Current head of corporate finance Michael Scott will serve as interim finance director, while the company begins the process of filling the position “as soon as practicable”.
Utilities analysts at investment firm Whitman Howard said: “We believe that this move was not widely expected. However, we do not see anything sinister here, and the transition plans seem reasonable.”
Scott joined Drax in May 2005. He will be liaising with Quinlan to ensure a smooth transition over the next month or so.
Quinlan joined Drax as finance director in September 2008 from Marks and Spencer, replacing Gordon Boyd.
Analysts added that Drax’s biomass conversion plans remain of “greater interest” and the works have “progressed as planned without major issues”.
They said: “The market has become concerned about the value that will be generated by the conversions, but we believe that such concerns are over-played, and we still see very significant value in Drax’s operations, including that generated by the unit conversions.”
Drax’s final results in February were down on the previous year due to the global collapse in commodity prices, but were still ahead of the market’s expectations.
The group said its biomass plans remain on track with two of three units fully converted, and the third looking to progress to “high biomass burn” in Q3 2015, which is ahead of schedule.
Last April, Drax said it expected to go ahead with its biomass conversion programme despite a government U-turn on subsidies that wiped more than £400 million off its value.
The generator sued the government over the denial of support to half its programme, after it lost out to offshore windfarm Beatrice in the running for early subsidy approval.
However, the appeals court ruled in favour of the government’s decision to deem the project ineligible for support, meaning it would not go ahead under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme.