Representatives from National Grid and Northern Powergrid have been recognised for their contributions to the UK energy industry in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list.
National Grid’s Cordi O’Hara and Northern Powergrid’s Rod Gardner both received OBEs, while SSE’s former director of distribution performance Chandra Trikha received an MBE following his retirement from the energy firm last year.
Cordi O’Hara headed up National Grid’s UK System Operator function until last year – a role she had held since late 2015 – before moving onto become president and COO at National Grid’s US-facing arm in 2017.
National Grid took to Twitter to congratulate O’Hara on her honour.
Northern Powergrid head of network operations Rod Gardner also received an OBE for his services to energy resilience, having worked at the distribution network operator for more than 30 years.
Gardner became one of Northern Powergrid’s first system operations managers after rising through the firm’s engineering ranks and Northern Powergrid described the integral role he played in combining its Northeast and Yorkshire licenses in 2001.
Nick Gill, operations director at Northern Powergrid, congratulated Gardner on the “superb recognition” of his work in the energy industry.
“Rod’s ability to lead his teams and engage with our key industry partners when it comes to tackling energy sector resilience means he is highly respected by colleagues both in and outside of our business. Rod is also a positive role model of how someone can rise through our business and contribute every step of the way.
“As well as being our Head of Network Operations and major incident manager, he also currently represents Northern Powergrid nationally on a number of strategic national groups. His OBE recognises the continued valuable contribution Rod brings to the industry and our company.”
