Our board of directors

Ann Bishop

Appointment to the Board: 25 March 2020

Director membership of Board Committees:
Remuneration Committee
Nomination Committee

Qualifications: Ann has a BA (Hons), MA Cantab from Sidney Sussex College Cambridge University.

Skills and career experience: Ann has over 30 years' experience in the regulated sectors working with investors, the chair, chief executives, board members and senior executive teams in utility companies, Government agencies and regulatory organisations helping to develop strategy and think differently about the nature of complex institutional arrangements, particularly the role of customers. Before founding Indepen, a management consultancy company in 1990, Ann worked in the Strategy Group in Deloitte’s management consultancy division, working in a range of sectors, including financial services, high street retail, food manufacturing, design engineering and publishing which followed a career in marketing and corporate finance.

Other current business interests: From 2010 to date Ann has been Governor of Leeds Beckett University (formerly Leeds Metropolitan University), a member of the Finance, Staffing and Resources Committee, the Governance and Nominations Committees, and from 2017 to date, chair of Senior Staff Remuneration Committee. From 2019 to date, Ann has been Chair of the Customer Engagement Group (CEG) for UK Power Networks. Ann was also a member of the London First Infrastructure Commission and of the Ofwat Expert Panel. Ann was also an Ambassador of Wellbeing of Women and, from 2000 to 2010, was non-executive director and deputy chair for Opera North.

Other directorships held within the Affinity Water Group: None

Trevor Didcock

Appointment to the Board: 30 November 2015

Appointed as the Senior Independent Non-Executive Director: March 2020

Appointed as the Non-Executive Director for Workforce Engagement: July 2019

Director membership of Board Committees:
Remuneration Committee
Safety, Health, Environment and Drinking Water Quality Committee

Qualifications: Trevor has a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham, and an MBA and Marketing Diploma from Cranfield Business School.

Skills and career experience: Trevor was Chief Information Officer at easyJet plc from 2010 to 2015, HomeServe plc from 2008 to 2010, the Automobile Association Limited from 2003 to 2007 and Group IT Director at RAC Motoring Services Limited from 1999 to 2003. Trevor now provides advisory services to organisations in IT and transformational change.

Other current business interests: Trevor is a non-executive director at Futurice Oy (a digital innovation and engineering company) and a non-executive member of the Transformation Programme Board at the Civil Aviation Authority.

Other directorships held within the Affinity Water Group: None

Susan Hooper

Appointment to the Board: 30 November 2015

Director membership of Board Committees:
Remuneration Committee (Chair)
Nomination Committee

Qualifications: Susan has a BA and MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Skills and career experience: Susan works with private equity companies developing opportunities in the travel industry. Susan was previously Managing Director of British Gas Services Limited and Chief Executive of the Acromas Group’s travel division from 2009 to 2013, where she was responsible for Saga Holidays, Hotels, Cruises, the AA Travel division and Titan Travel.

Other current business interests: Susan is a non-executive director at Rank Group plc, Uber London Limited, Uber Britannia Limited and Moonpig.com Limited.

Other directorships held within the Affinity Water Group: None

Mark Horsley

Appointment to the Board: 19 December 2019

Director membership of Board Committees:
Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee
Remuneration Committee

Qualifications: Mark has an MBA from Durham University.

Skills and career experience: Mark has over 40 years’ experience in the energy sector, particularly gas and electricity network businesses. He joined Northern Gas Networks, the North of England’s gas distributer, as Chief Executive Officer in 2011. Mark was previously Equity Partner and Head of Power Distribution at EC Harris, an international built asset consultancy, Strategy and Central Programmes Director at Scottish Power, and President and Chief Operating Officer at CE Electric UK, where he began his career as an apprentice.

Other current business interests: Mark has a passion for innovation and its role in consistently improving ways of working and driving positive change. He held the role of Chairman of the Energy Networks Association (ENA) from 2004 to 2006 and was Chairman of the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) from 2014 to 2017. Mark has been a non-executive director at the EIC since 2017.

Other directorships held within the Affinity Water Group: None

Chris Newsome

Appointment to the Board: 24 January 2019

Director membership of Board Committees:
Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee
Safety, Health, Environment and Drinking Water Quality Committee (Chair)

Qualifications: Chris has a BSc in Civil Engineering from Loughborough University, an MBA from the Manchester Business School and a post-graduate diploma in Structural Engineering from the University of Bradford.

Skills and career experience: Chris has extensive experience across large, regulated infrastructure businesses and over 40 years’ experience within the water industry (at Yorkshire Water, Kelda Water and more recently Anglian Water). He has a passion for carbon reduction and innovation and was awarded an OBE for services to Civil Engineering and Carbon Reduction in 2017.

Other current business interests: Chris is a member of the Government’s Green Construction Board and Chairman of the Infrastructure Working Group driving down carbon in infrastructure assets. He is Past President and Board Member of the Institute of Asset Management, a director of UK Water Partnership Limited and board adviser for Barhale Limited.

Other directorships held within the Affinity Water Group: None

Justin Read

Appointment to the Board: 14 July 2020

Director membership of Board Committees:
Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee (Chair)
Nomination Committee

Qualifications: Justin graduated from Oxford University and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Skills and career experience: Justin has a wealth of financial and management experience working across a number of different industry sectors including real estate, support services, building materials and banking. Justin’s experience of managing businesses across multiple jurisdictions has been honed at Hanson plc, Speedy Hire plc and Segro plc.

Other current business interests: Justin is Chair of the Remuneration Committee for Grainger plc and also serves as a member of the Audit and Nomination Committees. Justin currently sits on the board for Ibstock plc as a non-executive director where he chairs the Audit Committee and serves on the Remuneration and Nomination Committees.

Other directorships held within the Affinity Water Group: None