The Energy Forum

Steve Smith

Senior Partner, Local Grids and RPI-X@20, Ofgem

Biography

Steve Smith is Senior Partner, Local Grids and RPI-X@20 and member of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority. He heads the team responsible for the regulation of the monopoly and independent gas and electricity distribution networks. He also leads the team reviewing the way Ofgem regulates all of the energy network companies after 20 years of using the RPI-X approach.

Steve has held a variety of other roles at Ofgem: Managing Director Networks, Managing Director Markets and Director of Strategy and Trading Arrangements.

Prior to joining Ofgem Steve was a senior consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ utilities consulting practice where he working in the energy, post and transport sectors for regulators, companies and governments in the UK, Eastern Europe and South America. Steve also worked for American Electric Powers Energy Services in Europe. Steve holds a Masters in Economics and Econometrics and a first degree in Economics from the University of Bristol.

Charles Hendry MP

Shadow Minister for Energy, Conservative Party

Biography

Charles Hendry has been Member of Parliament for Wealden since 2001. He is currently Shadow Minister for Energy. Before this, Charles was Shadow Minister for Energy, Industry and Postal Affairs in the Business and Enterprise team and Energy Science and Technology in the former DTI team. Charles was the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party (2003-05) and Shadow Minister for Young People (2002-05) and Shadow Minister for Industry and Enterprise (May – December 2005).

From 1992-97, Charles was Member of Parliament for High Peak, Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party (1995-1997) and Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homelessness (1992-1996). Following the 1997 General Election, Charles was appointed Chief of Staff to the Rt Hon William Hague during his leadership of the Conservative Party, before establishing and leading the Business Liaison Unit at Conservative Party headquarters.

Charles’ business career has mostly been spent in Public Relations, working with the international communications groups Ogilvy & Mather PR and Burson-Marsteller. He was Special Adviser to the Rt Hon John Moore MP as Secretary of State for Social Services (1988) and to the Rt Hon Tony Newton MP as Minister of State for Trade & Industry and then Secretary of State for Social Security (1988-90). He was Founder/Chairman/Chief Executive of The Agenda Group (1999-2005), a specialist consultancy helping company Chairmen and Chief Executives with their corporate networking.

Dr Michael Pollitt

Research Associate, Cambridge University Electricity Policy Research Group

Biography

Professional Experience

Dr Pollitt is a member of the editorial board of the Review of Industrial Organization. He is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Business Research (CBR) and a member of the Faculty of Economics. He was a board member and trustee of Viva Network, Oxford, from 1999-2004. Since 2000 he has been convenor of the Association of Christian Economists, UK.

Dr Pollitt has advised the ESRC, the Norwegian Research Council, the DTI, the World Bank and the European Commission. In 2007 Michael was appointed as an external economic advisor to Ofgem. He has also consulted for National Grid, AWG, Eneco, Nuon, Roche and TenneT.

Previous Appointments

Before coming to Judge Business School, Michael was a lecturer in applied industrial organisation at the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, from 1994-1999. In the first half of 2003 Michael was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at MIT. From 2001-2005 Michael was co-leader of the Cambridge-MIT Electricity Project. In 2005 and 2006 Michael served as Acting Executive Director of the ESRC Electricity Policy Research Group.

Research Interests

Industrial economics, privatisation and regulation of utilities especially in electricity, the measurement of productive efficiency and the relationship between Christian ethics and best practice business behaviour.

Michael Pollitt is a member of the Energy & Environment research group, the Business & Management Economics research group and the Business & Management Economics teaching group

Kanat Emiroglu

Managing Director, British Gas Business

Biography

Kanat is Managing Director of British Gas Business on 1 August 2009. Before that, he was responsible for the SME Energy Business within British Gas Business. He joined Centrica plc in 2002 and headed up the Group Strategy and Planning function until 2005.

British Gas Business is a £4m energy and energy services provider which is part of Centrica plc

Prior to Centrica, Kanat spent 5 years in Procter & Gamble in pan-European marketing roles and R&D. He also worked as a corporate strategy consultant for 2 years.

Kanat, has an MBA from INSEAD, has worked in the USA and various European countries, speaks Turkish and German.

Professor M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer

Director, Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage

Biography

Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer is the Director of the Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage (CICCS) at the University of Nottingham.  She is also the Head of Fuels and Power Technology Research Division of the Faculty of Engineering and Professor in Energy Technologies. 

CICCS, based within the Faculty of Engineering and funded by EPSRC; is an international, interdisciplinary leading centre for research at the interface between science and engineering; inspiring and delivering innovation and technological advances required for the wider deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).  The team leads several cross-disciplinary research programmes directed towards real world commercial applications, and receives funding from RCUK, Technology Strategy Board, Royal Society, industry and European Community.  CICCS research programmes cover all the range from blue sky research to proof of concept and patent development leading to commercialisation. 

Prof Maroto-Valer has over 200 publications, holds numerous prestigious international prizes and leading positions in professional societies, editorial boards and acts regularly as reviewer for journals and funding agencies.  She has organised and chaired sessions at numerous international conferences. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).

Ross Taylor

Managing Director, E.ON UK

Biography

Ross Taylor is the UK Managing Director of E.ON IS, delivering shared infrastructure services and enterprise applications across the company. E.ON is one of the world’s leading power and gas companies.

E.ON want to change the way people think about energy - where we get it from, how it is brought to customers, how it is used and how it feels to be a customer of an energy company.

Ross joined the company in 1996 and has established and managed shared services and IT delivery both in the UK and overseas. He took his current role in 2005 and is responsible for the delivery of infrastructure services and enterprise applications within E.ON in the UK, Nordic, Italy as well as E.ON’s functional Trading and Renewables businesses .

Steve Gordon

Commercial and Regulation Manager, ScottishPower

Biography

Steve has over 20 years experience in the UK energy sector, particularly in the gas market, and has worked in a variety of roles in a number of areas across the gas supply chain.  Steve has been involved in the development of competition since market opening and joined Scottish Power at the time the revised gas trading arrangements were being introduced.

Steve is currently

Vice Chairman of the Gas Forum - the organisation that represents all gas shippers and suppliers, a director of the Gas Industry Safety Group, Chairman of the AEP's Gas and Electricity Committee UK Representative on gas issues within Eurelectric

Stuart Cook

Senior Partner, Transmission & Governance, Ofgem

Biography