Following a formal external recruitment process involving both the Elexon Board and the BSC Panel, Sara Vaughan has been appointed as the new Elexon Board and BSC Panel Chair. Sara will be succeeding Michael Gibbons who has been the Chair for the last nine years.
About Sara’s appointment
The appointment has been approved by Ofgem, in accordance with the provisions of the BSC. Sara, who has been an Elexon board member since 2019, will take up the post from 1 October 2022.
As the BSC requires the Elexon Board to be comprised of mainly non-executive directors who have industry experience we will begin the recruitment process to appoint another industry non-executive director.
On behalf of the Elexon Board, Simon McCalla, Elexon CEO said:
‘I’m delighted Sara Vaughan has been appointed Elexon’s Board and BSC Panel Chair. Sara’s deep understanding of Elexon, industry knowledge and experience will be highly valuable in helping us tackle the challenges ahead. I’d also like to thank Michael Gibbons who is retiring from the Board after nine years for his valuable contribution. We thank Michael enormously for his service, leadership and guidance.’
Sara said on being appointed:
‘I am really excited to be taking over from Michael Gibbons as Chair of Elexon’s Board and the BSC Panel. I strongly support Elexon’s purpose of serving at the heart of the energy industry, building a path to Net Zero and look forward to working with my colleagues to make sure, at a time of great change in the industry, Elexon continues to play a central and crucial role.’
More information on Elexon’s Board structure and its members can be found on our Elexon Board web page.
About Sara Vaughan
Sara Vaughan was appointed to the Elexon Board on 1 March 2019 and served as interim Chief Executive Officer between November 2021 and April 2022.
Sara was formerly Executive Director for Strategy and Regulation and, latterly, for Political and Regulatory Affairs at E.ON.
She started her career as a lawyer at Slaughter and May before moving to Powergen (as it then was) as a competition lawyer.
She subsequently broadened her experience through taking on a number of additional responsibilities such as regulation, compliance, energy policy, and external affairs including CSR, legal and company secretariat, HSSE and engineering governance.
Sara is a Non-Executive Director of the North Sea Transition Authority, a member of the Energy Advisory Panel at the Energy Institute, where she is a Fellow, and Advisory Group and Steering Group Co-chair in Icebreaker One’s work on Open Energy.
She was a Board Member of the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy, which later merged into Energy UK, where she was an alternate Board member and was a member of the CBI West Midlands Regional Council. She is also a local Parish Councillor.
About Elexon
Serving at the heart of the energy industry, building a path to net zero, Elexon is shaping the energy sector of the future. We manage the Balancing and Settlement Code, which sets out the rules so that Great Britain’s energy system operates effectively.
Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) reform will see the electricity industry working together in a significant move forward in how electricity is used and accounted for. Ofgem has placed responsibility on the industry to deliver the Programme and made Elexon the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Programme.
We also deliver Settlement services for the Government’s Contracts for Difference and Capacity Market arrangements, through the Elexon subsidiary Electricity Market Reform Settlement (EMRS). We are trusted, independent, reliable market experts. We are funded by our customers and provide our services without making profit. We deliver an ‘end-to-end’ code manager service for the BSC.
This includes helping new companies enter the market, ensuring Settlement accuracy, and managing changes to BSC rules to support initiatives to move to a smarter energy system. We also provide expert support to Government, Ofgem and industry.
Britain’s energy sector is going through unprecedented change and the needs and demands of our customers and consumers are evolving. We are working to ensure that our systems and processes support the changes needed so that the energy sector plays a major part in helping to meet the UK Government’s ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions target.