Andy Burnham was elected Mayor of Greater Manchester in May 2017, and was re-elected for a second term in May 2021.

Prior to being Mayor, Andy was MP for Leigh from 2001. In Government, Andy has held Ministerial positions at the Home Office, Department of Health and the Treasury. In 2008 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, before returning to Health as Secretary of State in 2009. In opposition, Andy has served as Shadow Education Secretary, Shadow Health Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary. Andy lives in Leigh, Greater Manchester, with his wife and three children. He is a keen supporter of Everton FC.

Zamzam Ibrahim is Vice President of European Students’ Union, a co-founder of Students Organising for Sustainability UK, and Vice Chair Muslim Leadership foundation and the former National President of the National Union of Students’ UK.

Zamzam is a finance graduate from the University of Salford, Manchester. She’s been the student representative for almost a decade leading work on a fully funded and just education system to tackling societal injustices, leading campaigns from; climate justice to tackling racial injustice. Zamzam has been a leading voice on tackling climate injustice more specifically in the education system, diverting away from a Eurocentric lens in which the climate crisis is currently portrayed in. Her main focus lies on internationalisation and mobility, public responsibility and financing of higher education as well as organisational development and finances within the European Students’ Union.

Peter has been CEO of the region’s electricity network operator since 2016 and over the past five years has led the charge in getting the network ready for net zero.

The network of more than 27,000 miles of underground cables and overhead lines, spanning from Cheshire to Cumbria, is one of the most reliable in the world and is key to delivering net zero as we move away from fossil fuels to low carbon electricity to power our transport, heating, homes and businesses.

Peter is a member of the Greater Manchester Green City Region Partnership and the Greater Manchester Strategic Infrastructure Board which are helping the City region secure carbon neutrality by 2038. Electricity North West has also committed to this target for its own operations.

Peter has over 35 years’ global experience in the energy sector, which included a leading role in converting Drax into a major renewable generator as Group Operations Director. He is chair of the energy networks industry group encouraging more diversity and inclusion in the sector, and also works with Government and regulators to enable the delivery of ambitious national and international climate change goals.

Dr Adam Read has been External Affairs Director at SUEZ recycling & recovery UK for the last 4 years after a successful career in academia, local government and consultancy. For the last 24 months he has been jointly leading the company’s work with the UK Government on the development of the new Resources & Waste Strategy and associated consultations, acting as lead author on the SUEZ consultation submissions and evidence calls and as peer reviewer for the CIWM and ESA in their responses. He has co-hosted 50 plus workshops in the last 18 months working with the value chain to assess the changes needed, the options proposed and the means of transitioning, supporting the likes of INCPEN, IGD and RECOUP on collaborative action.

Adam sits on numerous industry technical working groups, is a regular speaker and facilitator, a technical report and article author, and a frequent blogger and social media enthusiast. During lockdown he has fronted SUEZ’s webinar programme (over 40 sessions) and has developed an active interest in workshop facilitation. He has been in the waste & resource sector for almost 25 years specialising in municipal waste management strategy, recycling services, contracts and consultation, and continues to support UK service innovation and delivery, when not influencing Government policy. He is a Fellow of the CIWM, RSA, IOM3 and the Royal Geographical Society and is the CIWM ‘s current President, where his focus is on the skills needed for delivering a green recovery and a more circular economy.

Cel is an actor, broadcaster and radio DJ from Manchester. His acting credits include Netflix’s White Lines, ITV’s Cold Feet and BBC One’s World on Fire.

His broadcasting credits began with CBBC, where he hosted numerous shows from Friday Download to All Over the Place, and since CBBC Cel has hosted for Watchdog, The Voice, BBC Three’s Young Doctors and more.

Cel has also been a BBC Radio 1 DJ for over 5 years where he hosted the iconic Life Hacks on a Sunday afternoon. On top of this, Cel is currently the official host for the Man City fan show, We’re Not Really Here Yet, which goes out live on game days across Man City’s social channels that have millions of followers. Cel is a passionate advocate for the environment, working closely on numerous projects with WWF in his role as Ambassador, including hosting the Call of the Wild podcast that launched in Feb 2021 with the first guest being none other than David Attenborough. In addition to this, Cel works closely with UNICEF, as a High Profile Ambassador, Young Peoples Trust for the Environment, MISP, Great Ormond Street, The Climate Coalition, City of Trees and The Wildlife Trust.

Anne recently retired as CEO of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire Manchester and Merseyside after 30 years at the helm. She leads the Natural Capital Group for Greater Manchester and is proud that it is seen as one of the innovative and high performing Local Nature Partnerships in the country.  Her passion is for reconnecting people to nature and she has been at the forefront of this, working on community based, local initiatives that cover health, food, green infrastructure, environmental education and volunteering. As well as having a passion for our wonderful peatlands,  Anne admits to being an escaped town planner and she has held various government appointments, including, Board Member for the NW Development Agency, Heritage Lottery Fund Regional Committee and the NW Forestry and Wildlife Advisory Committee.

