Ms Etain Doyle and Mr Chris Le Fevre have been reappointed for the period 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2011.
Dr Clive Elphick, Mr Philip Johnson and Mr James Oatridge have been reappointed for the period 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2012.
Notes to editors:
1. The Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation (the Utility Regulator) is the non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the electricity and gas industries and water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland, to promote the short- and long-term interests of consumers.
2. The reappointments have been made in accordance with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland Code of Practice.
3. Appointments to the Board of the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation are made with the approval of the Minister for Finance and Personnel.
4. The appointments have been made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for the political activity of an appointee (if any declared) to be published. All appointees have declared that they have not engaged in any political activity in the last five years. In addition, none of the appointees hold any other Public Appointments.
5. Appointees will receive annual remuneration of £9,521 and are expected to devote around 20 days a year to Authority business.
Alan Rainey
Alan Rainey has been a board member of the Utility Regulator since September 2007. Following his graduation from Queen’s University Belfast in 1968 he has held a wide range of engineering and management positions in the energy industry in Ireland. An electrical engineer by profession, he has worked on and directed the development and maintenance of electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems throughout Ireland and overseas, working initially for the Electricity Supply Board in the Republic and latterly for the Viridian Group and then Northern Ireland Energy Holdings.
Joining Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) in 1990, he directed the development, construction and maintenance of NIE’s transmission and distribution networks. In more recent years, he managed NIE’s interconnector business, investing in Northern Ireland’s external electricity links and directed the Moyle Interconnector project - the link between Northern Ireland and Scotland, from its initial feasibility studies and consents through to financing and commercial operation. In addition he was Project Director on the development of Huntstown Power Limited, the first independent power producer in the Republic.
From 2003 until 2007, he was Managing Director of the Moyle Interconnector companies. In 2005, on the takeover of the Moyle companies, he was appointed Executive Director on the board of Northern Ireland Energy Holdings Limited, the enlarged mutual group owning and operating Northern Ireland’s electricity and gas interconnectors with Great Britain.
Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson, a member of the Utility Regulator’s Board since October 2006, has extensive experience in the electricity sector having held a variety of executive and senior management positions covering all aspects of the supply chain. Currently he is the Chief Executive of LIFE, the low carbon technology accelerator. His previous appointments include periods with Ocean Power, National Power, Coopers and Lybrand, North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board, British Electricity International and the Central Electricity Generating Board with whom he originally undertook a student apprenticeship.
He has built a number of successful new energy businesses including Innogy (now RWE Innogy), npower CoGen and National Power Energy Direct which was the first direct supply business following electricity privatisation in England and Wales. Philip is a Chartered Engineer and holds an MBA (Insigni Laude) from Glasgow University and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Energy Technology from Aston University; he is a fellow of the Energy Institute.
Etain Doyle
Etain Doyle, a Vistage Group Chair managing peer learning circles for CEOs anda consultanton Regulatory/Governance matters, hasbeen a member of the Board since October 2006.She is aMember of the Executive Board of the Institute of International and European Affairs andVice-Chair of theWheel, and a Director of the (cross-border based) Military Heritage of Ireland Trust.
In 1997, she set up the first sectoral regulatory agency in Dublin and served as Telecoms Regulator for the following seven years. Her earlier career was mainly in aid management in Russia, and in the Departments of Finance and Foreign Affairs. She is a qualified accountant (FCCA) and holds a degree in History and Politics from UCD.
Peter Matthews
Peter Matthews has been Chairman of the Utility Regulator since April 2006. He spent over 25 years at Anglian Water in a number of roles and retired as Deputy Managing Director. He was appointed in February 2009 as a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for a term of three years.
In 2006 he joined the Port of London Authority as a Board Member and is a past President of the European Water Association, Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and past Chair of the Society for the Environment. From 2000 to 2006, he was appointed to the Board of the Environment Agency and Chair of its Audit Committee. He served on the Board of Anglia Ruskin University and was awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to water and the environment.
Clive Elphick
Clive Elphick is a former Managing Director of Asset Management and Regulation at United Utilities Group plc and has been a member of the Utility Regulator’s Board since October 2006. His other current roles include being the chairman of the CBI for the North West of England.
Prior to joining United Utilities, he qualified as an accountant with ICI and then worked as a management consultant with Deloitte & Touche. He joined what was North West Water Group PLC in 1991 and held positions including Regulation Director, Group Strategic Planning Director and Chief Operating Officer of the regulated business. He has also had secondments to the Cabinet Office and Ofwat and for five years was a non-executive director of a Department of State. He has a degree in natural sciences from Queens’ College, Cambridge and a doctorate in operational research from Birmingham University.
Jim Oatridge
A board member since October 2006, Jim Oatridge has had a varied career having worked in the public and private sectors, with experience of local government, electricity supply and more than 25 years in the water industry. Until 2005 he was Group Services Director with Severn Trent.
He has had a long interest in international water issues through involvement with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and was its President in 2002/03.
He also holds non-executive director roles at Wolverhampton City PCT, Animal Health (a DEFRA agency), a private sector organisation andtwo not-for-profit organisations. He was awarded an OBE in the 2003 New Year honours list ‘for services to the UK and Global Water Industries’.
Jim has an economics degree from Warwick University, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
Chris Le Fevre
Chris Le Fevre has over 30 years experience in the energy and transport sectors, and is currently a director of his own consultancy company, Le Fevre Consulting Ltd, which operates primarily in the natural gas sector. He became a board member in October 2006.
From 1994 to 2002 he was a director of the gas transportation company Transco plc performing a variety of roles including Transportation Services, Network Operations and Metering. Prior to this he worked for British Gas plc in the Global Gas and E&P departments. He has also worked as a Petroleum Economics Engineer with Shell International Petroleum in Holland and Malaysia. Prior to that he worked for British Rail as a local manager and transport consultant and at the University of Aston as a research assistant.
He is Chairman of Trustees of Action for Children in Conflict and a Non Executive Director of the South Central Strategic Health Authority.
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