UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) appoints Non-executive Directors

Sir Patrick Brown, Chairman of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), has confirmed the appointment of three Non-Executive Directors to the OGA Board.

Mary Hardy, Non-Executive Director and Chair OGA Audit and Risk Committee

Mary trained and became an audit partner at Ernst and Young before moving in-house, eventually becoming Group Audit Director for Diageo; Director of Internal Audit for Transport for London, and then Head of Risk Assurance at LOCOG, until 2013. Mary is currently a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Royal Navy and chairs its audit committee and a non-executive member of both the Ministry of Defence and the HM Treasury Audit Committees. She was until recently a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Internal Audit Committee and was a member of the Finance and Audit committees of the Royal College of Nursing from 1994-2006, latterly as Chair of the Audit Committee.

Frances Morris-Jones, Non-Executive Director

Frances has over 30 years’ experience in the energy sector, largely in international oil and gas. She started her career in BP, holding a series of senior roles before moving to a global business development leadership role in ConocoPhillips, and then becoming Executive Director for an independent shale exploration company. During this period she was a Non-Executive Director of Det Norske Veritas (now DNV-GL). Recently she has taken on several non-executive roles in the public sector: she is a member of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee of BSI Group and a Governor of the University of Portsmouth, where she sits on the Audit and Quality Committee and Ethics Committee. She is also a Trustee of Anti-Slavery International and of Public Concern at Work, and is an independent Consulting Director at Lyndon Energy.

Robert Armour, Non-Executive Director

Robert is a solicitor with 30 years’ experience in the energy sector, starting in private practice before becoming General Counsel at Scottish Nuclear and British Energy Group plc. He is currently Deputy Chair of NuGen, Chair of Smarter Grid Solutions and Non-Executive Director of Albion Community Power plc and The Nuclear Liabilities Fund and Senior Counsel at Gowlings UK LLP. He was formerly Chair of Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) and the Scottish Government’s Expert Commission on Energy Regulation.

Sir Patrick Brown said:

I am delighted to welcome Mary, Frances and Robert to the OGA Board. They bring a wealth of experience to the OGA at a critical time in its development and will assist me in supporting the executive leadership team.

The OGA became an Executive Agency of the Department for Energy and Climate Change on 1 April 2015. It is expected to become a government-owned company in summer 2016, subject to the passage of the Energy Bill through Parliament.