FD helping to lead green revolution

AS the finance director at Drax, Tony Quinlan is at the heart of efforts to turn a legacy power generator into one of the country’s leading players in renewable energy.

The company famous for operating the coal-fired power station near Selby has been developing technology that allows it to burn sustainable biomass alongside fossil fuels.

But as a business, the move has to make economic sense and the company has been lobbying the Government for the subsidy it needs to grow its biomass use.

“The things that are in our control, we are confident that over time that Drax can move from a coal-dominated business to a biomass dominated business. We have done enough work to know we can do that.

“It makes economic sense and from the sense of security of supply for the Government to give appropriate levels of support. However you create renewable electricity it is more expensive than fossil fuels and Drax happens to be very competitive in comparison to other renewables.”

Mr Quinlan won the best finance director of a PLC at the Yorkshire Finance Director of the Year awards last year but asked about the title he is quick to pay tribute to his colleagues.

“It has become a bit of a cliche but its true to say that it is about the team. The only reason we have a decent year is because there is a whole bunch of people who have worked very hard and I made it clear at the time that winning the award was about the hard work of all my colleagues at Drax,” he said.

And it is as a team that the company is facing the challenge of running a major power generator in turbulent global economic conditions.

“On the surface, Drax is a Yorkshire power station but in truth the economics of the business are very much dictated by global commodity markets. We have to understand and try and risk assess what’s happening on the global markets to try and decide how to steer the business through that.

“Faced with these situations you have to understand what our downside scenarios are and if everything went badly we need to know we can get throught that. However, you can’t be obsessed with that and we have to set it towards growth.”

The Finance Director of the Year Awards 2012 are sponsored by Ernst & Young, Sewell Recruitment Group and Squire Sanders.
 
The awards categories are:
Best FD of a Ltd company (under £50m turnover)
Best FD of a Ltd company (over £50m turnover)
Best FD of a plc
Young FD of the Year (up to 40 years of age)
Best FD of a private equity-backed business
Outstanding achievement award

For further information on the awards, categories and tickets, visit www.fdawards.co.uk.