A message from Fintan Slye - Changes to our leadership team

Director Fintan Slye outlines changes to the ESO’s leadership team

I’m delighted to announce that Isabelle Haigh will be taking up the role of Head of National Control on a full-time basis from Spring 2021, replacing Roisin Quinn.  

Isabelle joined National Grid after graduating in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and has held a variety of senior leadership roles across electricity and gas. Early in her career she was the first female power system engineer in Birmingham Grid Control and managed a programme to build a new control centre (Transmission Network Control Centre). Moving to more commercial roles, Isabelle has recently led Gas Transmission’s ‘Richmond’ transformation programme and  heads up Gas Transmission’s Plant Operations that manages the pipelines, compressors and terminals that make up the National Gas Transmission system. 

As ESO Head of National Control she will be accountable for the real-time operation of Great Britain’s electricity system and the systems and processes that support it – playing a key role in our ambition to able to operate the grid at zero carbon by 2025. I look forward to welcoming her into the team next year. 

Roisin Quinn is moving to a role within the National Grid Group and will be leaving the ESO in Spring next year. In order to avoid any conflicts of interest in advance of taking up her new role, and in accordance with licence requirements around legal separation, Ro will be stepping down as Head of National Control and as a member of the ESO Executive Team immediately. She will continue to work on some specific (non-conflicted) projects in the ESO until she leaves next year.  

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ro for her dedication and commitment to the ESO over the past 15 years.  She has held many roles, including Capacity Market Design Manager, Head of Energy Strategy and Policy and, most recently, Head of National Control, and through all of this has played a leading role in shaping the ESO, and indeed the wider industry.   

These are exciting times and a period of incredible progress in the energy industry. I’d like to congratulate Isabelle and Ro on their new roles and wish Rob and Jools all the best in their new positions.

I’m pleased to say that Rob Rome will take up the role of Head of National Control on an interim basis.  Rob has over 20 years’ experience working with electricity generation, supply and network companies and has held a number of senior leadership roles across Transmission, Trading, Risk, Strategy and Policy & Regulation. His most recent experience at the ESO was overseeing Performance Transformation & Control Systems in National Control, and has previously been responsible for Electricity Trading, Energy and Demand Forecasting and the optimisation of the ESO’s system operations costs.   

I’m also delighted to share that Julian Leslie will take on the role of ESO Chief Engineer, replacing Roisin Quinn. Jools has worked at National Grid for 28 years in a number of senior leadership roles and is both a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. Following a period as ESO Head of National Control he is now Head of Networks, where he is responsible for a technical and economic assessment of possible future investments in the transmission system. He is also responsible for leading the ESO ambition to be able to operate the GB power system at zero carbon by 2025. As Chief Engineer he will help to spotlight the engineering expertise across the ESO and attract a new generation of talent. 

These are exciting times and a period of incredible progress in the energy industry. I’d like to congratulate Isabelle and Ro on their new roles and wish Rob and Jools all the best in their new positions.