About
Gridworks Development Partners LLP (Gridworks) is a pioneering project development and investment platform which invests in critical power infrastructure as a developer, long-term owner and partner to governments, utilities, and companies in Transmission and Distribution (T&D) and off-grid electricity networks in Africa. Gridworks was established in 2019 and is wholly owned by British International Investment plc (BII), the UK’s Development Finance Institution DFI) and impact investor.
The Gridworks Board provides strategic oversight of the business, with responsibility for governance, risk and supporting its commercial and developmental objectives. As several long-serving directors approached retirement, Gridworks engaged Millar Cameron on a rolling mandate to refresh the Board and bring in complementary expertise.
The challenge
Rather than recruiting for a single appointment, Gridworks initially engaged Millar Cameron to address two priorities: appointing an African female director and securing expertise in power project development across Africa. As the Board’s requirements evolved, the mandate expanded to three appointments over a 12-month period.
The first requirement was for a Non-Executive Director with an understanding of the transmission and distribution industry; experience in Africa was desirable but not essential. Six months later, Gridworks sought a second Non-Executive Director with a track record of developing power projects in Africa and Board-level experience working with private equity firms, local investors and other stakeholders. A third priority centred on diversity, with a particular focus on appointing an African woman with experience in the power sector or wider infrastructure.
The search was particularly complex given the relatively small number of investors operating in Africa’s transmission and distribution sector, which limited the pool of professionals with direct industry experience and a proven track record. The pool of African women combining power-sector expertise with Non-Executive Director experience was even narrower.
Our approach
Given the overlap between the three requirements, we ran the searches as a single connected process over the 12-month period: mapping the small pool of professionals with industry experience in transmission and distribution across Africa and international markets, then extending this to power project developers with Board level experience.
For the diversity mandate, we drew on our long-standing relationships across the African power and infrastructure sector to identify senior women with relevant sector expertise.
Our 17+ years of experience across African and energy infrastructure markets, combined with deep networks across the industry and Non-Executive Director community, gave us access to a targeted pool of senior candidates.
The outcome
Over 12 months, Millar Cameron delivered three Non-Executive Director appointments to the Gridworks Board: a candidate combining international utility experience with nine years working directly in African markets, a power project developer with over three decades of experience across Africa and Board level exposure to private equity and local investors, and an African woman bringing power and infrastructure sector expertise alongside existing NED experience on the board of a major African mining company.
Together, the three appointments demonstrate a track record across both executive and non-executive search, a long-term relationship with Gridworks, and the ability to access international talent with relevant African experience alongside strong female NEDs and senior power sector professionals with direct African project development experience.
.jpg?noresize)
