The Future of Utilities

Ian Marchant

Chief Executive Officer, Scottish & Southern Energy

Biography

Ian was appointed Chief Executive of Scottish and Southern Energy in October 2002 having been Finance Director since 1998. He joined Southern Electric in 1992 and joined the Board on becoming Finance Director in 1996. Previously he worked for Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC), including a two-year secondment to the Department of Energy working on electricity privatisation. Ian is Chairman of the United Kingdom Business Council for Sustainable Energy and of the Climate Change Business Delivery Group, a member of Ofgem’s Environmental Advisory Group, the Coal Forum and of the Energy Research Partnership. Ian is a non-Executive Director of Maggie’s Cancer Centres and was appointed as a non-Executive Director of John Wood Group PLC on 18 May 2006.

Mike Calviou

Director of Asset Management, National Grid

Biography

Mike Calviou is Director of Asset Management for UK Transmission, responsible for the full asset life cycle for the Gas and Electricity Transmission systems, including system design and investment and the field force that maintains the assets. He has previously been Commercial Director for both Gas Distribution and UK Transmission and also Vice President of Regulation and Commercial for US Transmission. Earlier in his career, he led National Grid's input into the design of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements.

Volker Beckers

Chief Executive Officer, RWE npower

Biography

Volker Beckers was appointed to the Board of RWE npower as Group Chief Financial Officer on 1 November 2003 and Chief Executive Officer in January 2010.

Prior to joining RWE npower, he was Vice President Corporate Controlling and Development at RWE Net AG in Dortmund and from February 2003 was also responsible for Organisational Development. Before that, he held several senior positions at RWE Energy AG. His last position before the merger with VEW Energy AG was Head of Controlling business unit grid in Essen.

After graduating from Cologne University with a master’s degree in business administration, he worked for Compunet Computer AG (later General Electric, Capital Services) as Head of Education Centre and then moved to the management consultancy part of the business as Division Manager responsible for Project Management Methods and IT Development Projects. In addition to his role at RWE npower, Volker Beckers is Deputy Head of the executive Commercial Management Committee at BDEW (German Association of Energy and Water Industries) and also represents the German companies at Eurelectric's "Finance & Economics" Focus Group. Volker Beckers is married with two children.

Philip Green

Chief Executive Officer, United Utilities

Biography

Philip Green became Chief Executive of United Utilities PLC in February 2006. United Utilities is one of the largest utilities (water, gas, and electricity) companies in the UK, ranked mid-way in the FTSE100, with a market cap of £3bn+ after recently returning £1.5bn to shareholders. During the last three years it has restructured and strengthened management, created strategic focus through some disposals, and improved operational performance.

In 2003 Philip was appointed CEO of P&O Nedlloyd, one of the largest container shipping companies in the world, and a joint venture between P&O and Royal Nedlloyd. He led the company to its successful listing as Royal P&O Nedlloyd BV in Amsterdam in April 2004. Under his leadership operating profit increased from $77m in 2003 to approximately $550m in 2005. In August 2005, the company was acquired at a share price of €57 compared to a market price of less than €10 in 2003.

He was previously Chief Operating Officer at Reuters Group plc, which he joined in 1999. His responsibilities included the design and implementation of a global change management programme. From 1990 to 1999 he was at DHL, the global market leader for cross-border express delivery, becoming Chief Operating Officer for Europe and Africa.

He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a BA (Hons) from the University of Wales.

Philip is a member of the Commission for Skills and Employment. He is also a Director of Business in the Community, and Chairman of BitC’s Environment Campaign. He is a Trustee of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

He was born in 1953 and is married with two daughters.

Regina Finn

Chief Executive, Ofwat

Biography

Regina Finn is the Chief Executive of Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales. She has extensive experience regulating utility sectors, including the electricity and natural gas sectors in Ireland, the telecommunications, post and electricity sectors in Guernsey in the Channel Islands and the communications sector in Ireland.

Eric Salomon

Energy Field Services Director, EDF Energy

Biography

Eric Salomon is the Energy Field Services Director at EDF Energy and is responsible for the field activities (sales and metering) as well as for low carbon product development for B2C and B2B market.

Having started his career at EDF Energy in the Research and Development division in Paris in 1991, Eric initially oversaw transmission projects before being made responsible for network operations and customer services for both gas and electricity.

Between 2001 and 2004, Eric successfully developed multi-utility bundled products while working as a Service Director at EnBW in Germany. From 2004 until 2008, Eric developed demand size management and renewable sources of energy in Martinique, where he worked as the EDF Executive Manager. In this role he contributed significantly to improving the energy situation on the island.

With 17 years of global experience at EDF energy, Eric is an expert on low carbon solutions for customers. He sees the reduction of carbon emissions as an environmental priority and core to the energy business.

