On the Move: Ofgem appoints deputy price cap director

In our latest round-up of industry appointments, Ofgem has unveiled a new deputy director responsible for the price cap, while British Gas Services has hired a new managing director.

Elsewhere, the Centrica-owned supplier’s former managing director Ian Peters has been appointed to chair a technology company.

Ofgem

The energy regulator has appointed the former commercial director of recently failed Colorado Energy as its interim deputy director for the price cap.

During his 10 months at Colorado, Daniel Norton was responsible for energy pricing, product development, demand forecasting and trading.

Norton has 20 years’ experience in the sector, spending nine of those at Centrica where he rose to become head of energy supply hedging and ultimately strategy director for UK consumers.

In a post on LinkedIn, Norton said the price cap has been a major part of his career since it was first proposed in 2015.

He said: “At Centrica, I worked on hedging strategies to mitigate the impact, created models for the CMA (which may have been responsible for the 6-2-12 structure) and was the main witness in winning the judicial review against the retrospective change in the methodology of the first price cap period.

“At Colorado Energy I saw it from the other side. As a small supplier you have to allocate your capital prudently. When the market increases five-fold in the course of a few weeks, it’s the black-swan risk you weren’t able to insure against. I still can’t quite believe that just a few months ago I was working with an incredible team on an exciting vision of what we could become.

“I hope to bring experience from both sides to this new role. It’s a massive responsibility and right now it’s the most challenging balancing act I can imagine.”

British Gas

Centrica has announced the appointment of a new managing director for its British Gas Services and Solutions business.

Jana Siber joins the company from Arriva Group where she has been managing director for mainland Europe since 2018.

Siber will take over from Matthew Bateman with effect from January 2022.

At Arriva, she also sits on the management board, where she is responsible for growth and innovation to support the specific passenger transport solutions required in a number of markets.

Prior to her time at Arriva, Siber spent five years at Avis Budget Group in various leadership roles, most recently leading their ZipCar International division. Before that she was vice president for global licences at Avis, responsible for 180 master franchisees, and head of international strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia Pacific countries.

Additionally she has held senior consultancy roles at Bain and Company UK, Accenture  and Booz Allen Hamilton International, where she led multiple strategy and transformation projects.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica chief executive, said: “Jana’s ability to innovate and drive change will complement the strong technical and operational expertise in our service and solutions business; helping us think differently about how we grow and help customers make the transition to net zero.

“I want to thank Matthew for all his support to me personally and for the 24 years of excellent service he has given to British Gas. Most recently he has helped steer us through our response to Covid-19 and started the process of modernising the services business to make it more competitive and customer focused.

“Having spent many years in demanding operational and leadership roles, Matthew feels now is the moment to step back and create more time for his family. I wish him and his family well for the future.”

IMServ

Former British Gas managing director Ian Peters has been appointed as chairman of IMServ, a data collection and energy metering company.

Peters served as British Gas’s managing director for 11 years between 2004-15. He was also chairman of British Gas Services for more than eight years.

Since 2015, Peters has worked on a portfolio of advisory roles. In addition to his new role, he currently holds the chair of the UK Health Security Agency. He has also served as managing director of NatWest Small Business Services and as chairman of several technology companies.

Steve Brown, managing director at IMServ, said: ” Ian knows the energy sector like the back of his hand and his proven successful track record will be a great asset to the company.

“Amongst his vast experience is his history of working with and growing private-equity owned companies, which we’ll be looking forward to tapping into.”

Peters said: “I have known the company for a while thanks to its reputation for industry-leading data collection and smart meter technology.

“IMServ will without a doubt play a considerable part in the UK energy transition, helping the country become more energy efficient and bring down emissions.”

Wales and West Utilities

A new head of health and safety has been appointed at gas distribution network Wales West and Utilities.

Martin Cook has more than 25 years’ experience in health and safety and most recently worked at Scottish Water where he delivered strategic health and safety improvement projects.

As a chartered health and safety professional, he has also worked as a consultant in the health, retail and finance sectors.

Speaking of his appointment, Cook said: “At Wales and West Utilities it’s our responsibility to keep the gas flowing safely to heat and power homes and businesses across the area and health and safety is a top priority for us. We demand safety always – for both our colleagues and communities.

“Looking to the future, I am focused on driving the best health and safety practice as we take the first steps to inject hydrogen into our gas network and expand the role of biomethane.”

Cook will report directly to the company’s director of regulation, asset strategy and health, safety and environment, Sarah Williams.

She said: “At Wales and West Utilities we have an exemplary safety record, and as we face the future – delivering net zero ready gas network by 2035 and unlocking the potential of green gas like hydrogen and biomethane – it’s important we build on that.

“We’re delighted that Martin has joined us, to help keep the gas flowing, and communities and our colleagues safe.”

Sitigrid

Peer-to-peer trading platform Sitigrid has announced that the former chief executive of Elexon, Mark Bygraves, has joined as a strategic advisor on a part-time basis.

Speaking of his appointment, Bygraves said: “Sitigrid has developed a market leading distributed ledger technology platform that provides a high performance and low cost digital market solution for suppliers and networks which will accelerate the establishment of these markets.

“I look forward to working with the Sitigrid management team to develop the business further.”

Sitigrid chief executive Jeff Whittingham said: “Mark brings with him a wealth of knowledge on industry settlement systems and processes which will be invaluable to the development of Sitigrid’s local energy market platform.

“I look forward to working with him and the leadership team to position Sitigrid as the market leading technology platform for local energy markets.”