Veteran electricity industry figure Rod Gardner has joined Sunderland‑headquartered OnPath Energy as head of health, safety, security and environment, overseeing standards across all operational and planned generation sites as well as head office activities.

Gardner arrives after more than four decades with Northern PowerGrid. He began his career in 1984 as a YTS trainee at the then North East Electricity Board, completed an apprenticeship, qualified as an engineer and progressed through a succession of roles across the North East and Yorkshire, both in the field and in control centres.

Over the years, he has led multiple Northern PowerGrid teams, including serving for over a decade as head of network operations, running the operational technology function and, most recently, acting as head of operational performance improvement, a business‑wide remit.

In 2017, Gardner was part of the leadership team that devised and delivered infrastructure recovery plans for the British Virgin Islands following Hurricane Irma, and he was deployed in the initial response. He has also worked regularly with the sector's lead government department (DESNZ) on electricity policy and received an OBE for services to the electricity industry in 2019.

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Rod Gardner, head of health, safety, security and environment at OnPath Energy, said: "This new role not only gives me the chance to share some of the experience that I've built up through my career, but also to keep learning from an excellent team that's bringing forward some really exciting green energy projects."

Rod Gardner says: "I've always been motivated by making a difference and being involved with lots of different aspects of OnPath's future development will enable me to do just that."

OnPath Energy currently operates 12 onshore wind farms across Scotland and England. Construction is under way at three additional green energy sites, with several further projects expected to progress over the next 12 months.

Andy Bilclough, grid and operations director at OnPath Energy, adds: "Rod has a phenomenal range of expertise and experience from a career that has seen him successfully delivering some enormous and extremely complex projects."

"Bringing this degree of knowledge into the business can only be beneficial for the whole OnPath team and we're extremely pleased that he's chosen to join us after such a distinguished career with Northern PowerGrid."

OnPath Energy is a leading UK renewables developer with over 20 years' experience delivering complex renewable infrastructure. It was acquired in 2023 by Brookfield Asset Management and operates within its Global Transition Fund II, the world's largest fund series dedicated to accelerating the transition to net zero.