Rupert Steele

Director of Regulation, ScottishPower

Biography

Rupert Steele is Director of Regulation at ScottishPower. He is responsible for working with Government and regulatory stakeholders to help find solutions which meet both the needs of the company and the public interest.

He reports directly to the Chief Executive and is a member of the Executive Team.

Rupert was appointed to this position on joining ScottishPower in April 2007. Prior to this, he ran a consultancy business (Energy Strategies Limited) that advised utility, City and Government clients on energy policy issues.

His earlier career included 16 years working on energy issues in the Department of Trade and Industry and three years at TXU Europe.

He was appointed OBE in 1992.

John Saunders

Chief Executive, Infrastructure Planning Commission

Biography

John Saunders is an experienced Chief Executive with a considerable record of success in complex and substantial public and private sector organisations. He was awarded an OBE in 1998 for services to British Business.

After a 20 year career in Corporate Banking, John moved to the public sector in various Chief Executive, Chair and Board Member roles. Most recently John has held Chief Executive roles during the start-up phase at the Security Industry Authority and at CIPFA. John brings strong leadership, business acumen and a thorough understanding of working in challenging and politically sensitive arenas under close public scrutiny.

Dr Pierre Dechamps

European Commission

Biography

Dr Pierre Dechamps holds an electro-mechanical engineering degree from Liège University, a Master of Science from Cranfield University and a PhD from Liège University.

He worked for 5 years as an assistant in Liège University, in the power generation department.

He then joined the industry, CMI, Cockerill Mechanical Industries, one of the world leading heat recovery boiler manufacturers for power stations, where he quickly became the Head of the R&D Engineering Department.

Since 1998, he worked for 10 years for the European Commission Directorate General for Research as project officer for clean coal technologies and later on for CO2 capture and sequestration.

In January 2008, he joined the Bureau of European Policy Advisers of President Barroso as the adviser for energy and climate change.

Steve Smith

Former Senior Partner, 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.

Don Leiper

Managing Director, Energy Services, E.ON UK

Biography

Don Leiper was appointed Managing Director, Energy Services, in March 2008, having previously been in post as Director of Metering for two years.

Prior to that, Don held two IT roles, firstly as IS Manager in Retail and latterly as Chief Information Officer for E.ON UK. Don previously worked for East Midlands Electricity and is a qualified chartered accountant.

Sarah Harrison

Senior Partner, Sustainable Development, Ofgem

Biography

Sarah took on leadership of Ofgem’s new Sustainable Development Division in September 09. The Division was created as part of Ofgem’s restructuring the aim of which is to increase Ofgem’s role in helping to meet Britain’s targets to cut carbon emissions. The Division brings together Environmental, Social and Consumer policy. It will lead on smart metering policy as well as enforcement and better regulation.

From 2005 Sarah was Ofgem’s Managing Director of Corporate Affairs and before that she was Ofgem’s Communications Director.

From 1994 – 1999 Sarah was the first Director of ICSTIS, the UK industry regulator for premium rate telephone services. Sarah’s earlier career was in government and public relations consultancy.

Martin Hurst

Director of Floods and Water, DEFRA

Biography

Martin read economics at Queens College Cambridge, and deferred an early entry into the civil service to see whether he wanted to pursue an academic career, doing a masters and a PhD at Southampton. He quickly realised that the bureaucrat’s life played more to his strengths and joined the Treasury, spending eight years as an economist (including world UK and monetary forecasting) and then 2 years running indirect tax.

In 1995 Martin became a senior civil servant, in what was then the department for the environment. He covered a number of issues, but ended up running policy and delivery on air quality, industrial pollution control and noise pollution.

At the start of 2002 he moved to 10 Downing street, and spent three and a half years advising the Prime Minster on housing, planning, environment, farming and rural affairs, while choosing the art for Number 10 in his copious free time. Towards the end of this time he worked half time for Sir Andrew Turnbull, on civil service management.

For a year from April 2005 he was charged with setting up the new ‘Natural England’ agency: a new body, bringing together 1500 staff from two different agencies and 1300 Defra civil servants. A short post as Director of Regulation in Defra followed.

Since Feb 2007 he has been Director for Water in Defra, he is also responsible for sponsorship of the Environment Agency and for Chemicals, Noise and Local Environmental Quality.

Martin is vice chair of Wandle Housing Association and is a trustee of Groundwork London.

Dieter Helm

Professor of Energy Policy, Oxford University

Biography

Dieter Helm is an economist, specialising in utilities, infrastructure, regulation and the environment, and concentrates on the energy, water and transport sectors in Britain and Europe.

He is Professor at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of New College, Oxford. He holds a number of advisory board appointments, including Chairman of the Academic Panel, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, member of the expert panel for the Department of Transport's Review of the Regulation of Airports and member of the Advisory Panel on Energy and Climate Security, Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. He was a member of the DTI Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board, 2002-2007 and of the Prime Minister's Council of Science and Technology, 2004-2007.

