Independent
Stakeholder
Group

Team Members

• • Chris Murray MBE
    Chair

    Chris’s expertise stems from over 45 years of experience in the UK Energy sector where his remits covered Customer and Employee Engagement, Network Operations, Asset Management, Change and Stakeholder Management, Health and Safety, Gas and Electricity Transmission, Gas Distribution, Regulation and Commercial. In addition to being a 3-time CEO Chris has over 25 years of Non-Executive experience and is currently Chairman at Water Resources South East. In addition he is a Trustee Board Member of the MS Society and the Leicestershire Hospice.

    

  • Graham Oakes

    Graham has a PhD in Satellite Image Processing and a background in tech, working with firms such as Cisco, Intel, Skype and Sony.  In 2013, he created Upside Energy, a tech platform for managing flexibility on the grid.  Upside raised £10m of funding and grew to 35 staff by the end of 2018, at which point Graham stood down to focus on enabling people to participate in the Energy Transition.  Upside was subsequently sold to Octopus Energy, where it now forms the basis for its KrakenFlex platform.  Graham now supports a number of EnergyTech startups and works on local and municipal energy projects across UK and EU.  He was a member of BEIS’ Engineering Standards Review and Ofgem’s Design Advisory Board for Half Hourly Settlement, and is currently a board member of FlexAssure, the ADE’s code of conduct for demand response aggregators.  His book Project Reviews, Assurance and Governance is published by Routledge.

    

  • Henri Murison

    Henri brings his expertise on the importance of electricity infrastructure and the transition to Net Zero in the wider economy to the ISG. Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, he works across the wider infrastructure agenda, education, skills and wider industrial policy to drive the agenda on how to close the North – South divide. He has led work on the role of decarbonisation in driving economic growth, specifically focused on energy sector. Previously, he advised a financial services business on their government and international regulation interest as well as having wider roles in the voluntary sector and as Cabinet Member for Quality of Life at Newcastle City Council.

    

  • Mike Kay

    Mike worked at Electricity North West for 38 years, the last eight of which he was Engineering and IT Director. He chaired the Distribution Code Review Panel for over a decade , and was a member of the Grid Code Review Panel for eighteen years. Since leaving Electricity North West in 2015 he has worked as an independent consultant on a number of projects for the regulated electricity network industries in the UK and internationally. He is a member-elected trustee of the Electricity North West pension fund.

    

  • Jo Coleman OBE

    Jo Coleman has over 30 years’ experience in the energy industry, initially working in the oil and gas sector in Europe, the Middle East and Far East before returning to the UK in 2011 to focus on low carbon and the energy transition.  Jo is a non-executive director of the Low Carbon Contracts Company, Guernsey Electricity Ltd and the British Geological Survey as well as an Advisory Commissioner to DESNZ’s Clean Power 2030 Mission. She also Chairs Northern Powergrids Distribution System Operation Review Panel.

    Previous executive roles have included Strategy Director at the Energy Technologies Institute, Head of Whole Systems Analysis at the Energy Systems Catapult and Energy Transition Manager at Shell UK. She has also previously been an independent member of the Governments Net Zero Innovation Board, an Observer to the Board of Shell UK and sat on numerous industry and academic advisory boards.  Jo is an Ambassador for POWERful Women and the Clean Energy Ministerial’s Equality in Energy Transitions Initiative.  She is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the IMechE and was awarded an OBE for services to the energy sector in 2018.

    

  • Monica Collings OBE

    Award-winning former Chief Executive of retail energy supply challenger So Energy, Monica Collings played a pivotal role in the merger with ESB Energy in 2021. Before that, she led Vattenfall’s UK retailer, and has enjoyed a diverse career spanning markets such as retail home improvement, property, and automotive.

    Having transitioned from executive roles, Monica now enjoys a portfolio of non-executive and strategic board advisory roles including Chairing the boards at entech, Swarm and charge point operator Plug-N-Go, and serving on the boards of Dalcour Maclaren and Cornwall Insight. Monica is a fervent advocate for gender diversity in the workplace having served as the sole female Chief Executive leading a domestic retailer through the energy crisis, and delegate at the United Nations’ 68^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

    

  • Carol Botten

    With over 25 years in the charity sector in North East England, Carol has a broad range of knowledge and experience relating to community engagement and involvement, the VCSE sector, communications, fundraising, strategy and policy influencing.  Her previous role as the CEO of Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East introduced her to Northern Powergrid and for many years she was an active member of their Stakeholder Panel and Northern Energy Inclusion Group; providing charity sector representation as well as a passion for social justice, inclusion, addressing fuel poverty and climate change.  Carol also served as a board member for the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and was instrumental in the development of Net Zero North East and in particular their work to ensure a just transition to a low carbon future.

    Carol now works as a Service Manager at Gateshead Council with a focus on strategic initiatives to the alleviate poverty, and to tackle inequality and disadvantage.