Neil was appointed Spirit Energy's CEO at the beginning of February 2022, having joined the company in March 2018.

Under Neil’s leadership, his priorities are to maintain Spirit’s position as one of the UK’s leading energy companies, fulfilling its full potential and ambitions to span the breadth of the energy transition whilst delivering value to its shareholders. Spirit has a clear strategy of safely delivering production from our assets, meeting and de-risking our decommissioning obligations, and exploring strategic energy transition opportunities from our existing assets.

Previously appointed as Executive Vice President Technical & Operated Assets, Neil led the delivery of Spirit's capital investment programme and decommissioning activities, and was also accountable for the company's technical functions and our operated assets and production.

Neil is passionate about nurturing and developing a diverse, inclusive and welcoming workplace at Spirit, enabling us to continue driving innovation and performance.

A chartered engineer with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, and with a Masters with Distinction in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt, Neil is no stranger to some of our assets, having started his career as a Graduate Trainee Petroleum Engineer working on Spirit's assets in the East Irish Sea.

Since then, his career has taken him around the world. Before joining Spirit Energy, Neil was the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director for EnQuest Plc and, prior to that, he held the position of SVP, Engineering and Production, at OMV in Vienna. He also enjoyed 11 years of asset and functional general management roles at BG Group Plc, including a ‘nation and company-building’ experience, managing daily production of around 0.5 million barrels from half-a-dozen mega projects in Egypt.

Neil has held a number of external assignments. As well as being Operator Co-Chair of Offshore Energies UK, he is also a member of the North Sea Transition Steering Group and a Fellow of the Energy Institute. Previously, he has held the role of Chair of the Decommissioning and Repurposing Task Force (DaRT) and was a non-Executive Director of the Net Zero Technology Centre.

Beyond his family – Neil is married with three children - he points to his skills on the river as being behind some of his greatest personal achievements. A talented oarsman, Neil has set a couple of indoor rowing records as well as winning medals at a national championship level. The best part? “Sharing the wins with his fellow rowers”, a philosophy that he also brings into the workplace.