Jon Bird, Associate

Jon was Head of Sustainability with Northern Powergrid until March 2014, prior to which he was Head of Government Relations for 14 years. He was also a long-standing member of the CBI’s energy policy committee and the CBI’s northeast regional council. Earlier in his career, he spent 8 years with BNFL as Head of Government Relations, and almost 20 years with the civil service at a senior level, including in the Department of Energy, HM Treasury and the DTI, during which time he worked on nationalised industry policy, energy research and development and the privatisation of the gas and electricity industries. He has a first-class degree in mathematics from Cambridge University and a doctorate in theoretical physics. His current interests are in how regulation and price competition in electricity needs to adapt to the needs and opportunities of the smart energy world. He is a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of Newcastle and a Fellow of the Energy Institute.