Our Team

Rachael joined the ADE Board in 2018.  She is a co-founder and Director of Chirpy Heat, the leading provider of independent support for the social housing providers with their communal and district heating, established with the one aim of  helping them to deliver low cost, low carbon, reliable heat to customers.  She is also a co-founder and Director of SE², a strategic sustainability and stakeholder engagement consultancy established in 2004.

In 2024, Rachael received an OBE for services to energy efficiency and diversity and inclusion. Recognising the supportive power of women working together, Rachael co-founded the District Heating Divas in 2019: in five years it’s grown to nearly 1000 members in both the UK and Scandinavia. They have groups that meet on a regular basis in London, the Midlands, the North, the South-West, Scotland and Denmark, as well as specific groups for the public sector and those in the early stages of their heat network career.   As well as bringing women together to network and support each other, the Divas also advocate for the sector to be an attractive career option for a diverse range of people and strive to ensure heat networks are the best they can be for customers and the environment.  It’s also helped to launch the Heat Exchanger Mentor Programme and hosts the annual ‘Connecting Women in District Heat’ conference.

Rachael also co-founded and is the Secretariat of The Heat Network, a forum for social housing providers to share good practice and influence policy on communal and district heating, through which she participates in numerous Government stakeholder groups.