Drax Group’s chief financial officer is retiring after three years at a power generator
- Andy Skelton joined Drax Group as finance boss in January 2019
- During his tenure, the Drax factory in Yorkshire stopped using coal last year
The chief financial officer of power generation company Drax Group is stepping down and retiring from business next year.
Andy Skelton joined Drax as finance boss in January 2019, replacing interim CFO Dan Jones, following a three-year stint at financial markets software developer Fidessa Group.
His appointment came as the company is reducing its use of coal ahead of a national deadline to phase out the highly polluting fossil fuel from the UK energy system.
The Drax power station in North Yorkshire, once the largest coal-fired power station in Western Europe, stopped using coal in 2023, almost fifty years after it started generating power.
Drax is now one of the largest biomass power stations in the world, generating enough electricity to meet around 6 percent of the UK’s energy needs.
However, the company’s environmental performance has come under extensive scrutiny, with green pressure groups claiming Drax is Britain’s largest source of carbon emissions.
Transition: Once Western Europe’s largest coal-fired power station, North Yorkshire’s Drax power station will stop using coal in 2023, almost 50 years after it started generating power
Drax burns millions of tons of wood pellets every year in its power plant, about 80 percent of which are imported from forests in the US and Canada.
The FTSE 250 company has received billions in grants to convert its factory to run on biomass, but dozens of green organisations, including Greenpeace, have called on the UK government to stop providing Drax with public funding.
Skelton said in a statement on Wednesday: “I am choosing to retire from corporate life to spend more time with my family and pursue other personal interests, knowing that we have built a solid foundation from which Drax will develop its strategy.” can perform and continue to develop. opportunities for value creation and growth.
“I look forward to continuing to contribute until 2025 until my successor is appointed.”
Before Fidessa, Skelton worked at Cambridge-based semiconductor company CSR until its acquisition by Qualcomm in the summer of 2015.
He also held senior finance roles at Swedish telecom giant Ericsson, including two years as CFO of Croatian subsidiary Ericsson Nikola Tesla.
Last month, Drax said it expected full-year core profits to reach the high end of market forecasts thanks to high volumes of pellet and biomass production.
Drax CEO Will Gardiner said the group was sad to see Skelton leave “but fully respect his decision to retire from the business, and we wish him all the best for the future.”
He added: ‘Andy has been instrumental in the growth and development of the group, providing a strong financial foundation on which we will continue to build, as well as an experienced finance team.’
Drax Group shares were down 0.6 percent on Wednesday morning at 654.5p, but are up about 48 percent in the past 12 months.
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