He is associate editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy. His career to date has spanned academia, public policy and business. He founded OXERA in 1982, was a member of the DTI's Energy Advisory Panel from 1993-2003, and has published extensively on economic topics.

Dieter holds a number of advisory board appointments, including Chairman of the Academic Panel, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, member of the expert panel for the Department of Transport's Review of the Regulation of Airports and member of the Advisory Panel on Energy and Climate Security, Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Ian Peters

Chief Operating Officer, British Gas

Biography

Ian Peters is Chief Operating Officer for British Gas. His responsibilities include offshore operations, metering and billing, debt management, Centrica Group IS, Insurance, British Gas Business, and “Energy First”, the largest customer facing residential energy business. He is also Chairman of British Gas Services Ltd and a Trustee of two Centrica Pension Funds. With over 25 years experience in a variety of energy and financial services positions, Ian has gained expertise in strategy, marketing, finance and business operations.

He joined Centrica in March 2002 from Marsh, the world’s leading risk management and insurance broking specialist where he held various positions. He moved to British Gas as Business Development Director in April 2004 after being Managing Director of Goldfish Bank since 2002 where he led the financial turnaround and eventual sale to Lloyds TSB. Among other things in British Gas he oversaw the acquisition of Dyno Rod and associated companies. He was subsequently Managing Director of British Gas Business before taking on his new role in March 2007.

Prior to Marsh, Ian held various roles in his 18 years at NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland including Director of Merchant Services, Head of Retail Marketing and Sales and Head of Small Businesses.

Ian’s early business experience includes a stint running a rose growing business in the Channel Islands, a Business Studies librarian at the University of Warwick, and secondments to HM Treasury and the National Maritime Museum.

Ian holds an MA in social anthropology from Cambridge, an MBA from Warwick Business School, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a non Executive Director of Intelligent Environments Group plc and a member of the Finance and Audit Committee of Business in the Community. He has been a Trustee and Treasurer of Carers UK since early 2004.

He lists his primary interests as DIY which relates to long term renovation projects of derelict Victorian properties. Other interests include gardening, sports – leisurely observation only – and collecting and consuming wine. He lives in West Sussex and is married with three children.

Alan Raymant

Chief Operating Officer, Horizon Nuclear Power

Biography

Alan Raymant is the Chief Operating Office for the nuclear joint venture between E.ON and RWE. He took up his position in August of this year. Alan has over 20 years experience in the Electricity Industry and has held a number of senior management posts in generation, distribution and engineering development and construction. He joined the joint venture from Central Networks where he was Director of Operations and Asset Management. Prior to joining Central Networks in 2003, he was Head of E.ON UK’s Renewables business and led the development of a number of renewable generation projects. Alan is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of both the Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Dr Phil Jones

President and Chief Operating Officer, CE Electric

Biography

Phil Jones is President and Chief Operating Officer of CE Electric UK, which itself is part of the MidAmerican Energy Holdings group of companies. CE Electric UK’s principal activity is electricity distribution for the North East and Yorkshire. Previously, as Director of Strategy & Investment in CE, Phil had lead responsibility for asset-related investment policy and strategy, and operational responsibility for regulation and market operations. He is a chartered engineer who worked in a range of technical and managerial roles in Yorkshire Electricity from 1993 until its acquisition by Mid American in September 2001. Between 2000 and 2008 he was President of the Institute of Asset Management and he is currently President of the Energy Networks Association. For several years, he led an industry group advising Ofgem and the Government on engineering issues relating to distributed generation and its access to distribution networks. In 2007 he was awarded the OBE for his services to the electricity industry.

Steve Johnson

Chief Executive Officer, Electricity Northwest

Biography

Steve Johnson CEO: Steve was appointed Chief Executive of Electricity North West in September 2008. Steve has experience in both the Electricity and Water sectors; his early career being in Yorkshire Electricity and Norweb . He was Managing Director in United Utilities Contract Solutions Business and in 2001 he led the Welsh Water Operations Contract; delivering a step change improvement in Operational and Financial performance. He joined AWG Plc in 2006 as MD of Morrison; the support services group and successfully led sale process of Morrison Utilities to private equity.

Simon Wills

Managing Director, Centrica Storage

Biography

Simon joined Centrica Storage as Managing Director in August 2008, moving across from his previous role as Head of Power Business Development within Centrica Energy.

Simon has been with Centrica since de-merger and before that with British Gas plc. He started his career with us as a research engineer with British Gas at their Midland Research Station in 1990 and since then has held a variety of commercial and technical roles within British Gas and latterly Centrica, both in the UK and Europe. Simon was involved in our initial entry into the UK electricity market in 1998 and his career has been associated with Centrica’s activities in power ever since and has covered UK power station acquisitions, retail procurement policy, market development, development of Centrica’s initial renewable activities and European business development.

