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Phil Jones

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Phil is the President and Chief Executive of Northern Powergrid and has been in the electricity distribution sector since 1993. He is a chartered electrical engineer and progressed through a number of technical and managerial roles in Yorkshire Electricity prior to the merger with Northern Electric in 2001. He joined the board of the combined companies in 2002 and became President in 2006.

Phil remains actively involved in policy development at a national level in the UK, having served on advisory groups that advise the UK Government and the energy regulator, Ofgem, on the development of networks for low carbon economy, sustainable development and consumer protection. He is currently Chair of the Energy Networks Association, and has in the past served as President of the Institute of Asset Management, Chairman of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Council of the Confederation of British Industry. In 2007 he was awarded an OBE for his services to the energy industry.

Northern Powergrid's safety first culture is reflected with senior leadership of the company's health, safety and training function reporting directly to Phil.

Andy MacLennan

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

Andy is the Commercial Director at Northern Powergrid. He started his career in the electricity industry in 1984 and his career spans both the electricity and rail sectors, undertaking a number of managerial roles in multidiscipline functions.

As part of Northern Powergrid’s executive team, Andy’s responsibilities include the development and growth of the Smart metering business, Northern Powergrid’s contracting business, IUS, development and assessment of acquisition opportunities.

In July 2015, he assumed responsibility for the contestable elements of the connections business.

Andy’s executive accountabilities expanded in 2019 to also include Northern Powergrid’s Procurement function.

Alex Jones

Finance Director

Alex joined Northern Powergrid in January 2015 and became Finance Director in March 2022. He is a Chartered Accountant having completed his training with KPMG, spending seven years in their Restructuring practice.

Prior to becoming Finance Director, Alex was the Director of Performance and Planning, leading on the development of the company’s long term business plan. He has also spent time leading the company’s engineering and major projects operations teams.

Tom France

General Counsel

Tom joined Northern Powergrid in November 2012 and he became General Counsel in July 2015.

He is a solicitor, having qualified with Herbert Smith in the company's corporate energy and infrastructure team.

Tom holds executive accountabilities for Legal, Company Secretariat and Regulatory Compliance.

Angie Patterson

DIRECTOR OF ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT

Angie joined Northern Powergrid in 2002, having held senior roles in the public and private sector both in Organisation Development and in managing regional initiatives for business support and development.

Angie was appointed to the executive in 2007 and led the HR function until 2013 when she moved into a new role as Director of Organisation Development.

Drawing from research in leadership, organisation psychology, employee engagement, change management and organisation behaviour, Angie's responsibility and focus is to support and enable change programmes, develop our people, and enhance organisational and individual effectiveness.

In 2021 Angie took on executive responsibility for Northern Powergrid’s People Services function including the company’s Learning and Development Academy.

Andy Bilclough

Director of Field Operations

Andy is a linesman by trade and joined Northern Powergrid in 2008 after 12 years at National Grid. During his time at Northern Powergrid he has risen through multiple leadership roles and was appointed Director of Field Operations in 2019. Field Operations is our biggest single team with Andy leading 1,600 people across our locally delivered regional operations model.

A key responsibility of Andy's role is leading our gold command structure which manages our response to major incidents such as weather-related events. He also represents Northern Powergrid as a delivery board member for the Energy and Utility Skills Partnership, demonstrating our commitment to ensuring we have access to the highly skilled people we need to design, build and maintain our network now and in the future.

Andy also has executive responsibility for Customer Service Operations, Shared Services, Digital Services, Business Improvement and Reporting and Insight bringing our focus on customer service closer to our front line operations to drive forward improvements.

Paul Glendinning

Director of Policy and Markets

Paul joined in the summer of 2021 with more than 30 years’ experience in power networks. 

He has held several senior leadership positions, and before joining Northern Powergrid worked in the consulting sector where he led one of the business units in WSP, an engineering consultancy.

Paul has a depth of client-facing, commercial and technical leadership experience in the energy network sector, both in the UK and overseas. He has worked on developing and delivering major new renewable investments and with network companies, both in consultancy and directly for a distribution network operator. Prior to joining Northern Powergrid, Paul worked on a major cross-channel interconnector project. This, coupled with extensive knowledge of renewable and low carbon technologies, means Paul is well-positioned to lead the Policy and Markets team in key areas such as decarbonisation, innovation and flexibility services.

As Director of Policy and Markets, Paul has overall accountability for Policy, Decarbonisation, DSO and Flexibility Services, Sustainability, Innovation, Network Trading and Stakeholder Relations.
 

Paul Fitton

Director of Information Systems

Paul joined Northern Powergrid in May 2018 and became Director of Information Systems in January 2022.

He has more than 17 years’ of expertise working in the technology field, having had a diverse range of experience ranging from large scale infrastructure implementations to business transformation programmes while leading multi-disciplined teams.

Paul leads on Northern Powergrid’s Information Systems, cyber security and data and digitalisation strategic priorities.