Simon Lowth
Background
Simon Lowth was appointed as Finance Director of Scottish Power in May 2006 and is responsible for financial performance and reporting, financing strategy, risk management and for building relationships with shareholders.
Initially Simon joined in 2003 as Director of Corporate Strategy and he then took over as Executive Director, Finance and Strategy.
He has a strong background in strategic consultancy and was formerly a director with McKinsey and Company and led its UK industrial practice, serving clients in the energy and utilities, manufacturing and transport sectors.
He holds an MA in Engineering from Cambridge University and an MBA from London Business School.[2]
Restructuring the company
Mr. Lowth was involved with Charles Miller Smith and former chief executive Ian Russell in the decision to restructure Scottish Power in September of 2005. This meeting resulted in getting rid of two top executives - David Nish and Charles Berry. Along with these sackings, the human resources director, Mike Pittman, and the communications chief, Dominic Fry were dismissed as well. The explanation given referred to when Scottish Power announced the £5.1 billion sale of its giant US business PacifiCorp to the world-famous entrepreneur Warren Buffet. PacifiCorp was responsible for two-thirds of Scottish Power's valuation, which meant that the company would become much smaller when the deal went through. The idea of the restructuring was to slim down the group - stripping out the four directors in the process - preparing it for life as a smaller, independent, predominantly UK-based utility. However, it was not mentioned that the group's smaller size was what had attracted E.ON's attention or that the downsizing was threatening the independence of one of Scotland's biggest companies. To this day, the company has yet to publicly link the two events - despite the asking of questions in parliament. Later that same day, E.ON confirmed that it was considering its options regarding a possible takeover of Scottish Power. [3]
Notes
- ^ Photograph from Scottish PowerMeet the Team, Simon Lowth, accessed 21 March 2007.
- ^ Team Member History from Scottish PowerMeet the Team, Simon Lowth, accessed 21 March 2007.
- ^ Company restructuring from The Scotsman "Battle to keep ScottishPower in Scotland" Top Stories, accessed 19 April 2007.
