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Press Release - 14th December 2010

Mutual Energy Limited, the mutual company which owns and operates some of Northern Ireland’s key energy infrastructure assets (the Moyle electricity interconnector, the Scotland to Northern Ireland gas pipeline and the Belfast gas transmission pipeline), has appointed Clarke Black as a Non-Executive Director. Clarke, who has previously served as a Member of the company, performing an important governance and scrutiny role, will join the Mutual Energy board from 1st January 2011.

Mr Black is the Chief Executive of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies. Prior to taking up his position with the UFU in 2002, he spent 18 years in the banking industry, initially with UFB Humberclyde and latterly with Northern Bank and National Irish Bank.

Commenting on the appointment, Mutual Energy Chairman, Peter Warry said “Clarke has previously demonstrated a strong commitment to the work of Mutual Energy during his time as a Member and we look forward to working with him on the Board, where we feel his extensive skills and knowledge will be valuable in complementing those of our existing Board members.”

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Notes for editors:
1. Mutual Energy is a company limited by guarantee (also known as a mutual) which exists to own and operate energy infrastructure assets for the benefit of Northern Ireland energy consumers. The company does not have any shareholders so all the benefits of the low cost of capital and operational efficiencies are returned to energy consumers.

2. Biographical note: Clarke Black

Clarke Black was appointed Chief Executive of the Ulster Farmers’ Union in May 2002, and subsequently appointed a Director of Countryside Services Limited – the commercial arm of the Ulster Farmers' Union.

He is a Director of Food NI, the food industry promotion body and of the Rural Development Council. He is also a member of an independent Food Advisory Panel set up to advise Government on food policy and represents the Ulster Farmers’ Union in Concordia which is an informal social partnership involving the Trades Union, CBI, voluntary sector and agriculture. He is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies.

Clarke’s entire working life has been in agriculture and he has a wide experience of the different sectors of the industry, from production to policy and in several different areas of the service side of the industry. He was previously employed by Northern Bank Ltd as a Senior Regional Agribusiness Manager, which laterally entailed a secondment to National Irish Bank, Dublin, where he established the Bank’s Agribusiness segment in Ireland.

Clarke is also a Past President of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster and has represented young farmers at a European level through his involvement in CEJA. He has strong ties with the local farming community and is from a family farm background.