Independent oversight group

Jayne is an experienced non-executive director with a particular focus on all aspects of consumer and stakeholder engagement as well as performance management.

Jayne takes on the role of Independent Oversight Group Chair having previously been a member a member of ENWL's Consumer Engagement Group. Previously, Jayne was also a board member with the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (Ofgem) and a panel member with the Competition and Markets Authority, undertaking merger and other regulatory reviews.

Jayne is also currently a non-executive director with Scottish government and Chair of the Private Healthcare Information Network, a not-for-profit company mandated by Government to provide information on the cost and quality of private healthcare.

Jo Lappin is the Chief Executive of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), responsible for Cumbria’s economic and business growth. She was responsible for Cumbria’s economic response and recovery to the pandemic and was a member of Government’s Local Economic Recovery Group, ensuring that the voice of business informed the national response.  

Since her arrival in April 2018, Jo has transformed the performance of Cumbria LEP ensuring that it has become one of the best performing LEPs in the country. Previously, she was the Chief Executive of Northamptonshire LEP and was responsible for developing and delivering its Strategic Economic Plan, which was recognised by Government as ‘one of the best’ nationally.  

As well as sitting on the Independent Oversight Group, Jo is the independent Chair of the Stakeholder Insight advisory panel.

Born and raised in Stockport, Elise Wilson is a Director at Littlewoods Butchers and The Growth Company. She is multilingual and proud of her French heritage.

During her political career as Leader of Stockport Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority Economic Lead, Elise held several influential roles, reflecting her passion for delivering positive change so people can live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Since leaving frontline politics, Elise continues to use her influence and experience as a consultant specialising in partnership working and change leadership. She’s a member of Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority Improvement Board and newly appointed Chair of Electricity NW Economic Growth Panel.

Todd Holden is currently the Energy Policy Lead at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, having worked for over 30 years in organisations that have accelerated the transition to a sustainable, net zero carbon society.

Todd also has a number of advocacy roles in addition to sitting on the Independent Oversight Group. He also chairs our Environment & Sustainability advisory panel and has a complimentary role as a Member of Affinity Waters Independent Challenge Group, which has a similar goal to our IOG, in that it represents the views of customers and stakeholders in the delivery of our business plan commitments as agreed with the regulator.

Jenny Willis has extensive experience working in research, participation and community and stakeholder engagement. She first became involved in the energy sector 15 years ago through supporting the formation of community energy groups and has since worked as a consultant to support stakeholder engagement in several utility companies. Jenny also has expertise in designing and facilitating Citizens' Juries and Assemblies on subjects varying from the development of local mental health services to fracking, air pollution and climate change.  At the heart of this work is championing the voices of citizens in policy making in an inclusive way to benefit effective policy creation and implementation. Based in Cumbria, Jenny values being part of her rural community, with farming keeping her busy in her ‘spare’ time!

As well as sitting on the Independent Oversight Group, Jenny is the independent Chair of Electricity North West’s Consumers in Vulnerable Circumstances advisory panel.

Andrew is the Director of Place for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and manages the Housing, Planning, Infrastructure, Culture, Land and Property and Delivery teams. Andrew joined the GMCA in 2016 and managed a series of Investment Funds focusing on commercial property and housing and was responsible for the implementation of several housing and development investments across Greater Manchester. Andrew also has significant experience in financial structuring and modelling. In his current role, he is a member of Greater Manchester’s Strategic Infrastructure Board and leads the strategic relationship with all the major utility providers across Greater Manchester on behalf of the GMCA, working in partnership with them to support the delivery of the conurbations growth ambitions and the delivery of the outcomes set out within the Greater Manchester Strategy. 

Our Digital Futures advisory panel Chair is Matt Stephenson, Director at Stepthinking Ltd. 

Matt is a seasoned Technology Leader with experience in sectors including B2B, B2C, Retail, e-commerce, insurance, aviation, automotive and big data. His career has taken him from Software Developer, to System Designer and Architect, and into Senior Leadership roles with Moneysupermarket.com, The Hut Group, Manchester Airport Group, Cox Automotive and EMaC.

In 2018, he created Stepthinking Ltd, offering Common Sense, experience-based strategies to clients who share his values of fair play and respect for others. He provides businesses with advisory services that help them get the best out of their technology and their people, in areas such as transformation, delivery, organisation & operating model design and leadership.

Matt has written two Technology Leadership books that reflect some of his values and approaches to pragmatic leadership, and a children’s picture book (illustrated by Sophie Clark) called The Little Cloud that Poured.

In his spare time, he volunteers as a Cub Leader and is the Chair of Governors for his local Primary School.