David Saunders

Managing Director, Marketforce

Biography

David Saunders is Managing Director of Marketforce Business Media, which he founded (as Marketforce Communications) in 1987.

Amongst his roles at Marketforce he acts as editorial director of conferences in markets subject to economic regulation, including energy and utilities, broadcasting and postal services. He has led the development of Marketforce conferences in the postal services market in Europe and the UK for the last thirteen years.

He also leads Marketforce's public relations and communications service in the business to business market.

David Saunders is a graduate in law from the University of Durham and a barrister.

For 25 years he was a Royal Naval Reserve officer, becoming the most junior Commanding Officer in the Royal Navy at the age of 27. He subsequently commanded 6 HM Ships and acted as Minewarfare adviser to the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters.

Richard Postance

Partner, Ernst & Young

Biography

Richard Postance is a leading partner in Ernst & Young’s Power & Utilities performance improvement practice and leads Ernst & Young’s response to Smart Metering and Grids.  He draws on his engineering and technology background to provide strategy and transformation consulting for the energy retail, telecommunications and public sectors.  Richard’s recent experience includes transforming the customer service and field operations for leading utilities including designing energy services propositions and customer engagement plans in response to a Smart Meter roll out.

Rob Turner

Programme Director, Smart Metering Implementation, DECC

Biography

Rob Turner is currently Director in charge of the Smart Meter Programme for GB at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).  Rob has worked in government for the past 10 years delivering major change programmes such as Payment Modernisation and Central Payment System.  He was also the IT Director for Corporate Services at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Before joining government Rob worked extensively in the private sector as a consultant programme director in banking, retail and utilities successfully delivering many large and complex change programmes.

An accountant by profession Rob has also worked in the oil industry as well as manufacturing.

Steve James

Commercial & Regulation Manager, E.ON

Biography

Steve has over 35 years experience in the energy industry. He has held a range of senior management positions in Retail, Distribution and Energy Services. These included taking East Midlands Electricity into domestic gas supply, acting as business lead for the introduction of retail competition for electricity (1998 Programme) also acting for East Midlands Electricity and as the commercial lead in the integration of TXU into E.ON. Steve has been involved in metering for a number of years both as a buyer and provider of services and more recently developed a gas metering capability for E.ON's metering business. He has been heavily focused on smart metering development for the past 5 years and represents E.ON on ERA Smart Metering Steering Group and sits on Ofgem's Technical and Data Communications expert panels. Steve is married with 2 children.

Steve Briggs

Head of Industry Codes and Metering Regulation, British Gas

Biography

Steve is Head of Industry and Smart Metering Regulation for British Gas. He is responsible for British Gas' external Smart Metering engagement, the oversight of all retail industry arrangements relating to customer switching, energy balancing, data and metering regulation. Steve has over 25 years energy industry experience spanning a number of key senior operational, commercial and customer service roles. He was at the heart of the introduction of electricity supply competition and the development of metering competition and so has been close to some of the biggest industry transformation programmes witnessing at first hand some of the challenges and opportunities that come with these.

Steve has been heavily involved in the full life cycle of smart metering policy development of the past 7 years and is an active member of many key smart metering groups including, the DECC Overall Design Advisory Group, Consumer Engagement and Rollout Group, and the ERA Smart Metering Steering Group.

Neil Pennington

Head of Smart Implementation, RWE npower

Biography

Neil has a career spanning 20 years in the Energy and Utility Sector, 12 of which have been in senior leadership roles. He has worked in engineering, operations, business development, marketing and strategy, as well as delivering significant business change projects.

Neil joined British Gas in 1990 and worked within Distribution Engineering. In 1996, working for Transco (now National Grid) Neil delivered "Section M" (Daily and Non-Daily Metering) of the Network Code and followed this with delivery of the introduction of Meter Reading Competition within the UK Gas Market. His association with metering continued as he ran the commercialisation of Transco's meter reading service to Accuread. In 1998, as Head of Marketing he was responsible for launching Affordable Warmth (through the pilot in Leeds), microgeneration (DCHP) and was Deputy Chairman of the CHPA.

In 2000 he joined PwC Consulting, working on Energy projects and business development in the UK, Ireland and the Czech Republic. In 2002 he led the project to help United Utilities win the bid for the c £200m British Gas Commercial Multi-Utility Meter Operation Contract; he also advised investors during their due diligence and creation of "Meterfit".

In 2003 he joined United Utilities as Business Development Director for "Networks" Ltd, the Connections, Metering and Energy Services Business. As well as Business Development he had P&L responsibility for Energy Services, which included remote metering and energy profiling for Industrial and Commercial Customers.

Following a period as Head of Energy and Utilities for Whitehead Mann, he joined npower in June of this year as Head of Smart Implementation.

A Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Neil has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the London Business School.

Steve Cunningham

Chief Executive Officer, Landis & Gyr

Biography

Steve Cunningham joined Landis+Gyr as CEO, UK and Ireland on 1st March 2009. Steve had previously spent 18 years in the IT industry, most recently at Nortel where he was General Manager of the business's Global Account Team supporting BT. Steve's appointment was a reflection of the increasing importance of the emerging European smart metering industry, with countries across the region looking to roll-out ambitious metering programmes in order to reach the EU's 2020 targets. His experience in large scale public sector and network provider managed service programmes will be invaluable in developing Landis+Gyr's business, both in the critical UK market and more widely in the EMEA region as a whole.

