National Grid is delivering major electricity infrastructure upgrades across the UK to support renewable energy integration, network resilience and the transition to Net Zero.
National Grid is a leading energy infrastructure company, responsible for operating and developing the electricity transmission network across England and Wales. As part of the Great Grid Upgrade, National Grid is delivering a series of major infrastructure projects designed to support the UK’s transition to renewable energy and Net Zero targets.
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National Grid retained our services to appoint a Project Director to lead the development phase of the PSNC (North South Circuit) project in Wales. This programme will enhance transmission capacity between North and South Wales, supporting renewable energy connections and energy resilience across the UK.
The role required an experienced infrastructure leader capable of managing a programme through development, stakeholder engagement and planning phases, with responsibility for progressing the scheme towards Development Consent Order approval and future construction delivery.
National Grid sought candidates with experience across major infrastructure environments such as energy, utilities, rail or other regulated sectors, alongside strong leadership, stakeholder management and programme delivery capability.
Our search focused on identifying candidates with experience delivering complex infrastructure programmes within highly regulated and stakeholder-sensitive environments.
We mapped talent across major infrastructure clients, programme delivery consultancies and Tier 1 contractors involved in energy, transport, and utilities projects. This included targeted research into organisations delivering nationally significant infrastructure schemes across the UK.
We developed an extensive Boolean search string focused on key words relating to the development phase of a project to help us identify candidates with the required technical expertise. This was combined with searches across industry news outlets, conferences and events, and social media platforms.
All shortlisted candidates were assessed through competency-based interviews, with detailed reporting provided to National Grid on their experience, leadership capability and overall suitability for the role.
A key challenge within the assignment was the limited talent pool of individuals with experience leading major infrastructure programmes through the development and consenting phase, who were also within a commutable distance to Wales. We addressed this by targeting candidates from adjacent sectors and ensuring that our consultants focused on the long-term significance and impact of the PSNC programme as a compelling reason to join.
From a longlist of 86, we presented a shortlist of five candidates. The shortlist was diverse in background, where three of five shortlisted candidates were women.
The successful candidate joined from a major highways asset owner where she held the position of Delivery Director. She brought 19 years of experience delivering major infrastructure programmes across both client-side organisations and project delivery partners. She demonstrated the strategic leadership, stakeholder management and programme delivery capability required to support the successful development of the PSNC project and National Grid’s wider energy transition objectives.
