Eurelectric’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the nomination of Pat O’Doherty, CEO of ESB, as President of Eurelectric until the next Board of Directors’ meeting on 20 May 2021.
Mr O’Doherty was appointed Chief Executive of ESB in 2011, and became a member of the ESB Board in 2013. Previously to this, he headed each of ESB’s main businesses as Executive Director of ESB International, Managing Director of ESB Networks Ltd. and Executive Director of ESB Power Generation. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Engineering from University College Dublin (UCD) and completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.
As for the purpose, Eurelectric’s target is to make the European electricity industry carbon-neutral by 2045. He believes that:
“electricity becomes a hugely transformative force and will be the catalyst for a low-carbon world.”
Moreover, decarbonised electricity will lead to the transformation of the transport and heating sectors significantly cutting their carbon emissions.
Some of Mr O’Doherty’s priorities for his term will be the ambitious reviewed Commission’s target of reducing the emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, the extension of the scope of the EU Emissions Trading System, the review of the targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency, the CO2 standards for cars, as well as the review of the infrastructure TEN-E regulation.