Paul is an energy networks and regulation expert who enjoyed a lengthy and successful career with British Gas, Lattice and National Grid. He has extensive experience of price control design and negotiation; strategy development and company restructuring in the face of regulatory and political pressure; and the development of incentive and governance frameworks in a regulated environment. He is currently an independent non-executive director at Anglian Water Services, and he has been a senior adviser to a global infrastructure fund.

Paul joined the then publicly owned British Gas as a graduate trainee in 1981 and ended his executive career in 2015 as National Grid’s UK Regulation Director. His last major task was to oversee the successful completion of the 2013 RIIO price controls covering Electricity Transmission, Gas Transmission and Gas Distribution. He had previously led the 2007 Gas Distribution price control review.

Paul joined British Gas in a customer-facing engineering role. After privatisation in 1986, Paul moved through a series of more commercial roles in the emerging Transco business unit. In these roles, he was at the heart of the restructuring of the UK gas industry as regulatory and political pressure unpicked the integrated structure that British Gas had retained at privatisation. This period included a year working on a US interstate transmission pipeline as it implemented unbundling requirements imposed by the FERC.

As Transco emerged from the British Gas structure, further pressure was applied to unbundle component services and Paul moved on to lead efforts to commercialise the high pressure gas storage assets previously bundled within the main pipeline business. He then took on a wider role helping the Transco Board work through options for the operational restructuring of the main Transco pipeline business.

Paul then moved to BG International, enjoying an extended period in which he established a Transmission and Distribution joint venture in Egypt, became the BG representative on the Board of an Indian subsidiary, and developed pipeline projects through joint ventures in Ireland.

He returned to Transco in 2002 as Head of Regulation with responsibility for regulatory strategy and compliance. Following the merger with National Grid, he moved into a leadership role on the gas distribution network sales project, with particular responsibility for negotiations with Ofgem and the industry of the regulatory changes necessary to facilitate the £5.9bn transaction. He moved on to lead the Group Strategy function for two years before taking over as UK Regulation Director.

Oxera Associates are highly skilled independent experts who are recognised within a variety of sectors. These individuals have a wealth of knowledge within their fields, and our collaboration with them means that we can offer the best advice, inspiring our clients to make better decisions.