BRING ENERGY

Company background

Bring Energy creates and manages sustainable city-scale heating and cooling networks across the UK.
 
Combining global expertise with years of experience managing some of the country’s largest and most complex networks, the business is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for decarbonised energy solutions. Supporting the UK Government’s ambitious targets for decarbonisation and energy security, Bring Energy is expanding its footprint, growing and enhancing existing projects while pioneering new networks across cities nationwide.
 
Established in 2023 as an independent entity, Bring Energy was carved out from Equans’ ‘District Heating and Cooling’ business, with backing from Swiss Life Asset Managers and Schroders Greencoat. The business is poised for further growth, with a clear focus on transforming urban infrastructure to meet future energy needs.

The brief

The investors required the appointment of a new CEO to complete the transition from Equans, building a high-performance culture and establishing accountability. This leader would drive the growth strategy, unifying the team around a comprehensive 5-year growth plan to align with shareholder ambitions.
 
The successful candidate would be a proven CEO/MD with a track record of transforming and scaling a complex, technology-driven Private Equity-backed infrastructure business. A smart, commercially astute leader with effective communication skills was required – someone capable of engaging with a broad range of stakeholders including investors, politicians, executives and operatives. Additionally, they would have a deep understanding and appreciation of customer partnership and retention strategies, as well as experience of successfully driving ESG initiatives and meeting decarbonisation targets.

The process

Through a relationship with Ann Kenny, NED at Bring Energy and CFO at private equity firm LDC, Directorbank’s Simon Thomas and Ben Gilbert were invited to pitch for the search and won the mandate.

Through comprehensive market mapping, a data-driven approach, and leveraging Directorbank’s network, Simon and Ben identified over 70 potential candidates. From this pool, 29 were approached and five put through a rigorous interview, assessment and psychometric testing process. Paul O’Neil was successfully selected for the role and joined Bring Energy in October 2025.

The result

With a diverse and impressive career trajectory, Paul brings a wealth of highly relevant experience to the role.
 
Starting as an engineer at Rolls Royce, Paul worked across multiple business units before moving into global General Manager and MD roles in Aerospace, MRO and Defence sectors. His expertise in large-scale infrastructure transformation was further demonstrated during his tenure at Arriva, where he played an instrumental role in a major transformation and decarbonisation project. More recently he was President, Europe of Bodycote plc, the world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist metallurgical technologies.