On the move | Southern; Portsmouth; DCC and Citizens Advice

Our latest round-up of appointments sees moves taking place across the industry. Southern Water says goodbye to its chief customer officer, while welcoming a new head of public affairs. Meanwhile Portsmouth Water has a new chief asset officer and Smart DCC hires a new head of customer experience. Other appointments include at Citizens Advice and Renewable UK.

Southern Water

Southern Water’s chief customer officer Katy Taylor will become Isle of Wight ferry company Wightlink’s chief executive in August.

Taylor has been Southern’s chief customer officer since 2021. Previously, she was chief customer and strategy officer at international bus and train operator Go-Ahead Group, which includes Isle of Wight bus company Southern Vectis.

Commenting on the move, she said: “After three rollercoaster years, I am hanging up my Southern Water high-vis jacket for a new one. I am thrilled to be joining Wightlink as CEO in the summer.

“I leave behind a group of passionate and dedicated colleagues who are turning around Southern Water and working 24/7 to restore public confidence in the water sector. I will miss them terribly. I know they are the tough ones who are driving change from within.

“I am very excited to be joining another passionate team looking after the communities of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire. It will be a privilege to work with the team who were voted the UK’s best ferry operator in 2023.”

Meanwhile Chris Vinson will be joining Southern in mid-June to take on the role of head of public affairs after spending the last five months as head of external affairs at National Grid Electricity Distribution.

He has an extensive background in communications, having previously served as head of external communications at Southeastern Railway, senior public affairs manager at Centrica, as well as stakeholder engagement manager at Thames Water.

Vinson said: “It’s certainly a challenging time for the water industry, and there’s a huge amount of work ahead to rebuild public trust and invest in the infrastructure needed to modernise our water and sewerage systems.

“Ofwat’s price control determination in July will be hugely important in determining the speed and scope of that investment. Now is not the time for half measures. Nothing less than a total commitment to delivering improvements will be acceptable to the public.

“If my memory of the people in the water industry is accurate, they’re up for the challenge – and will work tirelessly to do right by their customers and our natural environment.”

Portsmouth Water

Carol Cairns has joined Portsmouth Water as its new chief asset officer.

She joins from Northumbrian Water where she has spent almost 12 years, most recently as the company’s head of PMO.

Prior to Northumbrian, Cairns spent five years as a project manager at Mott MacDonald. She had held various other positions at the Legal Services Commission, Ferguson McIlveen and Northumberland County Council.

Speaking of her new role, she said: “It’s inspiring to be part of a team striving for excellence, with integrity, focused on a sustainable future.

“I’m looking forward to contributing to Portsmouth Water’s continued success, building a whole life asset management approach that aligns activity across the organisation to maximise greater value and performance from our portfolio of assets.”

Smart DCC

The Data Communications Company (DCC), the organisation underpinning Britain’s smart meter network, has appointed Sam Haywood as its head of customer experience.

She was previously head of operations at Opus Energy and spent a total of 12 years at the organisation. Prior to this, she spent nine years at Vodafone where she was most recently technical resolution and coaching manager.

Citizens Advice

Alex Belsham-Harris has begun a new position as head of energy consumer markets at consumer charity Citizens Advice.

He has spent nine years in total at the charity, with the last five spent as principal policy manager, energy retail markets policy.

Prior to Citizens Advice, Belsham-Harris was a policy analyst at Ofgem.

“This is a new role which will lead our policy and advocacy work on retail energy and heat neworks – I’ll be aiming for us to have even more impact for consumers as we address the changes needed for the zero transition (sic) in the coming years,” he said.

Renewable UK

Renewable UK has announced three new board members.

The winners of the trade body’s 2024 board election are Kerry Hayes, portfolio director, Simply Blue Group, Tristan Zipfel, director of strategy, markets and investments at EDF Renewables and Susie Lind, managing director, BlueFloat Energy | Renantis Partnership.

Zipfel has previously served as a co-opted member of the Renewable UK board, while Lind currently serves as interim vice chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, and Hayes previously served as chair of the Renewable UK shadow board.

They will serve a three year term, joining Renewable UK’s full appointed board of 12 in the autumn.

Renewable UK’s chief executive Dan McGrail commented: “I’m very pleased our new members represent a diverse mix of backgrounds from across the country, as well as a broad range of skills across various important parts in the industry.

“This wealth of expertise will be crucial for the sector and members as the new board hits the ground running setting the agenda for renewables with the upcoming general election and new government.”