work to homelessness to his current role at Transition Network. He is interested in how systems thinking can be popularised and made accessible to people in communities to affect change. Infrastructure to support movements and build networks is also an interest and he is currently developing the CTRLshift network to bring together a range of organisations to explore how they can support each other’s work. He is also a keen musician and is involved in the volunteer-run Cube Cinema where he helps run it and puts on events.

Richard Hellen

Richard is an experienced energy sector analyst with over 25 years experience in both large scale central and small scale distributed power generation. He is a low carbon energy options and feasibility assessor covering both energy efficiency investment options and renewable energy technologies, following the well-known Energy Hierarchy approach.

He also has experience in the production of a comprehensive energy master plan for major developments can also be provided to guide the strategic decision making for such things as District Heating, harnessing heat from a range of sources including Energy from Waste plant and gas fuelled Combined Heat and Power.