Flexible Futures 2026

Greg Jackson CBE is the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group, the UK's largest energy supplier and a global energy and technology company that's driving the affordable, green energy system of the future.

Octopus is innovating relentlessly to make energy better for consumers and the planet. It now serves 11 million customers globally, including 7.8 million in the UK, and runs rapidly expanding retail operations across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan, further fuelling international growth.

Operating across 27 countries, the Group manages a £7 billion renewables portfolio and leads thriving businesses in EV leasing, heat pumps, and solar. It has attracted over $3 billion worth of funding from international energy companies, large pension funds and global investors.

Greg is a thought leader on innovation and energy and a serial tech unicorn founder – a rare feat among British entrepreneurs. He has built two tech giants – Octopus Energy and Kraken – which are both valued at billions of dollars. He built and sold a number of successful businesses before starting Octopus and is an angel investor in a wide range of start-ups.

In 2024, Greg was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and named one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders. He was appointed a Non-Executive Member of the Cabinet Office Board in 2025.

Ms Anna Carolina Tortora, an Italian/Colombian/Canadian MIT alumna in Aerospace Engineering, is the Head of AI, Innovation and Sector Digitalisation for NESO (National Energy System Operator).

Her mission is to accelerate the UK's system decarbonisation to meet Net Zero targets through new digital solutions and grid technologies. She also leads the Virtual Energy System, NESO’s programme to develop the energy system’s data sharing infrastructure.

Before NESO, Carolina led the deployment of Europe's largest high voltage connected storage plants at Terna Spa in Rome, earning worldwide recognition.

Carolina is a senior advisor to promising battery start-ups and a recipient of numerous honours, including being a 2017 TEDxRome speaker and one of Italy’s Top 40 under forty managers in 2016.

Carolina splits her time between NESO, her peloton bike, running, family and friends.

Tim Harford is a world-renowned behavioural economist, award-winning Financial Times columnist, data detective and BBC broadcaster. Described as ‘Britain’s Malcolm Gladwell’ (and as "a genius at telling stories that illuminate our world" by Gladwell himself), and by the New Statesman as ‘perhaps the best popular economics writer in the world’, Tim brings storytelling, humour, insight and intelligence to the world of data, work and statistics.

His long-running Radio 4 show and podcast More or Less looks at the truth behind the dubious statistics and manipulated figures making the news, whilst his Cautionary Tales podcast is a journey through stories of human error and its unexpected impact, with guests including Russell Tovey and Alan Cumming. He’s also presented the popular Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy series (and wrote the accompanying books) and, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, he hosted How To Vaccinate The World. On television, he wrote and fronted Channel 4’s examination of the nation’s financial challenges in Skint: The Truth Behind Britain's Broken Economy.

Cathy McClay is Managing Director of National Grid DSO, where she leads the planning and operation of a smart, flexible distribution system that supports local customers and communities.

With over 25 years in the electricity industry, Cathy has worked across the UK and Europe in roles spanning energy trading, strategy, and system operation. At National Grid System Operator, she led the opening up of ancillary service markets to new forms of flexibility, including batteries and demand-side response. She later led Trading and Optimisation at Sembcorp UK, managing a portfolio of flexible assets.

Prior , Cathy was Director of Flexibility at ENOWA, the energy company of NEOM in Saudi Arabia, where she was responsible for ensuring that everything was in place to be able to balance and control the fully renewable energy system, including the design and implementation of the flexibility market. In addition, Cathy led the teams developing the physical flexible assets needed to balance the system, including a 2.1GW, 23 GWh pumped storage station in the desert.

In December 2025, Cathy was appointed as the first Flexibility Commissioner for Great Britain.

Alex Schoch has over 15 years’ worth of experience in growing and scaling transformative sustainable businesses. Most notably having held various senior leadership roles at Tesla across both the automotive and energy businesses. From leading expansion of the European business in preparation for the introduction of the Model S across 12 markets, established the EMEA Energy business, and leading Global Business Operations of the Energy business.

At Octopus Energy Group, he is the Group Director of Flexibility and Electrification, focused on developing and bringing to market the next generation products and underlying technologies spanning utility scale renewable generation through to consumer electrification. As transport and heat continue to rapidly electrify, helping consumers and businesses participate in a simple and easy way will be a critical factor in ensuring the success of the transition.

Jonas “Birger” Birgersson also known as “Broadband Jesus” is a Swedish

entrepreneur and pioneer in digital infrastructure. Best known for helping reshape

broadband in Scandinavia and building two billion-dollar companies before the age

of 30, he has long been at the forefront of digital transformation. Today, he leads

work on the Energy Protocol through the EnergyNet Task Force, to “Internetify”

energy distribution enable; secure, affordable and fixed-price green energy. He is

a sought-after keynote speaker on infrastructure, digitalization, governance, and

the future of energy.

Sotiris leads UK Power Networks’ Distribution System Operator business. He has 20 years experience in engineering, construction and innovation of electricity networks. For the last decade he has championed innovative ways to plan and operate smart networks such as flexible connections and flexibility markets.

Sotiris studied electrical engineering at the University of Manchester and has an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Jeremy Hetzel lead's Kraken's Distribution business globally and is passionate about delivering the grid-scale change needed to accelerate the energy transition. He is an expert in digital transformation and enterprise tech delivery with 14+ years of experience across roles at BCG, BT and BHP.

Omid Mousavi is the Lead Data Scientist at Kraken Grid. With a background in electrical engineering and more than 12 years of industry experience, he specializes in electricity network optimization and management through enhanced visibility, forecasting, and dynamic network signals.

Marcia Poletti is Head of European System Change at Octopus Energy, and a Non-Executive Director at FlexAssure. In both of these roles she is focused on driving change to deliver the energy transition as quickly and cheaply as possible. Marcia joined Octopus Energy four years ago from OFGEM, the GB Energy Regulator, where she was a Strategy Director. In her current role at Octopus, she works with TSOs and DSOs to deliver low cost flexibility to markets, and shares best practice with stakeholders across the energy system. She previously worked at the Department of Energy & Climate Change and HM Treasury. She has an Engineering degree, B.E EngSci (Hons) and an MBA from INSEAD. Marcia has deep government and strategy experience, with a career spanning energy consulting at McKinsey to energy transition policy for the UK Government.

Ryan Jenkinson is a Senior Data Scientist at Kraken, where he leads AI, Machine Learning and Optimisation in Residential Flexibility. He has over 6 years experience in electrification of energy systems through consumer-led technologies and making innovative product offerings a reality. Ryan specialises in co-ordinating and orchestrating distributed energy resources in grids, globally.