On the move: British Water, CCC, Ofgem

Utility Week’s roundup of industry appointments includes a new chair at British Water; Lord Deben’s tenure as chair of the Climate Change Committee being extended; and Marzia Zafar joining Ofgem from Kaluza.

British Water 

Mark Fletcher has been appointed as chair of British Water after Chris Loughlin, former chief executive of South West Water, stepped down from the role he assumed in 2016.

Fletcher, global water lead at engineering consultancy Arup, joined the board in 2020 in a non-executive role and was formerly the chair of the Water Industry Forum, which merged with British Water earlier this year.

He brings expertise on urban water resilience from a global perspective and was made a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Managers (CIWEM), the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) and the Society for the Environment.

Alongside Fletcher’s appointment, Rachel Lewis – owner and director of IQ Engineers, was appointed UK forum chair, while Tom Williams – chief executive of Enebio, was named international forum chair.

Climate Change Committee (CCC)

Lord Deben’s tenure as chair of the Climate Change Committee has been extended to the end of June 2023.

Following ten years of service, Lord Deben had been due to step down this September. However, at the request of business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, he has agreed to remain in the role for another nine months to enable a smooth transition to a new chair and a series of new committee members.

Recruitment of the new chair will begin in the coming weeks and interviews to replace outgoing members are already underway.

Ofgem

Marzia Zafar has joined Ofgem as deputy director of strategy after two years with Kaluza in the role of director of sustainability, market development and energy policy.

Separately this month Zafar has also joined the board of land and property regeneration company Harworth Group as a non-executive.

Scottish Power

Finally, Scottish Power Renewables has completed its restructure with two appointments its the leadership team. The group named Gillian Noble as managing director of offshore for development and operations

Noble was previously sales director within the organisation’s energy retail business and will now be responsible for the 5GW of floating wind being developed by the company as well as a pipeline of Irish offshore wind projects.

Ross Ovens has been appointed as managing director of offshore for the East Anglia Hub, which includes three further offshore wind farms being developed or built off the coast of Norfolk with a combined capacity of 3.1GW.

Construction work for East Anglia Three is already underway, whilst East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two are awaiting consent after securing Contracts for Difference earlier this year. East Anglia One became operational in July 2020.

Ovens has over 20 years’ experience working on onshore and offshore wind delivery and was previously project director for the East Anglia Hub, having joined Scottish Power’s parent company Iberdrola in 2016.

Charlie Jordan, chief executive, said: “It’s fantastic to bring Gillian and Ross on board to lead the delivery of an incredible 13GW of offshore wind projects across the UK and Ireland. That’s enough homegrown green electricity to power the equivalent of more than 14 million homes and will transform how we power our lives in the years ahead, so it’s vital we have the right people in place to make that happen.”