Jon Townend, BA, Dip.LA, Executive Director

Jon is responsible for managing the development team and the day-to-day business of the society on behalf of the voluntary board of directors.

Jon was Principal Landscape Architect at the environmental regeneration charity Groundwork Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot, before establishing his own consultancy practice in 2003. He became involved in renewables as a landscape planner in 2011 and then as the managing director of a renewable energy development company between 2012-15 that delivered c.90MWp of generating capacity at sites across the UK. More recently, he has worked for Gwent Energy CIC and joined YnNi Teg in 2020 as a Project Manager.  Jon is also a voluntary director of TrydaNi-Chargeplace Wales, a community benefit society focussed on sustainable transport initiatives.

Guy Hopwood, MSc, Development Manager

Guy’s role is to work as part of the team to identify and develop new opportunities and deliver a pipeline of projects currently under development.

Guy has recently joined the YnNi Teg development team.  He has a degree in Agriculture and Forestry and an MSc in Rural Resource Management, both from Bangor University.  His work experience includes nearly 25 years working for an environmental consultancy including 10 years focused on commercial renewable energy projects followed by nearly 3 years with the Welsh Govt Energy Service.  His development and project management experience covers site finding, site assessment & technical feasibility, planning, construction and operation. Guy is a director of Grannell Community Energy, which operates a 500kW wind turbine in Ceredigion. 

Jane Nerys O’Brien, MSc.(Eng) Development Manager

Jane joined the YnNi Teg team on a temporary basis in October 21, she is now a permanent part of the team identifying opportunities and delivering projects currently under development. She has an MSc Eng in Energy Management & Conservation and has worked in the sustainability sector for over 25 years.

Jane’s skills include turning ideas into realistic projects and she enjoys helping community groups to achieve their sustainable aims.  She has experience in developing a range of renewable technology initiatives from inception through to installation, including service provision for Government Office North West.  During 10 years working for RENEW Wales, she assisted over 35 projects including social enterprises, community buildings and those ranging from wind turbine development, to food growing, health and well-being.   Also a voluntary Director of Grannell CE and Renewable Power Pembrokeshire, Jane worked within a small team to successfully develop two community wind turbines at Cribyn, Lampeter (500kW) and in South Pembrokeshire (800kW).   Jane sees a holistic approach to community and other energy schemes as the way forward, encompassing grid management, storage, renewable technology developments, transport (and, intrinsic to all, energy efficiency). 

Gareth Tucker, MEng, MSc, CEng MIMECHE, Project Engineer

As project engineer Gareth provides technical input and advice to the rest of the team, looks for new potential developments and manages existing assets. 

Gareth is a chartered engineer with 20 years’ experience working with renewable energy and other low carbon technology, and has been involved in a number of successful community energy projects, including ones working in partnership with the private and public sectors. As well as his part-time role at YnNi Teg, Gareth works as an Energy Consultant at Arup. He is also a director of a number of community and renewable energy organisations, such as TrydaNi, YnNi Newydd, Swansea Community Energy & Enterprise Scheme and Seren Energy.   

Weronika Tadrak, BSc, Research & Support Officer

Weronika’s role as a Research and Support officer is to undertake targeted research into local community energy needs and the wider application of both existing and innovative solutions, as well as guiding the development of more complex projects to address a range of issues including grid constraints and market changes to better assist community organisations across Wales.

Weronika’s background is in Architectural Design and Technology. She has graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Science. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Cardiff University’s Welsh School of Architecture. Her academic research is focused on scaling up Smart Local Energy Systems. The aim of the research is to investigate the potential of Smart Local Energy Systems to facilitate the process of decarbonisation of the built environment and decentralisation of energy systems in existing small building clusters.

Judith Cook, MA, PIEMA, Development Manager

Jude’s role is in delivery of the community owned renewable energy projects in YnNi Teg’s pipeline and establishing new development opportunities.  With varied experience as a project manager and a Prince2 Practitioner., she brings valuable expertise to the Society.

Jude has an MA in Environmental Management and over 25 years experience of working on a variety of energy and sustainability projects in the public, private and third sector in Wales.  She became involved in renewables as a project manger for large scale solar developments in 2012 and went on to manage an EU funded district heat R&D scheme.  More recently she has worked at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero managing a hydrogen themed programme.   Her experience also includes working with 100’s of small businesses in Wales to improve their environmental performance.  Jude is also an enthusiastic entrepreneur, having set up several successful eco-friendly micro SMEs.

Gautam Adhikary Barch, MSc, Project Officer

Gautam is a Project Officer at YnNi Teg for Project NUR, focusing on engaging households with energy efficiency and a community Virtual Power Plant.

He is an architectural designer and researcher passionate about creating climate-responsive and community-focused built environments and has over seven years of professional experience delivering low-carbon housing and masterplans.  Gautam has recently completed an MSc in Computational Methods in Architecture at Cardiff University, gaining practical knowledge of key UK net-zero design frameworks.  He is actively researching emergent technology like AI and its impact on low-carbon building construction within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector, focusing on how these tools can accelerate sustainable design and retrofit delivery.

Shahena Chowdhury BSc, BA, MBA, Project Officer 

Shahena’s role is to facilitate home visits and engage with communities in Cardiff and Newport as part of a Virtual Power Plant Project.  Her responsibilities include engaging with households on energy efficiency and low-carbon retrofitting.

She has a Masters in Business Administration and over 20 years of experience working with the community in South Wales as an interpreter, campaign officer with Bangladeshi Women Association, BAWSO – Black Association of Women Step Out and working in the local school. 

She enjoys cooking and entertaining, swimming, reading and making videos for Tik Tok.