About the speakers and chairs
Session 1
Session Chair
Yvonne Murphy BEng (Hons) CEng CEnv MICE CMgr MCMI | Senior Vice Chair, ICE Wales Cymru
Yvonne Murphy is a Senior Civil Engineer and Design Lead at Mott MacDonald Bentley – currently based with Welsh Water in Newport – designing and project managing a wide variety of schemes from river works/flood management to water and wastewater structures and networks. She is an active member of the ICE in Wales, serving on committee in various roles since 2010. She also served as a General Member and Trustee of ICE Council for a three-year term (2015-2018).
Yvonne is a Visitor, Trustee and Member of the Board of Management of the ICE Benevolent Fund. She volunteers as an Ambassador for STEM careers, organising events to encourage school children and young people. She is also a mentor, delegate engineer, supervising civil engineer, sponsor and reviewer for ICE professional reviews, helping to support our members working towards qualification.
Speakers
Lesley Griffiths MS | Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs, National Assembly for Wales
Lesley Griffiths was brought up in North East Wales and has lived and worked in Wrexham all her adult life. She has 2 daughters and has served as a school governor and community councillor. She worked at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital for 20 years.
She was elected to the National Assembly for Wales in May 2007 and served on several Assembly Committees. She set up and chaired the Cross Party Hospice Group. In December 2009, she was appointed Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills. Following re-election to the National Assembly for Wales in May 2011, Lesley Griffiths was appointed Minister for Health and Social Services and in March 2013 was appointed Minister for Local Government and Government Business. In September 2014, she was appointed Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty. In May 2016, following re-election, she was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs. Lesley was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs on 3 November 2017. On 13 December 2018 Lesley was appointed Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs.
James Morris | Head of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management, Welsh Government
James Morris has worked in flood and coastal risk management and planning policy within Welsh Government for 11 years. He is responsible for national flood and coastal policy and related strategy, funding programmes, legislation and resilience matters. Prior to flood risk management James worked in environmental planning policy, regeneration and GIS through posts at Cardiff Council, EA Wales and in private industry.
Gwyn Nelson | Programme Manager, Wales Coastal Monitoring Centre
Gwyn Nelson obtained a degree in Marine Geography from Cardiff University in 2003. After travelling and working abroad for 1 year Gwyn joined Titan Environmental Surveys as an Assistant Hydrographer. Gwyn gained 5 years survey experience before developing into a project manager and providing business support over the following 8 years. Gwyn worked on 101 projects including topographic, hydrographic, oceanographic, marine mammal and water quality. From running international surveys as Party Chief Gwyn moved into the office and developed the business integrated management system complying with OHASAS/ISO standards for QHSE. Other responsibilities included tender management, human resource management, business strategy and marketing support.
Session 2
Session Chair
George Baker BEng MCIWEM C.WEM CEnv IEng | Chair, CIWEM Wales branch
George is an environmental engineer specialising in flood risk management, flood risk visualisation and communication, flood modelling, planning policy, and the design, selection and implementation of flood alleviation schemes. In his 18 years of consultancy experience he has worked on a wide variety of commissions for the Welsh Government, Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and local authorities, together with many in the development and planning sector. Major schemes that George has delivered include a 2km river diversion flood alleviation scheme to support the redevelopment of Hereford city centre and a 2.5km tidal defence scheme for Newport, South Wales. In 2009 George established JBA Consulting’s first Welsh office in Newport, from where he leads a diverse team of engineers, hydrologists, hydraulic modellers, environmental scientists and landscape architects.
Speakers
Clare Pillman | Chief Executive, Natural Resources Wales
David Tarrant | Natural Resources Wales
Alec Dane | JBA Consulting
Alec is a Senior chartered civil engineer specialising in the field of maritime engineering. Alexander has extensive design and asset management experience in a wide range of coastal and maritime defence structures including quay walls, breakwaters, flood walls, sea walls and beach recharge schemes. These skills cover the suite of design stages from asset inspection, options appraisal, outline and detailed design, through to construction. Alexander also have considerable on-site experience, covering site supervision, GPS surveying and asset condition assessments.
More speakers to be announced.......