The former chief executive of Southern Water, Matthew Wright, has been announced as the new managing director of Dong Energy UK.
Wright will join the energy provider next month to head up Dong’s international market and will take over as managing director in June, when the company’s UK founder and chairman, Brent Cheshire retires.
Wright stood down as chief executive of Southern Water in December.
Before joining the utilities firm in 2011, he also held senior management roles at United Utilities and Scottish Power.
Cheshire was Dong Energy UK’s first employee in 2004 and since then the company has grown rapidly and now employs more than 850 in this country.
“My career started in oil and gas, so to end up retiring from the UK’s leading offshore wind business has been quite a transformation for me, personally,” said Cheshire.
“Dong Energy has invested billions into the UK already and the business is in great shape to continue leading the energy transformation for many years to come.”
The chief executive of Dong Energy, Henrik Poulsen, said Cheshire played “an absolutely fundamental role in the significant growth and success of our UK business”.
“This is an exciting time for our UK operation with four new offshore windfarms under construction and our first-ever REnescience bioenergy plant set to open later this year as well. I’m delighted that Wright will be joining us to continue building on this success.”