Richard Clay, Chair

Richard has wide ranging experience of policy development, analysis and delivery from a 25-year career in the energy sector. He spent the early part of his career at Ofgem where he worked in network regulation, managed renewable support schemes and delivered a new regulatory framework for offshore grids to support the then emerging offshore wind sector. More recently he worked at The Crown Estate, leading on energy and regulatory policy to support offshore renewables, forging collaborative relationships across a range of public and private sector stakeholders across the UK. His real passion though is community renewables and the benefits these local projects can deliver for communities across Wales. He has been a director at Community Energy Wales since 2018 and is in the early stages of establishing a community energy presence in Newport. Richard is an economist by background and is currently studying for a MSc in Sustainability and Behaviour Change at CAT.

Grant Peisley

Grant Peisley – a social entrepreneur, localism practitioner and sustainable communities consultant. He is a Founding Director of Datblygiadau Egni Gwledig (DEG) who has helped over 60 community groups in northwest Wales on energy projects and recognised in the Wales Green Energy Awards, Renew Wales Awards, Sustain Wales awards and Sustainable Academy Awards Wales for work in Community Energy. Grant is also a Director of YnNi Newydd.

Robert Proctor

Rob is a committed environmentalist with 17 years’ experience working with communities across Wales to improve the places they live and become more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.  He has successfully delivered a range of community programmes.  In particular, he set up and delivered the Award winning Renew Wales programme, ran Community Energy Wales for several years and is a founding Director of a number of community energy projects including the award winning YnNi Teg.  He has recently set up a market garden enterprise with his wife called Tir Awen supplying 50 regeneratively grown weekly veg boxes to local households and is undertaking a part time Masters course at the Centre for Alternative Technology, developing his knowledge in the field of sustainable, local food production.

John Chown

John is a qualified chartered accountant and was a director of Williams Ross Limited in Cardiff for 19 years until June 2022, and is now a consultant to the company. Previously he held senior positions in other chartered accountancy firms.

During his career he has had a professional involvement in providing assurance services, advice, support and training to a wide range of people and organisations but specifically in relation to the not-for-profit sector, covering charities, credit unions and other voluntary organisations.

Spanning over 25 years, he has been a voluntary board member for housing associations and others,currently including Cwmpas (previously the Wales Co-operative Centre), Cynon Taf Housing (CTHA) Group and Down to Zero, a subsidiary of CTHA. John is also a Trustee ofThe Bevan Foundation since March 2020 (and Treasurer) and Daring to Dream, a Welsh charity committed to the emotional wellbeing of patients and people with chronic health conditions.

James Roberts Jones

James is a Chartered Environmentalist and engineer, working to make data centres positive assets for the climate, community, and countries they operate in. As Head of Sustainable Development at BCS Consultancy, he leads sustainability strategy, reporting, and community benefit across the European Data Centre market. A Welsh speaker with a background in sustainable energy, he has experience working with stakeholders across the public and private sector on large scale infrastructure development. He has been a board member of Community Energy Wales since 2025.