Stakeholder Engagement Panel Members 2014-15

Agendas, minutes and presentations

Publication date

Industry sector

  • Supply and Retail Market
  • Distribution Network
  • Transmission Network

The Stakeholder Engagement Incentive is intended to encourage network companies to engage effectively with a wide range of stakeholders to inform how they plan and run their businesses. This page holds information in relation to the 2014-15 Stakeholder Engagement Incentive.

Panel Members

Philip Cullum, Partner, Consumer and Demand Insight, Ofgem and Panel Chair

Philip joined Ofgem in September 2011. He leads the Ofgem consumer team which provides policy analysis, research and new thinking on consumer and demand-side issues. As part of this he is responsible for Ofgem’s Consumer First programme. He has advised government on regulation in a range of sectors from financial services to airports.

Philip was previously Deputy Chief Executive of the statutory watchdog Consumer Focus, leading amongst other things its UK policy work, and has had senior roles in two other consumer organisations, the National Consumer Council and Which?. He has also been an Associate Partner at Accenture, responsible for creating new thinking on business trends and corporate strategy, and Executive Director at Opinion Leader Research

Colin Browne

Colin Browne’s career has embraced major communications roles in the public and private sectors, including as Director of Corporate Affairs at the BBC, Director of Corporate Relations at the BBC and a Partner in one of London’s leading public relations consultancies. He continues to provide strategic communications advice to clients in both sectors.

He was previously a non-executive member of Ofcom’s national Communications Consumer Panel and of the Health Development Agency. He is chairman of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer – the consumer body devoted to quality and excellence in broadcasting – and is a non-executive director of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.

Sacha Deshmukh

Sacha Deshmukh is currently Chief Executive of Smart Energy GB, the independent organisation tasked by government to deliver the consumer engagement campaign during the roll-out of smart meters across Great Britain. He is also Vice Chair of Citizens Advice England & Wales, and Chair of War Child UK. Until summer 2012 Sacha was Senior Partner of the Engine Group, one of the UK’s leading advertising agencies, and a non-executive Director of Consumer Futures.

Sacha’s marketing, communications and business expertise will play an important part in getting Great Britain on board with smart meters. This nationwide roll-out is the largest upgrade to our energy infrastructure in a generation. Smart Energy GB will reach out to the more than 53 million households and small businesses across the three nations of Great Britain throughout the roll-out from now to 2020.

Marieke Dwarshuis

Marieke’s career in Scotland spans over 20 years in the public and voluntary sectors in a wide range of management and policy roles including Director of Consumer Focus Scotland and positions at the Scottish Government, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Citizens Advice Scotland and Shelter Scotland. Ms Dwarshuis is currently a member of the Board of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and of the Board of Food Standards Scotland, she is vice-chair of Hillcrest Housing Association Ltd., and she chairs the Scottish Tribunals and Administrative Justice Advisory Committee.

Ashleye Gunn

Ashleye Gunn is an independent consumer policy consultant with over 20 years’ experience advising on consumer markets, most recently as Policy Programme Director at Which?. She has a record of delivering influential investigations and policy proposals across a number of consumer sectors, particularly financial services and energy. These include several super complaints, exposing the systematic miss-selling of payment protection insurance, and the ‘Imbalance of Power’ reports that highlighted consumer detriment across the energy sector.

Ashleye has a particular interest in how increasing genuine, truly effective competition can benefit both consumers and business across markets. Prior to Which? she had an award-winning career as an advertising strategist.

Jessica Lennard

Jessica studied law at Oxford, followed by politics at the LSE. She trained as a solicitor with Linklaters LLP before joining the Conservative Party as a policy and communications advisor on energy. Jessica returned to the private sector shortly before the 2010 Election, where she established and lead the energy lobbying practices of two leading consultancies (Hanover communications and Edelman).

With a broad breadth of industry experience (from upstream exploration and production to generation, retail, manufacturing, clean tech and demand side), Jessica's remit covers policy, regulation, political strategy, communications and reputation. She is now Head of Corporate Affairs at OVO Energy. OVO is a leading challenger brand in the UK energy retail market, and a former client.