DIGITAL CONTENT AND EVENTS TO EQUIP YOU FOR THE FUTURE OF UTILITIES
Future of Utilities unites leading industry professionals to help shape the future of the utilities industry.
Through our series of digital content and events, including webinars, reports, roundtables and conferences, we deliver the necessary thought leadership, shared experiences and networking opportunities to prepare for, and determine, the future of utilities.
Events
The Future of Utilities: The Virtual Sessions 2021
Getting from the pandemic to Net Zero will require huge transformation from the energy and water sectors, so over four sessions – Customer, EVs, Water & Room 101, we have assembled a fantastic line-up of speakers to prepare you for that monumental journey.
And the best thing? All the content is free!
Extra Content
Empowering electric utilities to transform their network operations
[REPORT]
Many electric utilities are faced with the challenge of closing the data gap between the office and field teams. Without easy access to current, accurate network data, field crews are unable to monitor, capture, visualise and manage their network assets.
IQGeo has been running a series of interviews with leaders on the frontline of electric utilities to reveal their insights into the factors driving the sector and discover how they are meeting their current challenges.
Transforming Customer Experience and Building a Resilient Workforce: Strategies that stand out in the utility industry
[ARTICLE]
In the wake of regulatory scrutiny, the rise of challenge brands and the pressures of the pandemic, utilities have been forced to reinvent their customer experience and rebuild their workforce to match.
Future of Utilities spoke to three customer experience experts to get a view of the opportunities and challenges ahead.
Serving the customer in the digital age
[INFOGRAPHIC]
We surveyed over 100 professionals working in the utilities industry to find out how they are faring when it comes to serving the customer in the digital age. Find out how the industry is responding to rising levels of vulnerable customers, what strategies are predicted to be key to retaining the digital consumer, how the channel mix will continue to evolve and more.
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UK Advisory Board
Heidi Mottram CBE
Chief Executive OfficerNorthumbrian Water
Chief Executive Officer
Northumbrian WaterChief Executive Officer of the Northumbrian Water Group Limited and Northumbrian Water Limited since 2010, before the organisation’s acquisition by a consortium led by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited in October 2011.
Heidi Mottram’s success at Northumbrian Water Group follows on from an excellent track record in the rail industry where her career began with British Rail in the mid-1980s. She progressed through a variety of senior leadership roles in British Rail and, following privatisation, in Great North Eastern Railway, Midland Mainline, Arriva Trains Northern and Managing Director of Northern Rail, the largest train operator in the UK.
She was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list 2010 for services to the rail industry.
Ms. Mottram is currently a Board Member of Eurostar International Limited, the CBI, WaterAid, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and is also Vice-Chair of Newcastle University Council.
In 2016, her commitment to the community was recognised when she was selected to be the Prince of Wales’ Business Ambassador to the North East, in conjunction with Business in the Community. In the same year Ms Mottram was also named North East Business Executive of the Year recognising her significant contribution to business in the North East of England.
Under her leadership NWG achieved the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of Sustainable Development in 2014 and has been the only water company on the World’s Most Ethical companies list seven years in a row (2010-2017). Northumbrian Water is currently the UK’s Utility Company of the year, an accolade achieved twice under Heidi’s leadership.
Basil Scarsella
Chief Executive OfficerUK Power Networks
Chief Executive Officer
UK Power NetworksBasil Scarsella is the Chief Executive Officer of UK Power Networks, owned by the Cheung Kong Group, which is the largest Distribution Network Operator in the UK, distributing electricity to over eight million homes and businesses across London, the South East and East of England. It has some 6,000 employees in its regulated and non-regulated areas. UK Power Networks has been ranked in the top 25 Best Big Companies to Work for 2015, 2016 and 2017 in the Sunday Times annual list and awarded Utility of the Year in the UK in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
Immediately prior to taking up his appointment with UK Power Networks in 2010, Basil was the CEO of Northern Gas Networks for five years. Northern Gas distributes gas to 2.5 million homes in the north east of England and also falls under the ownership of the Cheung Kong Group. Northern Gas Networks ranked as the most efficient gas network in the UK. Up until 2005, Basil was CEO of ETSA Utilities (SA Power Networks), the electricity distributor in South Australia.
