Yorkshire Water appoints Vanda Murray OBE as chair

Yorkshire Water has appointed Vanda Murray OBE to its board as non-executive director and chair designate. She will join the board with effect from 1 July and will take up the role of chair following a handover in the next few months.

She will succeed Anthony Rabin who has been chair since September 2016 and will also become chair of Kelda Holdings Ltd and Kelda Eurobond Co Ltd.

Vanda is non-executive director and chair of Yorkshire-based Marshalls plc and is also senior independent director and chair of the Remuneration Committee at Bunzl plc. She is a non-executive director at Manchester Airports Group, where she chairs the Remuneration and Corporate and Social Responsibility Committees.

Anthony Rabin first joined the board in 2013, becoming Chair in 2016. He had previously been an executive director of Balfour Beatty plc serving as chief financial officer and deputy chief executive.

Commenting on Vanda Murray’s appointment, Anthony said: “We are delighted that Vanda is joining Yorkshire Water as an independent non-executive director and will succeed me as the independent chair of Yorkshire Water. Vanda brings extensive experience of business leadership in a number of different sectors and was an outstanding candidate. She will join us at this critical time, when we are starting to assemble our strategy and plans for the next ten years.

Ray O’Toole, senior independent director, said “On behalf of the board, I’d like to thank Anthony for his leadership, guidance and wisdom through a period which has had some significant political and regulatory challenges and he has helped us to emerge from that period much stronger and with a clear sense of our purpose.”

Vanda said: “This is an important time to be joining Yorkshire Water as we start work with other Yorkshire anchor institutions and with our customers to respond to the challenges of climate change and build region wide resilience. I’m looking forward to working with colleagues throughout the company as we develop our long-term plans.”

In addition, Vanda was also a non-executive director and chair of Fenner PLC until May 2018, non-executive director of Redrow PLC until November 2020 and non-executive director of Aptitude Software Group PLC until July 2016.