Prof. Keith Riley BSc BA C Eng FIMechE MICWM FRSA
Visiting Professor
Prof. Keith Riley is Visiting Professor within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Keith Riley studied Nuclear Engineering at Queen Mary College, University of London, followed by a graduate apprenticeship at Rolls Royce Aero Engines where he developed his analytical and management skills. This began a successful career in which he led the design and construction of multi-million pound projects all around the world.
Since 1993 Keith has been involved at a senior level in the waste management industry, and was responsible for the formation of Hampshire Waste Services Ltd. Under his leadership the company worked with officers and Members of Hampshire County council to create 'Project Integra', a partnership between 14 local authorities and HWS which went on to win Beacon status. Hampshire's success in recycling and recovering value from waste through an integrated network of facilities is now world famous, and has formed the model upon which international waste management companies in the UK now operate in partnership arrangements.
Keith is currently Managing Director of Veolia Environmental Services UK (VES), the largest resource management and waste disposal services company in the UK. He is a member of the European R&D Management Board and Group Strategic Training Committee and is Director of several VES companies, including Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, Veolia ES Hampshire Ltd, Hampshire Waste Services Ltd, Veolia ES SELCHP Ltd, Veolia ES South Downs Ltd and Onyx Hanson Ltd, with 13,000 employees dispersed over 350 sites.
Keith's technical knowledge coupled with his management skills have allowed him to steer over 45 planning applications to successful completion, including contentious developments such as four energy recovery incinerators. Many of these have required full Environmental Impact Assessments with careful consideration of the built environment and its impact on both urban and rural settings. A large number have also involved transportation and highway considerations, such as road capacity issues, road standards and re-alignments, bridge height problems, air quality, and including inter-modal solutions. Public consultation has played a major part and given him at times a high public profile.
He has set up and managed successful outreach and engagement strategies in both Hampshire and East Sussex, implemented through the highly motivated teams he has developed. He also represents Veolia on new initiatives such as renewable energy developments, climate change impact reduction and responses to UK and European environmental legislation. This brings him into direct interface with CBI, the trade associations, MPs and MEPs, DEFRA, DTI, SEEDA, SERPAC and similar organisations.
In December 2007 he was appointed to the Board of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) as a Non-Executive Director and Vice-Chairman in January 2009. Keith has a strongly demonstrated commitment to continuous learning. As well as broadening his knowledge and furthering his formal education through studying humanities, social sciences and modern languages with the Open University, he has also encouraged others through participation in the Veolia Environment Development Centre where he helped to pioneer NVQs and management training up to MBA level.
He is a member of the Industry Advisory Group for the Sustainable Waste Management MSc programme at Southampton and is a frequent lecturer on the course. He is an enthusiastic advisor and mentor to PhD and post-doctoral researchers in environmental engineering. His company was an active partner in the EPSRC-funded SUE Waste Consortium, and in this role he contributed considerable amounts of time and technical expertise to the development of Southampton's work on Energy Footprint modelling. He has also been a frequent presenter at SUE Waste dissemination events and has extensively promoted the work of the Consortium to both government and industry.
Keith is involved with the voluntary sector through his Trusteeship of the Resource Recovery Forum, Hampshire Natural Resources Trust and the Veolia Environmental Trust. He is an enthusiastic author and public speaker on a range of technical, economic and social issues related to waste and resource management and sustainable development, including a presentation to the NGO Sustainable Development Committee at the United Nations in New York. He was awarded the James Jackson Medal of the CIWM in 2005 for the paper 'From Waste to Resource Management', a tripartite view from industry, local government and academia. In addition he has an extensive record of publication in technical and professional journals.