On the move: National Gas appoints COO as Everflow welcomes new chair

In our latest round-up of industry appointments, National Gas hires a chief operating officer, while Everflow appoints a new chair. Meanwhile United Utilities and the Environment Agency make non-executive director hires, while the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority unveils the interim chair of Sellafield.

 National Gas

Former Network Rail director Matt Steele has been appointed as chief operating officer at National Gas where he will be responsible for driving the strategy, performance, and development of the company’s activities across asset, construction, operations, procurement, and metering.

Steele began his career in the rail industry in 1999. He rose through the managerial ranks with a number of rail companies before being appointed head of power, communications and cooling at Transport for London.

He served as a director at Network Rail between 2013 and 2018, notably as major programme director for the £3 billion Crossrail project.

He later became Network Rail’s commercial and development director before moving to Balfour Beatty where he has been the managing director of a major infrastructure portfolio across multiple sectors for more than five years. These have included gas and water; rail and utilities; and, most recently, energy transition and security.

Commenting on his appointment, he said: “I am truly excited to join National Gas at a pivotal moment in the company’s history, after a year in which it has established its place in the energy sector.

“I look forward to refreshing and refocusing our approach with our talented teams and supply chain partners to deliver our commitments to customers and consumers across the UK.”

Everflow

Lucy Armstrong has been appointed chair of Everflow, a multi-utility provider for businesses.

Armstrong is chief executive of boutique consultancy The Alchemist and also serves as a non-executive director and chair for businesses such as Port of Tyne, Holker Estate, and Cyberhawk.

In her role as chairperson, she will work closely with Everflow’s executive team to deliver value through the continued growth of the business.

“Everflow is a credible, capable operator that is succeeding in new marketplaces. With its fundamentals in place and established values and behaviours, Everflow is poised for a successful growth journey. There are over 5.8 million SMEs in the UK for Everflow to serve. This represents a fantastic opportunity for the business,” said Armstrong.

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Lawrie Haynes has been appointed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) as interim chair of its subsidiary, Sellafield Ltd.

He succeeds Tony Meggs who has led the board since February 2021.

He has extensive experience in senior executive and non-executive roles across a range of major private sector companies and high-profile public sector organisations.

Previous roles include as president of Rolls-Royce’s Land and Sea Division, chair of Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) and chief executive of British Nuclear Group. He was the first chief executive of the Highways Agency (now National Highways) and was a non-executive director at Network Rail.

Haynes said: “It’s a privilege to take on this role. I have been part of the NDA group since 2019 and know first-hand how vitally important our mission to decommissioning the UK’s legacy nuclear sites is.

“Sellafield plays a pivotal role in the nuclear sector and I look forward to supporting the organisation to continue delivering, both nationally and for the local community.”

He will take on the role of interim Sellafield chair on 1 May 2024. He will also retain his current role as chair of NRS.

Recruitment for a permanent successor is already underway.

United Utilities

Clare Hayward has been appointed as an independent non-executive director at United Utilities where she will become a member of the nomination committee and the ESG committee.

She has chaired the NP11 group of northern local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) since June 2023, as well as the Cheshire and Warrington LEP since May 2020, having been a member of its board since 2015.

She has worked with boards and senior management teams across the globe for the last 20 years in a variety of sectors, including technology, banking, natural resources, manufacturing and retail.

Hayward also co-founded and sold two highly successful international leadership consulting businesses. Additionally, she has been Deputy Lieutenant for Cheshire since 2013 and will begin her year’s appointment as The High Sheriff for Cheshire this month.

United Utilities’ chair, Sir David Higgins, said: “Clare has played a key role across Northern England fostering collaboration between the private and public sectors to boost economic growth and support job creation.

“She is a passionate advocate of our North West region and her vast experience of effective partnership working alongside her involvement with community interest and charity organisations is invaluable given our role at the heart of local communities. Her entrepreneurial background will bring a fresh approach to our board thinking and I am delighted she has accepted the role.”

Environment Agency

Two non-executive directors have been appointed to the Environment Agency board.

Civil engineer Brittany Harris founded Qualis Flow in 2018, sat on the board of Cambridge Wireless from 2020-2023 and is an enterprise fellow at the Royal Academy of Engineering, member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and guest lecturer at multiple universities. She was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 by West Country Women.

Maya Leibman has served as chief information officer at American Airlines for the past decade. She is non-executive director, member of the governance committee and chairperson for the remuneration committee for industrial technology company Acuity Brands.

She has also recently become chair of Enterprise Alumni, a technology company, and is a board member for a non-for-profit organisation called Breaking Down Barriers, which focusses on making the pilot profession accessible to youth from diverse backgrounds.

The appointments began on 1 April 2024 and will run for three years, until 31 March 2027.

Alan Lovell, chair of the Environment Agency, said: “I am delighted to welcome Maya and Brittany to the board. They both bring invaluable experience in innovation and the use of data. I have no doubt that they will both make significant contributions, particularly in those vital areas.”

Centrica

Centrica has selected its 2024 shadow board to drive improvements in decision making.

First introduced in 2021, the shadow board acts as a reverse mentoring programme, aiming to find solutions to inclusion issues.

Centrica said that over the last three years “this has led to a significant uplift in employee engagement”.

The 2024 shadow board members are:

• Jenna Forbes (chair)
• Rani Samra (secretariat)
• Lucy Martin
• Paul Whitehead
• Debbie Hamilton
• Flora Finocchiaro
• Helene Lynch
• Timothy Odeniyi
• Kristin Hansen
• Matthew Long

Catherine O’Kelly, managing director of British Gas Energy, said: “I’m delighted to be the first executive sponsor of the 2024/25 Centrica shadow board.

“I loved working with our last cohort and I’m confident that our incoming shadow board represents another diverse and empowered group of colleagues who will give us unique insight into key areas for Centrica.

“We hugely value this initiative and the real impact it delivers. By taking the learnings from the last cohort we’re heading onwards and upwards with the shadow board!”

UK Power Networks

Jeff Hardy has announced he has become a member of UK Power Networks DSO’s supervisory board.

The board is a majority independent body that delivers transparency around investment decision-making and ensures that the overall lowest-cost solutions for customers are adopted.

Hardy has more than 20 years of academic, policy and business experience in sustainable energy. He is the director of Sustainable Energy Futures, a consultancy which provides zero-carbon energy transformation advice, analysis and challenge.

He is also deputy chair of the UK Power Networks Customer Engagement Group and a visiting researcher at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.

Previous roles include head of sustainable energy futures at Ofgem.