Nuclear Industry Association's PA head joins ambitious Irish energy firm

Simon James_2

Simon James, a three-time Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and well-known face on the lobbying circuit, is moving to ESBI, the ambitious international arm of the Irish Republic’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) as its first dedicated UK lobbyist, Public Affairs News can reveal.
ESBI’s presence in the UK currently comprises two gas-fired developments, as well as wind farms. But the company has created the role of UK stakeholder and government relationships manager to steer its lobbying as it looks to build more than 3,000 megawatts of gas-fired and renewable energy plants by 2020.
James’s final day at the NIA’s St James’s Square offices is 30 July. He will start at ESBI, reporting to UK general manager Martin Read, on 16 August.
The NIA is yet to decide how to replace James permanently. However, comms officer Tris Denton is to become public affairs manager, taking over some of James’s responsibilities with consultant policy adviser Peter Haslam.
Forty-three year-old James, who joined the NIA in 2003 as comms manager, told PAN that the highlight of his time was “the complete reversal of government policy on nuclear new-build”. In particular, he enjoyed “having [former Lib Dem MP] Lembit Öpik appear at one of our fringe meetings to tell the audience that he’d been wrong to be anti-nuclear and the NIA had provided him with the evidence to show him why he was wrong”.
James stood for the Lib Dems at three general elections: 1997 and 2001 in Tooting and 2005 in Spelthorne. Currently a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, he has also stood for the party in the European elections.
ESBI has worked with APCO Worldwide’s London office on a mainly comms brief since 2008, and hired Butler Kelly for a new public affairs brief earlier this year (PAN, May).

30th July 2010 by Ian Hall