Her previous career includes the City Farm movement, British Waterways and as a Principal Officer in local government in planning and later in tourism. As a farmer’s daughter, her early experience was farming a modest mixed farm in North Yorkshire and she currently is involved in running an organic dairy farm.

Anne is a Board member of the new Northern Roots initiative in Oldham and is the Chair of  the new Greater Manchester Environment Fund, as it establishes itself in the new funding landscape for the benefit of people and the natural environment of Greater Manchester.

In 2017 Chris was appointed by Mayor Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester’s first ever Cycling and Walking Commissioner. In December 2017 he published his Made to Move report, setting out a 10-year, £1.5 billion plan to revolutionise the way we get around the city-region using active travel. Chris is now Greater Manchester’s first ever Transport Commissioner, tasked with accelerating the delivery of plans for an integrated, London-style transport network.

Liz Price is Professor of Environmental Education and serves as Academic Institutional Lead for the Environment at Manchester Metropolitan University, providing strategic direction for environmental sustainability across learning, teaching and research and for accelerating education for the Sustainable Development Goals, Carbon Literacy and Net Zero skills.

She is Associate Head of School of the European School of Sustainability Science and Research, Chair of the Committee of Heads of Environmental Sciences, Council Member of the Institution of Environmental Sciences and a member of the QAA and Advance HE Advisory Group reviewing the Education for Sustainable Development Guidance for the UK.

Liz is the institutional strategic sponsor and lead for Responsible Futures and representative on the Manchester Climate Change Board and Partnership and on the Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education Leaders.

She has a degree in Biology from the University of Manchester and a DPhil in Ecology from the University of Sussex. Her research interests are in education for sustainable development and processes governing plant community composition. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Leadership Foundation, and a Chartered Environmentalist.

As Chief Executive Officer of, John is responsible for driving forward the SUEZ group’s SUEZ 2030 vision in the UK, and for continuing to mobilise SUEZ’s newly won contracts in Greater Manchester and Somerset.
John’s industrial leadership and strategic vision has been forged over his 30-year career with SUEZ, since joining in 1991 as one of the company’s first employees in the UK. He has been an integral part of the executive committee since 2003.

John has held a variety of operational and business development roles within SUEZ, which lead to becoming Chief Operating Officer of Operations in 2015, and prior to that Chief Operating Officer of the Processing division. Before these appointments, John was Business Development Director where he was heavily involved with the first PFI contract that SUEZ won in Surrey in 1997 and became the General Manager for that contract in 200

David founded The Retrofit Academy CIC in 2016, leading the development of the Retrofit Coordinator qualification and the establishment of the Centre of Excellence. He is considered one the UK’s leading experts on retrofit education and is a regular conference speaker. David works closely with TrustMark, BEIS and BSI in supporting the transition to delivering whole house retrofit. He serves as a member of various committees and steering groups for BSI, TrustMark, BEIS and the UK-GBC.  

David was previously CEO at CoRE, the national centre of excellence for retrofit (2013-15) and prior to that spent over a decade running sustainable construction exhibitions and conferences. David is also the CEO of Osmosis, a consultancy supporting social landlords to understand retrofit and develop net zero strategies.  He holds an MBA (Distinction) and a master’s degree in modern history.

I’m Emma Greenwood, a 17-year-old youth voice and climate activist. I work as the current Youth Member of Parliament for Bury, part of the Youth Strike 4 Climate Manchester group and the international Fridays for Future Network to push for climate justice and the inclusion of youth voice in politics.

Neil leads Rochdale Council and is the Greater Manchester Combined Authority portfolio lead for Green City Region. The 58-year-old West Middleton councillor was born in Heywood and attended St Joseph’s RC Primary School in Heywood and Cardinal Langley before going on to study modern languages at Swansea University. Councillor Emmott also studied at the University of Valencia and the Sorbonne in Paris and is fluent in five languages.

He was first elected to the council in 1986 at the age of 23 and served for 8 years before leaving to pursue work opportunities in other parts of the country. The former competitive figure skater returned as a councillor in 2010 for his second spell which continues to this day.

Emma Howard Boyd is Chair of the Environment Agency, an Ex officio board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and interim Chair of the Green Finance Institute. She is also an Adviser to the Board of Trade, and a UN Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience ahead of COP26. Emma was the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation from 2018 until January 2021.

Emma serves on several boards and advisory committees which include:

• The Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (co-Chair)
• The European Climate Foundation
• The Council for Sustainable Business
• The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project
• Menhaden PLC

Emma was the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation from 2018 until January 2021.

Simeran is a Principal Consultant at Anthesis, where she leads on engaging cities on setting science-based targets, developing climate action plans, and collaborating with key stakeholders to co-create solutions. She is currently managing the development of Manchester’s Framework 2 delivering their targets and implementation plan.