United States
AustraliaMeet our Executive Committee
Our Executive Committee has a wealth of industry experience and capabilities. Together they are responsible for developing and implementing the strategy which delivers a market-leading service for our customers and meets shareholder expectations and future ambitions.
The strength of the senior leadership team is regularly reviewed to ensure we have the right mix of skills to meet our objectives.
Hiroyuki Sawada: Executive Chairman
Hiroyuki is responsible for chairing the Board and providing effective leadership to the Board in the governance of SmartestEnergy and being an executive member of the senior leadership team to sit on the SmartestEnergy’s Executive Committee and maintain appropriate oversight of management and corporate governance practice.
He began his business career at Marubeni Corporation Japan in 1987 and thereafter performed a number of roles in the energy related industry. He joined SmartesEnergy in 2007 as Deputy Vice President Finance, later became and performed the roles of Vice President Risk Management and Chief Operating Officer until he retuned back to Marubeni Corporation in 2014 as the General Manager overseeing all the power related business activities in the European region. In 2016 he was assigned to Marubeni Europower Limited UK as President and CEO responsible for all the development activities for the investment into power assets in Europe. In April 2020, he has returned back to SmartestEnergy as Executive Chairman. Over 13 years from when he joined SmartestEnregy first time, he kept assuming the responsibility of the board director of SmatestEnergy, which makes him one of the most experienced and knowledgeable employees about the SmartestEnergy’s business.
He graduated from Keio University in Japan with a Bachelor of Economics in 1987.
Robert Groves: Chief Executive Officer
Robert is responsible for the management of SmartestEnergy’s 3.2GW of aggregated generation capacity from distribution-connected generators, as well as the supply of electricity to large business consumers.
Robert began his energy career with Enron in 1997 and held senior commercial positions at EDF Trading and BHP Billiton, before joining SmartestEnergy in 2004 as Vice President Commercial. He became Chief Operating Officer in 2006 and was then appointed Chief Executive in 2011.
A former submarine engineer in the Royal Navy and Chartered Engineer, Robert has an MBA from London Business School, a BEng(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and a Diploma in Nuclear Technology and Engineering.
Takafumi Shigemura: Chief Operating Officer
Takafumi Shigemura joined Marubeni Corporation in 2007 as Foreign Exchange & Financial Products Dept. and became General Manager of Power Generation Development Team in Domestic Power development department in 2013. He has 8 years of experience in IPP business in Japan, especially covering the renewable sectors: hydro, on-shore wind, off-shore wind, solar, biomass and geo-thermal, and also working for thermal power.
He then joined SmartestEnergy in April 2017 as Deputy Chief Commercial Officer, before becoming Chief Operating Officer in April 2019. In this role he has responsibility across functions including sales & marketing, trading, risk management, customer services, finance and HR.
He graduated from the Gakushuin University, with a Bachelor of Management (Economics) in 1996 and has over 10 years of experience in financial trading and the investment sector in Japan. He has worked in Marubeni Corporation for over 10 years.
Louise Wapshare: Vice President Supply
Louise is responsible for all operations activities related to SmartestEnergy’s sales strategy.
Louise joined SmartestEnergy as VP Finance in 2016 from Centrica where she had performed a number of roles, the most recent being Head of Finance for British Gas Home Repairs where key achievements had included successful delivery of a £2.8m accounting IT change project.
She began her career at London-based Brebner, Allen & Trapp after graduating in Accountancy and Economics from Reading University. Louise is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Certified Accountants and of the Chartered Institute of Management.
James Graham: Vice President Sales
James joined SmartestEnergy in 2012 as a Business Development Manager after more than a decade’s experience working in the energy sector and later became Head of Direct Sales.
In his current role he is responsible for all commercial activities and sales strategy and manages commercial teams across business development, account management, commercial and marketing.
His career in the energy industry has seen him hold senior roles with companies including Reactive Technologies and Bergen Energi.
Rob Pringle: Chief Technology Officer
Rob joined SmartestEnergy in 2019 and has global responsibilities for all aspects of for technology-enabled change and day-to-day IT operations for the organisation. He has over 25 years’ experience in the energy industry across a range of business areas including trading, risk management, energy retail and high availability IT infrastructures and services.
Prior to joining Smartest, Rob was with Shell’s New Energies division working on technology solutions to optimise small scale power assets. Rob has also held senior leadership roles at Gazprom Marketing & Trading (Director of Global IT) and Centrica Energy (Head of Architecture). He has been active in a number industry association initiatives and was a co-founder of the European Energy Trading CIO Forum.
A graduate from Aston University, Rob holds a BSc in Business Administration and Computer Science and joined British Gas on graduation having been spent a year with them on industrial placement and being awarded a bursary.
Goula Charalambous: Vice President Human Resources
Goula is responsible for the coordination of all Human Resources related activity within SmartestEnergy.
Having been employed in Human Resources for over 15 years, Goula has held positions in the Information Technology, Finance and Energy Sectors.
Experienced in delivering robust strategies, policies, procedures and systems, Goula ensures SmartestEnergy retains a skilled and motivated workforce to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive market place.