Phil Aspin has been announced as the successor to Russ Houlden who will retire as chief financial officer at United Utilities in July.
Aspin has worked at UU for more than 25 years, most recently as group controller – a role he has held since 2011 and which involved leading the team responsible for the group’s financial reporting as well as being the executive finance sponsor of UU’s fast-tracked PR19 business plan.
Houlden will retire both as CFO and from the board on 24 July at the company’s Annual General Meeting, as announced earlier this month. After a decade in the role, Houlden will pursue a non-executive career.
Chief executive Steve Mogford said Aspin has been a core part of the UU team on its “transformational journey over the last ten years” as well as being instrumental in the delivery of finance initiatives.
The company accepted its final determination from Ofwat at the start of this month, which committed the company to balance bill cuts with a totex allowance £136.7 million lower than the company had requested.
Global ratings agency Moodys estimated the company would incur penalties of around £120 million relating to performance targets during the five year period.
Bulb
Energy supplier Bulb has appointed a former Apple vice president as its new chief product officer.
Lionel Guicherd-Callin has joined the company from Google, where he had served as worldwide products and services lead since August 2018 .
During his 10 years at Apple Guicherd-Callin rose through the ranks from intern to assistant vice president – international.
Following his time at Apple the incoming chief product officer joined Nest Labs Europe, where he worked for nearly five years in product marketing. Nest was later acquired by Google.
Anesco
In other industry appointment news, renewable developer Anesco has appointed former Centrica director Mark Futyan as its new chief executive.
Futyan’s career in the sector spans more than 20 years and his most recent role was as distributed power systems director at the British Gas owner.
He was responsible for Centrica’s international power generation and storage portfolio, along with strategy, change and market innovation across the broader commercial and industrial energy services division.
Futyan replaces Kevin Mouatt, who will step down at the end of March following a four-year tenure. Mouatt will continue his involvement with Anesco as a non-executive board member.