Rate-regulated Activities Technical Advisory Group

Rob is Group Financial Controller of Severn Trent Plc and Chief Financial Officer of its regulated water and wastewater subsidiary, Hafren Dyfrdwy Cyfyngedig. As Group Financial Controller he has responsibility for the group’s statutory and regulatory financial reporting and tax compliance.

He is a Chartered Accountant and prior to joining Severn Trent, he worked in the audit practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Birmingham, Dubai and Leicester during which time he gained extensive experience of financial reporting.

Outside Severn Trent, Rob chairs the Water UK Group Financial Controllers’ Forum and is a Patron of the UK100 Group Financial Controllers’ Forum.

Rebecca is Tax Controller at Wales & West Utilities, a regulated gas distribution network which transports gas to the homes and businesses of 7.5 million customers throughout Wales and the south west of England. In addition to her reporting and compliance responsibilities for tax, as leader of the revenue and pricing team she is also responsible for regulatory finance submissions to Ofgem alongside her technical accounting role. She has extensive experience of financial, tax and regulatory reporting.

Rebecca is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor; and prior to joining Wales & West Utilities spent 10 years working at Deloitte in Cardiff.

Nick Battisson is Director, Group Financial Control at NATS, the UK’s leading air traffic control provider. He is responsible for the group’s statutory and regulatory reporting and leads the accounting, tax and transaction processing teams.

Nick has held a range of finance roles at NATS across group accounting and commercial finance, bringing broad experience of financial reporting, governance and operational finance. Before joining NATS, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Smith & Williamson, where he trained as an external auditor.

Simon Davie is Head of Controllership & Accounting Policy at SSE plc, a UK energy company that operates electricity transmission and distribution networks. During his time at SSE, Simon has led teams focused on technical accounting and the preparation of SSE plc’s consolidated financial statements. Simon is a Chartered Accountant and trained with KPMG, working in Aberdeen, London and Copenhagen as an external auditor, mainly with clients in the energy sector.

John Earwaker is an economist who has 30 years of experience working as an adviser to companies, investors, regulators and government in the regulated sectors of the economy. He currently works for the economic consultancy First Economics. His expertise comes principally from his past and ongoing involvement in the price reviews that take place in the UK’s aviation, communications, energy, rail and water sectors.

William Gardiner is the Group Reporting Manager at Anglian Water, a water company serving 7 million customers across the UK. He is an ACA qualified Accountant with over 10 years' experience in Audit and Financial Reporting. In his role he is responsible for external reporting, both Statutory and Regulatory, and for providing advice to the wider finance team, as well as industry, on technical accounting matters. 

Claire Howells is a UK Chartered accountant with over 25 years’ experience of auditing and providing technical advice to corporate entities. She works in PwC’s Corporate Reporting Services group, based in London, and has spent the last 10 years providing technical advice and support to energy, utilities and mining groups. Her role as a member of PwC's global rate-regulated working group and other industry groups means Claire has a good understanding of the current financial reporting challenges faced by a number of rate-regulated entities, in the water industry, in particular, and across the wider energy network.

Dean Lockhart is a partner within EY’s Financial Reporting Group, which he joined in 2011. He provides advice and support to the audit practice on IFRS and UK GAAP, specialising in intangible assets, impairment and leases. He is one of the authors of EY’s International GAAP and UK GAAP publications. Dean’s role within EY includes performing pre-issuance technical reviews of the financial statements of EY’s listed clients in utilities, extractive industries, manufacturing, engineering and retail, including clients in the FTSE 100. Prior to joining EY’s Financial Reporting Group, Dean worked in EY’s audit practice from 2004. His audit engagements included entities in a wide range of industries including utilities, technology, automotive, manufacturing and facilities management. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Kelly Martin is a Partner in KPMG’s Accounting Advisory Services. She leads the firm’s accounting advice for the Energy and Natural Resources sector including its support for companies responding to the IASB’s Exposure Draft Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities. With over 10 years of accounting advisory experience, Kelly has supported UK companies through significant accounting change including UK GAAP, revenue and leases. Originally Australian, Kelly has made the UK home and is passionate about accounting and its role in making the UK a thriving financial centre globally.

Douglas Ness is Finance Director for SP Energy Networks, with responsibility across the company's electricity transmission and distribution businesses. He plays a key role in supporting the delivery of major network investment programmes and ensuring robust financial governance and reporting within a highly regulated environment.

Douglas is a Chartered Accountant and has held a number of senior finance leadership roles within ScottishPower with extensive experience in financial reporting, regulatory finance, governance, risk management and stakeholder engagement. He has served as a Trustee of the ScottishPower Pension Scheme and participates in a number of industry forums focused on accounting, reporting and regulatory developments.

Prior to joining ScottishPower, he worked in the audit practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Glasgow.

James Sawyer is the Head of Financial Reporting, Systems and Controls at Thames Water where he is responsible for the Record to Report process, external financial reporting, and the associated control environment. He has over 15 years’ experience

in accounting and finance, having started his career in audit with EY before progressing through senior finance roles in the software and utilities sectors. His expertise spans technical accounting, financial controllership, performance management, and finance transformation. He has also collaborated extensively with sustainability teams on green bond frameworks, natural capital assessments, ESG disclosures, and TCFD reporting.

Rebecca Vass is the Head of Group External Reporting at National Grid, which has principal activities relating to the transmission and distribution of electricity in Great Britain and of electricity and gas in northeastern US. Before joining National Grid, Rebecca was the Chief Accountant at Sun Life Financial, a Canadian financial services company. Rebecca qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, working in their Milton Keynes, London and Toronto offices in external audit, and accounting advisory roles, assisting companies with the adoption of IFRS, and application of new and complex accounting standards. 

Sam Vaughan heads up the External Reporting team at United Utilities Group PLC, the UK’s largest listed water and wastewater company. In this role he is responsible for production of the group’s financial statements in accordance with IFRS, and leads on technical accounting matters including the implementation of new accounting standards and interpretations. Sam plays a key role in the group’s work on regulatory assets and regulatory liabilities, coordinating between the finance and regulation teams, and has previously also been a member of the EFRAG Rate-regulated Activities Working Group. Sam has over 15 years of audit and accounting experience, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant within EY’s audit practice prior to joining United Utilities