History
EEEGR was officially launched on March 29th, 2001, two days before John Best, the man who inspired and drove its formation, was appointed chief executive.
But the wheels had turned steadily from four years earlier when plans were laid to shape the future Norfolk and Waveney economy, with full recognition for the contribution of the region’s energy industry. Four years work by the Recommissioning Partnership brought the plan to fruition.
Chris Hacon, the then Chairman of Specialised Management Services, played a significant role in writing the first EEEGR business plan which established its role to forge links between companies in all aspects of the energy sector and to create a strong platform for co-operation with regional partners.
Founder and funding members included Shell (Roger Colmer), Amec (Terry Hill), BP (Richard Grant), Norfolk County Council (John Norton) and EEDA (Nigel Foyster) – all of which are still involved today.
By the summer of 2002, we were ready to move into our new headquarters at Beacon Innovation Park – and had more than 50 members on our books.
Since then we have seen our membership climb well above 300 and these are just some of the highlights of our activities:
- We established the annual energy innovation awards in 2001, attracting 64 finalists and producing 24 award winners in the first 10 years.
- In 2002 we launched our flagship all-energy Summer Conference and the annual Southern North Sea Conference in 2005.
- We formed the WEH (Wider Energy Horizons) Forward programme in 200X to advise and help the region’s supply chain to cope with the evolving and demanding needs of the energy sector. To date, it has a 440 business alumni.
- We began delivering the current Skills for Energy programme in 2008 to tackle potential shortfalls in skills across the sector.
- We have regularly represented EEEGR members around the world, speaking at conferences in Houston, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Belgium and Holland.
- We grew our initial four-page EEEGR News in November 2000 into a highly-informative and respected 32-page newsletter which has three times been a finalist in the Trade Association Forum’s best practice awards
- In 2010 we appointed our first executive chairman Alan Barlow, who followed in the formidable footsteps of non-executives Roger Colmer, Terry Hill and Mark Goodall (Aker Kvaerner).
- In 2011 we led a 200-strong delegation to the House of Commons to underline the importance of the East of England energy sector to Ministers and MPs.
- In 2011 we launched our new corporate identity, outlook and ambition to create the most effective catalyst for success in the East of England: Word leading all energy hub.