Beth Thoren

Director of Communications, Digital UK

Biography

Beth is the Director of Communications at Digital UK, the organisation leading the UK's switch to digital TV.

Beth helped set up Digital UK in 2005. She secured the £200 million budget, put in place the call centre, web, retail and road show customer support programmes and developed the successful communications campaign with the friendly robot.

Beth grew up in Tokyo and did her first degree in engineering, followed by an MBA from Harvard Business School. She started as a strategy consultant and from there moved to consumer marketing with Mars Confectionery and to senior roles in broadcasting - most recently, Head of Digital Marketing at the BBC.

Will Siddall

Advanced Analytics Leader, Energy & Utilities, IBM Global Business Services

Biography

Will Siddall leads IBM’s advanced analytics and optimisation work in the UK utilities industry, encompassing water, electricity and gas. He has helped numerous utility companies use data to solve complex business problems and transform their organisations in areas such as energy trading and risk management, market simulation, energy pricing, and generation emission forecasting.    

For the past two years Will has been working on the smart metering programmes of several UK energy retailers. His work has included performing complex analysis on trial meter data, meter deployment modelling, and smart meter strategy and business case definition.

Jon Parr

Managing Director, EMEA, Trilliant

Biography

As the EMEA Managing Director, Jon Parr is responsible for the expansion of Trilliant's business in Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. As an energy technology veteran, Jon has been driving technology sales for more than 20 years in the global power & utility industries. Jon joined Trilliant from Sensus Metering Systems, where he assumed leadership roles in various international sales, business development and project management initiatives. This included successful growth of its businesses across Northern Europe. Earlier in his career, Jon led sales and account management activities at Druck and Schlumberger.

Duncan Southgate

Business Development, Smart Metering, Siemens Metering Services

Biography

Duncan leads the Business Development activity of Siemens Metering Services in the area of Smart Metering for the UK. This covers the value chain from Smart Meter Provision and Asset Management, Deployment, Foundation Data and Communications, Meter Data Management and Data Services to Utilities.

Duncan has been in the energy industry for over 30 years and has worked in both the Distribution and Supply side of electricity companies and has been involved in the competitive market since it began in 1990 in both metering and customer service.   He joined Siemens Metering  Services as Head of Marketing and Product Portfolio Management following the acquisition of Eastern Metering Services (part of TXU) and Powergen’s Metering Business by Siemens Energy Services. 

Prior to focussing on Smart Metering in UK Duncan led Business Development activities for Siemens Energy Sector in the UK covering the energy conversion chain from  Generation to Metering and buildings technology. 

Duncan also led Siemen’s bid for Meter Asset Provision and Meter Operations for British Gas and in 2003 became General Manager of Capital Meters Ltd – a joint venture between Macquarie Capital and Siemens Energy Services, formed to provide MAP and Deployment services for over a million meters, initially to British Gas and subsequently to other energy suppliers.

Chris Harris

Head of Retail Regulation, RWE npower

Biography

Chris Harris is the head of retail regulation at rwe npower, following a period as head of industry, networks and agreements. His background is in trading, consulting and asset management. He is a visiting professor in the Centre for Sustainable Power Distribution at the University of Bath.

Duncan Southgate

Business Development, Smart Metering, Siemens Metering Services

Biography

Duncan leads the Business Development activity of Siemens Metering Services in the area of Smart Metering for the UK. This covers the value chain from Smart Meter Provision and Asset Management, Deployment, Foundation Data and Communications, Meter Data Management and Data Services to Utilities.

Duncan has been in the energy industry for over 30 years and has worked in both the Distribution and Supply side of electricity companies and has been involved in the competitive market since it began in 1990 in both metering and customer service.   He joined Siemens Metering  Services as Head of Marketing and Product Portfolio Management following the acquisition of Eastern Metering Services (part of TXU) and Powergen’s Metering Business by Siemens Energy Services. 

Prior to focussing on Smart Metering in UK Duncan led Business Development activities for Siemens Energy Sector in the UK covering the energy conversion chain from  Generation to Metering and buildings technology. 

Duncan also led Siemen’s bid for Meter Asset Provision and Meter Operations for British Gas and in 2003 became General Manager of Capital Meters Ltd – a joint venture between Macquarie Capital and Siemens Energy Services, formed to provide MAP and Deployment services for over a million meters, initially to British Gas and subsequently to other energy suppliers.

Chris Welby

Policy and Regulatory Affairs Director, Good Energy

Biography

Chris Welby is the Policy & Regulatory Affairs Director of Good Energy, the UK's leading 100% renewable electricity supplier.

Good Energy wants to change the way energy is made in this country and connect people with where it comes from – so they will value it more and use it less. Its vision is a 100% renewable future for the UK by 2050.

Chris is a respected energy industry professional with 25 years' experience in all aspects of the retail market. He is responsible for Regulation and Policy at Good Energy, working with industry and Government to meet the challenge of de-carbonising the UK electricity market. Chris is member of the Government's Smart Grid forum and his diverse brief covers all things smart, Electricity Market Reform, Green Deal and renewable energy policy.