Our board of directors

Ann Bishop

Ann has over 30 years' experience in the regulated sectors working with investors, chairman, 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 in 1990, Ann worked in the Strategy Group in Deloitteís 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.

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 (ìCEGî) for UK Power Networks. Ann is also a member of the London First Infrastructure Commission, and a member of the Ofwat Expert Panel. Ann is currently an Ambassador of Wellbeing of Women, and from 2000-2010, was non-executive director and deputy chair for Opera North.

Patrick O'D Bourke (A) (N)

Appointment to the Board: 24 July 2013

Qualifications: Patrick has a MA from the University of Cambridge and is a Chartered Accountant.

Skills and career experience: Patrick was previously Chief Executive of Viridian Group, having first undertaken the role of Group Finance Director and prior to that was Group Treasurer of Powergen plc. As chair of our Audit Committee he brings a wide range of experience in regulated businesses operating within the private and quoted sectors.

Other current business interests: Until May 2019, Patrick was Group Finance Director of John Laing Group plc.

Trevor Didcock (R)(S)

Appointment to the Board: 30 November 2015

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

Qualifications: Trevor has a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham, and a 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 and a non-executive member of the Transformation Programme Board at the Civil Aviation Authority.

Susan Hooper (R) (N)

Appointment to the Board: 30 November 2015

Qualifications: Susan has a MA and a BA 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, Wizz Air Holdings plc, Uber London Limited, Uber Britannia Limited and the Department for Exiting the EU.

Mark Horsley

Appointment to the Board: December 2019

Qualifications: Mark has an MBA from Durham University

Skills and career experience: Mark has over 40 years’ experience in the energy sector. 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 - 2017. Mark has been a non-executive director at the EIC since 2017.

Chris Newsome (A)(S)

Appointment to the Board: 24 January 2019

Qualifications: Chris has a BSc in Civil Engineering from Loughborough University, a 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 Chairman of UK Water Industry Research Limited, President and Chairman of the Institute of Asset Management, a director of UK Water Partnership Limited and a board advisor for Barhale Limited.

Justin Read (A)(N)

Appointment to the Board: 14 July 2020

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 honed at Hanson plc, Speedy Hire plc and Segro plc. Justin will be appointed as Audit Committee Chair on 29 September 2020.

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.

Pauline Walsh, CEO (S) (2)(3)

Appointment to the Board: 1 May 2018

Qualifications: Pauline has a BEng (Hons) in mechanical engineering from University College Dublin and an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. She is an honorary fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland.

Skills and career experience: Pauline has broad international experience and a track record in leading transformational changes in large scale operations. She was previously Director of Gas Transmission for National Grid responsible for building and maintaining the assets of the UK’s high pressure national gas transmission system. Prior to joining National Grid in 2015, Pauline held senior leadership roles at Ford Motor Company, Philips Electronics, Havells-Sylvania, and Fred. Olsen.

Other current business interests: Pauline is a non-executive director at Buccleuch, a business which is focused on the sustainable economic development of vast land resources and deploying renewable energy technologies.

Stuart Ledger, CFO (2)(3)(4)(12)(13)(14)

Appointment to the Board: 9 October 2017

Qualifications: Stuart has a BA from Liverpool John Moores University, is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Pensions Management Institute.

Skills and career experience: Stuart has significant experience in utilities and has held a number of senior finance roles, most recently Chief Financial Officer for Retail at Thames Water. Before joining Thames Water in 2008 as the Group Financial Controller, he was the Financial Controller at Wolseley and started his career at EDF Energy.

Other current business interests: Stuart is a director of Landlord Tap Limited, which provides a website for landlords and managing agents of residential properties to provide water companies with details of those responsible for the payment of water and/or sewerage charges for their tenanted properties. Stuart is also a trustee of Rett UK, a charity that supports those who suffer from Rett Syndrome, and their families and carers.

Tony Roper (A)(N)(S) (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(19)

Appointment to the Board: 25 July 2018

Qualifications: Tony has a MA in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified ACMA-CGMA accountant.

Skills and career experience: Tony started his career as a structural engineer with Ove Arup and Partners. In 1994, he joined John Laing Group plc to review and make equity investments in UK and global infrastructure projects, and then in 2006 he joined HSBC Specialist Investments (‘HSIL’) to be the fund manager for HICL Infrastructure plc. In 2011, Tony was part of the senior management team that bought HSIL from HSBC, renaming it InfraRed Capital Partners. Tony was a Managing Partner and a senior member of the infrastructure management team at InfraRed Capital Partners until June 2018.

Other current business interests: Tony is the Chairman of Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income plc, a UK investment Trust. Tony is also Chairman of SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust plc.

Jaroslava Korpanec (A)(R)(N)(S) (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(16)(19)

Qualifications: Jaroslava has a law degree from the University of Cambridge, and is a member of the New York bar and a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

Skills and career experience: Jaroslava is Managing Director at Allianz Capital Partners and heads up the London office. Since joining Allianz in 2008, she has led the investments made in a number of infrastructure assets, including the Thames Tideway Tunnel, Porterbrook (the train rolling stock leasing business) and the gas distribution business of National Grid. Before joining Allianz Capital Partners in 2008, Jaroslava worked at AIG Financial Products on several debt and equity investments, including the acquisition and management of London City Airport.

Other current business interests: Jaroslava is also on the Boards of the gas distribution company, Cadent Gas, and Net4Gas, the gas transmission company of the Czech Republic.

Angela Roshier (R)(S) (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(17)(19)

Qualifications: Angela has a MA from the University of Cambridge and a MBA from London Business School.

Skills and career experience: For more than 20 years, Angela has contributed to the origination and asset management of a wide variety of infrastructure assets in the public-private partnerships, water, oil tanking and railway sectors worldwide.

Other current business interests: Currently DIF's Partner and Head of Asset Management, Angela joined in 2010 and oversees the asset management of DIF's global portfolio of public-private partnerships, regulated assets and renewable energy investments. Prior to DIF, Angela was a member of 3i Plc and Actis's Infrastructure teams.