Our latest round-up of industry moves includes former chief executive of National Grid Nicholas Winser being named as one of three new commissioners at the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC).
Kate Willard and Jim Hall were also appointed by the chancellor to join the commission with effect from 1 May until April 2027.
Winser’s career in the energy sector spans more than 30 years including as president of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, chair of CIGRE UK, as well as the top job at National Grid where he sat on the board for 11 years until 2015. He currently chairs the Energy Systems Catapult, the advisory board for the Energy Revolution ISCF programme, has advised on the 2017 Cost of Energy Review, is in the Net Zero Expert Group, a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, of which he was president in 2017/18. He will replace David Fisk who has held the commissioner role for five years.
Willard’s career has spanned Europe and the UK. It includes establishing the UK’s first rural regeneration company and the UK-Hungarian cultural partnership trust. She currently chairs the Thames Estuary Growth Board, is envoy to the Thames Estuary, a member of the Arts Council and Churchill Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Hall is a professor of climate and environmental risks in the University of Oxford and director of research in the school of geography and the environment. He sits on the Council for Science and Technology, chairs the Science Advisory Committee of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and was a member of the independent Committee on Climate Change Adaptation from 2009 to 2019.
Neale Coleman, Julia Prescot, and Andy Green have been reappointed as for further five-year terms.
Ministers at Defra have added two new board members to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Catherine Denholm and Tom Meagher have joined for three years to April 2025. The committee is an advisory group to government on UK-wide and international nature conservation.
Denholm is the chief operating officer for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and has served as deputy chair of the NaturScot group in Scotland. Meagher is a botanist working as professor and chair of plant biology at the University of St Andrews as well as being a former member of the Defra science advisory committee.
Louise Parry, director of people at the Energy & Utility Skill,s has joined the Women’s Utilities Network (WUN) board. WUN advocates for greater representation of women in the utilities sector especially in senior roles. In her current role, Parry has established initiatives to attract, recruit and develop a diverse workforce at Energy & Utilities Skills.
Water consumer watchdog CCW has named Caroline Warner independent chair of its newly formed PR24 challenge group to facilitate consistent challenge at local and national level as water companies develop business plans for the next price review in 2024.
Warner has worked across public and private sector organisations including education, local government and the NHS as well as sitting on Affinity Water’s customer challenge group.
Renewable energy storage company Field has welcomed ex Royal Mail chief technology officer Jochen Alt to a newly created chief technology officer role to optimise the company’s growing storage assets.
Jochen’s experience includes AI-driven waste management at Greyparrot.AI, as well as leading the Royal Mail’s technology team. He will lead the data and software engineering team at Field to scale up its renewable energy infrastructure.