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UTILITY WEEK | 25TH NOVEMBER - 1ST DECEMBER 2016 | 7 Interview S ue Amies-King does not have her own office – an unusual trait for the chief executive of a sizeable utility company. Instead, she sits alongside her personal assistant on the same desk as her comms team. As she shows Utility Week into the newly built offices of Water Plus in Stoke-on-Trent, she is greeted by two fresh- faced account managers, who address her more like a friend than a boss. "There are a lot of hugely positive people who have chosen to work here, all of them really excited about being in water, many of them in water for the first time so they're particularly keen to do a good job. It gives me a real buzz because I feel really proud of what we've done," she says, beaming. Water Plus, like its offices, is new. In March, two of the UK's largest water companies, United Utilities (UU) and Severn Trent, announced they would join forces and combine their non-household customers to create an entirely new and separate business – the largest in the market. Amies-King, then business retail director at UU, was chosen to lead the new joint venture, completing the "trilogy" of utility market deregulations she has been involved with. "I was an account manager when the elec- tricity market opened up, and when it extended into the smaller businesses, I'd risen through to be head of retail. I was right at the beginning of that market, right at the beginning of the gas market, and now right at the begin- ning of the water market." Water was not a sector Amies-King had envisaged joining when she le insurance firm Aviva. Aer ten years in insurance, a move into banking seemed like the obvious next step. But when she was approached by UU about a job in water, and met with chief executive Steve Mogford, she was hooked. "He is a very engaging, forward-thinking guy. I decided water was exciting and I thought Steve was a great person to work for. Although I didn't know much about UU at that stage, I was sold." In June 2012, when she joined the large, Warrington- based water company, market opening seemed like a world away, but it is creeping up quickly. "It has been anything but quiet, it has been really busy and interest- ing," says Amies-King. "And now here we are with full competition almost upon us. I want to get on with it now, I'm excited about it. It feels like it's been a long time coming." One of the main drivers for the UU/Severn Trent tie- up was the small margins available in water, which has come up as a concern for many in Amies-King's position. Although she wasn't involved in the early transaction, she says the two companies, probably individually, con- cluded that having scale and aligned ambitions meant it would be a good opportunity to come together. "UU and Severn Trent both have very forward-thinking boards,