OGA announces the appointment of two new non-executive directors

The board of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) announces the appointment of two new non-executive directors.

Mr Iain Lanaghan will join the board at the end of April 2020 and Dr Sarah Deasley will join the board in October 2020 following the retirement of Mr Robert Armour at the end of September.

Commenting on the two appointments, the OGA's Chairman Tim Eggar said: “I am delighted to welcome Iain and Sarah to the board, they bring with them outstanding experience and the balance of skills that we need to continue to support the UK’s oil and gas industry at this crucial time in its history.”

“The COVID pandemic, the global oil price fall, and the need to help solve the climate crisis presents the Industry with a combination of unprecedented challenges.  The OGA is committed to doing everything we can to assist the industry, the supply chain, the government and the wider community at this extraordinarily difficult time.”

Mr Iain Lanaghan is a Chartered Accountant who holds an MA in Economics and Accounting from the University of Edinburgh. He is currently a non-executive director of Scottish Water and the UK Government’s Defence Equipment & Support agency (DE&S). Following an early career in audit and consultancy, he undertook senior finance roles in a number of FTSE companies including serving as Group Finance Director for FirstGroup PLC and as CFO of PowerGen  International. He was also CFO at Faroe Petroleum PLC. Iain’s NED and advisory experience is extensive, and includes a range of companies involved in the energy sector (Cabot Energy PLC, CO2DeepStore and Blaze Manufacturing Solutions).

Dr Sarah Deasley is a Director of Frontier Economics, one of Europe’s largest economics consultancies, where she focuses predominantly on the energy sector. She is also a trustee of Sustainability First. Sarah holds economics degrees at three levels, having been awarded a PhD from Imperial College, an MSc from the University of Warwick and a BCom from the University of Birmingham. Prior to joining Frontier Economics, Sarah worked for PwC and the Office of Electricity Regulation (now OFGEM). Sarah brings a wealth of experience of the energy sector, including its regulatory processes and the opportunities presented by the challenge to achieve net zero in the UK by 2050.