In early 2004 Simon took up the role of Director of the Energy Management Group in Centrica’s Belgian gas and power supply JV, Luminus, a role he carried out until returning to the UK in mid 2005 as Head of Electricity Supplies for Centrica Energy and subsequently Head of Business Development, prior to moving to his current role.

David Nussbaum

Chief Executive Officer, WWF

Biography

David Nussbaum became Chief Executive of WWF-UK in May 2007. Born in 1958, he has a strong track record in the international charity sector as well as wide experience in business and finance.

After studying theology at Cambridge and Edinburgh universities, David joined Price Waterhouse and qualified as a chartered accountant. He moved into venture capital with 3i plc and later into manufacturing industry, ending up as Finance Director of Field Group plc through its flotation in 1993. He then joined Oxfam in 1997 where he was Finance Director and a Deputy Chief Executive. In 2000 he was seconded for six months to head up Oxfam’s operations in India.

In 2002 David joined Transparency International, the leading global anti-corruption organisation with a presence in over 100 countries, where he was Chief Executive based at the International Secretariat in Berlin.

Between 1991 and 2006, David was a non-executive director, and later Chair, of the leading fair trade company Traidcraft plc, whose mission is “fighting poverty through trade”.

In addition to his WWF-UK position, he is a non-executive director of Low Carbon Accelerator and of Shared Interest Society. The former is a fund which invests in technology-based companies which will contribute to a low-carbon economy; the latter is one of the world’s principal fair trade finance organisations which lends to producers and buyers in some 40 countries.

“I’ve spent much of my career devoting my skills and experience to influencing what kind of world we will have in the future,” he says. “This has involved confronting major global challenges in a practical way. WWF, too, confronts huge global challenges: sustainable development and the very real threat of climate change are ranging ever higher on the public and political agendas. As we continue to build on our track record in both these vital areas, there’s a great deal of demanding work for WWF in the years ahead.”

David lives near Amersham and is married with four children.

Matthias Haag

Chief Operating Officer, Aquamarine Power

Biography

Matthias Haag joined Aquamarine Power as Chief Operating Officer in July 2008. Formerly General Manager of Projects with Shell WindEnergy, Matthias was responsible for the development of major offshore wind power projects in the UK, Netherlands and USA including the North Sea 36-turbine Offshore Windpark Egmond aan Zee. Previously, Matthias worked globally with Shell International, specialising in subsea cable and pipeline installation and was Lead Engineer and Contract Manager, responsible for delivering offshore pipeline network design for Sakhalin Energy in Paris. Matthias holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Darmstadt University of Technology.

Mark Powles

Chief Executive, Business Stream

Biography

Mark Powles joined newly formed Business Stream in March 2007. Since then he has created a dynamic, customer focused company that successfully operates in the non-household Scottish retail market.

Powles brings a wealth of relevant senior management experience operating in highly regulated, competitive retail service markets across travel, transport and Financial Services, with Companies such as Sealink Stena Line, National Express Group and AEGON UK.

At Business Stream, Powles has created a strong, sustainable brand where the customer sits at the heart of all activities and business is retained on merit by the strength of the products, services and value for money it provides. Since 2008 customer satisfaction has increased to 81% and the range of services was expanded from 6 to 57 and Business Stream won best business performance at the European Utility Awards.

David Smith

Chief Executive, Energy Networks Association

Biography

David Smith is Chief Executive of ENA.

Previously, he was Director of Corporate Affairs at the British Retail Consortium (www.brc.org.uk) where he was responsible for the retail industry implementation of Chip & Pin in the UK.

In his early career, David worked in local government. He was then Press & Public Affairs Manager at the London Ambulance Service (www.londonambulance.nhs.uk) for three years, where he worked on many high profile incidents affecting the Capital.

He has a degree in public administration.

Dr Garry Felgate

Chief Executive, Energy Retail Association

Biography

Dr Garry Felgate is Chief Executive of the Energy Retail Association (ERA), established in 2003 to represent Britain's domestic energy suppliers. The ERA works closely with government, NGOs, charities and other organisations in England, Scotland and Wales to ensure a coordinated approach to dealing with the key issues affecting the industry and the British consumer.

The ERA represents the common interests of its six member companies and their customers; British Gas, EDF Energy, RWEnpower, E.ON, Scottish and Southern Energy, and ScottishPower.

