On the Move: New CFO for Yorkshire and CEO for RWE

There have been boardroom changes announced at Yorkshire Water and RWE today (28 April).

Chris Johns was unveiled as the new chief financial officer of Yorkshire Water – taking on the position vacated by Liz Barber when she was promoted to chief executive last year.

Johns, who takes on the role from 1 June, has been finance director of Northumbrian Water since January 2013.

He was previously finance director of Northern Gas Networks between 2006 and 2013 and before that worked in the regulated financial services industry.

Barber said “Chris brings wide financial experience from a number of regulated businesses and will be a great asset to the company.  His appointment largely completes the changes we’ve been making to our leadership team which means that as we start the new five year period we have a strong balance of operating and financial expertise in place to help us reshape the company to deliver what our customers and Yorkshire expect of us.”

Meanwhile, in Germany the supervisory board of RWE AG today decided that Markus Krebber would succeed Rolf Martin Schmitz as chief executive as of 1 July 2021.

Krebber joined RWE in 2012, where he first was responsible for RWE Supply & Trading and has been chief financial officer of RWE AG since 2016.

Werner Brandt, chairman of the supervisory board, said: “It was important to the Supervisory Board to have a robust succession plan in place early on. The appointment of Markus Krebber ensures that RWE’s strategic ambition to transform into a leading global player in the renewables sector will be pursued also in the long term. Together, Rolf Martin Schmitz and Markus Krebber have defined the course to develop the group into a sustainable company that will be carbon-neutral by 2040. This path shall be followed consequently.”