Customer
Engagement
Group

Team Members

• • Justin McCracken – Chair

    Justin brings a wealth of experience to the CEG with more than fifteen years’ in a regulatory capacity in national public bodies: the Health and Safety Executive; the Environment Agency; and latterly as a Non-Executive Director of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR – the economic and safety regulator for the rail industry and economic regulator for Highways England).  He has also served as Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency and as a trustee of a charity, the British Safety Council and as a non-executive Director of Ombudsman Services (a company which runs a number of ombudsman schemes including the Energy Ombudsman).

    

  • Graham Oakes

    Graham has a PhD in Satellite Image Processing and a background in tech, working with firms such as Cisco, Intel, Skype and Sony.  In 2013, he created Upside Energy, a tech platform for managing flexibility on the grid.  Upside raised £10m of funding and grew to 35 staff by the end of 2018, at which point Graham stood down to focus on enabling people to participate in the Energy Transition.  Upside was subsequently sold to Octopus Energy, where it now forms the basis for its KrakenFlex platform.  Graham now supports a number of EnergyTech startups and works on local and municipal energy projects across UK and EU.  He was a member of BEIS’ Engineering Standards Review and Ofgem’s Design Advisory Board for Half Hourly Settlement, and is currently a board member of FlexAssure, the ADE’s code of conduct for demand response aggregators.  His book Project Reviews, Assurance and Governance is published by Routledge.

    

  • Henri Murison

    Henri brings his expertise on the importance of electricity infrastructure and the transition to zero carbon in the wider economy to the CEG. Director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, he works across the wider infrastructure agenda, education, skills and wider industrial policy to drive the agenda on how to close the North – South divide. He has led work on the role of decarbonisation in driving economic growth, specifically focused on energy sector. Previously, he advised a financial services business on their government and international regulation interest as well as having wider roles in the voluntary sector and as Cabinet Member for Quality of Life at Newcastle City Council.

    

  • Jenny Saunders

    Jenny Saunders is an independent consultant with over 30 years working in the energy and charity sectors. Previously Chief Executive at National Energy Action, based in the North East but operational across the UK, Jenny is currently Chair of the Customer Engagement Group for NGN and has experience of Ofgem’s enhanced stakeholder engagement process for RIIO2. She is a member of the Government’s Fuel Poverty Committee and sits on the Advisory Group to Innovate UK’s £200m PFER programme. Jenny is a Non-Executive Director of Affordable Warmth Solutions which delivers heating and energy efficiency programmes. She has previously sat on a number of energy industry stakeholder groups including Northern Powergrid’s Social Issues Expert Group.

    

  • Mike Kay

    Mike worked at Electricity North West for 38 years, the last eight of which he was Engineering and IT Director. He served on the Grid Code Review Panel for over a decade. Since leaving Electricity North West in 2015 he has worked as an independent consultant on a number of projects for the regulated electricity network industries in the UK and internationally. He is a member-elected trustee of the Electricity North West pension fund.

    

  • Simon Pringle

    Simon is Managing Director of Project Rome, a consultancy specialising in commercial strategy, campaign and communication. An Honorary Professor at University of Edinburgh Business School, Simon is also an Associate Fellow at Chatham House.  He was formerly Head of Sustainability and Innovation at BDO LLP and has a background in Environmental Consulting and Change Management. He was author of the IMechE guide to commercialising clean technology and designed the CBI innovation model for medium sized businesses.  A board member of the Leeds City Region LEP, he was formerly chair of the Green Economy Panel and co-founded the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission.  Chair of the children’s STEM skills organisation ‘Solutions for the Planet’, Simon is also a member of the Northern Gas Networks CEG.