On the move: National Grid, CCC, Sellafield

Our latest round-up of appointments across the utilities sectors includes a new president of National Grid Ventures, an interim chair at the Climate Change Committee, as well as new chief executives at Sellafield and the parent company of Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water.

National Grid

National Grid has announced that Katie Jackson will join the company as president of National Grid Ventures (NGV).

Jackson joins from Shell and will also sit on National Grid’s Group Executive Committee.

She will join National Grid in July and will assume full duties at NGV on 1 September.

At Shell, Jackson most recently served as executive vice president of acquisitions, divestments and new business development. Shell was also where she started her career as an engineer.

Prior to her latest stint at Shell, Jackson held senior leadership roles in investment banking at UBS and in corporate development at Anadarko. She has also held senior positions at Equinor and BG Group.

She is also the Chair of POWERful Women, a professional initiative based at the Energy Institute that is seeking to address the underrepresentation of women in the energy sector.

Ben Wilson, who has served as interim president of NGV since January of this year, will return full-time to his executive committee role as chief strategy & external affairs officer.

Climate Change Committee

Piers Forster has been appointed as the interim chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) by the UK Government and governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

He will succeed Lord Deben who confirmed earlier in the year that he was stepping down at the end of June after 11 years in the role.

Forster has served on the Committee since December 2018. He is founding director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate and has acted as lead author for several Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

A physicist by training, Forster is also a professor of physical climate change at the University of Leeds.

Forster said: “I’m very proud to take on this role and follow Lord Deben, who has been such an inspirational leader and friend. He taught us so much about the role of evidence and how best to use it to affect change.

“His leadership led to the landmark Net Zero report, paving the way for legislated net zero targets in the UK and around the world. We will continue the Committee’s great work, as we begin our efforts to advise on the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget.”

South Staffordshire

South Staffordshire has announced the appointment of Charley Maher as its new group chief executive.

She will replace Phil Newland at the helm of the group, following his decision to step down from his role earlier in the year.

South Staffordshire operates South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water.

Maher joins from the YTL Group where she held a number of positions including chief commercial officer at Wessex Water Group and managing director of water and wastewater retailer water2business and customer billing company Pelican Business Services.

Maher also acts in a non-executive director role at renewable energy business GENeco and lifecycle construction and operations business Turnbull.

Maher said: “I’m looking forward to building on previous progress, and I’m excited to work with the team to build a safe and great place to work, deliver excellent experiences for customers and clients, and make a positive contribution to our communities and the environment.”

Sellafield

Sellafield has promoted from within its ranks to find Martin Chown’s successor after the company’s chief executive announced his departure to take up a new role in the private sector.

When Chown depart in July, the current chief nuclear officer Euan Hutton will take on the role of interim CEO.

Tony Meggs, Sellafield chairman, said: “I would like to thank Martin, and give him my best for the future.

“We are focused on ensuring a safe and orderly transition, and are fortunate to have a highly capable leader in Euan Hutton, who has worked at Sellafield for 28 years, to take us forward.”

Hutton was appointed as Sellafield’s chief nuclear officer in 2018. He has enjoyed a 31-year career in the national and international nuclear industry, a career he started at Sellafield as a graduate.

He previously held the role of director of environment, health and safety, where he supported the transition of the company to being a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDA.

More recently he was responsible for the operations of the Sellafield site as interim site director.

As chief nuclear officer, he is accountable for ensuring that decisions taken in the leadership of Sellafield do not adversely impact nuclear safety and security, and that these remain the overriding priority for our business.

Office for Nuclear Regulation

Mark McAllister has been reappointed as chair of the Officer for Nuclear Regulation (ONR)

McAllister has served as chair of the ONR since April 2019. His latest tenure starts on 1 April 2024 and runs until 31 March 2027.

He will continue to be responsible for ensuring that the ONR delivers its mission to provide efficient and effective regulation of the nuclear industry on behalf of the public.

McAllister said: “I am delighted to have been reappointed as Chair of the Office for Nuclear Regulation for three additional years, giving me the opportunity to contribute further to the development of the organisation which has been in process since its launch as an independent statutory corporation on 1 April 2014.

“The Board is determined that ONR remains a professional and highly-respected regulator while optimising its efficiency so that ONR is fit for the challenges ahead.

“The UK Government has identified a significant role for nuclear power in its Energy Security Strategy, and the presence of an effective, independent and agile regulator to ensure the safe and secure delivery of these ambitions is crucial.”

PwC

PwC UK has announced the appointment of Elisabeth Hunt as Energy & Resources sector leader.

Hunt brings more than two decades of experience in the sector to her new role, including the last seven years as the firm’s energy & infrastructure deals tax leader.

In her new role, Hunt will lead the energy and resources team, focused on supporting clients operating in the sector on their journey to net-zero.

Hunt said: “There has never been a more exciting time to be part of the energy and resources sector.  The energy industry is going through a huge transformation and we need an unprecedented amount of collaboration to balance the transition to net-zero with the need for energy security, sustainability and affordability.

“I look forward to working closely with our talented industry teams, clients and colleagues across the wider network to collaborate on finding solutions to the challenges that our sector is facing and to make sure that we attract a diverse range of skills along the way.”

Aecom

Engineering giant Aecom has announced the appointment of Steven Whyte as grid modernisation strategy leader within its growing Energy Business unit.

In this new role, Whyte will be responsible for developing strategies to support Aecom’s energy clients in delivering the critical infrastructure and systems needed to decarbonise the UK’s energy generation and support the transition to net zero.

He joins Aecom from SSEN Transmission, where he was responsible for improving organisational strategy, delivering leading market analysis, embedding sustainability into company frameworks, and identifying opportunities for new business development.

Prior to this role, Whyte led business development and marketing functions for the Power Networks Demonstration Centre, one of the University of Strathclyde’s industry-facing innovation centres. He has also held leadership roles at Natural Power and Scottish Enterprise’s Renewable Energy team.

“I’m very excited to be joining Aecom at such a critical juncture in the UK’s energy transition journey,” Whyte said. “Transforming the UK’s electricity grid system to enable it to accommodate the dozens of clean energy producers seeking to connect to the network will require a holistic appraisal of how energy is generated, distributed, stored, and then utilized by the end-user.”

Naked Energy

Naked Energy has appointed Miguel Matias as the renewable energy firm’s commercial director.

With over 25 years of global consulting and executive experience in the energy sector, Matias will focuses on strengthening the business’s foothold in its European and US markets and scaling the production of its solar heat technology.

Prior to joining Naked Energy, Matias’ extensive career has seen him manage well over 500GWh of renewable energy projects across four continents and develop expertise in sustainability and a variety of renewable energy technologies, including renewable heat.

He spent over 17 years as the CEO of Self Energy Group, the UK’s first decentralised energy services company, in which he oversaw renewable energy projects across Europe, Middle East, South America and Africa.

Commenting on his arrival at Naked Energy, Miguel Matias said: “I’m thrilled to be a part of Naked Energy’s rapid growth. The team are passionate about accelerating the decarbonisation of heat and have the experience to make the business tremendously successful. I look forward to working with everyone and helping to push the boundaries of clean energy.”