Meet the judges

Matteo is a Senior Structural Engineer at Expedition Engineering with a focus on regenerative design and the circular economy. His practice bridges industry and academia, as he tutors at the Architectural Association and co-leads a course on structural reuse at Institute of Advance Architecture Catalonia. Matteo’s expertise includes developing carbon-reduction strategies and forensic analysis tools for existing structures.

Beyond his technical work, he is deeply committed to the social value of engineering and is focused on how engineering can actively restore environments and foster equity for both people and the planet.

As an Artist Eva brings people together through conversation, collaboration, skills sharing, creative activity, debate, representation and activism. In recent years, Eva’s work has focused on the communities surrounding Birmingham’s Edgbaston Reservoir Local Nature Reserve, although she has worked with schools and communities across the West Midlands. Eva has previously worked as an HR professional and as a full-time mum.

“Having been born and grown up in Birmingham, I’m a Brummie who left, tried elsewhere, and came back, after living in the UK, France, and USA.”

Alex has over 25 years’ experience working in structural engineering and has designed buildings in various countries around the world. Since joining Cundall in 2016, he has delivered numerous net zero or low carbon schemes and is an advocate of decarbonising structural design solutions through material reuse and the repurposing of existing buildings. He also led the engineering design on the Circular Twin project that was awarded the AJ100 Sustainability Initiative of the Year Award in 2022 and is currently undertaking a similar research project on regenerative design.

Lynsey leads Ramboll’s own sustainability organisation, including the corporate team and Heads of Sustainability appointed in each core business unit. She is responsible for establishing Ramboll’s sustainability priorities and commitments and driving progress to deliver measurable value for clients, the business and society.

Lynsey has over 20 years of previous experience in sustainability and climate consulting, providing advice to a wide variety of organisations on their sustainability strategy, governance and specific solutions for places, systems, industrial processes and major infrastructure programmes.

Jen Scarlett is Head of Social Impact at RS Group, where she leads global programmes supporting the next generation of engineers and innovators. With over 16 years’ experience across the charity sector and FTSE 100 companies, she focuses on building partnerships and strategies that deliver practical, measurable impact. Jen previously founded a social enterprise to unlock overlooked talent and has worked extensively with young people from underserved communities to create pathways into future careers. She is a TEDx speaker and serves as a Changemakers Board Member at Magic Breakfast.

Currently serving as Group Projects Director at discoverIE Group plc, Neale has extensive experience leading complex international engineering companies. Neale works closely with senior stakeholders to turn strategy into executable outcomes, regularly collaborating with multidisciplinary engineering and technology teams, balancing technical rigour with commercial insight.

As a judge, Neale brings a practical, outcome-focused perspective, with particular interest in innovation that delivers measurable impact and scalability, whilst solving real-world problems.

Khadijah (she/her) is a creative practitioner and founder of Generous Waste, a practice exploring relationality and connection through materials, storytelling and collective making. Her work takes a deeply geopolitical and systems-thinking approach, tracing the journeys of materials to reveal global entanglements and encouraging relationality as a way of moving beyond abstraction.

Khadijah works across workshops, publications and audio projects, including To Walk With Water, a podcast exploring relationships between bodies, landscapes and ecological systems. She is currently working with Shakespeare Birthplace Trust on the archival project Blurring the Boundaries, and is an Associate Lecturer on MA Cities at Central Saint Martins, supporting students with narrative development and film production.

After several decades as a pioneering green architect – including the UK’s first zero carbon retrofit 2009 and RIBA National sustainability Award 2005 – John is now working in community-led retrofit.

In collaboration with CIVIC SQUARE and others, he co-created Retrofit Reimagined in Birmingham 2022, envisioning how deep domestic retrofit could be transformational at a community-led neighbourhood scale.

His local community group, Retrofit Balsall Heath, is helping to lead this change in their diverse inner-city neighbourhood. Reflecting on the initiative’s impact, The Times described the project as evidence that “yes, the future is still in Birmingham”.

Tim is Director of Social Value & Sustainability for Morgan Sindall Construction, where he empowers internal and external stakeholders to improve wellbeing in communities, and to responsibly deliver lower carbon, more regenerative built assets.

He has led several R&D initiatives, including an Innovate UK funded AI project. With a background in design management, he studied Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment at the University of Cambridge, and he created CarboniCa, the innovative and award-winning whole life carbon reduction tool for the built environment. In the 2022 Construction News Awards he was ‘highly commended’ as a carbon reduction champion.

Nicholas is a Research Engineering Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, where he leads the ideation, development and delivery of emerging automotive technologies. Using holistic engineering approaches, he explores innovative tools and processes to create new intellectual property and help shape the future of vehicle design.

Isabelle is an energy expert with more than 32 years of experience across the gas and electricity sectors. Most recently, she served as Head of National Control at National Grid ESO, leading a team of 300 responsible for the 24/7 operation of the UK’s electricity transmission system and working closely with government during major challenges including Covid-19, low-demand periods and winter operations.

An engineer by training, Isabelle was the first female engineer at the Birmingham Grid Control Centre. Alongside her industry leadership, she serves as a Non-Executive Director, charity trustee and executive coach, supporting organisations across the energy and charitable sectors.

Andy is Principal of The National Mathematics and Science College, a specialist STEM sixth-form day and boarding college in Coventry. The College has a strongly international student body, representing more than 30 nationalities, and an excellent record in national and international Olympiad competitions. Andy is also Chair of AMiE, the Association for Mathematics in Education.

Simon is a B2B engineering marketing professional with 25 years agency experience. He is a qualified electronics and mechanical engineer and marketer with skills and experience in Emech design, technical sales, business development and marketing for deep tech. companies.

Simon is passionate about helping to drive engineering innovation through marketing communications, he has a deep interest in promoting engineering with sustainability and planet at the core, and in promoting engineering as a rewarding career choice for younger generations.

Nancy is a Birmingham-based energy founder and consultant with a career spanning renewable energy deployment, battery storage, grid services and community-led energy transition. She is dedicated to making clean energy genuinely accessible to homes and communities across the West Midlands.

Final year student studying Geography (BSc) at the University of Birmingham who has undertaken a placement with CIVIC SQUARE to explore the potential feasibility of a community owned weather and air quality monitoring station. This involved assessing long term sustainability and various designs.

Imandeep Kaur (She/Her) is Co-founder and Director of CIVIC SQUARE Birmingham, an organisation demonstrating neighbourhood-scale civic infrastructure for social and ecological transition. Together with people and partners in Ladywood, Birmingham, UK, CIVIC SQUARE is reimagining land stewardship, finance and governance with a particular focus on ecological building design and bio-based material retrofit. Imandeep is an active member of Project 00, a collaborative studio based in London that specialises in sustainable design and regeneration; part of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab Advisory Team and on the Common Wealth Advisory Board.

Chikondi Gurira is the Chief Executive Officer of Engineers Without Borders South Africa (EWB-SA) and a Board Member of Engineers Without Borders International. An agricultural engineer and social impact leader, she is passionate about harnessing engineering to address complex societal challenges and improve quality of life in underserved communities. Through her leadership, EWB-SA advances community infrastructure projects, engineering education initiatives, and student leadership development programmes. Chikondi is a sought-after speaker and advocate for human-centred design, inspiring engineers to develop sustainable and equitable solutions for people and the planet.