UR Oversight Committee membership
| Year | 2011 |
| Published date | 17 January 2011 |
| Energy Sector | Water |
Members of the Oversight Committee for the Utility Regulator’s investigation into
NI Water’s handling of the 2010-11 freeze/thaw
Colin Drummond, who was born and raised in Northern Ireland, is an Executive
Director of Pennon Group PLC, owner of South West Water and is also Chief Executive
of Viridor (a leading waste management, recycling and renewable energy company).
Prior to joining the board of Pennon, he was Chief Executive of Coats Viyella Yarns
Division (with significant interests in Northern Ireland), and has been an Executive
Director of Renold PLC, a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and an official
with the Bank of England. He is Chairman of the UK Government’s Living with
Environmental Change Business Advisory Board, of the Environmental Sustainability
Knowledge Transfer Network and of UKTI’s Water and Environmental Sector Advisory
Group. A Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences at Oxford University, he
was Master of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators for 2007-08. He has an
MA from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard University where he held a
Harkness Fellowship. He recently featured in an episode of Channel 4 television series,
Undercover Boss.
Clive Elphick is a former Managing Director of Asset Management and Regulation at
United Utilities Group plc and has been a member of the Utility Regulator board since
2006. He was recently appointed as a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal and
is also a non-executive director of the Northwest Regional Development Agency. He is
a former chairman of the CBI for the North West of England. Prior to joining United
Utilities, he qualified as an accountant with ICI and then worked as a management
consultant with Deloitte. He joined what was North West Water Group plc in 1991 and
held positions including Economic Regulation Director, Group Strategic Planning
Director and a Chief Operating Officer of the regulated business. He has also had
secondments to the Cabinet Office and Ofwat, and for five years was a non-executive
director of a Department of State. As well as holding an MA in natural sciences from
Cambridge University, he has a PhD in operational research from Birmingham
University.
Peter Gavan advises organisations on preparedness for, and the handling of, major
incident communications. A former Director of issues and crisis management at
international consultancy Burson-Marsteller, he has been Director of Corporate Affairs
in three FTSE 100 companies - Invensys, National Grid Group and Severn Trent - as
well as the UK arm of French oil company Total. He was also appointed Director of
Corporate Affairs at the Viridian Group following the major power failures in Northern
Ireland in 1998, which affected the network of that company’s subsidiary, NI Electricity.
A former political journalist, he has been involved in many high profile incidents
including the loss of drinking water for a fortnight to approximately 340,000 Severn
Trent customers in summer 2007. He has an MA Hons in Politics and Economics from
Oxford University.
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