Our judging panel includes professionals from across the Island who work within, and have an in-depth knowledge of the sustainability sector, ensuring that our entrants receive the fair and credible, peer-to-peer recognition that they fully deserve.
Below is a selection of our judging panel for 2026, but stay tuned over the coming weeks to find out more about who will be joining our expert line-up:
Danielle McCormick
Moderator
Danielle is a sustainability professional with over 23 years’ experience in delivering local, national, and European behavioural change and sustainability campaigns, business mentoring and green marketing support, and is the Founder and Lead Consultant of sustainability consultancy, Triterra.
With a solid background in the industry, Danielle holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science, a CIM level 4 certificate in Integrated Communications; CIM training in behavioural change; a PgCert in International Business and a PgCert in Renewable Energy & Energy Management, both from the University of Ulster.
Danielle also established the All-Ireland Sustainability Professionals Network in November 2020, and the All-Ireland Sustainability events, with the goal of raising the profile of the sustainability agenda across the Island, encouraging opportunities to share best practice, learnings and collaborative opportunities. She continues to manage and chair the network, which now has over 450 members across NI and ROI, and runs the All-Ireland Sustainability Summit and Awards initiatives.
Baroness Ros Altmann
Baroness Ros Altmann is an award-winning pensions, savings and investment expert, economist, and Member of the House of Lords.
All A former UK Pensions Minister, she has over 45 years' experience spanning investment management, pensions policy and financial services.
An experienced board director, chair and currently a strategic adviser to Cushon, she is a leading authority on pensions, retirement, consumer issues, social care and later life.
Renowned for her thought leadership and willingness to challenge conventional thinking, she is passionate about improving outcomes for consumers, championing women's issues and advancing social justice.
Rahil Ram
Rahil is Head of Investment Strategy at Cushon.
He joined from Fulcrum Asset Management, where he was Head of Climate Investing and served as a portfolio manager in the absolute return investment team, responsible for idea generation, portfolio construction, portfolio management and risk management.
Prior to that, he was a multi-asset strategist at Legal & General Asset Management, where he worked across strategic asset allocation, tactical asset allocation, portfolio design and quantitative analysis.
Rahil is a qualified actuary and holds a master’s degree with distinction and a first-class undergraduate degree from Bayes Business School.
Kinna Patel
Kinna joined Cushon in March 2025 as our Head of Investment Proposition. She leads the development of our solutions and market-leading approach to climate integration in investment strategy design.
Kinna has over 10 years experience in DC pensions and was previously DC Investment Director at L&G, supporting clients and their advisers with regards to DC investments within their Asset Management division. This involved working closely with the investment teams for delivery of client solutions and product development, as well as providing specialist strategic support to larger clients.
A passionate advocate for good investment outcomes, Kinna holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and CFA Level II.
Martin Logan
Martin has 10 years' experience in financial services. He has been with Cushon for 3 years, working as Sustainability and Private Markets Manager. He is responsible for the scheme’s sustainability strategy and investment in private market funds.
Prior to joining Cushon, Martin worked for the Nationwide Pension Fund, leading the development and implementation of the scheme’s sustainability strategy and investing in private market opportunities across various asset classes, including private equity, private credit, and infrastructure.
Martin started his career in Nationwide Building Society’s Treasury function, trading derivates for liquidity and risk management. During this time he qualified as a chartered accountant (ACA).
Bronagh O'Hagan
Bronagh O’Hagan is NIE Networks’ Stakeholder Engagement Manager. She relocated from Brussels to join the company in January 2024 and works with a broad range of parties from government and business associations to community groups and third sector organisations.
Bronagh is always keen to collaborate with new stakeholders to help progress towards NIE Networks’ vision of a sustainable energy system for all. In past roles she carried out similar work at EU level over a period of almost 10 years.
She holds an MBA from Vlerick Business School with a specialism in Just Transition in the NI energy context.
Judy McElroy
Judy McElroy is the Head of Sustainability & Environment at NIE Networks Ltd.
