Matthew Rhodes
Matthew is the managing director of Encraft, a specialist engineering and technology consultancy and project development company focused on microgeneration and energy efficiency in buildings, particularly housing.
Matthew set Encraft up in the West Midlands in 2003 and has grown it from a start up to employ 21 staff (mostly West Midlands science graduates) and annual turnover exceeding £3 million. He was one of the architects of the Birmingham Energy Savers Project, responsible for getting the concept off the ground and ambitious plans to retrofit up to 200000 homes in Birmingham with low carbon technologies.
In 2010 Encraft also won and delivered two TSB retrofit for the future projects in the West Midlands to demonstrate 80% CO2 emission reduction solutions for social housing, and a contract with the US government to develop a small wind site assessment tool.
Encraft has carried out numerous collaborative projects with the UK and international science base, including projects with Loughborough University, Salford University, Nottingham University, The University of Bath, UCL, the University of California, and Politecnico di Milano.
Matthew has been a member of the EPSRC peer review college since 2001, TSB and ETI funding panels, and is an independent expert for the EU Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. He holds a first class degree in engineering, economics and management from Oxford University.