Utility Week reviews the Stars Awards 2017 shortlist and reveals its inaugural Guiding Stars.

Utilities today face unprecedented pressure to be flexible and to transform their businesses in an uncertain and tense environment.

Responding to this pressure, companies are investing in innovation and new technologies and some are carving up their businesses to deliver new enterprises, focused on delivering fresh types of customer experience or advancing the interests of a sustainable society.

But these strategies are nothing without the people who deliver them. Across the utilities sector, seasoned employees and recent recruits are stepping up to the plate to help their companies tackle the big issues facing the industry, the economy and communities.

They do this in a multitude of ways, by sharing knowledge with apprentices, by bringing fresh ideas to the table, by unlocking the secrets of industry and consumer data and simply by being passionate, engaged and inspiring individuals.

At the Utility Week Stars Awards, we recognise this. We celebrate the hard work and dedication that goes into delivering increasingly smart, fair and sustainable essential services.

For the 2017 awards, we were delighted to receive a record number of entries, each reflecting a new perspective on the responsibilities and pride teams in the sector feel for the difference they make to the lives of millions, day in and day out.

On 23 June, in Manchester, we will put these people in the spotlight, celebrate the achievements of our deserving finalists and reveal the winners of the 2017 Stars trophies.

 The finalists, 2017

Big Bang Award for Innovation

• Bristol Water

• Morrison Utility Services

• Cadent (National Grid Gas Distribution) and Catalyst Information Services

• Scottish Water

• Severn Trent Water

• Xoserve

Constellation Award for collaborative work with a customer community/education

• Affinity Water and WaterAid

• Good Energy, Fintry Development Trust, Veitch Cooper, Energy Assets and Heriot Watt University

• Northumbrian Water and Esh-MWH

• Severn Trent Services Minewater Treatment Team and Coal Authority Environment Team

• South East Water

• UK Power Networks

• United Utilities

Constellation Award for collaborative work with a supplier

• Affinity Water

• Water Innovation Network – Anglian Water, Allia and Opportunity Peterborough

• British Water and BIM4Water

• National Grid

• South Staffs Water

• UK Power Networks

Customer Culture Award

• Northumbrian Water Property Solutions

• Severn Trent

• SP Energy Networks

• SSE

• UK Power Networks

• Yorkshire Water and Morrison Utility Services

Data Demon Award

• Northumbrian Water Group

• Severn Trent

• South East Water and Advizzo

• Southern Water

• Thames Water Utilities

• UK Power Networks

Health and Safety Champion – Initiative

• Clancy Plant

• Morrison Utility Services – Lone Workers

• RWE

• Southern Water

• UK Power Networks

• Wales and West Utilities and the Alliance

Health and Safety Champion – Individual

• Anna Chivers – Anglian Water

• Jennifer Fitzgibbon – The AMK (Aecom, Murphy and Kier)

• Simon Deeley – UK Power Networks

• Gurj Multani – UK Power Reserve

Hero Award – Individual

• Justin Manley – Clancy Docwra

• Ivo MacFarlane – Dalcour Maclaren

• Pamela Goee – SGN

• Tomos Jones – SP Energy Networks

• Meg Darling – Spark Energy

• Dominic Warren – UK Power Networks

Hero Award – Team

• Anglian Water WaterAid Committee

• Northern Powergrid

• SGN

• SP Energy Networks

• UK Power Networks

• UK Power Reserve

Rising Star Award

• Josh Wimsey – Ecotricity

• Heeran Basi – Severn Trent

• Chris Mallon – SP Energy Networks

• Andrew Greig – SSE

• Jemma Doe – UK Power Networks

• Ruqaiyah Javed – UK Power Networks

Shooting Star Award

• Fionn Boyle – Anglian Water

• Tom Harrison – Anglian Water

• Sophie Dunstan – Npower

• Hannah Brett – SGN

• Dr Giulia Privitera – UK Power Networks

• Susana Neves e Brooks – UK Power Networks

Supernova Award for Long Service

• Willie Abu Judeh – Anglian Water

• Chris Wright – Linbrooke Services

• Caroline Lawrie – SGN

• Gerald Paver – SGN

• Henry Moye – UK Power Networks

• Dave Ackers – Xoserve

• Paul Gill – Loop / Yorkshire Business Services

To book your table, visit: www.utilityweekstars.co.uk

Guiding stars

While the Stars Awards focus on the tireless commitment and achievements of teams and individuals within the utilities workforce, Utility Week also recognises that great leaders have a big part to play in supporting those success stories.

They inspire employees, boost morale, act as role models, nurture and mentor talent. 

This year, for the first time, the Stars Awards pay tribute to such leadership with our Guiding Stars nominations. Along with awards partner Energy & Utility Skills, and based on industry recommendations, we have identified a group of executive leaders who have demonstrated outstanding workforce and sector leadership.

Those leaders are

• Mark Horsley, chief executive, Northern Gas Networks;
• Cathryn Ross, chief executive, Ofwat;
• Alan Sutherland, chief executive, Wics;
• Peter Simpson, chief executive, Anglian Water;
• Heidi Mottram, chief executive, Northumbrian Water;
• Tony Cocker, former chief executive of Eon UK;
• Juliet Davenport, chief executive, Good Energy
• Paul Spence, director strategy and corporate affairs, EDF Energy

All of these leaders have gone above and beyond the call of duty to spend time and invest passion in improving the accessibility of the utilities sector inspiring new talent to consider what opportunities it might offer them. They have supported mentoring schemes, championed new training frameworks and collaborated with peers and rivals to align and incentivise collective action on shared skills challenges. Many of them have also shown themselves to be paragons of ambition and leadership, setting an example for those who will follow in their footsteps.

More information about the contributions of these leaders will be revealed at the Stars Awards ceremony on 23 June.

Our judges

A sincere thank you from Utility Week to our Stars Awards judges, who lent their time and expertise to the difficult task of picking finalists and winners for the awards.

Nick Ellins, chief executive, Energy & Utility Skills; Lynn Cooper, chief executive, Institute of Water; Tony Smith, chief executive, Consumer Council for Water; Victoria MacGregor, head of energy, Citizens Advice; Stuart Hawksworth, head of energy innovation, Health and Safety Labs; Denise Massey, managing director, Energy Innovation Centre; Ian McCluskey, head of technical services, IGEM; Paul Fidler, director of operations and health safety and environment, ENA.