Powering Progress: AI, Sustainability, and Global Leadership in Action | Showcase Session

Professor Caroline Meyer is Provost at the University of Warwick where she supports the Vice-Chancellor in the academic leadership of the University.

Caroline was previously Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) where she was instrumental in supporting and maintaining Warwick’s research excellence and pioneering the launch of the National Centre for Research Culture along with the new Warwick Research Spotlights. Prior to this, Caroline was Vice-Provost and Chair of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Caroline has a PhD in Eating Disorders from The University of Southampton. She was a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of Birmingham and then worked in the Department of Psychology at Warwick and Warwick Medical School.

Caroline returned to Warwick in 2014, having been a Reader and then Professor at Loughborough University. Her research is predominantly within two key areas; eating disorders and workforce mental health and productivity. Her work involves many external partner organisations, including the NHS, industry partners and schools both nationally and internationally.

David joined WBS in 2008 as Academic Director for the Warwick Global Energy MBA after more than 20 years working in the energy & management consulting industries. After graduating in Natural Sciences from Christ’s College, Cambridge, David joined BP, working in the UK then the US. While in the US he completed his MBA at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where he received the Dean’s Award for academic excellence. He then joined Gemini Consulting in 1995 and, after various mergers, was Vice President with the UK Energy, Utilities & Chemicals team of CapGemini.

In 2004 he joined Schlumberger as Vice President & Director in the team who created the firm’s management consulting arm, Schlumberger Business Consulting. David initially focused on the London-based team then spent a year in Houston as Director for SBC’s North & South America activities before returning to London and focusing on clients in Northern Europe.

With WBS he led development of the WBS Global Energy MBA and is now the Course Director for the WBS MSc Management. He leads the WBS Global Energy Research Network and works on a number of externally funded research programmes.

Professor Sai Gu is Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (East and South East Asia) working closely with Professor Michael Scott, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International), to maintain, extend and deepen our relationships with university partners in this region, and to pursue opportunities for funding, student mobility, and research and education collaborations.

Professor Gu obtained a PhD in Material Modelling from the University of Nottingham under the supervision of Professor Graham McCartney. He further pursued this material research with Professor Tian Jian Lu as Post-doc at the University of Cambridge. He was a lecturer at Aston University while working closely with Professor Tony Bridgwater in bioenergy research with focus on biomass fast pyrolysis. He continued to expand his bioenergy research at University of Southampton by developing an extensive international network in Asia, Africa and Europe from biomass resources, processing to product upgrading. He was appointed Chair in Clean Energy at Cranfield University in 2011 in partnership with Peterborough City Council to support the growth of high tech sectors. He subsequently established Centre for Bioenergy and Resource Management with large number of PhD and Post-doc researchers. He joined the University of Surrey as the Head of Chemical Engineering in 2015 and engineered the transformation of the department by substantially increasing its size and strengthening its research. He also led the merge of chemistry and chemical engineering as the Head of School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at University of Surrey.

Professor Gu has an international reputation for clean energy and material research. He has a long track-record of coordinating large collaborative projects with international partners and has successfully won tens of million pounds in grants from EPSRC, EU, Innovate UK and industry.

Professor Gu is an advocate of digital technologies for chemical engineering, pioneering the development of Industry 6th Sense technologies. He has established the Centre for Connected Plants of the Future to bring together multi-disciplinary expertise cross the University of Surrey, exploring the development of technology-driven innovation for chemical industry. He has led the EPSRC project “Stepping towards the industrial 6th sense”.

Dr Feng Mao is Associate Professor of Global Sustainable Development and Director of Research at the School for Cross-Faculty Studies, University of Warwick. His interdisciplinary research explores the dynamic interactions between water, ecosystems, society, and technology to address complex sustainability challenges. His current work is structured around three interrelated themes:

• Water security and resilience under climate change, e.g., socio-hydrological systems, urban water resilience, and climate adaptation strategies across diverse geographical contexts.
• Data science and digital technologies for the environment and policy, e.g., GeoAI, data visualisation, environmental informatics, and creative technologies.
• Participatory and collaborative methods for sustainable development, e.g., serious games, art-science collaboration, and knowledge co-creation.

Dr Mao leads and collaborates on a wide range of research initiatives, including projects in collaborations with researchers and non-academic partners from sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, and Europe. He is a member of the NERC Future Leaders Council and sits on the UKRI-NERC Aviation Assurance Panel, helping to shape the strategic direction of UK environmental science. Internationally, he serves as Theme Lead for Water Security in a Changing World within the ACU Commonwealth Futures Climate Research Cohort Programme, supporting a community of researchers to address local climate change challenges through research, training, engagement, and knowledge exchange. Dr Mao also serves as Sustainability Lead for the AHRC-funded CreaTech Frontiers project and Academic Lead for the Research England-funded Games and Innovation Nexus (GAIN) project, playing an active role in bridging research, sustainability, and innovation across the creative industries.

Satnam Rana-Grindley is the Director for Communications – Corporate Brand and interim lead for the Marketing, Communications and Insight department at The University of Warwick.

Prior to this role, Satnam had a career spanning over two decades at the BBC, where she served as a Broadcaster, Journalist and Arts and Culture Correspondent working on Midlands Today, national and international news programmes. With a passion for strategic storytelling, Satnam leads the communications team to strengthen and enhance the University’s reputation in line with its 2030 vision to be one of the world’s exceptional universities, helping to transform the West Midlands, UK, and world, for the collective good.