Our Board
Our Board is made up of a non-executive Chairman and six non-executive members, and the Chief Executive.
The Board is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the organisation and ensuring that it meets its legal obligations. Minutes of Board meetings are available to the public via the Utility Regulator’s website.
Board Members
Peter Matthews – Chairman
Peter Matthews has been Chairman of the Utility Regulator since April 2006. He spent over 25 years at Anglian Water in a number of roles and retired as Deputy Managing Director of Anglian Water International. He was appointed in February 2009 as a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for a term of three years.
In 2006 he joined the Port of London Authority as a Board Member and is a past President of the European Water Association, Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and past Chair of the Society for the Environment. From 2000 to 2006, he was appointed to the Board of the Environment Agency and Chair of its Audit Committee. He served on the Board of Anglia Ruskin University and is currently a Visiting Professor. He was awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to water and the environment.
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Clive Elphick
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’s Board since October 2006. His other current roles include being the 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 & Touche. He joined what was North West Water Group PLC in 1991 and held positions including Regulation Director, Group Strategic Planning Director and 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. He has a degree in natural sciences from Queens’ College, Cambridge and a doctorate in operational research from Birmingham University.
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Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson, a member of the Utility Regulator’s Board since October 2006, has extensive experience in the electricity sector having held a variety of executive and senior management positions covering all aspects of the supply chain. His previous appointments include periods with LIFE, Ocean Power, National Power, Coopers and Lybrand, North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board, British Electricity International and the Central Electricity Generating Board with whom he originally undertook a student apprenticeship.
He has built a number of successful new energy businesses including Innogy (now RWE Innogy), npower CoGen and National Power Energy Direct which was the first direct supply business following electricity privatisation in England and Wales. Philip is a Chartered Engineer and holds an MBA, with distinction, from the University of Glasgow and a BSc. (Hons) in Energy Technology from Aston University. A Chartered Engineer he is a fellow of the Energy Institute, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
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James Oatridge
A board member since October 2006, Jim Oatridge has had a varied career having worked in the public and private sectors, with experience of local government, electricity supply and more than 25 years in the water industry. Until 2005 he was Group Services Director with Severn Trent.
He has had a long interest in international water issues through involvement with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and was its President in 2002/03.
He also holds non-executive director roles at Wolverhampton City PCT, Animal Health (a DEFRA agency), a private sector organisation and two not-for-profit organisations. He was awarded an OBE in the 2003 New Year honours list ‘for services to the UK and Global Water Industries’.
Jim has an economics degree from Warwick University, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
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Shane Lynch – Chief Executive
Shane Lynch took up the position of Chief Executive of the Utility Regulator on 4 January 2011, before which he had been the Director of Electricity since September 2009.
He has worked in the electricity industry for 27 years. This included various engineering positions with Northern Ireland Electricity from 1983 until 1992. He then worked for the AES Corporation as Managing Director for both Belfast West and Kilroot power plants and as Development Director for Ireland.
He has a BSc. with honours in Mechanical Engineering from Queens University, Belfast and a MSc. with distinction in Finance and Investment from the University of Ulster.
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Alan Rainey
Alan Rainey has been a board member of the Utility Regulator since September 2007. Following his graduation from Queen’s University Belfast in 1968 he has held a wide range of engineering and management positions in the energy industry in Ireland. An electrical engineer by profession, he has worked on and directed the development and maintenance of electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems throughout Ireland and overseas, working initially for the Electricity Supply Board in the Republic and latterly for the Viridian Group and then Northern Ireland Energy Holdings.
Joining Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) in 1990, he directed the development, construction and maintenance of NIE’s transmission and distribution networks. In more recent years, he managed NIE’s interconnector business, investing in Northern Ireland’s external electricity links and directed the Moyle Interconnector project – the link between Northern Ireland and Scotland, from its initial feasibility studies and consents through to financing and commercial operation. In addition he was Project Director on the development of Huntstown Power Limited, the first independent power producer in the Republic.
From 2003 until 2007, he was Managing Director of the Moyle Interconnector companies. In 2005, on the takeover of the Moyle companies, he was appointed Executive Director on the board of Northern Ireland Energy Holdings Limited, the enlarged mutual group owning and operating Northern Ireland’s electricity and gas interconnectors with Great Britain.
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William Cargo
In January 2011, Mr William Cargo became a board member of the Utility Regulator. He has held a number of senior management posts in both the private and public sector within the UK and international energy industry. From 2004 to 2010 he was an Executive Director of Mutual Energy and Managing Director for its gas business. Prior to this he worked for the BG Group which included a time as Chief Executive for Premier Power and Engineering Director with Phoenix Natural Gas during the introduction of natural gas to Northern Ireland.
Mr Cargo has served on the boards of private and mutual energy companies and has a detailed understanding of the gas and electricity industries.
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Richard Rodgers
Mr Richard Rodgers became a board member of the Utility Regulator in January 2011 and has over 20 years experience in the gas industry. He has been employed since 2008 by Eaga plc and is currently Divisional Managing Director, with responsibility for Eaga’s heating businesses and its operations in Ireland.
Prior to this he worked for Phoenix Natural Gas from 1996 to 2008, initially with responsibility for business planning and regulatory matters. In 2000, he was appointed Business Development Director with responsibility for a wide range of areas including marketing communications, PR, public affairs, gas procurement and regulation. He is a member of the Northern Ireland Committee of the Institute of Directors.
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Board Minutes
Copies of Board minutes for the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation (which was formally established from 1 April 2007) and its predecessor organisations can be found on this website.
Board minutes relating to meetings that have taken place during 2010-11 are listed below
28 April 2010
14 May 2010
8 July 2010
8 September 2010
14 October 2010
16 December 2010
13 January 2011
10 February 2011
25 February 2011
10 March 2011
13 May 2011
5 August 2011
6 September 2011
All other Board minutes can be found in the Publications page of the website