Pennon Lures City Grandee Parker As New Chair

One of the UK's biggest publicly listed water companies has lured Sir John Parker, the architect of a new push to improve boardroom diversity, as its new chairman‎.

Sky News has learnt that Pennon Group, which owns South West Water and Viridor, the waste-recycling company, will announce Sir John‎'s appointment on Friday.

The news is likely to be well-received by shareholders in Pennon, which sits just outside the FTSE-100 index with a market capitalisation of £3.25bn.

Sir John, who also chairs Anglo American‎, the much larger mining group, recently stepped down as the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

A veteran of City boardrooms, his previous roles include the chairmanship of P&O, the ports and ferries operator which was sold nearly a de‎cade ago to a Dubai-based company.

Sir ‎John has sat on the boards of many of Britain's most important industrial groups, including British Coal, BG, Brambles and National Grid‎.

More recently, he has worked with Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, on an initiative aimed ‎at boosting ethnic diversity in company boardrooms.

His appointment at Pennon will see Sir John succeed Ken Harvey, who has chaired the group since 1997 - an unusually long stint for a public company chairman.

Pennon is one of only three UK water companies now listed on the London Stock Exchange following a flurry of takeovers involving rivals such as Thames Water and Northumbrian.

South West Water struck a deal last year with Ofwat, the industry regulator‎, to cover its spending plans until the end of the decade.

The company froze prices last year, which impacted half-year profits, although the water business fared better than Viridor, which was affected by landfill charges and falling recycling prices.

Pennon could not be reached for comment on Thursday.