Sharp will succeed Ian Donald who has moved to the new role of Market Reform Director as the water industry looks towards the full introduction of competition for all business customers by 2017.
She is being promoted from the role of distribution manager where she led a team of 380 strong team managing the water network across the north east of England.
Sharp began her career with Northumbrian Water in 1986 as a distribution technician, dealing with customer inquiries.
Since then, she has held a number of senior management roles in operations, leisure, organisation development, marketing, and communications.
On being appointed to her new role, Sharp said: “We are already industry leading in many areas such as interruptions to supply and have made significant improvements in other aspects of customer service.
“Central to this is strong leadership and high levels of employee engagement. We have fantastic people across our company who are passionate about delivering great service round the clock for our customers.
“It’s my responsibility to make sure they are supported to be ready and able to do this.”