Engineers and researchers, not generalists
Building Energy Informatics is led directly by the two people below — every engagement is personally overseen by this core team, not handed off to an account manager reading from a script.
James O'Donnell
Managing DirectorJames O'Donnell is the Managing Director of Building Energy Informatics Ltd. He is also a Full Professor of engineering, having taken up a senior academic post in September 2025. Prior to this, he served as an Associate Professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering and as an Associate Dean for Engineering at a leading Irish university. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Scientific Engineering Associate at a leading US industry and government research institution, within its building technology and urban systems research group.
He focuses on developing and deploying interoperable and BIM-based solutions to support multi-scale energy modelling, from individual buildings to national building stocks, and contributes to the Building Energy Modelling IDM Expert Panel. James has previously taught at several universities internationally on building performance analysis, building physics and HVAC analysis. He holds a civil and environmental engineering degree and a PhD in holistic building performance analysis, and is an Associate Editor for the Elsevier Journal of Building Engineering and an Editorial Board Member for the Elsevier Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics.
Sobia Bano
Project Manager, Building Energy, Life Cycle & Embodied Carbon AnalysisSobia Bano is a Project Manager for Building Energy, Life Cycle and Embodied Carbon Analysis, and a PhD Researcher pursuing academic research into embodied carbon and sustainable building design. Specialising in web and research software development, Sobia's expertise sits at the intersection of sustainable building design, energy efficiency and advanced technology.
As a leader at Building Energy Informatics, she navigates the complexities of sustainable development and champions the effective management of embodied carbon. Her technical skill, leadership and commitment to environmental responsibility have made her a driving force behind the firm's most technically demanding projects.