Our structure and leadership
GEMA members
Mark McAllister was appointed in November 2023 for a term of five years as Chair of the UK Gas & Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA). Mark has been Chair of the Office for Nuclear Regulation since April 2019 and served on the Management Committee of the Public Chairs Forum.
During a forty-year executive career in the upstream energy industry he held positions on the executive board of two of the UK’s most successful independent companies, Monument and LASMO. He also founded and served as CEO of two North Sea start-up businesses, Acorn and Fairfield Energy, and was most recently CEO of PA Resources, listed on the Scandinavian NASDAQ.
Mark served as Chairman of OSPRAG (Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group) which formulated the joint response of the North Sea oil industry, trade unions and government to the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Robert Gordon’s University for services to the oil industry.
Over the last twenty years, Mark has held a number of non-executive roles in the charitable sector. Currently, he is the Chair of Oasis Charitable Trust, who work across the UK to transform communities through a wide range of services including education and housing.
Jonathan Brearley was appointed as an executive member of GEMA in 2018 and this appointment runs until January 2025. Jonathan became Ofgem's Chief Executive Officer on 3 February 2020. This follows his previous appointment as our Executive Director for Systems and Networks in April 2018.
He has wide-ranging energy sector experience, having led Electricity Market Reform as the Director for Energy Markets and Networks at DECC.
Prior to this, he was Director of the Office of Climate Change, a cross-government strategy unit focussed on climate change and energy issues, where he led the development of the Climate Change Act. Earlier in his career, Jonathan was a senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics from Glasgow University and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Warren Buckley was appointed to GEMA in November 2023 for a term of five years.
He has spent over 30 years in consumer and customer service leadership roles across the corporate and charity sectors having led large service delivery and retail teams at Vodafone, Lucent Technologies, Avaya, Orange, BT, Openreach, HSBC and Thames Water. He is the outgoing chair of National Citizens Advice, having served on the board for 11 years and was previously the chair of the Business Disability Forum.
Warren believes in giving a voice to those who otherwise would not be heard and thereby representing all consumer groups.
Dr Tony Curzon Price was appointed to GEMA in November 2023 for a term of five years.
He is an economist with particular interests in technology, energy, environment and economic regulation. He has worked as an advisor in BEIS, the Cabinet Office and Number 10, as well as the Competition and Markets Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. He has been a technology and media entrepreneur, and spent 4 years in Silicon Valley. He has been involved in UK energy/environment policy for over 30 years.
Jonathan Kini was appointed to GEMA in November 2023 for a term of five years.
He most recently worked as Managing Director of TalkTalk’s Consumer and Business Division and continues to support the business on mergers and acquisitions. Prior to this, Jonathan has held senior roles in Virgin Media and Vodafone and previously worked for Drax Plc as CEO of its Customer Businesses. He has held advisory roles at the Bank of England and Chaired the Business in the Community (BITC) Net Zero Carbon Taskforce. Jonathan is currently Non-Executive Director of regulator Ofwat, which is responsible for maintaining standards across the water and sewerage industry, in important areas including customer service and environmental protection.
Alena Kozakova was appointed to GEMA in November 2023 for a term of five years.
She brings a breadth of experience in competition and economic regulation, as well as policy making and consumer protection.
Alena is a competition and regulatory economist with experience spanning the public and private sectors. She currently co-leads the London practice of E.CA Economics, an antitrust consultancy having previously been the Chief Economist at Ofwat. She worked for the predecessors of the Competition and Markets Authority, the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading, and for the Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission. She also worked at Frontier Economics and in the consumer body Which?.
Alena holds a BSc and an MSc in Economics and an MSc in Political Science.
Graham Mather was appointed to GEMA in November 2023 for a term of five years.
He has served on the Monopolies & Mergers Commission and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, as well as on the boards of the regulators Ofcom and the Office of Rail & Road. With experience in competition, regulation, law and economics, he was appointed CBE for services to economic regulation, competition and infrastructure development. He is President of the Infrastructure Forum. Earlier in his career he was General Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Head of the Policy Unit at the Institute of Directors, as well as a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 serving on its Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee.
By training Graham is a lawyer. He was an Open Scholar at New College, Oxford and a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College.
Barry was appointed to GEMA in March 2020 for a term of five years. He specialises in data and digital transformation and has worked in data for the whole of his career. He is currently Chief Data and Insight Officer for John Lewis.
Prior to John Lewis, Barry spent the majority of his early career at Ernst & Young helping to lead the data and analytics practice and has subsequently headed up data and digital teams in organisations such as Bupa, Virgin and Lloyds Banking Group.
Barry champions the power of data, not just for organisations but for society as a whole and has worked on numerous initiatives across both private and public sectors as well as promoting the importance of digital skills in our society.
Nick Winser was appointed to our board in April 2025. He is the UK’s first Electricity Networks Commissioner, providing independent recommendations to accelerate the deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure.
He is a Clean Power 2030 Commissioner, Senior Independent Director at Greencoat UK Wind, and was previously chair of Energy Systems Catapult, serving on their board for over 9 years.
With over 30 years of experience in the electricity networks field, Nick has been instrumental in advising both government and industry on energy policy.
