EY CEO Outlook: Delivering what matters with Sara Venning, NI Water

In this episode of The EY CEO Outlook podcast series, Sara Venning joins series host Richard Curran to talk about the challenges and rewards of working in the public utilities sector, and her vision for improving Northern Irish Water’s delivery, efficiency and sustainability.

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Sara Venning was appointed CEO of Northern Irish Water in 2014. A love of hard work, solving problems, and improving systems and processes attracted Sara to an industry that is ‘always on’, such as a public utility. It is a sector with its own unique challenges, and Sara thrives on finding a way through them.  

These challenges include competing for funding from the same pot that education and healthcare also draw from, finding a solution to Northern Ireland’s above-average water wastage, and the pressure of reaching net zero status.

They also discuss:

• How Sara fell in love with improving processes and driving efficiencies at a young age while working in the family business.
  
• Weathering the ‘big freeze’ of 2010 and dealing with the fallout of less-than-optimum customer communications at the time.
• Why STEM subjects are still attracting such low levels of female students.
• The challenge of trying to convince householders to use less water.
• As Northern Ireland’s biggest user of energy, how the company plans to reach net zero in terms of energy-use by 2030.
• The factors and considerations around a potential IPO.