He takes over the role from Jean Venables, who has played a “pivotal role” in establishing and chairing the panel since its formation in 2012.
The panel brings together household customer representatives, local community stakeholders and water regulators to scrutinise, challenge and advise the company on how well it is delivering the customer promises set out in their 2015-20 business plan.
Hanson said: “I am a passionate advocate of putting the customers’ interests at the heart of any company’s operations, so I am looking forward to seeing how this is done in the water sector and, in particular, at Sutton and East Surrey Water.”
Sutton and East Surrey Water managing director Anthony Ferrar said: “We are delighted to welcome Graham as independent chair of our Customer Scrutiny Panel.
“During his extensive career working for BT and other IT related businesses he has gained invaluable skills and senior management experience in business strategy and managing change in an organisation.
“Just as important, Graham is actively involved in the NHS and charity work in the local community, so has a good understanding of how important having clean, safe water is in our everyday lives, and what our business needs to achieve to maintain that. He is also a customer of Sutton and East Surrey Water.”