Energy giant SSE names new chief executive from inside firm

SSE has appointed a new chief executive after current boss Alistair Phillips-Davies announced his retirement last year.

Martin Pibworth, who is currently the firm’s chief commercial officer, will take over the top job in July, with a nearly £1 million a year starting salary.

It comes after Mr Phillips-Davies oversaw SSE’s exit from the retail energy market in 2019, selling that part of its business to Ovo.

The outgoing chief was also made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the energy industry last year.

Mr Pibworth takes the hotseat as SSE is partway through a £20.5 billion investment plan, which involves connecting an onshore wind farm in Shetland to the UK power grid and building a £4.3 billion sub-sea transmission cable between Peterhead in Scotland to a site in Yorkshire.

Both projects contribute to plans from the Government to ramp up massively clean energy generation on UK soil and in its waters to virtually cut out carbon emissions from the grid by 2030.

SSE is also working on the world’s largest offshore wind farm, the 3.6 gigawatt Dogger Bank scheme, and said it expects to complete the first part of that by the second half of 2025.

Chairman Sir John Manzoni said the new boss is a “proven industry leader, with deep sector experience and a highly strategic outlook”.

“Alistair has been an exceptional chief executive, leading the company’s transition into being the UK and Ireland’s clean energy champion, whilst delivering true and lasting value for all of our stakeholders.”

SSE said the new chief will get a base salary of £970,000 per annum, which will rise to £1.05 million from April next year, while bonuses and share-based incentive payments could see that rise significantly further.