Professor Ronald Rovers, Zuyd University, Netherlands
Ronald Rovers has 35 years of experience in Sustainable Building and Urban sustainability, and around 20 years in the international field. He initiated and organized the 1st world conference on Sustainable Building, in 2000 in Maastricht and worked in many international projects, as well as a frequently invited international key-note speaker. His main drive is to develop closed cycle management of buildings and urban areas, for all resources, energy, materials water and food, in an integral approach.
Ronald Rovers is professor Sustainable Built Environment at Zuyd University of applied sciences, Heerlen, The Netherlands, leading the Research institute Built environment of Tomorrow, RiBuilT . He is also director of the private SBS-consultancy. The office contributes to international development of sustainable building through consultancy, research, workshops, short courses and study tours.
Tomas O’Leary, Co-Founder & Managing Director of the Passive House Academy
Designed, built and lives in the first Certified Passive House in the English speaking world. An enthusiastic and passionate advocate for all things Passive House, a jovial and motivational educator and presenter, experienced research scientist and environmental entrepreneur. Globally accredited by the Passivhaus Institut as a Certifier of Passive House buildings and licensed training provider for the Passive House Consultant and Tradesperson programs.
Qualifications
B.Agr.Sc.(Land. Hort.) 1992, M.Sc.Agr.E.R.M 1994, Certified Passive House Building Certifier 2008, Certified Passive House Trainer 2009, Certified Passive House Exam Host 2009, Train the Trainer (2013)
Life outside of Passive House?
Green-fingered gardener, cider making prankster and devoted family man who enjoys nothing more than chilling with family and friends.
CREST Passive Pavilion – Tomas O’Leary
Dr Shane Colclough, University of Ulster and Energy Expertise, PHAI Chairman
Shane Colclough has been a chartered engineer since 1994 and received an MBA from the Smurfit Business School in 1998. He works in the Centre for Sustainable Technologies in the University of Ulster in addition to managing his consultancy firm, Energy Expertise Limited.
He holds a Ph.D. for his work on the application of the Passivhaus standard to Ireland and has been working for the past five years in the area of Thermal Energy Storage Applied to the Passivhaus Standard in the Irish Climate.
He has authored a number of papers on the topic of passive houses, solar assisted space heating and inter- seasonal energy storage and has presented at a number of international conferences. He presented a paper at the International Passive House Institute Conference in Hannover last year where he also participated as part of the expert panel.
Dr Colclough is currently working on the €9m pan European project EINSTEIN which focuses on the application of seasonal thermal energy storage in conjunction with heat pumps along with a number of European partners.
CREST Passive Pavilion – Introduction
Noel Rice, Energy Conservation Manager, Northern Ireland Housing Executive
Noel Rice is the Energy Conservation Manager for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE). He is a graduate of Queens University, Belfast and the Ulster Polytechnic. After NIHE was designated a Home Energy Conservation Authority, Noel’s role was to develop and implement a Home Energy Conservation Strategy for Northern Ireland. He has successfully developed a wide range of energy conservation policies and programmes over the years for both social and private sector housing. He is currently a member of the Fuel Poverty Forum, set up by the Minister for Social Development and the Energy Forum of CECODHAS (the European Federation of Social Housing Organisations).
CREST Passive Pavilion – Noel Rice
Roman Szypura
Roman is a German trained joiner who worked for various companies as a carpenter, joiner, airtightness and insulation installer before becoming a freelance craftsman. He moved to Sligo in 2007 and founded the company Clíoma House ltd which provides a full consultancy and installation service for airtightness and natural insulation. Since then he has become a certified Passive House Tradesperson and has been involved in more than 150 projects spread over Ireland, Germany, France and UK as a consultant and installer. He has worked on a variety of different construction projects, ranging from the renovation of small natural stone cottages to state-of-the-art Passive Houses. As a principal contractor he has built 3 timberframe Passive Houses in Ireland of which one, a private house in Roscommon, has achieved an airtightness result N50 of 0.087 ACH.
Keen to pass on the experience gained, he has worked as a trainer for various companies and training schemes in Ireland, UK and Germany.
CREST Passive Pavilion – Roman Szypura
Josephine Maguire, National Coordinator Better Energy, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
Josephine joined SEAI in 2001 as Finance and MIS Manager having previously worked in both practice and industry as a chartered accountant. She worked to develop systems, processes and governance structures in the organisation through both establishment as a statutory body and growth of the organisation. In 2010 she took over the role of Programme Manager of the newly introduced National Retrofit Programme and transformed it into the Energy Suppliers Obligation Scheme. She is currently involved in the development of the future strategy for home retrofit.
Tim Stokes, CREST Manager
Tim Stokes is the manager of the Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST) at South West College. Tim has more than 20 years of experience in the field of sustainability gained in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In the early 2000s he managed the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s Low Income Housing Programme and helped to set up Ireland’s first national programme aimed at tackling fuel poverty. More recently, Tim was Sustainability and Economy Manager for Exmoor National Park in South West England where he set up the highly successful Carbon Neutral Exmoor initiative helping communities, businesses and landowners to become more sustainable and dealing with thorny issues around low carbon land management. Tim has an MSc in Environmental and Waste Management and a degree in Geography. He is currently studying to become a Passive House Consultant.
CREST Passive Pavilion – Tim Stokes
Barry McCarron, CREST ITTA
Barry Mc Carron is an Industrial Technology and Training Associate for CREST (Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology) at South West College.
Prior to taking up this position Barry was a domestic and commercial energy assessor/consultant for FJD Surveyors. He has also worked for Kingspan Century on the design and engineering of their ‘high spec’ energy efficient “Kingspan House”, for PDM Architects as a Senior Architectural Technologist, for NMK Assoc. as an Architectural Technologist, for Century Homes as a junior engineer, and more recently for Action Renewables working to produce a composite publication on renewable energy aimed at architects.
Barry also has experience in Climate Change policy at Local Regional and International level. He has been on Irish, UK and EU delegations to various related events in South Africa, China, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic including UN climate change talks.
Barry specialises in the area of domestic energy efficiency and retrofitting. He has an MSc in Sustainable Development and Project Management from Queens University, an honours degree in Architectural Technology from University of Ulster and an HND in Building Engineering. He is also a qualified Passive House Designer.
CREST Passive Pavilion – Barry McCarron
