SQW Energy’s consultants bring extensive experience to their assignments, with backgrounds in academia, national and local government, industry, and development agencies. Short profiles of our Directors and Consultants are given below.
Chris Bronsdon – Managing Director
Chris Bronsdon is Managing Director of SQW Energy. He has directed a wide variety of projects throughout the UK working at the strategic level on industry-wide market and technology issues within energy policy development and implementation, as well as managing focused work on technology support, research and development.
Prior to joining SQW Energy, Chris ran his own energy consulting business and has specialist experience in renewable power generation technologies and regulatory issues. He is a former Director of the Scottish Energy & Environment Foundation, which provided strategic advice on energy and environment policy issues to the Scottish Parliament, DTI and the UK Research Councils, and has also held senior strategic analysis positions at British Energy and Nuclear Electric. He is a strong and effective communicator, presenting key messages at senior level whilst having an appreciation of both the detail, and the broader perspective on energy issues.
Chris holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh; an MSc in Pollution and Environmental Control from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Biology and Geography with European Studies from the University of Exeter.
Assen Gasharov – Senior Consultant
Assen Gasharov’s background is in sustainable energy and carbon management. He has an extensive and diverse track record of high profile consultancy work and project management. Assen’s portfolio includes the creation of policies and strategies, technical and financial research, feasibility studies and implementation work for a variety of public and private sector clients.
Assen has a particular interest and strengths in the area of carbon management where he has led flagship national programmes for local authorities and universities and has also supported low carbon projects under the Kyoto Protocol CDM framework. His other areas of expertise include renewable energy technologies and building energy efficiency.
Assen holds a Masters in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University and other advanced degrees from Erasmus University (The Netherlands), Central European University (Hungary) and the University of Forestry (Bulgaria).
Gavin McPherson – Senior Consultant
Gavin McPherson has significant experience in market and policy analysis in the energy sector. Before joining SQW Energy, Gavin was a founding director of an energy consulting business, and also formerly worked as an analyst at the Scottish Energy & Environment Foundation.
In Scotland, Gavin has led a study to model changes to the Scottish Renewables Obligation for the Scottish Government, which included scenario-based quantitative modelling of the UK renewable energy sector. Gavin was also a co-author of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Scottish Energy Efficiency Strategy and contributor to the development of the Scottish Government biomass and marine energy strategies.
Gavin’s other work has included an investigation of the market for carbon emission credits for a major UK utility company, a study for the Crown Estate into the residual liabilities associated with offshore renewable energy installations and a report for a wave energy developer into international markets for marine power.
Gavin holds a PhD in Particle Physics from the University of Liverpool and a BSc in Physics from the University of Glasgow.