Prior to joining the ERA, Garry Felgate was the Managing Director of the consulting business at AEA Technology. He was the Director of Delivery and External Relations at the Carbon Trust where he ran the Action Energy and Carbon Management programmes, and was a director at KPMG Consulting, where he focused on energy and retail consultancy with key clients including The People's Lottery, Daewoo Motors, OFGEM, Yorkshire Energy and Siemens. He has also worked for A T Kearney and IBM. Garry has sat on a number of environmental advisory bodies. He is a non executive director of the Ombudsman Service and The Energy Saving Trust.

Garry has a PhD in Building Engineering, a BSc (Hons) in Architectural Engineering and is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and the RSA.

For more information, please contact the ERA on +44 20 7104 4150 or www.energy-retail.org.uk

Dr Tony Ballance

Director, Regulation and Competition, Severn Trent

Biography

Prior to joining Severn Trent in August 2005 Dr. Ballance was an economic consultant in the utilities sector working as a Director for Stone & Webster Consultants and London Economics. His work was principally divided between advising UK water companies and regulators and work in developing countries on privatization and restructuring (for the World Bank, DFID and other international agencies).

Prior to going into consultancy, Dr. Ballance was Chief Economist at the Office of Water Services (Ofwat) where he worked for 6 years.

Jean Spencer

Director of Regulation & Executive Director, Anglian Water

Biography

Jean Spencer was appointed as Regulation Director with Anglian Water in May 2004. Prior to joining Anglian Water, she held a number of positions with Yorkshire Water and Kelda, including Head of Regulation, Head of Internal Audit and Regulatory and Accounting Controller.

A qualified chartered accountant, Jean began her career at Grant Thornton in 1980. In 1984 she joined the Audit Commission, leaving in 1989 to join Yorkshire Water.

During 2006-2008, Jean chaired the Steering Group for Waterwise's Evidence Base for Large-scale Water Efficiency in Homes. The Evidence Base brought together and analysed for the first time around twenty large-scale water company water efficiency retrofit projects, and produced cost-benefit data and scenarios to inform water company and regulatory delivery of retrofit programmes, to help the supply-demand balance as demand increases, and supply is threatened as a result of climate change. The Evidence Base was used by water companies and Ofwat in the PR09 process. The Steering group has now reconvened to deliver phase 2 of the evidence base.

Keith Harris

Director of Finance and Policy, Wessex Water

Biography

Keith Harris has 20 years of experience in utilities specialising in regulation, competition and government affairs, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.

Keith oversaw the 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009 Price Reviews and had the dubious pleasure of being the global head of regulation at Azurix, Enron's water subsidiary. He was then integral to protecting Wessex Water and realising value from the Azurix group upon Enron's collapse.

After gaining an Economics degree with a specialisation in the privatisation of public utilities, Keith continues to study the increasingly important part that utility companies play in delivering social and sustainability policies. He introduced Wessex Water’s innovative “Assist” social water tariff, and pioneered the company’s approach to contracting with farmers not to pollute water sources.

He is a member of the Water UK Council and Steering Committee and is Vice Chairman of Norton Radstock Regeneration Limited.

Dr Keith MacLean

Policy and Public Affairs Director, Scottish & Southern Energy

Biography

Since completing graduate and postgraduate studies in Chemistry at Heriot-Watt and Hamburg Universities, Keith joined SSE in 1994 following a career in Germany and Scotland working in Research & Development and Business Management.

At SSE he has worked in a number of areas of the energy business and was also responsible for starting-up and running its telecoms business from 1997 to 2004. Since 2004 he has been responsible for policy and public affairs.

Outside SSE, he is a Director on the Board of the Scottish Renewables Forum (SRF) and is also Chairman of the Board at the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy (UKBCSE).

In addition to this trade association activity he is a government advisor on renewable energy policy and was appointed to the Renewables Advisory Board in December 2007 and is also a member of the Scottish Government’s Forum for Renewable Energy.

Steve Edwards

Head of Commercial and Regulation, Wales & West Utilities

Biography

Steve Edwards - Head of Regulation and Commercial Wales & West Utilities

Steve has 17 years experience in the Gas industry. He is a graduate of Swansea University and a Charted Accountant. Steve has held several senior management posts in the Gas industry throughout the UK He led the implementation of WWU's finance back office systems as part of Network sale in 2005 and has established the WWU capability for the revenue related activity that was previously part f the National Grid Head Office function. Steve moved into his current role last year replacing the previous Head of regulation. Steve is the WWU director representative of the Energy Networks Association.

Robert Knight

Research Director, Ipsos MORI

Biography

Robert Knight heads the energy research practice at Ipsos MORI. A graduate of Exeter University and Kingston Business School, he has spent more than half of his 25-year research career with Ipsos MORI. His particular specialism is in company and industry reputations and he works with various clients in the energy industry. He is a frequent speaker and writer on nuclear and energy-related issues, and has contributed articles to Utility Week, Nuclear Future and Nuclear Engineering International, as well as speaking at various conferences, including the Adam Smith Nuclear Forum, Nuclear Newbuild 2008, PIME2009 and at the 2009 NIA/BNES Energy Choices conference. He has also presented Ipsos MORI research on public attitudes to energy issues at the House of Commons, and at the EU in Brussels.

