Mike, a Chartered Civil Engineer by profession, is a monitor, and former Director, of the Considerate Constructors Scheme and Managing Direction of a construction management consultancy business. Mike holds non executive positions at the House of Commons chairing a Construction Safety Assurance panel for Strategic Estate and a member of the Parliamentary Safety Assurance Board. He is also a non executive board member of the Curo Group, a Somerset based Housing Association. 

He has held executive and non-executive board positions within construction, housing and healthcare organisations. 

Christoph currently holds the position of Director Market Integration at Nord Pool where he manages the regulatory affairs of the power exchange across the UK and Ireland markets.

Christoph began his career in the energy sector in 2013 and has worked across energy retail, smart metering, and networks in both programme and policy roles in the UK and in Brussels. During his time at Ofgem, he was responsible for refining the approach to stakeholder management for the RIIO-ED2 price controls; at Ofgem he also advised the Office of Low Emission Vehicles on policy development for supporting national uptake of electric vehicles.

Matthew Lipson is Business Leader for Consumer Insight at the Energy Systems Catapult. He helps bring industry, academia and Government together to accelerate the development of new technology-based products and services in the energy sector. Matthew has spent the last 20 years working with Universities and businesses for DECC, the Committee on Climate Change, the Energy Technologies Institute and Orange (amongst others) to design energy policies and commercial propositions that people love. He is now applying his experience to help others design delightful, intuitive low carbon product and service experiences.

Doug has his own business and is active in the consultancy, deer management and tourism sector. He is also a Non-Executive Director of several boards, private and public, including Cairngorms National Park Authority, Wild Scotland which he chairs and Countryside Learning Scotland. Previously Doug was the CEO of Scottish Land & Estates for over ten years where he represented landowners and rural businesses across Scotland. Prior to that, Doug worked in the commercial sector in UK utilities with Thames Water and internationally in the aviation sector with Cathay Pacific Airways.

Doug also sits as a member of the SSEN Transmission Network for Net Zero group. 

Helen Froud is an ordained Salvation Army Officer who leads the work of the church and charity in Inverness where she works with a wide variety of vulnerable people in the city. Helen sits on the OFCOM Communications Consumer Panel. Helen is also an experienced Non-Executive Director and a former Local Authority Deputy Chief Executive and is qualified in Human Resources Management. 

She is a former Board member of One Parent Families Scotland and previously held ministerial appointments on the boards of the Health Protection Agency and the National Records of Scotland. Helen has worked for Nationwide Building Society, KPMG and has run her own business whilst raising her family in the Outer Hebrides. 

Rachel is Chief Sustainability Officer for SSE. Rachel works with SSE's businesses to identify and articulate SSE's social, economic and environmental impacts. Areas of responsibility include SSE's corporate social responsibility programmes and stakeholder and media communications for its wholesale businesses. 

Rachel is also a Non-Executive Director of SSEN. 

Fayza is a policy professional and non-practising lawyer. She is Head of Environment at Ofwat, where she works with government, regulators, water companies and environmental stakeholders to address the challenges faced by the water sector: from climate change and biodiversity loss, to pollution and customer behaviour change. Fayza has a background in developing regulatory strategy and policy in the legal services and healthcare sectors. Prior to that, Fayza was a barrister specialising in criminal and regulatory law.

Formed in 2017, the Inclusive Service Panels (ISP) challenge thinking and provide innovative suggestions and practical ideas to ensure we continue to deliver progressive, inclusive and accessible  services to all our customers.

The ISP’s are made up of two strands  - an external panel of experts with experience and knowledge of matters relating to equality, consumer vulnerability, diversity and inclusion.  Panels members work in tandem with our internal panel  made up of passionate  individuals from across SSEN Distribution, many of whom deliver our frontline services.

Both panels  are chaired by Trisha McAuley OBE, who brings over 20 years’ experience as a successful senior leader in consumer policy with a track record of high level, impactful and influential stakeholder engagement across a range of sectors.  Trisha replaced Richard Shakespeare, who remains as an external panel member. 

In 2021, we refreshed the ISP’s terms of reference expanding its scope to include action on removing inequalities in the uptake of low carbon technologies and putting fuel poverty front and centre of all discussions.

Trisha McAuley is an experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair, with experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Trisha's background is in consumer affairs. For over twenty years, until 2014, she was a senior executive in UK and Scottish consumer organisations. She is widely recognised as a national consumer expert and was awarded an OBE for services to consumer affairs in 2015. She has been an influential public policy leader, working effectively with parliaments, governments, regulators, business and public services at strategic level.

In the past six years, Trisha has developed a successful non-executive and board portfolio. She brings a particular, and influential, Board dynamic, offering significant experience of how organisations in all sectors can release value through understanding customers, consumers and citizens.

Richard Shakespeare is an award winning Diversity and Inclusion Practitioner. Having worked closely with many high profile brands across the UK and Europe, Richard brings a wealth of experience to the inclusive Service panel. Having lived with a physical disability since birth Richard is passionate about improving accessibility and inclusivity for all. Richard has worked with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks since 2015, having served on the Inclusive Service Panel since its inception. Outside of his work with SSEN, Richard leads the diversity and inclusion agenda within an international organisation. 

Rajnish Kashyap is an Experienced speaker on Diversity & Inclusion, particularly specialising in the Hindu faith. Rajnish consults and advises to both local and national government as an advisor-representative for the Hindu faith in the UK advising on how to best respond to the impact of COVID-19 on Hindu establishments and faiths.  As the General Secretary of the Hindu Council UK which is the largest Hindu umbrella organisation in the UK providing a voice for the Hindi community to local and national government, Rajnish advised on the organisations strategic development and acts as an ambassador for the organisation with leading figures in government, private industry and development agencies. Rajnish is also incredibly experience in the profession of credit management, having worked in the industry for 35 years. 

Anne McWhinnie, works for Alzheimer Scotland as the Dementia Friendly Scotland Lead. Anne has worked for Alzheimer Scotland for 16 years and have been fortunate to have had a variety of roles within the organisation. Anne is very passionate about ensuring that society understands and recognises how they can support people living with dementia in business and in their communities.

Anne’s current role is managing, delivering, and developing their Dementia Friends Initiative, which is a Social Action Movement with the aim to build Dementia Friendly Scotland. Dementia Friends is about learning a little bit about Dementia and turn that understanding into action.

Henry Field is an HR professional living in Cardiff, Wales. He uses his HR and Recruitment experience to bring unique perspectives to the external panel, using his lived experience to offer advice around LGBT+ issues, and those with neurodiverse disabilities. Henry uses his sales, marketing and recruitment experience to offer ideas and support on reaching large volumes of individuals, raising awareness of the Priority Service Register. When not supporting the external inclusive service panel, Henry is currently studying his Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management, and is responsible for the recruitment function of a national facilities management business. 

Meetings take place 3 times per year and are aligned to the core objectives of our consumer vulnerability strategy which can be found here.