Sharon is Director of Sustainability First and since 2017 has established major multi-party projects on fairness, purpose and the public interest in utilities. She is a member of the British Academy’s Public Policy Committee and until March 2021 was a member of the UK Regulators Network Expert Panel.

A qualified accountant, Sharon began her career working on value for money studies at the National Audit Office. With a strong background in consumer issues, she was a board member of the Solicitors Regulation Authority until 2020, a Council member of Which? until 2019 and previously a Trustee and Risk Committee Chair of pension provider NEST, lay member of the Standards Committee of the House of Commons and a board member of Consumer Focus and Energy Watch.

Sharon has been a member of Ofgem’s Network Innovation Competition Expert Panel and the RIIO ‘Challenge Group’.

Sharon was invited to the panel due to her expertise in sustainability and her experience in consumer representation the water sector and other transferable sectors.

Sharon on the most exciting opportunities and key challenges for the Water Sector right now…

“The water sector has a key opportunity to demonstrate what it means to put talk about public value into practice and to connect people and communities with their environments.

The sector is at the forefront of addressing challenges around net zero, climate adaptation and biodiversity on the one hand and the need to ensure services are affordable and resilient on the other.

The potential for transformative change through the use of strategic behavioural change approaches, cross-sector initiatives and new collaborative partnerships – let alone through tech and big data – is significant”