Britain’s state-owned energy company faces a “challenging” task to find a chief executive for its Aberdeen HQ when it begins recruiting this month, senior industry sources have said.
Great British Energy is poised to begin the hunt, but sources claim there are still no obvious frontrunners for the top job almost six months after the £8.3bn publicly owned clean energy company was formed.
The government promised in September that it would appoint an interim chief executive “soon” to set up GB Energy in Aberdeen, where it would “supercharge” Britain’s clean energy revolution.
But several industry sources have told the Guardian the government was likely to struggle to find a candidate with the industry credentials to take responsibility for billions of pounds in public spending at the high-profile venture who would also agree to a civil servant’s salary and a base in Aberdeen.
“I haven’t heard any names attached to the role,” one senior industry executive told the Guardian.
Another source said: “There are many experienced energy executives already based in Aberdeen who have a strong track record in the oil and gas industry – but they wouldn’t necessarily be the best fit for the government’s clean energy company. And those who aren’t in Aberdeen might not be willing or able to move there.”
The “tricky” process of finding a CEO could also be frustrated by the relatively modest salaries available to civil servants compared with private sector pay packets, and the lengthy notice periods of senior energy industry executives who might be interested in taking up the job. “They might be fishing in a smaller pool than they expected,” the source added.
GB Energy is currently under the leadership of the former Siemens UK boss Jürgen Maier, who is based in Manchester, and a five-strong team of non-executive directors based in various parts of the UK.
The non-executive directors on the startup board are Frances O’Grady, the former general secretary of the TUC; Frank Mitchell, the former boss of Scottish Power’s power networks business; Kate Gilmartin, the chief executive of the British Hydropower Association; Nina Skorupska, the former chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association; and Valerie Todd, a former HR director at Siemens UK.
A source close to GB Energy said the recruitment could prove to be “challenging” due to the location and salary, and the chief executive would “100% be based full-time in Aberdeen”.
“The chief executive role will tap into a sense of public duty – it’s a chance to do something that’s in the public interest. So it might appeal to the heart rather than the bank account,” they said.
GB Energy emerged as one of Labour’s most popular election manifesto pledges after the party promised that investing public funds in clean energy would help the UK meet its climate targets while bolstering the economy and cutting energy bills by up to £300 a year.
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Maier admitted this week in an interview with Sky News that it could take 20 years for GB Energy to meet its pledge to employ 1,000 people, and refused to put a date on when it would bring down energy bills.
“In the very long term, as we become a major energy champion, it may be many more [jobs] than that. Energy companies grow over 10 or 20 years. We are going to be around in 20 years as a British energy champion,” he said.
A government spokesperson said: “The first recruitment campaigns for the senior team have been launched – and of the three permanent director-level positions advertised up to this point, two will be based in Aberdeen.”
They added: “Over the next five years … we expect the company will employ 200 to 300 people at its Aberdeen headquarters and support thousands of jobs across the country, including in Aberdeen.”