She leads initiatives to drive environmental performance, climate action, and sustainable development. She specialises in embedding sustainability into core operations and delivering practical, scalable solutions that align with business strategy.
Judy previously held a number of Engineering roles in NIE Networks including in Asset Management. She is a member of the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) and Practitioner Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA).
NIE Networks owns and manages the electricity networks in Northern Ireland, with c. 50,000km of network and c. 932,000 connected customers.
Adrian Davis
Adrian, Founder and Lead Consultant at AD Sustainability in County Antrim, provides environmental and sustainability consultancy. His firm supports public and private sector clients with cost reduction, compliance assurance, and responsible business performance improvement, focusing on ‘All Scope’ Carbon Planning, Compliance, Circularity, and Corporate Responsibility.
With over 25 years of experience, Adrian has multi-sector experience working with organisations such as AES UK & Ireland, Bombardier Aerospace, FG Wilson/ Caterpillar, Eakin Healthcare, the Northern Ireland Assembly and Queen’s University Belfast. His consultancy also supports clients under Invest NI’s Energy and Resource Efficiency Consultancy Framework, Intertrade Ireland’s Business Explorer Programme and LEO Green for Business programmes.
Adrian and his consultancy advises on carbon planning, circular economy, sustainability/ ESG, strategy and action plan development, environmental training, ISO 14001 and 50001 management systems, resource efficiency, energy and waste management. He is a Chartered Environmentalist, a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, and an approved NEBOSH environmental trainer. Adrian holds a BSc Hons in Environmental Technology and an MSc in Management and Corporate Governance. He is committed to ensuring that his consultancy provides practical, common-sense solutions to his clients.
Jac Callan
Jac Callan is the Sustainability & Impact Manager at Visit Belfast. She is supporting Belfast on its journey towards becoming a leading sustainable tourism and events destination. Working across the tourism and events industry in Belfast, her role is to accelerate sustainable performance and encourage collaboration and sharing of best practise. Collaborative efforts of Belfast’s tourism and events industry to become more sustainable has helped the city secure the position of 8th in the world in the 2022 Global Destinations Sustainability Index (GDS-Index).
Working across all areas of Visit Belfast’s activity including, cruise tourism, leisure tourism, visitor servicing and conference and events, Jac’s aim is to harness the power of tourism and events to create positive impact for Belfast’s people, place and economy. Part of her role includes working with incoming conferences to help them organise more sustainable events that consider the 3 pillars of sustainability – environmental, social, and economic.
Gordon Boyd
Gordon Boyd, experienced Owner of G.B Associates has a demonstrated history spanning over 26 years of working in the environmental services industry.
Gordon is skilled in ISO 9001, 45001, 14001, sustainable development, end of waste protocols, corporate social responsibility, and business planning.
He is an International speaker on waste legislation, end of waste and sustainability future and well known and respected professional within the sustainability sector.
Eve Presho
Eve is joining our panel this year as one of our New Generation Judges in 2026.
Eve recently graduated from Ulster University with a First-Class Honours Degree in Geography. She is passionate about equality, with a particular interest in women's rights.
In her own words "As a mature student, I took time to find the right path through trial and error, which ultimately led me to Ulster University. My time there has helped me grow significantly, both academically and personally. I've come to believe strongly in the power of communication and how meaningful connections can open doors and shape opportunities.
I've learned that it's important to seize opportunities when they arise, and I'm now looking to bring that mindset, along with my academic background and personal values, into the next stage of my career.
I'm keen to find a role where I can continue growing, contribute meaningfully, and work towards causes I care deeply about, particularly those relating to equality and social impact."
We welcome Eve's fresh perspective, ambition and skillset to our judging panel in 2026.
Andrew Beare
Andrew has over 15 years’ experience in financial services with an extensive background in change leadership and strategy delivery.
He is currently responsible for supporting Danske Bank UK transition to a more sustainable future and ultimately achieve net zero. This includes supporting the organisation, including customers through a programme of education, product development and process improvement.
Andrew has completed a Masters in Sustainable Development through Queens University Belfast where he developed leadership skills in the area of sustainability.
