A career following the money back to the asset

Mandate

Support investment, funding and shareholder decisions with an account that respects generating conditions and project obligations.

Outcomes

• Reworked a solar revenue case before construction approval.
• Supported a smaller shareholder distribution after entity-level cash review.
• Completed refinancing with its first-year fees and interest effects disclosed separately.
• Secured temporary liquidity during a delayed storm-claim recovery.
• Commissioned joint dispatch and connection evidence before a storage commitment.

Decisions in context

As CFO I lead twenty-six finance colleagues through four direct reports and work with the chief executive on the capital choices facing the group. My executive directorship began in February 2020, later than the CFO appointment. That distinction matters: presenting an executive recommendation and sharing responsibility as a director are related experiences, but they are not the same appointment or starting date.

The present portfolio comprises eighteen operating assets with 670MW of wind and 430MW of solar capacity. I want the board to understand what those assets can produce, how their commercial arrangements value that output and which cash can be used after project obligations. Recent work includes the solar, distribution, refinancing, storm-recovery and storage decisions described here. Some produced completed financial outcomes; others deliberately left a larger commitment unresolved. I remain accountable for explaining both categories without allowing a deferred decision to be presented as a realised saving.

Reason for the move

Current executive appointment; considering one compatible external board contribution.

Concurrent appointment

Executive directorship began February 2020 alongside the existing CFO role; this is one current board appointment.

Mandate

Make the consolidated account intelligible without losing the conditions attached to individual assets.

Outcomes

• Reconciled project cash forecasts with the parent funding plan.
• Separated production, realised price and contract effects in revenue reviews.
• Created a consistent comparison of refinancing costs and repayment profiles.

Decisions in context

The portfolio role required a different kind of explanation. Individual projects could each have credible accounts while their combined presentation concealed when cash would reach the parent. Wind and solar output also introduced different patterns into the commercial forecast. I worked with asset and commercial colleagues to show how volume, timing and contract terms contributed to the result, rather than allowing a consolidated average to erase the reasons behind it.

My team grew to seventeen, with four direct reports responsible for distinct areas of the portfolio account. I learnt to ask for an explanation that remained useful when the specialist was absent from the room. I also became more involved in investor discussions, while the CFO retained the group role and board responsibility. The promotion in September 2018 followed this broader experience. It required me to own the enterprise recommendation rather than only the financial analysis supporting another executive's decision.

Reason for the move

Appointed CFO after demonstrating responsibility across operating assets, funding and investor reporting.

Mandate

Connect project assumptions, lender requirements and shareholder capital before investment approval.

Outcomes

• Established a common assumptions schedule for development and funding papers.
• Made reserve and distribution conditions visible in project summaries.
• Introduced separate accounts of financing fees and opening interest comparisons.

Decisions in context

Velrane was smaller than the company I had left, but the responsibility was closer to the investment decision I wanted to understand. I worked with development, treasury and legal colleagues on how a generating project would be funded and what conditions accompanied that funding. The project model was a meeting point between disciplines, not a source of authority independent of them. A change in one assumption could affect several parts of the proposal, and my team made those connections explicit.

I became particularly attentive to fees, reserves and conditions on moving cash. They could be technically present in the documents yet almost invisible in a short investment presentation. Bringing them into the main account improved the questions management asked before approaching directors. The subsequent move to portfolio finance widened that responsibility beyond individual transactions and required me to consider how differently financed assets behaved together through an operating year.

Reason for the move

Accepted a wider portfolio remit as solar assets and additional markets entered the business.

Mandate

Give project managers and group finance a consistent account of committed cost and the timing of payments.

Outcomes

• Brought approved capital changes into the project cash forecast.
• Distinguished completed work, certified payment and actual settlement in monthly reviews.
• Developed two accountants into site-facing controller responsibilities.

Decisions in context

Project control made the consequences of timing more visible. A maintenance decision could be technically necessary before its final commercial account was settled. A capital forecast could look unchanged while the timing of certification altered the cash requirement. I worked with project managers to describe both the work and its financial consequences, resisting the temptation to let the accounting timetable define the operating reality.

The six-person finance responsibility was my first sustained experience of developing a team. Two colleagues reported directly to me, and I had to make review responsibilities clear enough that the work did not depend on my personal knowledge of every payment. I also learnt to distinguish a challenge to the financial account from an attempt to overrule engineering judgement. By the end of the period, I wanted to understand how those project realities were represented when funding was arranged, which led me to Velrane.

Reason for the move

Joined a renewable producer to work directly on project funding and investment commitments.

Mandate

Connect bank movements with the timing of generation receipts, operating payments and financing obligations.

Outcomes

• Separated expected receipts from confirmed bank movements in the weekly cash schedule.
• Established a recurring reconciliation with plant accounts colleagues.
• Prepared timing explanations for the treasury manager's funding discussion.

Decisions in context

I joined after completing my degree in June 1992 and began with cash schedules rather than investment presentations. The work required careful reconciliation and a willingness to ask why a receipt had moved. A generation report could explain activity without explaining the payment date, while a financing schedule could create an obligation unrelated to that week's operating result. I learnt to keep those accounts connected without treating them as interchangeable.

I did not negotiate facilities or direct the treasury team. My responsibility was to prepare dependable material for colleagues who held those authorities. Working with plant accountants gradually made me interested in the project beneath the bank movement: its maintenance cycle, contractual terms and capital requirements. The move into financial control gave me a closer view of those relationships and a first opportunity to lead people, rather than simply a larger version of the same analytical task.

Reason for the move

Moved into project control to understand the operating and contractual reasons behind cash movements.