Welcome to our new trustee
We’re thrilled to welcome Gbemi Oluleye to Opportunity Green’s board of trustees. Gbemi is an assistant professor at Imperial College London and a consultant in the clean technology space. She brings a wealth of experience working in clean technologies and fuels, across policy, business and academia.
At Imperial, Gbemi leads a research group focused on modelling the uptake of clean technologies and fuels for decarbonising hard-to-abate and hard-to-electrify end-use systems.
We caught up with Gbemi to find out what motivates her and why she’s excited about helping us accelerate decarbonisation in the shipping sector and beyond…
Tell us about your background
“My academic background and my upbringing have contributed to where I am now. I am Nigerian British, so I was born in Nigeria, West Africa and became British by naturalisation. I completed my education (up until bachelors) in Nigeria, worked for two years focusing on the design of low-carbon industrial systems, and then came to the UK for a Master’s in Advanced Chemical Process Design.
“After that, I spent three years working on the design and assessment of low-carbon energy systems before completing a PhD and working as a post-doc in the assessment and uptake of clean technologies. I then went on to launch my independent research portfolio.”
What inspires your work?
“The work I do addresses the transition to clean energy by reducing the economic barriers (affecting the affordability) of clean technologies and energy sources. It’s also multidisciplinary in nature – building on concepts from engineering, economics and policy.
“I’m inspired by energy because it’s the mainstay of any economy. What motivates me the most is ensuring that energy remains available, affordable, acceptable (especially with regards to greening our energy supply) and accessible (especially for developing countries, and the global south).”
What attracted you to be a trustee for us?
“Climate change is everyone’s problem, so the principles of global equity and sustainable development need to be at the heart of conversations. Decarbonisation is more than the technical solutions.
“The work Opportunity Green does is guided by this and supports global decarbonisation via building ambitious coalitions. This is what attracted me to become a Trustee – Opportunity Green is on the right path to accelerate decarbonisation of the shipping sector, and ripple effects to other sectors.”
What do you hope to achieve in working with us?
“I’d like to directly address how to decarbonise the shipping sector in a cost-effective way, using business models and policy instruments.
“I will also be bringing my experience in showing how diverse teams (i.e., everyone at the table) results in better decision making across the scale.
“I hope to support Opportunity Green in synthesising ambitious coalitions that are required to accelerate and sustain the decarbonisation of the shipping sector.”
Find out more about Gbemi’s work and connect with her on LinkedIn.
