Omar has over 15 years’ experience in the energy sector acting for a variety of developers, landowners and funders in large and small scale renewable energy projects including wind (onshore and offshore), hydro, solar pv and battery storage. Omar also advises clients in relation to grid connection arrangements for energy projects to the transmission and distribution systems in Scotland.

Omar has considerable experience in the acquisition and sale of renewable energy projects and regularly carries out due diligence and reporting exercises for a variety of clients including UK and global investment funds. Omar also acts for both funders and borrowers in the financing and re-financing of renewable energy projects and that experience brings a balanced and commercial approach to his advice.

Omar was a member of Harper Macleod’s award winning Energy Team of the Year title at 2 previous Scottish Legal Awards and is described as a “Leading Individual” in Energy in the 2022 Edition of the Legal 500 UK.

Ashley specialises in immigration, asylum and nationality law and has extensive experience advising businesses and individuals on all aspects of UK immigration law having worked in this area since 2005. She qualified in England and Wales in 2012.

Ashley regularly acts for businesses, providing strategic advice to corporate clients to assist with their business planning, most recently in relation to Brexit and sponsorship under the skilled worker route. She also represents clients in defending civil penalty notices for allegedly employing illegal workers.

Ashley has significant experience of working with high-net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs. She also has particular expertise in obtaining endorsements for clients under the Global Talent Visa scheme.

Ashley regularly assists clients with their family-based applications, EU Settlement Scheme applications and applications for naturalisation. She is often instructed to provide expert reports for the courts in care proceedings and acts for local authorities, providing advice and training in relation to children and young persons in care.

Nick is Head of Legal at Avaaz which means ‘voice’ and is a global civic movement with over 70 million members worldwide. Its members campaign for a thriving future for all of humanity and life on Earth, aiming for transformational impact on the big issues of the age - combating climate change, preserving biodiversity, protecting democracy and challenging disinformation and, now, ending the tragic war in Ukraine. Avaaz has played key roles in inspiring the Paris Agreement, calling for the protection of 50% of the planet, demanding accountability for tech giants and challenging the far-right’s bid to corrupt the EU elections and the Avaaz legal team is deeply involved in all that work, supporting strategic litigation on climate and money laundering, demanding accountability for crimes against humanity and proposing legislation to regulate Big Tech while helping the wider Avaaz team navigate the complexities of election, data protection, intellectual property and defamation law." 

Born and brought up in Wick, Alan has lived in the town for all of his life. After leaving school in 1984 and starting an apprenticeship with UKAEA in Dounreay, he was paid off in 1988 due to the closure of the site. He then went offshore to O&G for over 27 years before being made redundant in 2015 and coming onshore to work in renewables. He joined SSE on the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm project in Dec 2017 as a control room operator and then was promoted to Control Room Team Lead, managing a team of 8 CROs and Marine co-ordinators, looking after both the day-to-day operations, personnel and vessel movements to/ from and within the site. 

Ian's history with Wick Harbour goes away back to when he was a youngster. Most of his friends had fathers that either owned fishing boats, or that crewed aboard them, so all of their spare time was spent at the harbour assisting boats to land their catch, cleaning up and going to sea during the school holidays. On leaving school, he served an apprenticeship as a Television Engineer, before moving to an electronics company that specialised in the manufacture of underwater video cameras and sonar equipment for the oil and defence industries. He joined the volunteer crew of Wick Lifeboat in 1984, combining his day job with the volunteering role and worked his way up through the crew to the role of Coxswain in 2000, a position he held for almost 20 years. He has now also taken on the role of Volunteer Lifeboat Operations Manager for Wick Lifeboat station. In 2012, he was asked to become the Harbour Pilot for Wick Harbour, which he continues to do to this day. He was appointed Deputy Harbour Master in 2018. Following the retirement of the then Harbour Master in November 2021, he was then promoted to Harbour Master.

Kenneth is a Senior Research Fellow at the Environmental Research Institute (ERI), part of University of the Highlands and Islands' North Highland campus. He gained a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh before going on to work at the University of California, San Diego and Heriot-Watt University. Hen currently leads the Learning and Teaching activity at the ERI, which as part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, currently offers a range of research, masters and undergraduate degree programmes to meet the needs of the region and are build on in-house research expertise. Their current taught postgraduate provision includes MSc Net Zero and MSc Sustainable Energy Solutions.

Rachael is a Senior Development Planner at Banks Renewables. She has nearly 15 years' experience of working in renewable development and as part of Banks Renewables' internal planning team, she is responsible for managing the planning aspects of the company's renewable energy portfolio. 

Robin is External Affairs and Sustainability manager at Banks Group, Robin is responsible for the Group’s sustainability agenda as well as looking after all of the external relations for the group’s Scottish renewables and property projects. Robin is passionate about how responsible business can be a force for good in the world and has helped the Banks team build their Development With Care ethos into a leading example for sustainable development.

Prior to joining Banks, Robin was Sustainability and Engagement manager for IKEA UK & Ireland and came to the field from a commercial background, holding leadership roles in the UK and North America. Robin grew up in rural Galloway and has a mission to help deliver for communities across Scotland with green jobs and sustainable projects.

In his current role as ‘sustainable development policy and advice officer’ in the Supporting Good Development team of NatureScot, Kenny provides advice to renewable energy developers and the public sector to ensure deployment has minimal impacts on Scotland’s nature. Kenny focuses on terrestrial developments across all technologies and scales. He has over 13 years’ experience with NatureScot in this role, and 6 years prior to that with SEPA as an Environment Protection Officer.

As Director of Development, George leads the GreenPower development team, delivering wind, hydrogen and solar developments in the UK. George joined GreenPower in 2019 after 12 years at SSE and has significant experience in leading renewable development through the planning process. In addition to playing a key role in delivering consents and a construction pipeline of over 3.5GW of renewable energy and storage projects, George has significant industry experience which includes five years as Board Director at trade body Scottish Renewables. George is also a Director at the Highland Tourism Community Interest Company. Prior to his renewable industry career, George worked for green NGOs WWF and Friends of the Earth Scotland and with the Scottish Green Party MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, so he is no stranger to policy development and public affairs. 

Kevin Cumming was the project lead of the first ever community land purchase in the south of Scotland. In March 2021, the community of Langholm purchased 5,200 acres and 6 properties from Buccleuch Estates for £3.8m. The success followed one of the most ambitious fundraising campaigns ever seen by a community, with donations towards the purchase coming from all over the world. As well as being the first community land purchase in the south of Scotland, the buyout received widespread media attention for being the first to place the environment and addressing climate change at its heart. Kevin is now a Trustee of the Langholm Initiative and holds an honours degree in Business Administration as well as a MSc in Conservation and Management of Protected Areas.