Charles Hendry is a distinguished fellow of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. Previously, he was a Conservative member of the UK Parliament for Wealden from 2001 to 2015, the minister of state for energy from May 2010 to September 2012, and the Conservative Party’s spokesperson on energy issues from 2005 to 2010.

After Hendry left ministerial office, former Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him as trade envoy to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, a role he continued to serve until he left the UK Parliament in 2015. He was awarded the CBE in Queen Elizabeth II’s 2019 Birthday Honours List for his work in supporting British trade in Central Asia.

He also was appointed as an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School and is president of the British Institute of Energy Economics, vice president of The Energy Institute, and the patron of the Nuclear Institute.

He works extensively across the international energy sector, primarily focusing on the transition to net zero, and has undertaken various roles on behalf of the UK government, including writing the “Independent Review of Tidal Lagoons” in 2017.

He has held a range of non-executive directorships, including with Scottish Power Energy Networks, and served as chairman of Fore Wind, the Dogger Bank offshore wind consortium (the largest offshore wind project in the world).

Hendry was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he received an honors degree in business studies.