Energy UK Annual Conference 2024 Speakers

Keith is Chief Executive Officer for ScottishPower and he also sits on the ScottishPower Board, where he was appointed in February 2012. 

Keith has full responsibility for the Company’s activities in the UK including the £12bn investment plan to 2028 designed to strengthen the position of the Company as the Utility of the Future. 

Alice is Head of Corporate Affairs UK for RWE, the UK’s leading power producer with an ambition to invest up to €8 billion net from 2024 to 2030 in new UK clean energy infrastructure. She started her career as an economist for the UK Government, were she spent a decade working on energy and climate change topics, including 5 years at the Climate Change Committee. Alice has a Masters in Public Policy and, until earlier this year was a Board member of RenewableUK

Anita Boateng is a government affairs, policy and communications specialist with extensive experience working at the highest levels of government and media.

She specialises in delivering ambitious, integrated public affairs and corporate communications campaigns for clients facing regulatory, reputational and commercial challenges.

Anita served three Cabinet Ministers as a government special adviser from 2016-2019, including the defacto Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office, the Lord Chancellor and the Work and Pensions Secretary.

Anita is a former political producer of BBC Question Time and a regular political commentator. She has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Jonathan became Ofgem’s Chief Executive Officer on 3 February 2020. This follows his previous appointment as our Executive Director for Systems and Networks in April 2018. 

He has wide-ranging energy sector experience, having led Electricity Market Reform as the Director for Energy Markets and Networks at DECC. Prior to this, he was Director of the Office of Climate Change, a cross-government strategy unit focussed on climate change and energy issues, where he led the development of the Climate Change Act. Earlier in his career, Jonathan was a senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. 

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics from Glasgow University and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Dr Aveek Bhattacharya is Research Director of the SMF, having joined as Chief Economist in September 2020, and served as Interim Director between 2023 and 2024. He previously worked for a public health charity, and as a private sector strategy consultant. He has written widely on economic and education policy. He was an adviser to the Gordon Brown Commission on the UK’s Future and is a trustee of the David Hume Institute.

David Clifford is a registered British Sign Language/English interpreter with over 10 years of experience of providing access for the Deaf community and facilitating communication between Deaf and hearing people. He has worked in a variety of domains, both nationally and internationally, including legal, medical, conference, politics, education, and the performing arts.

The Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP serves as the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and is the Conservative Member of Parliament for East Surrey.

Before entering politics, Coutinho built a successful career in the City, starting at Merrill Lynch and later moving to KPMG. Her ascent into UK politics was swift, marked by her role as a government advisor to Rishi Sunak and her active involvement in the Brexit campaign.

Elected to Parliament in 2019, Coutinho quickly gained recognition as a rising star within the Conservative Party. Within months of becoming an MP, she was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury. In October 2022, following Rishi Sunak’s appointment as Prime Minister, she was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing in the Department for Education. Her rapid rise continued, and in August 2023, she was promoted to Cabinet as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, where she played a key role in the passage of the Energy Act 2023. She became the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero after the Conservatives’ defeat at the 2024 General Election.

Alice Delahunty is the first President of our Electricity Transmission business, a role in which she is responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the electricity transmission network for England and Wales.

Alice was previously Head of Network Optimisation on the NGET executive team, where she was responsible for asset management outcomes for the £12 Bn portfolio of assets, engineering and development of all capital investment schemes, as well as real time access to and control of the GB Electricity Transmission system.

She brings to her new role a “passion for the power industry, its performance, evolution and the safety and well-being of all who contribute to it” and more than 15 years of experience across all parts of the energy value chain, from generation, transmission, and distribution to the consumer experience.

Before joining National Grid, she held a variety of roles in E.ON culminating in Head of Offshore UK Wind Operations.
Her work in renewable energy has left Alice with an understanding of how the overall landscape for generation of energy in the UK is changing, having been “involved in that change from coal and gas-fired generation to offshore wind and distributed energy,” she says.

Alice holds a BEng in electrical and electronics engineering and a master’s in management science from University College Dublin. Early in her career, she was an electrical test engineer before moving into R&D, focusing on low-carbon technologies. She spent four years in
Slovakia and Germany where she used her expertise in maintenance strategy and change management to implement major local change projects.

She is a former board member of the G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and
Safety Organisation, an industry body supported by the Energy Institute which promotes world-class safety performance across the sector and throughout the life cycle of offshore wind farms.

She is a chartered engineer, a former trustee of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and previously won its Young Woman Engineer of the Year award. She recently became a fellow of the royal academy of engineering.

Craig is the Head of the Infrastructure at Newton; he is an engineer with broad experience that spans roles in defence, nuclear, chemicals, oil, gas, water, transport and regulated utilities over the past 30+ years.  During his career he has held a number of roles in industry and as a consultant to analyse, identify and deliver enduring capability changes that delver measurable impact. Through his work at Newton Craig is focused on working with clients that are involved in critical national endeavours across energy, regulated utilities and the transport sector to improve UK infrastructure and collaborate on energy security and netzero, energy transition upgrades, clean and sustainable water, and efficient and sustainable transport. 

Sam leads LCP Delta’s Economics, Policy and Investment Group where he provides clients with regular energy market insights, helping them to identify investment opportunities in the energy transition and to shape policy and regulation. With over 15 years of experience in government policy across the UK and Europe, Sam has been worked both in Whitehall and Brussels, and been Director of Economics at Energy UK and Head of Policy at OVO before joining LCP Delta

David studied economics at King’s College Cambridge, and then worked at JP Morgan and Barclays de Zoete Wedd, before being appointed as Economics Adviser to the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in 1994.

