All but one of the top jobs at the UK’s FTSE-listed water companies will be held by women, after the promotion of Louise Beardmore to chief executive at United Utilities.
Beardmore, currently customer service and people director at United Utilities, will succeed Steve Mogford at the top of the FTSE 100 firm. Mogford has spent 12 years leading the company, which services customers in the north-west of England, and plans to step down and retire from the board in early 2023.
Her promotion means that of the six chief executives and chairs leading the three water companies whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange, five will be women.
There are currently just four companies in the FTSE 350 that have both a female chief executive and chair: two of these are the water companies Severn Trent and Pennon. The insurance firms Admiral Group and Direct Line Insurance Group are also led by a female duo.
Severn Trent – which is headquartered in Coventry and supplies customers across a region stretching from the Bristol Channel to the Humber, and from mid-Wales to the east Midlands – is led by Liv Garfield and chaired by Christine Hodgson.
Pennon, which owns South West Water and Bournemouth Water and is a member of the FTSE 250, is led by chief executive Susan Davy and chaired by Gill Rider.
Beardmore will join the United Utilities board at the start of May as CEO designate, and will work with Mogford until his retirement.
She said she was “privileged” to have been asked to lead the organisation which supplies 7 million people in the north-west England.
“I look forward to working with the team to ensure we continue to provide the service and results our customers and stakeholders deserve and expect,” Beardmore said.
United Utilities’ chair, Sir David Higgins, described Beardmore as “the outstanding candidate in a rigorous selection process including internal and external candidates”.
Despite efforts by Britain’s top businesses to promote women and meet gender targets, recent reports have found there are still too few women in senior leadership positions.
The proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards reached an all-time high in late 2021, according to research by Cranfield School of Management, although the report concluded that there were still not enough female chairs, chief executives and chief financial officers.
Fewer than 10% of the CEOs on the top 100 UK companies are women – with just eight of the roles occupied by female executives – although this is the highest figure since female FTSE board reports were first published in 1999.
