SUE STEBBING - Partnership Director

Sue first got involved in supporting the fuel poor when she returned from living in Spain in 2008 and took up a position with British Gas in their energy efficiency team. This role involved providing advice to support reducing energy consumption to domestic residents who were struggling with their utility bills. From there, she joined a British Gas field sales team, as a Regional Manager, responsible for a team of advisors who were visiting customers in their homes, to check they were on the best energy tariff for them, and to offer energy efficiency advice.

Due to changes directed by Ofgem, the channel was dissolved and Sue joined Mark Group as a Regional Business Manager, covering the whole of the South of England. She had a large team of surveyors, who were identifying suitable properties for cavity wall and loft insulation, qualifying the residents against the ECO requirements and completing an energy survey to create an EPC. Sue obtained a DEA qualification, as all of her surveyors were needed to also hold this accreditation, and it enabled her to understand both the challenges, and potential issues, of their role.
Sue was then 'headhunted' by Anesco and joined them to set up their ECO team, with another BDM from Mark Group. The pair were hugely successful, and her time there really cemented her foothold in retrofit.

Sue later relocated to Manchester and was therefore unable to continue her role in Anesco and so joined Improveasy and established their ECO channel. This again, although challenging, was hugely successful, resulting in bilateral contracts with multiple utilities, and a really strong supply chain of installers, all delivering ECO funded retrofit improvements, across a range of measures.

Moving back to the South, primarily due to the arrival of grandchildren, again, Sue was unable to continue her role with Improveasy, as this was office based in Manchester.

Sue joined a local installer and helped them with gaining more retrofit opportunities via networking, connection and attending events. During this period, they had dealings with EON and Sue was made aware of a BDM vacancy within their Green Funding Solutions team, who she had been working with.

Sue applied to EON, was offered the role, and had a hugely successful few years, adding around £60m to their team revenue during her time there.

Sue said ‘I knew the Directors of CRG from previous work relationships, and they approached me, to join their business and help them to grow. I decided that this was a great opportunity to do something for myself and be directly rewarded for any successes and so joined them last October’.

Thankfully for Sue, the move has paid off and CRG have quadrupled their retrofit installation numbers within the few months that Sue has been with them, working directly with multiple Principal Contractors, to support delivery of SHDF/HUG funded schemes.

Sue said ‘Since joining, CRG have gone from primarily a solar contractor, to adding ASHP, heating upgrades and soft insulation to their range of measures, creating more commercial opportunities. We are confident and optimistic that these relationships will continue to grow, as we have received really strong & positive feedback from all stakeholders, primarily as we are not a huge organisation, but have a refined process and key personnel to manage the whole process from enquiry to completion of installations.

I'm really pleased as well, that during my bobbing about in the industry, in various roles, I have made some really strong connections and as I have never left a position on bad terms, am proud to be able to maintain relationships with all former colleagues.’