Directors

Brendon Energy currently has 5 directors – Sandra Aldworth, Tony Baker, Richard Brunning, Adrian Tait and Simon Ratsey (co-opted 2016).

A complete list of directors and the periods they served is available. If you are interested in becoming a director of Brendon Energy we would be interested to hear from you so please get in touch using the contact details shown on this page.

Sandra Aldworth, Finance Director

Sandra is a Chartered Accountant with her own practice in the Blackdown Hills. She qualified in 1986 and after a period in practice she moved out into industry working for a variety of businesses over the years. She returned to practice after being made redundant in 2009 from her position as South West Finance Manager for the Museums Libraries and Archives Council. She currently looks after the accounts and tax affairs of over 150 clients, including 15 social enterprises. She is a Director of Somerset Co-operative Services CIC, Somerset Co-operative Community Land Trust and Goop Co-operative as well as Brendon Energy.

Tony Baker, Director

Tony was the John Ford scholar in Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford, before training in law and working for Burges Salmon in Bristol. With considerable project management experience behind him as a property developer, Tony moved into the renewables sector 5 years ago. His work has particularly focussed on solar and hydropower. Tony’s role in Brendon Energy, since 2011, has included both legal advice and project management.

Richard Brunning, Director

Richard is an archaeologist working with the South West Heritage Trust. He has collected a BA, MA and PhD and some other letters along the way. He is a member of ten renewable energy co-operatives in the UK (including the first UK one) and is a member of several other co-ops. He lives in Wiveliscombe with his family.

Adrain Tait, Director

Adrian is a retired Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist.  He is co-founder of the
Climate Psychology Alliance, a UK-based organisation focussed on helping to
understand and address the engagement challenge posed by the climate and
ecological crisis.

His original connection with Brendon Energy arose through North Curry
Community Energy, a successful scheme to install 30kw of solar pv generation
on public buildings in that village.  Adrian also co-ordinates Transition
Athelney, which links five villages and hamlets on the Western fringe of the
Somerset Levels.  He is also part of the development group for Reimagining
the Levels, pursuing a sustainable future for the area and a whole catchment
response to the flood threat.

Simon Ratsey, Director

Simon grew up on a dairy farm near Wiveliscombe, in due course graduating from the University of Durham with a degree in Geography, in 1968. He worked first with the Field Studies Council at Nettlecombe Court, where he developed a lasting research interest in the industrial archaeology of the Brendon Hills, and also in local weather and climate. Then, after teaching at secondary level for fifteen years, he worked as a freelance gardener for the next twenty-five.

Having been a long-term campaigner on issues relating to environmental sustainability, Simon joined the core group of Transition Town Wellington soon after it formed in 2009. This subsequently led to his involvement with Brendon Energy. Now retired, he volunteers in a number of other roles in the community, including as a church trustee. In his spare time, he continues his scientific research into climate change as it manifests itself in Somerset, and enjoys gardening and fly-fishing for trout.

Simon has lived in Wellington for thirty years, and the roof of his house was the first in the town to sport a solar PV installation, after the launch of the Feed in Tariff Scheme in 2010.