Ofwat chair Cox joins board of energy supplier OVO

The chairman of Britain's water regulator is joining OVO Energy, the latest entrant to the handful of companies which dominate the gas and electricity sector.

<p>Sky News understands that Jonson Cox is becoming a non-executive director of a board formed soon after OVO Group acquired SSE's residential energy business in January.</p><p>Mr Cox's appointment will be announced on Wednesday, according to a source close to the company.</p><p>The recruitment of the Ofwat chairman will add one of the UK's most experienced infrastructure and utility executives to OVO Energy's board.</p><p>He will also bring crucial regulatory experience to the company during a period when energy suppliers are under intense scrutiny from industry watchdogs.</p><p>In January, OVO was fined nearly £9m by Ofgem for issuing inaccurate statements to half a million customers between 2015 and 2018.</p><p>Mr Cox has run two of Britain's biggest water companies - Yorkshire Water and the owner of Anglian Water Services - and has chaired Ofwat since 2012.</p><p>He is also a senior adviser to the infrastructure fund I Squared Capital.</p><p>The new OVO Energy board, which is chaired by former Harvey Nichols boss Stacey Cartwright, encompasses customer-facing brands including the Boost, Spark and CORGI Homeplan operations.</p><p>The takeover of SSE's business saw its customer base soar to more than five million households, bolstering OVO founder Stephen Fitzpatrick's ambition of using industry-leading technology to power large volumes of customers in Britain and abroad.</p><p>Mr Fitzpatrick, who founded OVO a decade ago and had a brief stint as a Formula One team-owner, has set a string of ambitious goals reflecting the growing environmental pressure on the energy industry.</p><p>Last year, he sold a 20% stake in the energy group to Mitsubishi, the Japanese industrial titan, for £220m, while Mayfair Equity Partners also owns a minority stake.</p><p>Other fast-growing players in the sector include Octopus Energy, which has also sold a big stake to overseas investors in recent months.</p><p>OVO declined to comment on Tuesday.</p>