Stuart Henderson

Smart Metering Strategy Manager, Business Stream

Biography

Working in the water industry for the past ten years, Stuart has been at the forefront of water efficiency in Scotland. With a strong environmental background from his degree and postgraduate studies, he has brought this to bear on water efficiency and has worked with our customers to develop and implement effective water management strategies.

In his current role, Stuart has developed the smart metering strategy for Business Stream. He quickly recognised that smart metering formed a golden thread through of all of the stages of the water management cycle, from identification of issues through to implementation of improvements and ongoing monitoring. As well as the clear customer benefits, Stuart has been working to develop the technology to benefit Business Stream’s own internal processes from meter reading to data accuracy to billing. In a quickly evolving environment, Stuart is tasked with supporting Business Stream retain a market advantage through the most effective application of this technology.

Greg Archer

Managing Director, Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership

Biography

Greg Archer is Managing Director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) a position he has held since 2005. LowCVP is a multi-stakeholder partnership of over 375 organisations which works to accelerate the shift to lower carbon vehicles and fuels and generate opportunity for UK businesses.

He is also a member of the Board of the Renewable Fuels Agency which regulates the supply of biofuels in the UK and a director of Cenex, a public-private centre of excellence for low carbon and fuel-cell technology.

Greg is a Chartered Chemist with wide ranging experience in environmental: policy, research, businesses and programme management.

Professor Jim Skea

Research Director, UK Energy Research Centre

Biography

Jim Skea has particular research interests in energy, climate change and technological innovation. He has been Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, based at Imperial College, since 2004 He previously directed the Policy Studies Institute and the Economic and Social Research Council’s’ Global Environmental Change Programme.

He has operated at the interface between research, policy-making and business throughout his career. He is a founding member of the Committee on Climate Change and a Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III (climate change mitigation). He is also on the Boards of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Renewables East. He was Launch Director for the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and for several years chaired the Scottish Power Green Energy Trust.

He recently chaired the Technical Advisory Group that developed the British Standards Institution specification for assessing the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services.

Dr Sarah Darby

Energy Programme Research Fellow, University of Oxford

Biography

Sarah Darby researches social and behavioural aspects of energy use in buildings and in 2007 was awarded a three-year interdisciplinary fellowship from the UK Research Councils, to work on domestic energy feedback (displays, billing and metering). She is part of the external evaluation team for the UK Demand Reduction trials of different types of feedback and metering, and was a co-author of 40% House, a widely-debated study of the prospects for reducing carbon emissions from the UK housing stock. Sarah holds a BSc in Ecological Science from Edinburgh University and a doctorate from Oxford. She writes and speaks on issues including energy education, equity, and utility-customer relations.

Frances Williamson

Head of Policy and External Relations, Energy Retail Association

Biography

Frances Williamson is the Head of Policy and External Relations for the Energy Retail Association (ERA), the trade association for the main domestic energy suppliers in Great Britain. She is responsible for liaison between the regulator, government departments and other stakeholders for consultations and other activities. Issues where she has focus include renewable and low carbon energy, complaints handling, debt and disconnection and fuel poverty.

Prior to working at the ERA Frances worked as government liaison for Network Rail, and before this was senior communications manager at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

For more information, please contact the ERA on +44 20 7104 4150 or www.energy-retail.org.uk.

Simon Higgins

Smart Metering Solution Architect, Arqiva

Biography

• Heads-up development of Arqiva’s Smart Meter long range radio communications solution
• Previous roles at Arqiva have focused on mission critical communications networks and services

Simon Higgins leads Arqiva's Smart Metering product management team and is well known and respected within the industry as a champion of the benefits of smart metering. More recently Simon has been promoting the benefits of smart meters within an integrated 'smart grid', which would include smart water meters.

Simon has worked for Arqiva for a number of years and has held senior roles within the organisation including Account Director for the company's Public Safety team, which is focused on the delivery of mission critical communications networks and services to the UK's emergency services. In addition he has led the deployment of a wireless and cellular network in the Glasgow Underground and the development of a distributed antenna system for use in urban/indoor locations.

Prior to joining Arqiva Simon held a number of senior roles (including Account director and Network Operations Manager) at ntl.

Venkie Shantaram

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Biography

Venkie is a Partner at McKinsey & Company, based in London. Venkie works at the intersection of energy and climate change – leading the UK Utilities practice and co-leading McKinsey’s global Climate Change Special Initiative. On the energy front, he has deep expertise in serving regulated utilities and in global gas & LNG markets. On the Climate Change front, he has developed expertise in sector-level and country-level de-carbonization strategies.

