Mike brings many years of experience to the role as the Managing Director and co-founder of Climate-Insight. He is responsible for overseeing the overall strategy and day-to-day operations of the company to ensure that Climate-Insight maintains its prominent role in the provision of weather & climate advise to business and government institutions. His experience has been built in the UK and Africa, in the UK Met Office, and in the UN both working directly in the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and on numerous external UN-related projects.  Well known as an international leader in the field of seasonal prediction through his management of the WMO CLIPS (Climate Information and Prediction Services) Project, which followed his contribution to the establishment of the Regional Climate Outlook Forums in Africa, Mike also has wide experience in predictions on time scales from a few days to climate change, and a major interest in approaches to the use of forecasts and in the impacts of weather and climate.  With a Ph.D. in Climate from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and degrees from Imperial College, London, Mike has managed numerous international projects dealing with predictions on a variety of time scales and their uses, as well as completing successful a variety of independent consultations.  Amongst his extensive publications list is editorship of and authorship in the book “Seasonal Climate: Forecasting and Managing Risk”.

Email: harrison@climate-insight.com

Richard is Scientific Director of Climate-Insight and has a longstanding and robust experience in Climate Science. He is currently Reader in Climate Science at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment. He holds degrees from the University of Natal and University of Oxford. He is currently co-Chair of the World Climate Research Program African Climate Variability Panel. Richard is the lead author of DFID and Defra commissioned ‘African Climate Report’ which formed an important component of the Gleaneagles 2005 G8. He has also been a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Third and Fourth Assessment and has served as the World Climate Research Program representative to the International Council for Science southern Africa and the CGIAR-ESSP work group. He is a member of the following Steering Committees: AMMA Aerosols Task Team (AMMA is the world’s largest land climate experiment), AFRICANNESS (African Earth System Science), Stockholm Environment Institute-Oxford, NERC Climate Science Strategy Panel for the forthcoming 2007-2012 NERC Science Strategy. He has taught on numerous World Climate Program, Climate Information and Prediction Services Workshops.

Email: washington@climate-insight.com

Jaakko is the Technical Director of Climate-Insight and has a long experience in climate services. Beside his earlier position as the head of the Climate Service at the Finnish Meteorological Institute he is the leader of the expert team on user liaison under the WMO CLIPS. He was the chair of the local organising committee and member of the scientific organising committee of the WMO Conference on Living with Climate Change and Variability: Understanding the uncertainties and managing the risks (LWCVC) (see: http://www.livingwithclimate.fi) which emphasized the need for participatory, multi-disciplinary cooperation in climate impact issues. Jaakko has wide experience in extreme value assessments as well as downscaling in relation to climate risk management. He holds degrees from the University of Helsinki and University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently consulting the WMO in its preparations to establish the Polar Climate Outlook Forum.

Email: helminen@climate-insight.com