Meet The Team

Finance & Compliance Manager

Sally is the co-founder of the AECB. She manages the finance aspects for the AECB and deals with any legal issues. Her expertise is in finance, personnel and administration processes

Commercial and Operations Officer

Sam is responsible for the operational and commercial strategy with particular emphasis on member and customer service.  She has previously worked in the retail and logistics sectors as a data analyst and brings over 30 years’ experience in high street retail to the role.

Training Manager

Trish is responsible for managing the AECB’s suite of training offerings, including course delivery and developing new AECB CarbonLite training courses.

As an Architect, she believes we all have a role to play and a personal agency to move away from destructive construction practices towards more regenerative methods, and this includes retrofitting at scale and the uptake of robust low energy building and retrofit standards.

Training Administrator

Sarah provides support to the AECB Training Centre and its students and has an NVQ Level 4 in Internal Quality Assurance. She enjoys taking part in environmental voluntary work and various short courses in sustainable building.

Program Manager

Tim is the Program Manager for the AECB Standards and Certification Scheme, an Expert Advisor for the AECB Retrofit course and also supports the PHribbon software. Originally an Architectural Technologist, Tim has also been a Passivhaus Designer since 2012.

Office Manager

 Bev is the office manager for the AECB, supporting all departments with the day to day running of the group.

Events & Marketing

Michelle is the Events & Marketing Officer and looks after the AECB’s social media, webinars, newsletter and magazine. Connecting with members, local groups and beyond in a variety of ways to share the message of the AECB

Chair

Kit is the founder and director of Ecospheric, an award-winning Passivhaus design and sustainability consultancy based in the Northwest of England. His background is in chemical engineering provides practical knowledge in heat transfer, building technology and integration. His varied experience and passion for decarbonising the built environment has led him to become one of the country’s leading experts on sustainable building. He has advised the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on its large-scale retrofit strategies for residential housing as well as its commercial retrofit group, supported Co-op Foods in developing low carbon “green stores”, delivered technical expertise for Passivhaus multi-story social housing developments, and is currently acting as the net zero carbon building standard coordinator for the NHS’ new Countess of Chester Women & Children’s Hospital.

Vice Chair

Nidhi is a Passivhaus enthusiast with commitment to sustainable and low energy buildings. Her major concern is the health and wellbeing of building occupants. She has both academic and industry experience working in multiple construction sectors including commercial, education and residential, where she has completed low energy Passivhaus Standard housing. She currently works at D5 architects and promotes better building standards through her work. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, baking and painting with her daughter and is also a keen cyclist.

Secretary

Anna has experience with retrofit to full Passivhaus certified standard (including Totnes B&B), through to working with Prewett Bizley Architects on award winning retrofit projects (2014-2019) and then to new-build to the full Passivhaus standard using the PH15 System, winner of the Ashden Award in 2020 for scalable climate change solutions. Her skill base is both in design and technical design, with PHPP modelling, including upfront carbon calculations with PH Ribbon, and construction detailing. She is interested in energy efficiency and low upfront carbon solutions, especially in the appropriate use of timber in a contemporary, low energy context.  More recently she has become engaged in trying to drive retrofit action at a local level, using and enhancing local skills and addressing local issues. She feels passionate about the need to be strategic in our collective thinking and our outputs as the time periods available for a safe transition to ‘net zero’ continue to shorten and the urgency for action continues to increase.

Treasurer

Mischa Hewitt is a sustainability consultant and project manager. He has an MSc Architecture: Advanced Energy & Environment Studies from the Centre of Alternative Technology / University of East London and is also a Certified Passivhaus Designer. He is the co-author of ‘Earthships: Building a zero carbon future’ published by IHS Press and is a director of The Low Carbon Trust, where he project managed the award winning Earthship Brighton project. Mischa also runs the sustainable building company Earthwise Construction based in Sussex, and in recent years has organised many environmental events, including the ‘Eco Open Houses’ weekends in Brighton and several conferences. In his spare time Mischa plays the piano and composes classical music. Mischa is also very active in the Brighton (South East) Group.

Trustee

Adam lives in North Yorkshire and have been an AECB member for 11 years. He is active in the Yorkshire group helping organise events and supporting Harrogate College with retrofit events. He is a Chartered Construction Manager (MCIOB) and works for City of York Council delivering affordable Passivhaus homes. He is also a firm believer in being the change and spend his weekends retrofitting his own home.

Trustee

Jarek is an associate at Smith Scott Mullan, an architect and a Passive House Designer working in Scotland since 2006. His adventure with sustainable design started at Wrocław, Poland, Technical University with my MA research on Straw bale and Passive House. Working closely with company Smith Scott Mullan Associates directors Eugene Mullan (BE-ST innovation champion), and Graham Acheson (PH Designer); and fellow associate Ben Rainger (RIAS Sustainability Working Group Vice Chair); he helped to transition the company to a sustainable design centred organisation. He is involved in a range of projects spanning from strategy documents (Midlothian Council Net Zero Housing Design Guide), Passive House schemes, retrofit and conversion projects to research. He has a significant experience management and working with community organisations.