Our people

Before joining Electricity North West, I worked in private companies within procurement and international sales. All my previous roles involved aspects of translation and communicating in French as English is not my first language. Even though I’ve lived in England for the past 25 years, I can sometimes misunderstand local sayings so please feel free to help me any time.

I started working here at the start of the pandemic, and my experience has been positive from day one. My welcome was warm with colleagues going out of their way to help me settle in and begin the process of understanding what we do, our culture and our place in the electricity industry.

The training, openness and support of colleagues gave me the confidence to consider and apply for my current role which involves providing day-to-day support to our operations director and their leadership team.

The other side of my role involves working closely with our internal communications team and coordinating engagement activities across our region.

The level of support and work flexibility that is readily available to all colleagues together with the informal advice and help that colleagues provide to each other is outstanding and I have had no regrets about joining this company.

I’m also proud to be a trained mental wellbeing champion and I’m available to support my colleagues if they need it. I lost a very close family member to a mental health condition and I can’t help wondering if I could’ve helped them seek lifesaving support with the knowledge I’ve now gained as a mental wellbeing champion. Mental health doesn’t just affect the person living with it but their loved ones too. I’m grateful to Electricity North West for helping me get a better understanding of mental wellbeing.

Matt James

Hi, I'm Matt. I started at Electricity North West as a higher-level apprentice and now I'm a design assistant. I'm currently working on a programme to identify and replace over 700 pole-mounted transformers (PMTs) in the south of our region that may contain contaminated oil. It’s a legal requirement for us to replace any which are contaminated by December 2025. We’re working with the other distribution network operators to collectively verify which transformers do and do not need replacing so we can best utilise our resources to achieve this.

I'm a Muslim and I find that colleagues are very accepting of this.

Steph Cowell

Hi, I’m Steph. I’m a streetworks coordinator at Electricity North West. I live in Preston with my husband and two children.

I've been with the company for almost seven years and have worked in our streetworks team for the last four. My role is diverse and ranges from speaking to councils about ongoing work or any issues that are happening out in public, to dealing with compliance issues on site, defects and raising permits for our fault work. I enjoy interacting with the different teams and departments in the business and with our external stakeholders.

I’m currently the lead for our accessibility colleague-led resource group (CRG). I’ve had arthritis for the past 15 years and had a hip replacement two years ago. I’ve always found my colleagues and leaders very supportive and accepting. I’m very proud to lead the CRG group and I'm passionate about creating an environment where we can provide support and advice for all colleagues, and to make our workplace accessible for all.

Dave Phoenix

I am currently employed at Electricity North West and work from our Blackburn depot, in the Central Oil Reprocessing Department (CORD) as lead operator.

We provide transformer insulation oil to the company; this could be direct to substations as part of a transformer maintenance or repair, or to various depots to fixed storage areas to enable fitters to empty and replenish their oil vans. All the oil that we supply is reprocessed at our Blackburn site ready for redistribution. We also have the ability to regenerate oil that’s in a transformer by attaching a processing plant and cleaning through a closed system.

I've worked for Electricity North West now for five years since leaving the Army and found it has sometimes been a challenge to alter my way of life. This has been made easier due to similarities in structure and the support from colleagues and senior management. There's also the great welfare and benefits package that's accessible to everyone and covers all aspects from mental health and wellbeing, to discounts with large retail providers. Electricity North West is a company where the ethos of working hard and reaping the benefits still exists, to the point that you know that something you have done can help hundreds, if not thousands of people.

I'm one of many mental wellbeing champions in the company who are available for colleagues to speak to if they're suffering from some form of mental health issue, or just feeling a little below par. It's a very worthwhile and rewarding role which gives colleagues the ability to address any issues without having to contact a third-party provider. It's a role that I've previously benefitted from myself and feel that I can give back to others now, using this experience. Unfortunately, there is still a stigma of ‘man up’ and this helps no one, apart from creating a culture of hiding things so as not to be seen as weak. Hopefully we can break this cycle, and more people will benefit from our help.  

Louise Law

Hi, my name’s Louise and I work as a health & safety advisor in Electricity North West’s safety, health and environment team.

I joined the company in March 2022 following a full career in the British Army. As part of my resettlement and transition into civilian life I completed a qualification with the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) to complement the health & safety qualifications I gained during my service.

As a safety advisor I provide support to colleagues on general safety enquiries and help with incident investigations. As a team we aim to develop a proactive attitude to safety, health and environmental matters by advising and encouraging a positive safety culture across the organisation.

Adapting to civilian life can be a challenging time for ex-forces people but the support I’ve received from my colleagues here has made the transition so much smoother. Being an ex-soldier means I have operated in many challenging environments and have transferrable skills which will help me in my role here, such as adaptability and working effectively in a team.

David Jones

Hello. My name’s David Jones and I’m a project controller working on our south area capital programme. I’ve been working for Electricity North West since 2010.

My role is to maintain accurate project data for the entire portfolio of projects undertaken by the Peak area capital engineering team from initiation through to construction and project closedown.

My role requires me to be proactive and take responsibility for gathering information from our planning and construction engineers, then collating this on our corporate systems. I provide updates to colleagues across the business on the performance of the capital programme.

I enjoy my role because I get to meet lots of people including engineers and commercial and contract managers to ensure the smooth running of the capital programme. I get the most satisfaction from working together to resolve risks and working on solutions to make sure that our business commitments are achieved.

I have dyslexia, which primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent reading and spelling. This means I struggle with basic spelling and grammar, so I use the tools available in Microsoft to help me and I also write in a very factual manner, so I use as few words as possible.

I’ve always been open about my dyslexia and this has never been an issue with my colleagues who I sometimes ask to spell words out for me. But names of places can catch most people out!

Lisa Sumner

Hi – I’m Lisa and I’m a project manager for Electricity North West. My role involves the preparation of plans and estimates for projects in our capital programme, taking them through to full approval and seeing them through construction on site, managing scope and costs and updating forecast spend on a monthly basis.

A big part of my role is stakeholder engagement. I meet with councils, Highways England, police, developers, local businesses and members of the public as well as internal Electricity North West stakeholders to help make sure our projects are completed successfully.

What I enjoy about my job is the variety. Although the replacement of assets sounds repetitive, no scheme is the same and I enjoy the challenge. I get to work with people from various teams and enjoy the interaction and support that we give to each other to ensure we succeed even in the most challenging circumstances. There’s a great mix of personalities in the business and I like the pride and commitment we all share, no matter what our differences are.

I also like the flexible working arrangements the company provides. Being able to split my time between the office, home and site and being able to work flexible hours is very important to me to help with childcare and other caring responsibilities (my mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s). It enables me to enjoy a good work/life balance and I appreciate the support given by the company.