Illustrative efforts Venkie has led/is leading include:

Utilities: power/gas/water

• 2030 investment pathway and policy options for the UK electricity sector
• Investment strategy and project risk assessment model for a regulated utility
• Smart metering strategy for a regulated utility
• Cross-border value creation strategy for a regulated utility
• Biomass strategy and UK renewables regime assessment for a generator
• Internationalization strategy for a water utility
• Preparing a water utility for market deregulation
• Growth strategy in LNG for a power & gas utility
• Gas supply security strategy for multiple European utilities and an Asian government

Oil & gas players: resource holders and international players

• Corporate strategy for a vertically integrated National Oil Company
• Global LNG strategy for an international oil & gas company
• Country & region level upstream strategy for an international oil & gas company
• Portfolio strategy for a state-owned Central Asian company

Climate Change: leading national and global institutions

• Developed the 2020 and 2030 carbon abatement “cost curve” for the UK
• Defined a low-carbon country pathway for a large developing country
• Defining a performance regime for sector de-carbonization in a number of developing countries

Venkie holds an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau and a Bachelors in Business from Delhi University

Doug King

Vice Chairman, Deloitte

Biography

Doug is a Vice Chairman of Deloitte in the UK with 30 years experience. He is Deloitte’s senior Energy, Infrastructure and Utilities (EIU) Partner with responsibility covering the gas, power, water and rail sectors.

He leads FTSE 100 audits and internal audit, risk management, advisory, consulting and transaction work for many others. This extensive transaction experience in the EIU sector covers significant public and private acquisitions, IPO’s, project financing and other capital raising exercises.

Doug also has broad international experience, including Utility Restructuring in Europe, Africa, Russia, India and the Middle East.

He is a regular speaker at industry conferences.

Luq Niazi

Executive Partner, IBM Global Business Services

Biography

Luq is the Managing Partner for IBM Global Business Services Communications Sector for UK and Ireland and is responsible for IBM’s consulting, systems integration and application services work for clients in the Energy & Utilities, Media & Entertainment and Telco industries.

Luq has over 17 years of experience in Industrial, Communications and Public Sector with a track record of large scale and first of a kind business and technology transformations for both multinational and national clients with a primary focus on Energy & Utilities and Oil & Gas companies. His experience includes industry transformation, new operating model design & implementation, business process re-engineering, organisation design & change management, programme and project management and the full range of IT advisory, consulting and systems delivery work including outsourcing. He is particularly interested in business transformation and growth through innovation and technology and helping client's envision, design and realise their strategic objectives through a strong focus on delivery results.

Luq joined the management consulting division of Coopers & Lybrand in 1997 from industry which became PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting (PwCC) in 1998 and was subsequently acquired by IBM in 2002 to form IBM Global Business Services - the world's largest consulting and systems integration organisation. Luq was appointed as a Partner in IBM Global Business Services in 2003.

Prior to joining the firm Luq was a project manager in the air traffic industry specialising in privately financed programmes to design, build and operate air traffic control services throughout Scotland and Northern England. Luq holds a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Loughborough University and a MBA from The Management School, Imperial College, London. He is Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

Duncan Sinclair

Director, Redpoint Energy

Biography

Duncan Sinclair is one of the three original founders of Redpoint Energy. Since forming the company in 2004, he has advised government, regulators and energy companies on a wide range of issues. He lead the Redpoint studies for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on the Dynamics of GB Generation Investment for the 2007 Energy White Paper, and on potential reforms to the Renewables Obligation as part of its 2009 Renewable Energy Strategy. Duncan also lead the economic analysis of different models for rolling out smart meters supporting the Government’s recent announcement. He has recently acted as an advisor to the GB energy regulator, Ofgem, on Project Discovery which assesses the prospects for future secure and sustainable energy supplies in GB. Duncan has worked with a number of energy companies in developing their commercial and risk strategies in evaluating investment decisions. Prior to joining Redpoint, Duncan spent ten years at Caminus during the liberalisation of the UK gas and electricity markets in the 1990s.

Peter Haigh

Chief Executive, ELEXON

Biography

Peter has been at the forefront of energy developments in the UK since the privatisation of the industry in 1990. Recently appointed as Chief Executive of ELEXON, the Balancing and Settlement Code Company for Great Britain, he brings a wealth of energy market expertise.

As Director of E.ON UK’s residential and B2B retail businesses, he overhauled the marketing, sales and propositions functions, to generate an ongoing substantial increase in profitability, delivering in excess of £100m+ profit per annum.

Previously, he led E.ON’s UK Trading business – trading gas, coal oil, carbon and electricity. During this time, he negotiated a number of ground breaking deals for the energy sector, including the £1.4b acquisition of TXU Europe in 2002 and the first virtual power station in Europe.

