UK Business Leaders’ Summit 2026

As Director for CISL's Policy and Systems Change Collaborations Team, Bev leads CISL's UK policy (she is Director for the UK Corporate Leaders Group), international policy, and business and nature work. With over 20 years’ experience as a sustainability professional, she leads a team that develops high impact, systemic solutions to drive policy and industrial change towards a climate neutral, nature positive and socially inclusive economy.

During her 13 years at CISL, Bev has led programmes of work that include looking at national and international leadership priorities for the UK Government, the issues of resource efficiency and industrial transformation, and a series of sustainability leadership programmes for businesses. Bev is an expert convenor and moderator, who brings experience in programme management, stakeholder engagement, event planning, research and producing concise written materials for a range of audiences.

Before joining CISL, Bev spent ten years working in the public sector, in local, regional and then national government, most recently working for the Sustainable Development Commission with a particular focus on education and health policy. Bev holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business from the University of Cambridge.

Rachel is responsible for the overall management of the Aldersgate Group, including the development of its work programme, its relationships with key political and business stakeholders and its robust representation of member views to government ministers and parliamentarians. Rachel has been working in environment and energy policy for more than 20 years, having begun her career on the Defra graduate programme. She is driven by understanding complex environmental problems from all sides and seeking pragmatic solutions.

During 2005 Rachel worked on Defra’s then-pioneering climate change business engagement programme, sparking her interest in the opportunity for businesses to deliver a positive impact, and in the vital importance of a regulatory level playing field.

Since then, Rachel has explored these issues through leadership roles within public, private and non-profit sectors. Highlights of her career have included leading policy development for the Climate Change Act, working on the UK’s first Renewable Energy Roadmap, developing the Tesco climate strategy, and establishing the UK’s sustainable aviation fuel policy framework.

Rachel lives with her husband and daughter in north London. She is a keen walker and musician.

Professor Emily Shuckburgh was appointed the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in November 2025.

Emily retains her role as Director of Cambridge Zero at the University of Cambridge. She is also Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology.

Emily is a mathematician and climate scientist and a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. She is President-elect of the Royal Meteorological Society (FRMetS), a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS), and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute (HonFEI).

At the University of Cambridge, she is Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration and of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).

She worked for more than a decade at the British Antarctic Survey where her work included leading a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate. Prior to that she undertook research at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and at MIT.

She is co-author, with HM King Charles III and Tony Juniper, of the ‘Ladybird Book on Climate Change’.

Emily was awarded an OBE in 2016 and a CBE in 2025.

Martin McTague was appointed as National Chair of FSB on 8 March 2022. Prior to this, he was FSB National Vice Chair, Policy and Advocacy (from 2021) and FSB Policy and Advocacy Chair, a role he was elected to in March 2016.

Martin has served as a volunteer with FSB for more than 20 years, in a variety of roles including Chairman of the Local Government Policy Unit.

As National Chair, Martin works closely with government and opposition leaders, attending ministerial meetings and representing FSB and its members at the most senior levels. He also works to ensure that members’ views are represented in international institutions. He works to ensure that FSB’s policy reports are used widely to help policy makers, and he champions FSB’s member survey programme, Big Voice.

Martin started his own business 35 years ago and now currently owns and manage three businesses - offering public policy, engineering and IT consultancy services. Running businesses for more than three decades means that Martin has worked with institutional investors; operating sophisticated financial management systems, marketing complex IT systems and managing more than 60 employees.

Martin’s business experience is invaluable to him in his role as FSB National Chair. He believes that integrity and a cross-party approach are both vital preconditions for success. He is determined to protect and advance FSB’s current standing as the UK’s most influential business lobby – one that truly represents its grassroots members. Martin has served on the Government’s Low Pay Commission since 2018 and was appointed to the ACAS Council in September 2023 by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

Martin McTague was recognised with an OBE for Services to Small Businesses in the King’s New Years Honours 2024 List.

Ian Simm is the Founder and Chief Executive of Impax Asset Management Group plc, one of the world’s leading investment managers focused on the transition to a more sustainable economy, with offices and clients in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

Outside Impax, Ian is a member of the UK government’s Net Zero Council, which provides strategic leadership to support delivery of the government’s low carbon objectives, and its Net Zero Innovation Board, which provides strategic oversight of public sector funding of energy innovation programmes. He is a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the European membership body for investor collaboration on addressing climate change a commissioner with the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of leaders developing transition roadmaps to achieve net-zero emissions, and the chair of the Net Zero Committee of the Confederation of British Industry. His past roles include being a board member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK’s leading funding agency for environmental science, and a Commissioner with the Severn Estuary Commission. Prior to Impax, Ian was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company advising clients on environmental strategy.

Ian has a first-class honours degree in physics from Cambridge University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University. After his first degree he initiated and led an expedition to complete the first summer crossing of the Sahara Desert by tandem bicycle.

Sue Ferns is a Non-Executive Board Member of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Sue is Senior Deputy General Secretary at Prospect, the union for professionals. Her responsibilities in Prospect include leading the union’s work across the energy and defence sectors; science, climate and environment; and gender equality.

Sue is a member of the TUC Executive Committee and the General Council’s lead on energy, environment and sustainability, chair of the Trade Union Sustainable Development Advisory Committee (TUSDAC), and a TUC Aid Trustee. She was a member of the government’s green jobs taskforce and represents the TUC on the Net Zero Council. Sue is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Dr Adam Read joined SUEZ recycling and recovery UK as Director of External Affairs in September 2017. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the waste sector as an academic, researcher, local authority officer and consultant.

Adam is currently responsible for government liaison and working with UK and international trade bodies in the sector, sitting on a number of technical working groups with the ESA, CIWM and FEAD. In his previous role as a consultant, Adam supported local authorities (and their service providers) in reviewing their services, procuring solutions and considering alternative partnering models. Adam is a regular contributor to trade journals, and a well-known conference speaker and workshop facilitator.

Tanya Steele (CBE) leads the UK office of WWF, the world’s largest independent conservation organisation. She heads up WWF-UK at a critical time in which she is leading the delivery of an ambitious strategy to tackle the catastrophic decline in species and habitats across the world. From climate change to wildlife recovery, the food system to thriving oceans – Tanya sees WWF as a critical force for influencing change.

Tanya began her career in the tech industry working in product development, marketing and communications in senior roles for Siemens and BT.

After nearly 15 years in the private sector, and inspired by a volunteering assignment with the Red Cross, Tanya brought her corporate experience to the charity sector joining Save the Children in 2004 as Executive Director of Marketing, Fundraising and Communications, and later led the organisation as interim Chief Executive.

Whilst working in international development, Tanya saw first-hand the impact the environment has on people’s daily lives, particularly in communities which are less resilient to environmental pressures. Fusing her passion for, and experience of, human development and the environment, Tanya joined WWF-UK in January 2017 as its first female Chief Executive; its sixth since 1961.

Tanya is married and has a teenage son. She lives in North London and is a trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee and the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance.

Katie White was appointed Minister for Climate in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on 7 September 2025.

She was elected as the MP for Leeds North West in July 2024.

Education

Katie graduated from the University of Glasgow.

Career outside politics

Before going into politics, Katie worked at Friends of the Earth where she co-led the campaign for the Climate Change Act.

In 2009, she worked with the UK government to prepare for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), before going on to work at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

She was previously Executive Director at WWF-UK.

She was awarded an OBE for her services to tackling climate change.