Speakers
Conference Chair, Dr. Ben Vivian (FIEMA) - UK Corporate Social Responsibility Advisor, Aggregate Industries UK Ltd
Ben has worked for Aggregate Industries UK Ltd since January 2003, in a new post covering all aspects of CSR and Sustainability in the UK. He has principal responsibility for the development of UK policy and Group reporting on sustainability.
Ben obtained a DPhil from Oxford University having researched the role of near surface hydrological pathways in creating conditions for landsliding. With a career background that is largely outside the industry, Ben has worked in academia, research establishments and consultancy. Ranging across the whole environmental and sustainability agenda, his approach which has developed over more than 15 years, is based on a legal and risk based framework.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, past Chair the IEMA’s Professional Standards Committee and was a Non-Executive Director and member of Council of the institute 2004-2006. Ben is Vice-Chair of the Biodiversity Benchmark Steering Group of the Royal Society for Wildlife Trusts and a member of Defra’s Business and Biodiversity Strategy Implementation Group. Recently he was made a Trustee of Operation Wallacea Trust which was established in order to support activities that could directly contribute towards the conservation of biodiversity in the Wallacea region of eastern Indonesia.
Ben is a keen photographer and wine lover. To off-set the effects of the latter, he is a triathlete and competes at the sprint distance, and has ridden a number of cyclosportives.
Kerry Thomas - Associate Director for Research & Training, Environmental KTN
Kerry Thomas is the Associate Director for Research and Training at the Environmental KTN. Prior to this he was Head of Environmental Research and Senior Lecturer at the Technology Innovation Centre at Birmingham City University.
Kerry is an experienced Chemical and Public Health Engineer who has had 20 years experience in the Water Industry with Thames Water and has considerable project management and consultancy experience overseas in Catchment Management and Water Quality Modelling.
Professor Kevin Jones - Director - Centre for Chemicals Management/Associate Director for Research, Lancaster University
Kevin Jones is the Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. He is also the Director of the Centre for Chemical Management, in the Lancaster Environment Centre—a multidisciplinary institute combining staff at the Natural Environment Research Councils Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the University.
Kevin obtained his first degree in Environmental Science from London University in 1981, and his PhD in environmental chemistry from Kings College London in 1984. He moved to Lancaster in 1985, and has established a large research group, investigating wide-ranging aspects of the environmental behaviour and effects of organic contaminants. He is currently studying: inter-media transfers and global cycling of persistent organic pollutants (POPs); the fate and behaviour of organic chemicals, primarily in terrestrial environments; sources and trends in environmental POPs; passive sampling techniques; human exposure to organic chemicals; and soil contamination and bioavailability.