Peter established Energy Market Risk Ltd to provide energy advisory and risk management expertise. Work undertaken includes:

• Advising large multi-national European Energy Utility on UK market entry strategy.
• Generation transaction assessment and evaluation

Grant Robertson

Vice President Construction UK&I, F EE, MEA, DHL Supply Chain, Industrial UK

Biography

Grant has worked within the logistics and supply chain sector since 1972 after completing his studies at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities.

In 1988 he joined Exel as a General Manager working in Scotland and progressing to become the Operations Director for the Scottish region.

Thereafter, in 1998, Grant took full responsibility for the strategic development of the Construction and Infrastructure business sector. Under his direction as Managing Director, the sector developed into a multi-million pound revenue business, providing supply chain services to a number of blue chip FTSE 100 companies.

In 2009, Grant was appointed as Vice President for Construction and Utilities business development across Ireland, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well having responsibility for leading the Global Utilities strategy for DHL Supply Chain.

Additionally, he leads the UK Industrial Business Unit Corporate Social Responsibility agenda.

The experience gained over the past 35 years has enabled Grant to become a respected thought leader within the industry.

In 2004, he accepted an award on behalf of DHL for the development and delivery of the “Best Utility Supply Chain” as judged by the Institute of Logistics.

He also sits in an advisory capacity on a number of Industry forum groups and is invited on a regular basis to present at Infrastructure industry conference events.

Grant is married with three grown up children and resides in Cheshire.

Jens-Peter Saul

MD, Siemens Energy Sector UK, Sector Lead North & West Europe

Biography

After studying energy technology and energy economics at the University of Hanover in 1995, Jens commenced his career with Siemens Power Generation in Offenbach, Germany, as a project manager for sales of new plants and new plant services in the Middle East.

After that, Jens gained over nine years of experience in project development and sales, in particular in selling large independent power and water projects in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He was appointed head of sales for the Middle East in March 2004, a position he held until October 2005, when he transferred to the UK and was appointed to the role of Managing Director of Siemens Power Generation. Jens was appointed Managing Director Energy Sector UK and Sector Lead North & West Europe in April 2008. In his current role, Jens is responsible for all the Energy Sector (former PG and PTD) related activities in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and the Baltics. Jens is a member of the Siemens UK Executive Management Board and also a member of the Executive Management Council of Siemens North West Europe.

Jens is married with one son and one daughter and enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, digital photography and golf in his spare time.

Peter Landauer

Director, Smart Grid Solutions, Capgemini

Biography

Peter has been leading initiatives in the utilities sector for more than 10 years. He currently advises major utility clients on smart grid and demand response programmes, and is subject matter expert for a top 10 North American utility on smart grid strategy and implementation. Special areas of expertise include valuation and prioritisation of smart grid elements, including the assessment of societal value, and also the communication systems that support smart energy applications. He is a frequent speaker at industry forums and serves on the program committee of Utilimetrics, the utility association dedicated to advanced metering technology.

Dennis Dellow

Network Manager, NWL

Biography

Dennis Dellow is Network Manager at Northumbrian Water South (a.k.a. Essex and Suffolk Water). In this role he is responsible for operational monitoring, control and analysis of network performance, leakage management, energy management, and for planning and analysis of capital investment for the water networks.

He is a member of the Water UK Leakage Strategy Group, Convenor of the UK Leakage Practitioners Network, and is Client Manager for all UK Water Industry Research in the area of leakage management. He has worked in water networks since 1985.

He is a New Zealander, qualified as a Civil Engineer, with working experience in many countries, particularly in South America.

Andrew Flin

Senior Pre-Sales Consulting, Informatica

Biography

Andrew is the pre-sales team lead for Informatica UK.

With more than 10 years experience in Data Management, Andrew has been at Informatica since 2004, and is responsible for the delivery and the ongoing technical relationships with many of Informatica’s largest customers across the Public Sector and Commercial verticals.

Informatica are a leader in providing Data Integration and Data Quality software solutions, with thousands of companies relying on the platform to reduce IT costs and gain greater business value from their Information assets.

John O’Farrell

Executive Vice President- Business Development, Silver Spring Networks

Biography

John has more than 25 years of US and international experience in business development and operational roles. Previously, he was Executive Vice President, Business Development, at Opsware, a leading provider of data center automation software. At Opsware, John was responsible for four successful acquisitions, strategic partnerships with EDS and Cisco, and the ultimate sale of Opsware to HP for $1.65 billion in September 2007. Prior to Opsware, John was Executive Vice President, International for Excite@Home. Earlier in his career, John held positions in the U.S. and Europe with US West, Booz Allen, Telecom Ireland and the European Commission. John has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin.