Following the implementation of code change CPM039/CPW124: ‘Revisions to Panel Composition’, the Panel Nominations Committee (PNC) met for its first meeting on 1 September.
The PNC is responsible for appointing Strategic Panel Members. It is also responsible for appointing the first Strategic Panel Chair who will then join the PNC.
Present at the PNC were Emma Kelso (Ofwat), Georgina Mills (Ofwat), Oscar Watkins (Defra) and Sarah McMath (MOSL).
In addition to agreeing the terms of reference for the PNC, the committee made the decision to appoint Trisha McAuley OBE as the Strategic Panel Chair.
Trisha is an experienced Chair and Non-Executive Director, with a strong background in the public, private and voluntary sectors. For over twenty years she was a senior executive in UK and Scottish consumer organisations. She is widely recognised as a national consumer expert and was awarded an OBE for services to consumer affairs in 2015. Since then, Trisha has developed a successful non-executive and board portfolio, with a particular focus on regulated industries.
The PNC noted that Trisha has been chairing the current Market Arrangements Code Panel for a year, having been appointed following a rigorous recruitment process led by Trading Party and Independent Panel Members in September 2020. Trisha was appointed with a view to chairing the Panel through the extensive Market Governance Review.
Emma Kelso, Chair of the PNC and Senior Director, Markets and Enforcement at Ofwat said: “Trisha’s performance in leading the Panel and wider market through its recent review, as well as the skills, capabilities and expertise she has demonstrated against the backdrop of unprecedented challenges during COVID-19, have provided great assurance to the PNC that Trisha is well placed to lead as the new Strategic Panel Chair.”
Trisha will be appointed as Strategic Panel Chair on 6 September 2021.
Recruitment will now commence for Trading Party Members and Non-Industry Members of the Strategic Panel with a view to appointing all positions by November 2021.
More information on the Panel Nominations Committee and the Strategic Panel appointment process and timetable is on the MOSL website.