Energy and services provider Engie has appointed Nicola Lovett as the new chief executive of its UK and Ireland business, with effect from 1 May.
Lovett has worked at Engie, which employs 17,000 people in the UK and Ireland and generated revenue of £3.6bn last year, since 2013. She most recently served as divisional CEO for its business energy and services division. Prior to this, she held senior positions at both Balfour Beatty and Serco.
She succeeds current CEO Wilfrid Petrie, who will remain with Engie to take up a new position on the group’s executive committee based in Paris. He will also lead the development of the company’s B2B client solutions businesses in France.
The announcement comes as part of wider organisational changes within Engie at group level, as it reinforces its senior management to deliver its global “zero-carbon as a service strategy” outlined in February 2019.
Engie claims to be one of the UK’s biggest providers of regeneration services, refurbishing and upgrading buildings. In 2017, it bought the regeneration business of Keepmoat for £330m, in a bid to combine its experience in the energy sector with an expanded services capability.
Lovett said: “I’m delighted to be taking up the role of Engie’s CEO for UK & Ireland. We have a clearly defined strategy in integrated client solutions and flexible and renewable energy, delivering outcomes for both business and local authority customers that enable them to balance their performance with responsibility. I look forward to helping our customers in the transition towards a more decentralised, increasingly digital, zero carbon economy. Our focus on improving people’s lives through better living and working environments remains unchanged.”
Petrie added: “It has been a great pleasure to be the UK CEO where we have repositioned the business to better serve our customers across our key markets. Nicola will be a strong leader – she has the experience and qualities to lead this organisation through its next phase of growth, continuing to deliver solutions for clients and success for the business.”