Ofgem Senior Executive Committee (SEC)
Jonathan Brearley was appointed as an executive member of GEMA in 2018 and this appointment runs until January 2025. Jonathan became Ofgem's Chief Executive Officer on 3 February 2020. This follows his previous appointment as our Executive Director for Systems and Networks in April 2018.
He has wide-ranging energy sector experience, having led Electricity Market Reform as the Director for Energy Markets and Networks at DECC.
Prior to this, he was Director of the Office of Climate Change, a cross-government strategy unit focussed on climate change and energy issues, where he led the development of the Climate Change Act. Earlier in his career, Jonathan was a senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics from Glasgow University and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Melinda Johnson joined Ofgem in August 2023 as Chief Operating Officer, her main priorities are to improve the corporate services that enable Ofgem’s day-to-day regulatory and scheme delivery activities.
Before joining Ofgem, Melinda Johnson was the commercial director at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). She led the health family commercial function comprising 20 organisations; she was responsible for six companies owned by the DHSC and sponsored the NHS Business Services Authority.
Melinda was previously Group Commercial Services Director at the Department for Transport (DfT), which included property, digital, security and information; before that, she was deputy finance and commercial director at the Department for Education. Before joining the civil service, Melinda had a 17-year career in commercial roles in the broader public and private sectors.
Melinda is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and a Chartered Procurement Professional; she holds an MBA and a BSc Hons in Psychology and has a postgraduate qualification in Marketing and Communications. She is a non-executive Director of the British Quality Foundation and GS1 UK.
Tim Jarvis joined Ofgem in September 2023 as Director General, Markets.
Prior to this, Tim was a Director in the Enterprise and Growth Unit at HM Treasury since September 2020. He also spent four years in BEIS, first as Director of Consumer and Competition Policy and then as BEIS Director in Lord Deighton’s PPE Taskforce supporting domestic manufacturers to produce PPE during the pandemic. He was a Director at the Competition Commission and Competition and Markets Authority for four years leading market investigations, price control reviews and merger inquiries. He has also worked for the Greater London Authority and the House of Commons.
Tim has more than 25 years’ experience working in public policy and regulation after starting his career working for homelessness charities and in the social housing sector.
Akshay joined Ofgem in 2017 and is currently Director General, Infrastructure.
Prior to joining Ofgem, Akshay was on secondment from HM Treasury to Transport for London, where he led TfL’s work on funding transport infrastructure in London by capturing the uplift in land and property values associated with transport projects such as Barking Riverside Extension, Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo Line Extension.
This followed a spell of five years at HM Treasury, where Akshay directed energy and transport projects for Infrastructure UK. He has been involved in the design and delivery of electricity market reform, the competition for carbon capture and storage, the development of the new nuclear energy programme, the reform of the strategic roads network and regeneration projects such as the Northern Line extension to Battersea Power Station in London.
Akshay studied economics, finance, management, and bioscience, at the London School of Economics, the universities of London and Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management.
Neil joined Ofgem in July 2021 to lead the Retail directorate. He is currently Director of Delivery and Schemes.
Prior to working at Ofgem, Neil spent nine years at Deloitte providing professional services to clients across the Energy and Resources sector. Neil started his career in Energy Retail in 1996 and went on to work for a number of integrated energy companies across the energy value chain.
Neil holds an MBA from Henley Business School.
Neil is Ofgem's Director of Strategy, Economics, Research and Net Zero (SERN).
Prior to this, Neil spent five years as head of Energy and Environmental policy and spending at HM Treasury. This followed a range of energy, economic, and strategy roles across the UK government, including working in Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit, running the Foreign Office economics network, and head of Globalisation and Emerging Markets in the Treasury.
Neil started his career in the private sector, as a consultant on energy and public policy questions, and is an economist by training.
View my profilePriya joined Ofgem in early 2021 as Director of Communications where her team covers internal communications, media relations & public affairs, stakeholder engagement, strategic communications as well as the regulator’s web and digital output.
Priya is a senior veteran in the communications profession with her career spanning many high-profile issues and crisis working across government and politics. She has been named in PR Week’s UK Power Book 2022 (which ranks the top communications professionals in each sector) two years running.
Prior to joining Ofgem, Priya operated at the heart of Whitehall for over 15 years, acquiring a wealth of leadership experience in government communications. Her career began as PR officer for the Royal College of Surgeons of England, moving on to work for government departments including the Department for Transport, the Home Office, the Department for Education and Skills. More recently, Priya was Deputy Director of Communications at the Department for Culture Media and Sports, Deputy Director for Strategic Engagement at BEIS, and Director of Communications at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
View my profilePrior to joining Ofgem as General Counsel in August 2021 Sinead was a Director at the Government Legal Department (GLD) and Legal Adviser at BEIS from January 2019. She jointly headed the Division, mainly leading on energy, intellectual property, science and space. Sinead was also the Champion for Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing at GLD.
Prior to joining GLD Sinead was the Director of Personal Tax and Corporate Services at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs Solicitor’s Office.
Sinead joined government from the independent bar in 2000 and in her early career led on projects such as the Olympic Bid, setting up the UK Border Agency and advising on international criminal matters.