Chief engineer and founder of Riversimple, Hugo Spowers is also a recognised thought leader on the Circular Economy, as architect for the business model, technology and governance of Riversimple. Hugo graduated from Oxford with an Engineering degree and has an MBA from Cranfield University. Hugo is responsible for all technical aspects of the cars and for the architecture of the business itself.

Hugo has been asked to speak on the Circular Economy numerous times–e.g. at the Cambridge Centre for Industrial Sustainability in 2015; the CE100 meeting in Milan in 2016; a UNIDO conference on the Circular Economy in the automotive industry on Bratislava 2017; he delivered a keynote speech at the EIB/ECB on creating a circular value network at their annual conference; and he was invited to speak at the launch of the Circular Cars Initiative at Davos 2020 by the World Economic Forum.

Hugo will be providing strategic support and thought leadership for the business outreach activities as well as strategic support and operational guidance for the Pilot Projects.

Fiona Spowers is Riversimple’s communications director and has over 30 years’ experience in the advertising business. Having worked for agencies in London and Paris, she went to become head of strategic planning across Europe for 9 years and globally for another 10 years for TBWA, one of the top global advertising agencies. Fiona is the Project’s Senior Responsible Officer.

Julia Chesney-Roberts graduated from University of the West of England, Bristol with an LLB(Hons) Law and Spanish and is currently studying an MBA at Warwick University. She is Commercial and Legal Manager at Riversimple with specific responsibility for strategic projects and Circular Economy activity. Julia has worked internationally with start-ups to corporations and across a number of industries in roles like Compliance & Regulations Manager, Operations Manager and Programme Manager. Julia is the Project Delivery Coordinator for the contractual agreements and open source Pilot Projects.

Charlotte Evans has a technical based background and has joined Riversimple to assist with Circular Revolution and to project manage the blockchain PlotProjects.She has extensive experience managing large projects covering many disciplines and different time scales in a compliance-based environment.

Bill Whyman manages procurement forRiversimple.Before he joined the company, he was a lecturer on motor vehicle technology for Coleg Powys and spent 23 years in HM Forces as Mechanical Engineer. Bill will be providing operational guidance for the supply chain Pilot Project.

Roland Whitehead has had a design-led career working on physical and digital products and services. He has been involved in environmental projects since college days and spent 7 years helping extend products’ lives as a director of one of the major auction houses. He was founder and CEO of the UK’s leading enterprise open source solutions business working on anything from micro-services to solutions for international clearing banks. Roland is the technical coordinator for the all of the Pilot Projects.

Robert is a qualified mechanical engineer with extensive management experience in automotive manufacturing, operations, supply chain and sales. He has worked with Riversimple as over a number of years in commercial relations and is delighted to be working on Circular Revolution’s circular supply chain pilot project.

Zak joined the Riversimple team as our media coordinator in August 2021. Zak rose to prominence through his own automotive social media projects, working with dealer groups and car manufacturers to produce content on his own channel and has a reach of over 5,000,000 people worldwide. Zak is coordinating all social media communications, events, photography and videography for Riversimple. He is also planning our communications strategy.

Zak is an applied criminology graduate specialising in crisis management. In his spare time he works as a special constable as part of a specialist rural crime task force and is a qualified advanced driver.