RPI - Key Persons
David Gray CBE has spent 30 years working in financial markets, mainly with HSBC, and has extensive experience of the energy sector including advisory roles on the initial privatisations of British Gas and the electricity sector.
David Stewart has held a sequence of leadership roles at Ofcom in relation to enforcement and competition policy. He also worked briefly on secondment as Competition Policy and Markets Director at Monitor, the sector regulator of UK NHS-funded health care services. David was also Director of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Energis and Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs for the international division of Cable & Wireless. He was previously a lawyer in private practice with Gilbert & Tobin and Minter Ellison in Australia.
Dermot Nolan was CEO of Ofgem, the UK energy regulator, from 2014-2020, and also chaired the UK regulatory network (the umbrella organisation encompassing all of Britain's economic regulators). Prior to this, he was Executive Chair of the Irish energy and water regulator. He has also worked in competition policy and telecom regulation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dr Catherine Yarrow took over as the Institute's Executive Director in 2023. She holds a first class degree in Economics and Philosophy from the University of York and completed her PhD at the same institution. She has contributed to the work of the Institute for over a decade, previously holding the roles of Research Associate and Director of Administration.
Dr Christopher Decker has over 20 years' experience as a professional economist during which time he has combined an academic career with practical advisory work for government bodies, regulators and private clients.
Job Titles:
- Head of the Office for Statistics Regulation
Ed Humpherson is head of the Office for Statistics Regulation, the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, and sits on the Authority Board. He joined the Authority in January 2014, and led the creation of OSR in 2016 as a new body to set and enforce standards for UK public data and statistics. Before joining the Authority, he was an Executive Board member of the National Audit Office, responsible for economic affairs. Ed is also a trustee of Pro Bono Economics and Motability.
Professor George Yarrow is one of the founders of the RPI and an Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford University. He is also currently a member of the RPI's Council and of the Board of RPI ANZ.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Senior Research Associate
Gerard Fox is an RPI Director and Senior Research Associate responsible for the RPI Research Programme. He is a former Managing Director of Credit Suisse with over three decades' experience in financial markets, and an East Sussex County Councillor. He Chairs the East Sussex Pension Fund Committee, is a member of the Corporate Programme Advisory Group on Investor Engagement for the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and is a Chapter Zero member. He has interests in renewable energy innovation and hydrogen policy. He graduated in Economics & Politics from Bristol University and has a recent Master's Degree in the Economics & Policy of Energy & the Environment from UCL. He is a member of the UCL Behavioural Economics for the Environment team. A long time investor in the wine business, he is the co-owner of the award-winning Fox & Fox English Sparkling Wine brand. Gerard also sits on the Council of Management.
Hannah Nixon has widespread experience in economics and regulation across a range of industries. She was the first CEO of the Payment Systems Regulator, the economic regulator of the UK's £80 trillion payments industry, responsible for driving competition and innovation in the interests of consumers. Hannah was also a senior partner at Ofgem, where she had responsibility for the networks division. Until recently she was also a NED of the Jersey and Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authorities.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Global Energy Analyst
Harold Hutchinson is global energy analyst, with a focus on renewable energy and energy transformations. He is currently the Managing Director in Alternative Energy at Investec. This follewed 7 years as Head of UK Equity Research. He is a former Lecturer at Hertford College, Oxford where he taught PPE, and a former lecturer in Economics at the University of St. Andrews. He has published several academic papers over the years and is a regular author of the RPI Insights blog. Harold also sits on the Council of Management.
Nicholas is Executive Administration Assistant for the RPI. He is a Master of Physics in Physics with Philosophy from the University of York, and is currently working toward a PhD in Physics and Philosophy from the same institution.
Phillip Davies was founding Chairman of the Regulatory Policy Institute ANZ, and a Council member of the Regulatory Policy Institute in the UK and a Board member of RPI ANZ. Philip holds an MBA from London Business School, a Master's degree in Economics from the College of Europe and a BA(Econ) from the University of Manchester. Philip has extensive leadership experience in the energy and water industries in the UK, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Sebastian Eyre has been employed in a number of senior regulatory roles including Director of Research for JHA, Head of Energy Market Regulation for EDF Energy and GNE. He has worked for Affinity Water as a Senior Economic Consultant and Thames Water as an Economic Regulation Manager. He has degrees from LSE (MSc Econ); Exeter (PhD) in Merger Control and an MBA in finance (Henley) and has published on topics including Competition policy and energy regulation.
Job Titles:
- Council Member
- Member of the Executive Committee
Steve Smith is a Council Member of the RPI. An economist by training, Steve has extensive experience in the energy and financial services industry. He spent more than a decade at Lloyds Banking Group on the Retail Executive Committee overseeing innovation and working with fintechs. Prior to that, he served on the Board on the British Energy regulator Ofgem running both the markets and networks divisions and delivering major industry and regulatory reform. Steve has also been an angel investor in energy startups in the UK.
Job Titles:
- Interim Chair of the Council of Management
Professor Tony Appleyard is Interim Chair of the Council of Management. He is an Emeritus Professor (Accounting and Finance) at the Newcastle University Business School (NUBS) and, pre-retirement, served as the School's Ethics Convener. He was a member of the first Board of the RPI (1991) and has been an active participant in the Institute's work for 25 years thereafter.