Mr Ewing was born in Glasgow in September 1957 and was educated at Edinburgh's Loretto School and then attended Glasgow University. He was elected as MSP for Inverness East, Nairn & Lochaber in 1999 and re-elected in 2003 and 2007. Prior to being elected, he ran his own law practice and developed SNP policy on small business and other matters as well as serving on the party's national executive. He has served on a number of Scottish Parliament committees including the Subordinate Legislation Committee, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Finance, Local Government and Transport committee and was previously Shadow Minister for Transport, Tourism & Telecommunications. He is the son of Winnie, formerly the MSP for Highlands and Islands and MEP for Scotland, and brother of Annabelle, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife. A former member of the Lomond Mountain Rescue Team, Mr Ewing has climbed around two thirds of Scotland's Munroes. He was also a keen runner and has taken part in several marathons, including New York. He enjoys listening to jazz and playing the piano in his spare time.

For the last few years Steve has led Triodos Bank's activity in the hydro sector with a focus on providing non-recourse project finance.  He has worked with a diverse range of customers, including professional developers, investment funds, farmer/landowners and community groups.  Alongside his work in the hydro sector he has led the project financing of a wide range of renewable energy projects covering onshore wind and ground mounted solar ranging from 500kW schemes up to 40MW club deals covering the whole of the UK & Ireland.

Simon has worked in SEPA for fifteen years, starting in its planning liaison department, moving to pollution control and regulation of water resources; and he has been involved in hydropower since 2008.  The Hydropower Permitting Team was assembled in order to manage the influx in CAR applications felt since 2011, and Simon led this team in the south-west of Scotland, until it was stepped down earlier this year.

Mike’s role with Welsh Water covers all aspects of their energy strategy: energy purchasing, optimisation and generation as well as their energy and carbon reporting. Five years ago Welsh Water’s only generated 2% of their own consumption requirements and this year that will reach over 20%; about half of which will come from hydro. Last year Mike led Welsh Water’s acquisition of hydro assets from Infinis Hydro and these are now incorporated into Welsh Water’s expanding generation portfolio. Mike’s background includes commercial, technical and environmental work, much of it in the Water Industry with Yorkshire Water, Kelda and now Welsh Water. He has long held an interest in hydro and sees it as an important part of Welsh Water’s generation mix. He lives in the Yorkshire Pennines in a valley of long-gone water powered woollen mills, works in Wales and when not driving between the two is a keen fell runner and orienteer. 

Angus Robertson has worked for Ardtornish Estate, Morvern, since 1985. He started thinking about hydro as soon as he arrived and discovered that it rained in the west highlands. He commissioned the first scheme, (700 kW run of river) in 1996 and he and the estate have been at the forefront of the recent period of hydro revolution, building three schemes with a capacity of 3MW. Angus is also a director of his local community development trust who seek to develop community hydro in their local forest under the Forestry Commissions NFLS scheme.

After qualifying as an Environmental Health Officer in 1995, Garry has worked in the environmental sector for Local Authority, Higher Education and  the National Trust. For the past 4 years, he has been increasingly involved in helping the Trust deliver its 2020 objective of 50% renewable energy.  Working as part of an internal renewable energy team, he  takes the lead in the Lake District for site identification, design and consenting of hydropower schemes. When he’s not getting his feet wet looking for new projects, he has two small children to keep him busy and when time permits, enjoys mountain biking, sport, wildlife photography (especially birds) and does voluntary work for conservation bodies and schools.