Board members

An effective Board is in place, whose major role is to promote the long-term success of the Company by creating value for the Company’s shareholders and providing an efficient, sustainable service to our customers and stakeholders.

In order to achieve this, the Board meets regularly to provide leadership, set strategic direction and objectives and ensure that appropriate financial and other resources are made available to enable the Company to meet those objectives. One meeting is set aside each year to enable the Board to focus on the strategic direction and objectives of the Company in particular. The Board oversees the work of the Audit Committee in drawing up and maintaining a framework of controls that assess and manage risks to the business.

Non-executive directors

Alistair Buchanan CBE has over 25 years’ experience in the energy industry, including 10 years as Chief Executive of Ofgem. In 2013 he joined KPMG as Partner and UK Chairman of Power & Utilities, returning to the firm where he trained as a Chartered Accountant. During his career, Alistair became an award-winning energy sector analyst and head of research for banks in New York and London. With experience at board level on various companies, he currently also serves as an Independent Non-Executive on the Board of W.H. Ireland Group plc and Atlas Holdings plc.

Rob Holden combines a portfolio of Non-Executive Directorships with consultancy roles. As well as his Board role with the Nuclear Decommission Authority, he is currently Chairman of London City Airport and the Submarine Delivery Authority. His advisory assignments in the UK have included work on HS2, Thames Tideway Tunnel, the Type 26 Global Combat Ship and QE Carrier programmes. Overseas he has worked in the USA and Singapore on High Speed Rail projects and in Australia on a regional rail project. Rob is a Chartered Accountant who qualified with Arthur Young & Co (now Ernst & Young LLP).

Susan Cooklin retired in March 2022 as the Managing Director of Route Services at Network Rail running a portfolio of 60 services and leading a directorate of 5,000 staff. Over the last 15 years she has held senior executive roles in both IT and business operations within FTSE top 20 companies in the UK, specialising in transformational change. She has worked at Board level for over 8 years with Non-Executive Director positions on the Board of Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Building Society. She is currently Chair of Network Rail Consulting Limited. Susan was listed by Company Weekly as the seventh most influential woman in UK IT. From 2013 – 2017 she ran the Could IT Be You campaign to raise awareness of IT as a career for young women.

Anne Baldock was previously a partner for 22 years and global head of the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure Group at the international law firm Allen & Overy LLP. She has extensive experience in advising energy companies, charities, and governmental boards on significant contracts and projects. Now retired as a solicitor, Anne has a portfolio of Non-Executive Director positions currently sitting on the Board of Low Carbon Contracts Company Limited and East West Rail Limited.

Sion Jones is employed by Equitix Limited as Chief Operating Officer. He is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority and oversees the portfolio of managed funds. Prior to joining Equitix, Sion was a partner at King Sturge where he was responsible for asset and project company management. There he established the Corporate Finance division of King Sturge with responsibility for creating institutional and private equity real estate investment vehicles. Sion has a BSc Honours in Chemistry from the University of Southampton. He is a CFA charter holder and holds an Investment Management Certificate in Securities from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Peter O’Flaherty is an asset management Director at Equitix. Peter oversees the management of a number of Equitix’s investment funds with a combined investment total of £1.4bn across 77 assets and a variety of sectors such as network utilities, renewable power, environmental services and social infrastructure. He is also a Director on the Board of Firmus Energy, a regulated gas distribution network and gas supply business located in Northern Ireland. He has over 20 years’ investment experience gained working in banking, project finance and infrastructure equity. Prior to joining Equitix he spent 13 years at NIBC Bank as a founding partner of its European Infrastructure Fund. Peter was a Board Director on a number of the fund’s investments focusing on operationally intensive investments and large corporates such as the motorway service operator Welcome Break. In 2018 he led the divestment of the entire NIBC fund. Peter has a BEng in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Property Development and Planning.

Genping Pan is the Chief Investment Officer at CNIC. He has been actively involved in overseas investment projects and business operations & management for over 10 years, and has gained extensive experience in investment management, capital operation and financial management. Positions previously held by Pan include Finance Manager of Oasis Oil Co. Ltd, Chief Accountant of PetroChina (Venezuela) and Financial Director of China Huaming International Investment Corporation.

Masahide Yamada is employed by the Kansai Electric Power Company, Inc., which is an electric utility with its operational area of the Kansai region, Japan. He is the General Manager for Asset Management, Americas and Europe Region, International Business Division. Yamada has 10 years of experience in the field of power distribution, with more than 10 years’ experience in overseas investment in power assets including as a finance director of a hydropower project in the Republic of Indonesia, and some experience with Strategy, Planning and Budget Management.

Mitsuo Wada is employed by the Kansai Transmission and Distribution, Inc. which is a power system operator covering the Kansai area in Japan. His background is electrical engineering and he is currently the General Manager for International Business and Cooperation Group in the Company. During his 23 years of power sector experience, he provided consulting services for several oversea projects, and recently had experience of managing assets as the Director of a 435MW hydro power plant in the Philippines and a 440MW coal power plant in Australia.

Executive directors

Ian Smyth joined Electricity North West in 2022 as group CEO. Prior to Electricity North West Limited Ian was a director of UK Power Networks leading their commercial division. Ian has also served as managing director of Europe, Middle East and Asia for Navigant a global advisory and dispute resolution consultancy. He was the lead partner of the Energy, Utilities and Regulated Industries practice for LCP a European risk and investment consultancy. Ian was a consultant for Ernst & Young. He has worked internationally for governments, regulators and utilities across electricity, gas and water. Ian has a BA(Hons) in philosophy, psychology, statistics and artificial intelligence from Manchester Metropolitan University and an MSc in Cognitive Science from the University of Birmingham.

Chris Johns is responsible for our overall financial management, including the company’s financial planning and reporting. Chris joined the business in 2023 having previously been CFO of Yorkshire Water, a role he held from June 2020. He has also previously held the roles of finance director of both Northumbrian Water Group and Northern Gas Networks, and before that worked in the regulated financial services industry. Chris' focus is the core finance, financing and legal requirements of the Group to support the challenges of the latest price control period.