Senior Leadership Team

Andrew Hockey

Chief Executive Officer

Andrew Hockey has four decades of experience, latterly having held numerous directorships and CEO roles across the energy sector.

Andrew has worked in the UK and internationally with European majors Petrofina and ENI and with US and UK independents Triton, Monument and Lasmo.

Until the end of 2021 Andrew was a Non-Executive Director at UK oil and gas exploration and production company, Fairfield Energy, which he co-founded in 2005 and helped to transition to a decommissioning company in 2016.

Most recently Andrew was CEO at IOG plc, a low carbon footprint gas developer and operator in the UK Southern North Sea.

Andrew was attracted to the ECITB by the challenge of ensuring the UK has an engineering workforce capable of delivering the energy transition and ultimately delivering Net Zero, which will have to be built.

He is a Non-Executive Director at Chariot, where he was instrumental in the board’s decision to change strategy from being an oil and gas explorer into a company pursuing transitional gas, power and green hydrogen projects across Africa.

Andy Brown

Chief Operating Officer

Andy has been in engineering since 1982 when he joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraft technician.

During his career Andy developed technical training and competence schemes before leading an engineering training school.

He joined the ECITB in 2006 and became Director of Operations in 2013. He briefly took on the role of Interim Chief Executive for the ECITB in 2023 until Andrew Hockey joined later that year.

As Chief Operating Officer he is responsible for the Operations Team which includes our Relationship Management Team and the development of skills, new entrant and competency programmes and qualifications.

David Nash

Director of Strategy and Policy

David Nash is Director of Strategy and Policy at the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB). He is responsible for strategy, policy development, communications and strategic engagement.

He also oversees the ECITB’s research and impact practice.

Prior to joining the ECITB, David worked as a senior policy advisor at the Federation of Small Businesses where he led on labour markets, infrastructure and regional development, a Research Fellow at the IPPR and in local government.

David has an MA in Contemporary European Politics and a BA Hons in French and History.

He is also Chair of Trustees for Torfaen Leisure Trust.

Jenny Young

Deputy Director of Strategy and Policy

Jenny is currently on a sabbatical and is due to return December 2024.  Please contact David Nash in her absence.

Maria Papadopoulou

Board Secretary & Data Protection Officer

Maria Papadopoulou has a legal background with a Master of Laws in Commercial and Corporate Law. Prior to joining the ECITB Maria worked as an Operations & Compliance Consultant at a Management & Executive Search company.

Maria joined the ECITB in 2016 and became Board Secretary and a member of the Senior Leadership team in 2019.

Maria’s team provides core support services and controls in governance and board secretariat, levy governance, procurement compliance, legal issues, contractual relations, data protection, risk management and project governance.

Rory Blyth

Director of Finance and Business Services

Rory is a Chartered Accountant with a career in PwC and major retail and hospitality FTSE 100s. He is also Treasurer on the board of Costa Coffee’s corporate charity, the Costa Foundation.

Rory leads the Finance and Business Services directorate which provides core support services and controls across finance and accounts, investment management, human resources, information technology, head office infrastructure and commercial development in the UK and across South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa.