Ofgem Chairman Designate Named

The UK government has named Martin Cave as its preferred candidate to be the new chair of Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem, succeeding David Gray on October 1. Ofgem CEO Dermot Nolan remains in place.

The June 25 news comes days after Andrew Tyrie, the former chair of parliament’s Treasury select committee, took up his role as chair of another regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Cave, an economist and professor, has undertaken several roles in government. As part of the CMA’s 2016 review of the energy market, he wrote a dissenting opinion, saying that the report’s proposed reforms did not go far enough and that a temporary price cap was needed to protect consumers from unfair energy price rises. The latter eventually became government policy. The post of Ofgem chair is subject to a pre-appointment hearing by parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee on July 3.

Lynne Embleton and Ann Robinson have also been confirmed as new non-executive Ofgem directors, the former from the aviation industry, the latter from the retail and consumer regulatory sectors.