Senior appointments made to Npower board

Npower has appointed a new chief operating officer, following the news that the big six supplier was being restructured as a result of its takeover by Eon.

Chris Thewlis, who previously served as director of customer service and sales (domestic), formally took up the role on 30 November.

Simon Stacey, who was the managing director (home and business), was announced as the incoming chief financial officer last week, replacing Dirk Simons.

Becoming managing director in 2015, Stacey’s previous role involved having overall responsibility for Npower’s residential customers across the UK.

Mike Hawthorne, who has previously worked for AlixPartners and was most recently chief executive of packaging company, Amerplast, will also join the board in the new role of chief restructuring officer.

Npower’s parent company Innogy, which is the process of a major asset swap with RWE, announced last week that the supplier’s customers will be migrated to Eon, with its industrial and commercial arm spun off into a separate arm.

Eon’s chief executive Michael Lewis will take over leadership of Npower, with current chief executive Paul Coffey departing.

The plans follow the announcement of rising losses and a haemorrhaging of customers in the last quarter at Npower.

In an announcement last week Innogy described Npower as being in a “critical and unsustainable business situation”.

Innogy chief executive Leonhard Birnbaum said: “The question of how to improve the performance of our retail business in the UK, Npower, has been a key issue for the past few years. I want to express my sincere thanks to our employees for their unceasing dedication to delivering a great service to our UK customers in a very challenging market.”