Women in power - Katherine

Group director of ethics and compliance

I’m Katherine and, since I joined SSE in 1995, I’ve seen the company grow enormously, becoming a highly focused business leading the transition to Net Zero. I did a History degree at Edinburgh, then joined Oddbins, the wine merchants, and ended up as a branch manager in Perth. One of my customers at the time told me that Hydro-Electric - as it was then – was looking for graduates with commercial experience and after quite a rigorous selection process I got the job. 

Originally, I joined the Regulation team, and spent my first year and a half looking at the rules that would underpin the opening up of the gas market to competition. I became a gas expert and worked on a confidential project to buy a gas supplier. After that, I was seconded to our Energy Trading business - then we had a big demand for gas for our power stations, and the commercial arrangements were very important to us. I sat on industry panels and spent a lot of time in airports, but it was an enjoyable and influential role which delivered a lot of changes, many of which are still in place today. Then, following a merger with Southern Electric, we suddenly had domestic gas customers, and a different perspective. I continued in the role, which saw me chairing industry committees and being the youngest and first female member of the Board of the Association of Electricity Producers (now Energy UK). 

I went on maternity leave in 2003 and job shared for a while on my return, working on a project which ended up with us buying Scotia Gas Networks, developing more new gas industry arrangements and which provided a different perspective on commercial work for me. I had my second child and, when I returned, I took an opportunity to go back into the Regulation team – taking on responsibility for retail issues. Our involvement in the market compared with when I started was significant as we now had millions of domestic customers. The regulatory role kept growing. I had a great boss who supported me in my career, and, as the role expanded, I worked closely with the Corporate Affairs and retail business teams on issues like fuel poverty and smart metering, ultimately adding wholesale regulatory issues to my portfolio.

In 2014, I led the CMA energy market investigation multi-disciplinary project team for two years. This was a high-profile project which saw me working with an amazing internal and external team and I learned a huge amount during that period.  I then became Director of Regulation, with new responsibilities for networks regulation and energy economics to get to grips with. Following a further internal restructure in 2019, I was appointed as Director of Markets Regulation and Group Compliance, and, in September 2023 I took on the role I am doing today. 

SSE has supported my career through a great management team and bosses, and sponsored me to do a Masters in Leadership Practice at Napier. I’ve learned a lot here. I’m really proud – and a wee bit jealous – of the support we now give women (and men) in terms of maternity leave and return to work policies, flexible working and personal development support.  However, I’ve very much been part of influencing that in SSE through the years, and have championed diversity, equality, inclusion and ensuring that our values and culture embrace difference. 

We have more females in senior roles then we have ever had, within our businesses, our corporate functions and right up to GEC and Board level. I think we have a really flexible, empowering approach that helps to bring out the best in people.

We’re a friendly, family type of organisation and we need to keep bringing in, developing and retaining new talent. We can’t stand still. New people bring a new perspective and are welcomed here. It’s somewhere you can make a difference. 

"I’m really proud – and a bit jealous – of the support we now give women...but I’ve been part of influencing that through the years, and have championed diversity, equality and inclusion."

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