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Behind the Hard Hat: Meet the leaders of the energy transition
Gemma French doesn’t just see a retrofit project; she sees the policy that funded it, the technical standards that govern it, and the lived reality of the family experiencing it.
As the Founder and Director at GJF Strategic Advisory, Gemma has spent over 20 years navigating the complexities of the UK housing sector, with a particular focus on low-carbon technologies and retrofit at scale. She works with Founders, Boards and Executive Teams at key moments of growth and transition, bringing clear commercial thinking and a strong focus on practical delivery.
Her career is a masterclass in "360-degree" thinking, bridging the often-wide gap between high-level government strategy and the practical reality of an installer standing on a doorstep.
Gemma’s commitment to the energy transition is rooted in a fundamental belief that a home should be a sanctuary, not a source of stress. Her early career was shaped by witnessing how quickly a household can struggle to maintain a warm and healthy home when circumstances change.
"People often assume you only need housing and financial support if you come from a background of poverty, but that’s not always the case. Things can change through accidents and unexpected incidents. I think that experience unintentionally steered me towards wanting to open up pathways to access for people, regardless of their background,” Gemma reflects on the drive that led her to enter the housing industry at the beginning of her career.
It was an era of experimentation, far removed from the refined systems of today. “I entered the retrofit space delivering heat pumps back in 2006... The technology was definitely not as good as it is today!” she laughs.
Despite the technical hurdles of early ground and air source units, her mission was clear. “The technical challenge of getting affordable warmth into rural areas spiked my interest in understanding fuel poverty,” she notes. This early exposure to "on-the-ground" delivery also provided a technical grounding that remains the bedrock of her work today.
Gemma’s career path is notable for its refusal to stay in one lane. She transitioned from frontline delivery to the public sector, serving as a Senior Strategic Lead in housing policy for a local authority. Here, she worked alongside planning teams to shape district-wide housing needs, from new affordable housing developments to fabrication upgrades under the Green Deal.
To ensure her strategic advice remained rooted in reality, she later joined The Guinness Partnership as a Housing Manager, overseeing a large geographical region of mixed tenure homes. This role brought her face-to-face with the everyday realities of social housing: damp and mould, financial exclusion and fuel poverty, and the constant pressure of repairs and maintenance.
“It was a real opportunity to work directly with the customers I believed I was helping from the policy side,” she reflects. “That was a strong grounding, allowing me to say I understand both sides of the system.”
One of the most pressing challenges in the energy transition is the skills gap, an area where Gemma has been both student and leader.
She recalls the early waves of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) as a period of rapid, informal learning. “There was no official PAS system training when the original SHDF waves were being delivered,” she remembers. “It became a self-taught curve in understanding the delivery model and the operating systems that sat behind it. I shared what I was learning with my team and wider network, helping them coordinate and administer these new systems as they emerged.”
Gemma’s own approach to professional development is defined by humility and continuous improvement. “I've always worked and learned at the same time”. Most recently, she became a member of the Institute of Leadership, choosing to invest deliberately in her development as a senior leader: “it’s really important for me to make sure that I’m actually leading in the way I want to be, and that my values come across to teams that I’m managing and the people that I’m trying to inspire”.
As the sector looks toward the ambitious goals of the Warm Homes Plan, Gemma’s advice for the next generation of retrofit leaders is grounded in openness and connection.
“Never underestimate the value of your network and collaboration,” she urges. “I wouldn't be in the position I am today without it. Creating opportunities to collaborate is vital - because we can't do this alone”.
Working across frontline delivery and system-level decision-making has shaped how Gemma approaches housing and decarbonisation. She understands the lived experience of residents alongside the financial, policy and operational realities organisations must navigate. That perspective ensures solutions are not only ambitious, but deliverable and grounded in real outcomes.
Today, Gemma uses her 360-degree view through fractional leadership roles with innovative, delivery-led organisations at the forefront of the transition. As Principal Consultant with Metis by SMS, she supports the design and delivery of innovative financing models that provide upfront capital for decarbonisation programmes, enabling organisations to overcome CAPEX constraints and accelerate delivery at scale. These models are underpinned by data-led insight, helping to de-risk investment and attract private capital into the sector. In parallel, her role as Commercial Director at Installio keeps her closely connected to on-the-ground delivery, shaping installer-led retrofit models that prioritise quality, consistency, and customer experience. This dual perspective ensures that financing structures and delivery capability evolve together - aligned, practical, and built for scale.
By combining her human-centric approach with commercial rigour and innovation, Gemma ensures that decarbonisation programmes aren't just hitting targets, but actually improving people's lives.
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