David became Lib Dem Director of Policy and Research in 1997, and in 2001 he was elected as MP for Yeovil Constituency.

David served on the Treasury Select Committe, and then held a variety of Shadow posts – in the Treasury, Work and Pensions, and Education portfolios.

David was one of the negotiators of the 2010-2015 Coalition Agreement, and he served as Chief Secretary, Schools Minister and Cabinet Office Minister.

Since leaving Parliament in 2015, David has been Executive Chairman of the Education Policy Institute and Education Partnerships Group. David is an Adviser to GK Strategy and a Non Executive Director of Fable Data.

David holds a number of voluntary posts, for example as Chair of the Unlocked Graduates charity.

Anne-Marie Marray has been a qualified British Sign Language/English Interpreter since completing the University of Leeds MA Interpreting course in 2008.  She loves her work connecting with the Deaf and Hearing worlds, interpreting in spaces both personal and delicate such as medical appointments and operations, social services, weddings and births and end of life care.   

She also finds working with students in higher and further education an interesting and important part of her career. She is proud that she has the opportunity to be a part of a team that is working towards greater equality and access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and that her career has led her to ensure access to the larger stages of politics, campaigning and protesting, arts and culture.   Interpreting demands constantly learning and developing one’s professional and personal skill, aspects that Anne-Marie embraces.

Simon is CEO of So Energy having co-founded the business in 2015 with an aim to provide better service and better value for customers. Simon’s previous background was in trading, having worked as an energy trader for the Macquarie. In 2021, So Energy merged with Irish energy company ESB Energy. So Energy now supplies over 350k households alongside delivering new green solutions for customers.

Emma Pinchbeck is the Chief Executive of Energy UK, a position that she has held since July 2020.  She is an expert in whole-economy decarbonisation and the energy transition. She also holds several board advisory positions. Emma has two children and shares childcare with her husband. She is passionate about efforts to improve diversity in the energy industry. 

From 2016-2020, she served as Deputy CEO of the trade body Renewable UK, in which role she also sat on the Board of Scottish Renewables. Prior to this, Emma was Head of Climate Change at WWFU-K. She has an MA from the University of Oxford.

Julia is responsible for Sizewell C successfully becoming a regulated utility company delivering the objectives set by HMG, becoming financeable, managing public money and meeting the needs of its shareholders, lenders and other stakeholders including those local to the site.
Prior to this, Julia was Head of Power and Renewables at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP working on arrangements for HPC from 2006, and advised on the formation of the NDA and spent time on secondment.
Julia is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and of the Nuclear Institute.

Ed joined the retail team at Energy UK in 2022 as a Senior Policy Manager. He works closely with Energy UK members and stakeholders on issues including price regulation and vulnerability. 

Previously in the Energy Networks and Services team at Citizens Advice and worked as a consumer advocate on a range of issues in price controls and code governance. Before joining Citizens Advice, Ed was a policy advisor for Smart Energy GB. He led projects on the implications of smart meters for energy saving and sustainability. He is a Politics Masters graduate in regulation and governance from the University of Exeter. 

Sam is the CEO of Britain Remade, a grassroots campaign for economic growth. Before this Sam was the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on energy and the environment from July 2019 to May 2022, where we worked on the PM’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, the Net Zero Strategy, and COP26, amongst other things. Before this he was the Director of the Conservative Environment Network.

Ellie is a Stakeholder Relationship Executive at Energy UK, leading on the member engagement for members in the investment workstreams. In her role, she is also the secretariat for the Young Energy Professionals (YEP Forum), which focuses on energising young professionals on topics surrounding the energy industry and net zero more broadly.  

Previously, Ellie has worked for Ripple Energy and Rebel Energy. She is passionate about achieving net zero and ensuring consumers are part of making this journey a just transition.  

Marguerite Sayers was appointed ESB Deputy Chief Executive in July 2022. She has worked in various technical and managerial positions in ESB for over 30 years, including being Executive Director of the Customer Solutions business, MD of ESB Networks DAC,  Generation Operations Manager for UK and Ireland and Head of Asset Management for ESB Networks.  She has a degree in Electrical Engineering from University College Cork, is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow and Past President of Engineers Ireland, a Fellow of the Academy of Engineers of Ireland, a member of the Board of Energy UK and the Dingle Energy Hub, chairs the ESB Networks Board and is a Governor of the Irish Times Trust. 

Helen is chair of Community Energy England, the membership body for community energy in England. Helen leads the board of directors to set the strategic direction for CEE as it acts as the voice of the sector and works to create the right conditions for community energy to thrive and scale.

Helen’s day job is community energy manager for Electricity North West where Helen is responsible for developing and delivering ENWL’s stakeholder-led Community and Local Energy Strategy.  The strategy aims to ensure communities are at the heart of a just energy transition by making sure their voice is heard and they have the capacity and knowledge they need to take part in the energy transition by delivering initiatives such as the Powering our communities fund and Community Connects workshops. 

Mary joined OVO in 2024 as VP of Policy, Regulation and Risk. She joined from Flint Global, a boutique consulting firm specialising in policy, politics and regulation, where she was a Partner. Before joining Flint, Mary spent 15 years in senior regulatory roles at the Office of Fair Trading, the Financial Conduct Authority and most recently Ofgem, where she was Executive Director for Consumers and Markets.

Mary is an economist by training and earlier in her career worked at the Bank of England, NERA Economic Consulting, and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.