OVO has appointed three new senior retail staff members, with Bill Castell joining as chief financial officer (CFO), Charlotte Eaton as chief people officer and Raman Bhatia as chief operating officer (COO).
The appointments follow the completion of OVO’s acquisition of SSE’s GB household energy business, for £500 million earlier this month. This was initially announced in September and approved by the Competition and Markets Authority in December.
The CEO of OVO Retail, Adrian Letts said that the new appointments “all bring a wealth of valuable experience at the start of a significant year for OVO Energy”.
Castell previously worked as acting CFO at Virgin Media, before which he held a number of senior finance and operational leadership roles at Barclays, providing experience working in rapidly expanding business units.
He commented that he was “looking forward to joining OVO Energy”, as the energy sector has a “pivotal” role to play in addressing environmental challenges.
“The recent acquisition of SSE provides the scaled opportunity for the team to bring even more leading technology, products and services to all of our customers’ homes,” Castell added.
Eaton joins OVO from technology provider Arm, where she was VP of people. Crucially, in this role she managed a number of business transformation projects, and developed a “particular expertise in mergers and acquisitions” said OVO.
Eaton said: “I’m excited to join OVO Energy and help bring the team together with a shared vision to use our skills to fight the climate crisis. I can’t wait to get started.”
Bhatia has worked extensively on digital innovation in the finance sector, and is joining OVO Energy as COO responsible for its retail portfolio and the integration of SSE.
He joins OVO from HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management, where he was head of digital bank. As such he has experience developing and commercialising digital platforms and products.
Raman Bhatia said: “A better customer experience, digital solutions and new technology is what OVO is famous for. This is an incredible moment for me to join. I’m really looking forward to working with the teams on a journey to zero carbon living.”
OVO’s acquisition of SSE Energy Services sees the company grow significantly to become the second largest supplier in the UK with five million customers.
Founded in 2009, OVO has grown quickly and saw a flurry of activity in 2019. This included partnering with automotive giant Mitsubishi Motors, investing in clean energy marketplace Renewable Exchange and launching its ‘Plan Zero’, committing to eliminating its customer’s household emissions and fitting flexible, clean energy technologies in all of the homes it supplies.
Last September, the company sought to bolster its tech credentials by hiring David Allison and Rich Jones as technology director and product director.
