As families worry about their energy bills this Christmas, one group will have no such anxieties: the bosses of failed energy companies who waltzed off with millions. They have gone on to a variety of ventures and new careers since overseeing firms that left thousands of customers in the lurch.
Some, having made their fortunes, grace the halls of academia. One is a visiting fellow at Oxford University and another is studying for a PhD at Cambridge as well as advising an oat milk maker.
Others have decided to stay in the commercial world, running firms involved in everything from green building materials to giant batteries.
Under an ill-fated drive to increase competition in the energy market, a myriad of small suppliers – often with inexperienced bosses at the helm and little capital – were allowed to tout for custom.
At least 73 suppliers entered the market between 2010 and early 2012. It all went horribly wrong two years ago when energy prices went through the roof and it became clear that many business models were extremely vulnerable.
Shattered: Under a drive to increase competition in the energy market, a myriad of small suppliers – often with inexperienced bosses and little capital – were allowed to tout for custom
Bulb was the biggest of a wave of companies that went under in late 2021 and early 2022. According to the Public Accounts Committee, £3 billion of taxpayer funds are committed to funding it and there is a further £2.7 billion estimated shortfall for 28 suppliers which failed before Bulb.
The pressure has eased since then, with prices of natural gas, against which all UK energy costs are based, around 86 per cent lower than their peak in August last year.
Since the start of 2021, 32 suppliers went into bankruptcy, according to data from Citizens Advice. At the time of writing, 22 suppliers remain, with most of the customers from bust firms having been hoovered up by the Big Six suppliers, British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Ovo Energy, Octopus and Scottish Power.
So, where are the bosses of some of these failed firms now?
Bulb
RUNNING GREEN COMPANIES
Founders: Hayden Wood and Amit Gudka
Customers: 1.7 million
Pocketed: £8.5 million
Hayden Wood, 40, a consultant, set up Bulb in 2015 with Amit Gudka, 39, a former Barclays energy trader and DJ.
The company grew rapidly to become one of the UK’s biggest suppliers. But a failure to hedge against movements in energy prices hit the company hard.
Wood and Gudka are reported to have made more than £8.5 million between them through sales of shares in the business.
Wood admitted that he was paid a £250,000 annual salary by the taxpayer after the firm collapsed because he remained as chief executive until it was bought by rival Octopus last December.
He recently founded Beams, which aims to make housebuilding and renovations more environmentally friendly. Gudka runs a battery storage firm called Field which in July received a £200 million cash injection from DIF, owned by private equity group CVC.
Pure Planet
STUDYING FOR PHD
Founders: Steven Day, Andrew Ralston and Chris Alliott
Customers: 235,000
Pocketed: £30 million
Two telecoms executives, Steven Day, 56, and Andrew Ralston, 61 joined forces with ex-financial analyst Chris Alliott, 51 to create Pure Planet in 2015.
The business collapsed six years later, despite being part-owned by energy supermajor BP. Its customers were later taken on by Shell Energy.
The co-founders were estimated in March to be in line for payouts of over £10 million each due to a £43.7 million surplus at the firm when it went into administration.
Day is studying for a PhD on the ‘real-world impacts of sustainability-educated graduates’ at Robinson College, Cambridge. He is also an advisor to MYOM, an oat milk company based in St Albans, as well as computer design group Factory 42.
On social media platform LinkedIn, Ralston describes himself as a clean tech energy and telecoms ‘advisor’ but he provides no further details.
The trio may be setting up shop together again. In May this year, a management consultancy firm called Equidria was created on Companies House.
The business lists Day, Ralston and Alliott as shareholders in its founding document.
People’s Energy
FELLOW AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Founders: Karin Sode and David Pike
Customers: 350,000
Pocketed: £50 million
Married couple Karin Sode, 53, and David Pike, 59, set up Edinburgh-based People’s Energy through a crowdfunding campaign in 2017, in which they pledged to tackle fuel poverty in the UK. Customers of their failed venture were later taken on by British Gas.
Sode and Pike, who owned 25 per cent of the company, are in line to walk off with around £50 million. Since People’s Energy went bust, Sode has worked several jobs.
A communications expert, she spent eight months last year as a managing director at YSC Consulting, part of Accenture.
She is a visiting fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University and also works as a non-executive director at Social Enterprise UK, a lobbying group.
Pike, a trained engineer, appears to have tried to branch out into retail. Last year, he was tweeting about Ethibuy, an online shopping site dubbed ‘the ethical alternative to Amazon’.
This website no longer appears to work.
Avro Energy
IN BUSINESS WITH DAD
Founder: Jake Brown
Customers: 580,000
Pocketed: £4.3 million
Former non-league football player Jake Brown, 29, was a curious figure to set up an energy company. Despite apparently having no background in the industry, he founded Leicestershire-based Avro with a family loan in 2016.
Its customers were later rescued by Octopus Energy.
Brown earned an estimated £4.3 million from the firm.
He is still listed as a director at Sentido Marketing, which he controls with his father Philip.
Sentido funnelled more than £4 million from Avro through ‘management charges’ before it went bust. The company’s accounts are listed as overdue.
Jake and Philip are also still running Berkeley Swiss, a property development firm, which published accounts a few months ago.
In the results for the year to September 2022, Berkeley reported that it had received £757,000 in loans from Sentido, taking its outstanding balance to £2.9m.
Together Energy
RUNS CONSULTANCY FIRM
Founder: Paul Richards
Customers: 176,000
Pocketed: Share of £1 million
Former British Gas worker Paul Richards, 41, who says his mum used to send him to bed early to save money on electricity, set up Together Energy in 2016.
The group was backed by Warrington Council.
Its clients were taken on by British Gas when it went under. Richards enjoyed a slice of at least £1 million in salary payments.
Since Together went bust, Richards has set up Clyde Ventures, a Glasgow-based consulting business that markets itself as ‘specialists in education, integration, consulting and production.’ Interestingly, his time at Together is not mentioned in his biography on the firm’s website, merely saying he has worked ‘extensively’ in the energy, water and property markets.
Which is a different tone to the man who previously said he was ‘capable of exceeding the achievements of some of the UK’s biggest household brands’.
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