Building a Fairer Energy Transition

Susan Robson MBE: shaping culture in engineering and energy

On Next Time Around, Lauren and I spoke with Susan Robson MBE, CEO of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). Before taking on that role, she spent two decades at National Grid in risk, investment, and leadership positions, and was named by the Financial Times as one of its Top 100 Future Female Leaders. She was awarded an MBE for services to energy.

Susan’s career path is unusual in that it looks accidental on the surface — she didn’t set out to be an engineer — but purposeful in how she used each opportunity to create change. That mix gave her a rare vantage point: understanding the scale of the energy transition, but also the cultural and social shifts needed to make it possible.

An unplanned path with purpose

Susan spoke about not planning her career in a straight line. She entered consulting, then moved into energy, and found herself at National Grid. What began as a step into a large organisation turned into a long-term career shaping risk and investment.

What came through was how much of a career is about openness to opportunity — and then about how you use your platform. Susan could have stayed in her lane at Grid. Instead, she got involved in the early diversity networks, mentored colleagues, and pushed to change how talent was recruited and supported.

That commitment to culture-building is what eventually took her to WES. She described it as a chance to step outside one company and shape the sector more broadly.

What National Grid’s culture shift showed

We spoke about what she saw at National Grid during her tenure. The company had always been technically strong, but cautious, bound by regulation and risk frameworks. Over time, it began to open up — recognising that the future grid would look very different, and that innovation was not optional.

That shift mirrors what’s happening across the sector. You can’t manage the coming transition with the culture of the past. The Grid she described in later years was more dynamic, more outward-looking, more willing to take risks on new models. For her, it was a living example of how culture change underpins strategy.

The scale of the energy transition

Susan stressed just how large the challenge is. The UK is targeting hundreds of billions in investment for renewables, storage, and grid reinforcement. Homes are electrifying; EVs are becoming mainstream; distributed generation is changing flows.

This isn’t an incremental upgrade. It’s a rebuild while the plane is flying. And as she put it, it will only succeed if communities and households come with it.

That point matters. You can design the smartest grid or the cleverest tariff, but if people don’t accept it, adopt it, and trust it, the transition slows.

Inclusion as core infrastructure

One of the strongest themes was inclusion. For Susan, equity and inclusion are not “soft edges” of the transition — they are infrastructure. If women, minority groups, or under-represented communities don’t see themselves in the transition, then the workforce won’t be there and neither will the adoption.

She gave the example of community energy projects, where local involvement isn’t a nice-to-have but central to success. When people are engaged, projects go faster and face less opposition. When they’re excluded, you hit barriers.

She also talked about accessibility in smart tools. If systems are built only for the tech-savvy or the affluent, adoption will stall. Inclusion in design is as important as inclusion in hiring.

The hidden blockers we overlook

One striking part of our conversation was around the hidden blockers. A lot of debate focuses on tariffs and technology. Susan reminded us of the practicalities: listed housing that can’t take external insulation; communities that can’t afford up-front kit; people who can’t navigate complex digital offers.

If the industry doesn’t address those blockers, the transition risks leaving whole groups behind. That’s not just unfair — it slows down the overall pace.

Diversity as a condition for sustainability

Susan framed diversity not as a moral argument, but as a sustainability one. The sector faces skills shortages. If you only recruit from a narrow pool, you won’t have enough people to deliver the build-out.

She also pointed out how diversity reframes risk. Homogenous teams tend to double down on familiar approaches. Diverse teams surface different views, making organisations more resilient.

That struck me because it’s the same logic we apply at Powerverse to technology: resilience comes from adaptability, and adaptability comes from diversity.

Embedding ESG like sourdough

I liked Susan’s analogy here: she compared ESG to sourdough. You can’t just sprinkle it on top. It has to be part of the starter culture, baked in from the beginning.

That’s what she argued companies need to do with ESG and inclusion. Not reporting as a bolt-on. Not diversity as a campaign. But embedding it in how you hire, how you build, how you measure outcomes.

It’s a reminder that culture really does eat strategy for breakfast. If ESG isn’t in the culture, the strategy won’t land.

Leading the Women’s Engineering Society

Today, Susan leads the Women’s Engineering Society. WES has a long history — founded in 1919, it’s the oldest society of its kind in the world. Under her leadership, it’s focusing on three areas:

  • Apprenticeships and pipelines — making sure women and under-represented groups get into engineering in the first place.

  • Shaping debate — from UK policy through to representing WES at the UN climate summit.

  • Professionalising networks — moving beyond informal groups into structured, resourced communities that have lasting impact.

Her view is that professional bodies like WES are essential for the long game. Change isn’t one project or one recruitment cycle. It’s decades of consistent effort.

Why visibility in leadership matters

On a lighter note, we touched on her time involved with The Apprentice. She sat on Alan Sugar’s advisory panel for part of the process. What she took from it was how visible women in leadership roles matter. If you don’t see people like you in positions of authority, you don’t imagine yourself there.

That’s the same reason she pushes for women to be visible in engineering, in energy, in leadership. It’s not role-modelling as tokenism — it’s role-modelling as possibility.

Three takeaways

  1. The transition is cultural as much as technical. Infrastructure only works if people trust and adopt it.

  2. Inclusion is infrastructure. You can’t deliver the scale of change needed without diverse teams and communities.

  3. ESG must be baked in. Like sourdough, it has to be part of the starter culture, not an afterthought.

Closing reflection

What I valued most in speaking with Susan was how she holds both big picture and detail at once. She doesn’t downplay the size of the challenge, but she grounds it in what will actually make or break it: culture, inclusion, visibility, and persistence.

For me, it reinforced the point that success in this transition won’t just be measured in megawatts installed or emissions cut. It will also be measured in who was brought along, who was empowered, and who saw themselves in the future we are building.

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