Basil holds a degree in Economics from the University of Adelaide and is a Certified Practicing Accountant. He is a Life Member of Football Australia and former Member of the Executive Committee of FIFA. He received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and in 2003 became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for services to sport. He is the current Chairman of the Electricity Networks Association in the UK.
Ben Newby
Chief Customer OfficerBristol Water
Chief Customer Officer
Bristol WaterBen is a member of the Executive team in Bristol Water where he leads Customer facing functions (operational, billing, developer services and communications) as well as IT and Transformation. Having worked on all strategic changes in the company over the past 7 years he understands how IT enabled change is essential to developing the business. Ben joined the company seven years ago from Serco where he was supplying services into the Utilities industry.
Nicola Smith
Chief Commercial OfficerClear Business Water
Chief Commercial Officer
Clear Business WaterNicola joined Clear Business Water in 2012 and has been integral in transforming it into a multi-service provider through identifying and creating opportunities for new market entrants. She played a key part in the deregulation of England’s water market as part of the Defra Assurance group and the Water Code Panel. Starting her career in 1995 in the then newly deregulated energy market she’s developed business strategies and customer propositions to challenge incumbent providers in new markets.
David Elliott
Group Chief Innovation OfficerWessex Water
Group Chief Innovation Officer
Wessex WaterDavid has over 30 years’ experience in the water industry and joined Wessex Water in 1985. David has held a number of posts over his career, including 20 years in operations. He was appointed a Director of Wessex Water Services Ltd in 2007.
In April 2015 David took up his current group role to provide a strategic lead on Wessex Water’s approach to evolution of the UK water sector and is responsible for developing opportunities to utilise markets to deliver better outcomes for customers, communities, the environment and investors. Initiatives include EnTrade, an exciting on-line trading platform for environmental services that enables businesses to collaborate on investments to improve environmental and societal outcomes.
David is Chairman of Albion Water – a joint venture with Albion Water and Wessex Water an independent water and sewerage services provider for new housing developments, offering alternative solutions to incumbent water companies.
David is also Chairman of Water2Business – a joint venture with Bristol Water to retail water services to business customers. He is also a non-executive director of UKWIR.
He is also the founder of Business4Life, a leadership development programme involving setting up model businesses whose profits go to WaterAid.
Chris Thewlis
Chief Operating Officernpower
Chief Operating Officer
npowerAfter joining npower in 2007, and with a background in both retail and regulated markets, Chris’s expertise has been used to deliver the turnaround of the Customer Services along with the strategic development of the Energy Services business to enable the delivery of the Smart Metering business. Utilising data analytics, insight and technology to drive the right customer outcomes, Chris has consistently driven the operational business forward.
Kristinn Mason
Chief EconomistSevern Trent Water
Chief Economist
Severn Trent WaterKristinn Mason has over 20 years’ professional experience as a micro-economist, with wide-ranging and deep exposure to utility regulation across energy, rail, water and wastewater sectors. He has direct experience of working for utility regulators both in the UK and Abu Dhabi, where he has covered many strategic regulatory policy issues
Dr. Angela Needle
Director of StrategyCadent Gas
Director of Strategy
Cadent GasAngie is Director of Strategy at Cadent Gas where she is responsible for creating the transformational strategies for the company, including decarbonisation plans for the UK and hydrogen projects across residential and industrial heating. Prior to that she held a range of positions at Centrica, including heading up their contracting strategy that supports 10,000 British Gas engineers. She also created and ran the business energy-services strategy, and took responsibility for all energy supply and services customer propositions. Before Centrica, lots of fun was had at Anglian Water, including managing sewer networks, heading up an R&D programme and being responsible for all things energy, carbon and climate change. Angie is a big advocate of both environmental and diversity issues and a Founder of the Women’s Utilities Network.