New Chair appointed for South East Water

South East Water has appointed Chris Train OBE as a new independent non-executive director and Chair. Chris Train will succeed Nick Salmon as independent Chair on 1 April.

Chris has extensive experience in the utilities industry having been Chief Executive Officer of Cadent Gas Limited and is at present Executive and Senior Adviser at CT Energy. Chris is an experienced Executive and Board Director and is currently Non-Executive Chair of Clean Power Hydrogen and a Non-Executive Director of The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

He said: “It’s a great time to join the company as we are planning for the new five year investment period with a strong ambition to further improve customer satisfaction levels, resilience and environmental outcomes.”

Nick Salmon joined the Board as Chairman in April 2015 and is stepping down as Chair as part of the regular renewal of independent non-executive directors on the Board.

Another change to the Board of South East Water is the arrival of Mark McArdle from H.R.L. Morrison & Co as the UTA shareholder representative, replacing Rachel Drew who will remain a director of HDF (UK) Holdings Ltd, the group’s ultimate parent company in the UK.

David Hinton, South East Water’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “On behalf of the company I would like to welcome Chris and Mark to the team and thank Nick and Rachel for their valuable guidance and support.”

“We are looking forward to working with Chris and Mark as we continue to focus on our customer, societal and environmental priorities.”