Our mission and values and the team that make everything happen
We are your competitive advantage
Mission Statement: To be world leaders in Ground source Heat Pump System design whilst delivering a supportive and fulfilling working experience for our staff and outstanding value and customer service to our clients. To lead by example in environmental and sustainable practices and to give back to the communities we serve.
Purpose: To prevent our planet from catching fire.
Brand Promise: Our service doesn’t stop with an invoice. Unlimited simple design revisions to install. Guaranteed!
Values: The 4 Genius Wins
COLLECTIVE CAMARADERIE
We build strong relationships within our team and with external partners, fostering inclusivity,
transparency, diversity and a culture of purposeful, unconventional and agile thinking.
We look to constantly seek improvement and challenge the status quo.
GROWTH MINDSET
We live and breathe a zero-blame culture, seizing every opportunity for learning and growth.
We are proactive in taking accountability for our actions.
DO THE RIGHT THING
We operate with a fact-based approach, dedicated to meeting deadlines and achieving customer satisfaction.
We leverage over 2 decades of experience in ground source renewable energy, setting the standard for excellence in the marketplace.
Our services provision is succinct and easy to understand. We avoid boilerplate.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We craft bespoke, highly efficient and sustainable designs that benefit our clients
and contribute positively to the world, aligning our services with the greater good.
Meet The Team
Chris Davidson
Chris is our co-founder, Chief Technical Officer and Chairman of the Board and holds a first class honours degree in Theoretical Physics from Imperial College London. Chris has worked in the heat pump industry since 2001 and has been involved in the design and implementation of over 650 MW of installed capacity in Europe and North America. Chris has overseen initial feasibility, detailed design and system performance monitoring and improvement. As head of the policy development committee at the Ground Source Heat Pump Association (GSHPA), Chris plays a key role in shaping UK energy policy. Originally heralding from the North of Scotland, Chris now lives with his wife and daughter in the beautiful English countryside and enjoys spending time in nature and the mountains.
Duncan Rae
Duncan is our Business Development Director and a graduate from Brunel University with a joint BSC Hons in Sport and Geology. He has been instrumental in sales growth despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 and is also an active member of the design team leading our geological analysis services. He has over 20 years’ experience in developing new business channels and is an expert in business to business sales growth. Duncan lives in Devon with his wife and son and loves discovering new places to walk their dog Manny whilst foraging for mushrooms and wild food.
Ellis Laird
Ellis is our Senior Design Engineer. She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow achieving a first class honours in her Masters Degree in Mechanical Design Engineering. Ellis is passionate about promoting women in STEM and encouraging young people to pursue a career in this industry. She took part in a month-long outreach trip to Rwanda completing engineering-based workshops and presentations to schools across the country with the University of Rwanda and Glasgow University’s Females in Engineering society. She continues to be involved in this society as a mentor. Ellis likes playing the piano and lives by the sea so can often be found at the beach enjoying the outdoors. She is currently taking a 6 month sabbatical and fulfilling her ambition to travel the world!
Emily Proud
Emily is our Project Engineer and achieved a distinction in her Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering with the University of Portsmouth following successfully completing her undergraduate degree in Product Design with Bournemouth University. She was one of over 300 applicants for the role of Graduate Engineer at Genius Energy Lab and will be working in the design team to deliver world beating ground source heat pump system designs as part of our operations team. Emily loves cycling and is up at 0500 every day to ride her bike. She also enjoys windsurfing and has worked as an instructor around the world and quotes her passion for sport as key in helping to develop her strong mindset.
Richard Davis
Rich is our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer with extensive achievements in operations, governance, marketing, business development and growth. He has a passion for our stewardship of our planet and has worked in the renewable energy space for over a decade. Previously he held senior roles within the IT and Telecommunications industry, managing territories across Europe. He is also a retired operational Firefighter having worked for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, Technical Rescue and as part of this role was selected as team member for UK International Search and Rescue (UK-ISAR). Richard’s son and daughter have flown the nest and he now lives with his wife and two spaniels in the countryside. Rich enjoys mountaineering and exploring.
Sarah Shepherd
Sarah is our General Manager and joined the team in 2021. Sarah brings leadership skills from nearly two decades working as a Firefighter and Crew Manager with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and has been instrumental in developing our processes so we maximise our efficiencies to deliver to our growing client base. Sarah lives with her fiance and pug Betsy and loves cycling and running as well as visiting new places and travelling the world. We are a virtual team at Genius Energy Lab and you will regularly find Sarah supporting our team and clients based from England, Spain and Greece.
Josh Turner
Josh is our Senior Project Engineer and joined the team in 2022. He graduated with a first class Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Leeds in 2016, before returning in 2019 to undertake a PhD in the school of Civil Engineering. His PhD is investigating the long-term performance of ground source heat pumps in the UK. Josh enjoys the outdoors, particularly hiking in the countryside, but also enjoys endurance events having completed marathons, triathlons and even an Ironman.
Selvaraj (Raj) Naicker
Selvaraj (Raj) is our Design Engineer. He achieved a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from De Montfort University for his research on a large scale geothermal heating and cooling system and his findings have been published in international journals. His skillset extends to IES thermal modelling and low-carbon and net-zero building design. He also holds an MSc in Energy and Sustainable Building design from De Montfort University, MTech Energy Engineering from NIT Trichy and BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Madurai Kamaraj University. Raj has worked in academia, teaching engineering drawing, thermodynamics, thermal engineering and renewable energy to undergraduate students at affiliated colleges of Anna university, Chennai. He spends his spare time playing badminton, visiting new places, surfing the internet to learn new skills and chatting with friends.
Narges Mokarram
Narges is our Graduate Design Engineer and has been a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Glasgow since October 2021. So far, she has worked on low-temperature power cycles, waste heat recovery, refrigeration, combined cycles such as ORC-VCR, CHP, CCHP and different geothermal power cycles. Having a valued experience working with Matlab, Python, ANSYS-FLUENT, and different software in her field of study enables her to broaden her knowledge in thermodynamics and heat transfer analysis. In her Ph.D. studies, she's working on air-source Flexible heat pumps. In her spare time she likes to explore the mountains of Scotland and socialise with her friends.
Steve Weston
Steve is our Graduate Design Engineer. He graduated from the University of Hull with a BSc in Geology and a Masters in GeoEnergy from the University of Edinburgh. He is passionate about improving efforts to decarbonise our energy industry, particularly through utilisation of the subsurface. He loves to travel and is a keen hill-runner, cyclist and mountaineer and loves to spend his free time exploring the Scottish Highlands.
Paul Greengrass
Paul is our Key Account Manager and joined the team in January 2023 to support our sales and business development function. Paul has travelled the world and had a varied career with roles in several sectors and was attracted to working with Genius Energy Lab based on his passion for the environment and playing a key part in us reaching Netzero by 2050. Paul lives in Devon with his wife and son and is a Scubadiving instructor in his spare time.