Keith Patterson
Keith Patterson is a sustainability and environmental services professional with a passion for helping organisations and communities make a positive impact.
Keith is Head of Waste & Cleansing Services at Ards and North Down Borough Council, leading teams that deliver essential frontline services and driving improvements in resource efficiency. Before this, he spent 20 years with WRAP, leading policy research and supporting local government improvements in waste reduction, recycling, and the circular economy. He is also a Trustee of Sustainable Northern Ireland, supporting efforts to advance sustainability across the region.
With experience spanning policy, strategy, and operations, Keith brings a practical and collaborative perspective to sustainability challenges and opportunities.
Peter McVerry
Peter has been Station Manager for U105 since May 2008, previous to that he worked as a print journalist for The Irish News and Belfast Telegraph for a combined total of 4 years.
He joined UTV Media plc in 2000 to edit their website, u.tv, and then progressed into television and content production before joining U105 as Editor, Speech on its launch in late 2005, eventually assuming responsibility for the station overall in the spring of 2008.
Peter is Chair of the Radio Academy NI branch, aimed at encouraging entry into and excellence within radio. He also reports on NI for sister station Times Radio in London.
He was also a Board Member of the Skillset NI Advisory Group, the Creative Industries’ Sector Skills Council (SSC) which includes TV, film, radio, interactive media, animation and computer games.
Outside work Peter also served as Chair of the Management Committee of the Dundrum Cross Community Playgroup and chair of the PTA at his local primary school.
Dr Kirstin Lemon
Dr Kirstin Lemon is Science Programme Manager at Geological Survey of Northern Ireland. Kirstin specialises in the use of geoscience as an enabler for sustainable development, especially in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Kirstin is a nominated member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Climate Change and Environmental Sciences multidisciplinary committee. She is an expert adviser to the UK National Commission on UNESCO on climate action and the role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals within UNESCO Global Geoparks.
Kirstin holds a BSc (Hons) in Geology (1st Class) from Queen’s University of Belfast and a PhD in Geological Sciences from Durham University. She has recently graduated from SOAS, University of London with a MSc in Climate Change and Development.
She is a graduate of the Northern Ireland Boardroom Apprentice initiative and has since been successful in obtaining a Ministerial appointment to the Board of Armagh Observatory and Planetarium.
Sally O'Kane
Sally is an experienced and driven professional, with nearly 25 years’ experience delivering environmental, health and safety management systems across public and private sector organisations. She has recently started her own freelance consultancy business, SOK Consultancy, which aims to demystify the terms sustainability and circularity to support businesses on their journey to a circular economy. Specialising in resource efficiency, she helps companies transition to a circular economy model that minimises waste and maximises resource reuse.
Over the past 15 years she has provided support to Northern Irish businesses in food manufacturing and the renewable fuels industry. Her career however, started out in the armed forces as an Environmental and Occupational Health specialist. She has worked in war and peacetime roles in the UK and Middle East.
Enda Kiernan
A qualified Civil Engineer with a Master’s degree in Construction Project
Management and a PhD in Environmental Engineering. Since 1997, Enda has worked in the Local Authority sector, specialising in Waste Management and in Waste Operations in particular.
Enda has been involved in the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) in Ireland since 2002, becoming a Fellow of the Institution in 2011. In 2019, he became the Institutions first President from the Republic of Ireland Centre. He is the current Republic of Ireland Centre Chairperson.
Debbie Nesbitt
Debbie has over 20-years’ experience working primarily in the fields of sustainability, environmental management, resources and waste, resource efficiency and circular economy.
She is currently employed as a Specialist in the Policy and Insights Team in WRAP, a climate action NGO working around the globe to tackle the causes of the climate crisis. Since joining WRAP, she has focused on delivery of waste policy projects in Northern Ireland and England working closely with Government partners to meet their net zero ambitions. This work has led her to work closely with a wide range of stakeholders including government departments, local authorities, manufacturers, and industry representative bodies.
She is a Chartered Environmentalist, a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and the current Chairperson of CIWM in Northern Ireland.
