Rich joined CGI in 2007 working across its “digital” utilities offerings. He has over 30 years’ experience in the utilities sector, covering areas including competitive energy markets, energy services and smart meter and smart grid strategy.
Rich is at the forefront of market change and innovation in the utilities sector, supporting CGI’s distribution clients with the delivery of leading innovation projects and scaling successful, innovative digital solutions for application in business as usual operation, enabling the DSO transition.
He is active in the leadership of a number of industry associations, including being the chair of the techUK’s Energy and Utilities Board and a member of the Smart Infrastructure and Systems Advisory Council. Rich contributed to the Energy Data Taskforce and Energy Digitalisation Taskforce and was part of the Open Energy Advisory Group. Rich is also a member of the Council of the Digital Policy Alliance and was a member of the implementation board for the recommendations of a government review of energy efficiency policy, where he chaired the Data Ethics group and the finance sub-group. He is on the industrial advisory panels of two universities and recently acted as the industrial supervisor for a PhD on the energy transition.
Rich is a regular speaker at utility events and has authored numerous papers on the role of digital technologies in the energy transition. These include Beyond Smart – Generating the demand-side flexibility opportunity for British energy white paper, which was cited in the Climate Change Committee report on ‘Behaviour change, public engagement and net zero’; and the ever popular DSO for Dummies and Energy Flexibility For Dummies books. Rich is also the driving force behind CGI’s research on energy flexibility in collaboration with Utility Week.
Rich is a professional engineer by background and has spent his career working with organisations to implement transformation. Outside work, Rich is passionate about sport and coaches rugby. Fortunately, those activities involve his children!
