Frontline Excellence (utility)

This category recognises a woman delivering outstanding work in field operations and providing an inspirational role model for the next generation.

The contenders

Aimee Mowat

National Gas Transmission

Aimee Mowat is an exceptional leader transforming frontline operations across St Fergus & Aberdeen. Beginning her career as a Mechanical Apprentice in 2015, she has progressed to become Compliance Manager, where her leadership is redefining safety culture. Over the last year, she has successfully delivered major HSE interventions, strengthened compliance performance, and driven a step-change in how teams approach safety, learning, and assurance. Aimee is a powerful role model for women in field operations, breaking barriers, and championing safer, more inclusive environments. Her leadership has directly enabled safe delivery of unprecedented CAPEX activity and ongoing critical compliance across the area.

Dina Gillespie

Thames Water

Dina Gillespie is an exceptional frontline leader operating at the heart of the UK’s wastewater infrastructure. Born in Sudan and trained as a mechanical engineer Bath University, she brings a unique perspective to her role as Operations Manager at Thames Water, where she leads critical operational assets serving millions of customers. Alongside delivering outstanding safety and performance, Dina has driven meaningful change for women in frontline roles, improving representation, culture and working conditions. A visible and passionate advocate for inclusion, she is actively reshaping perceptions of field operations and inspiring the next generation to pursue careers in utilities.

Emma Warren

Affinity Water

Emma Warren is an exceptional and compassionate frontline leader, who has shaped company and national resilience in the UK water industry. As Emergency Planning lead for Affinity Water and Co‑Chair of the industry’s National Incident Management Group, she drives robust emergency planning and sector‑wide best practice. She shows calm, decisive leadership, and is usually first – and last – on the ground during incidents, ensuring vulnerable customers and critical sites receive essential water. A visible and highly effective advocate for women in field operations, she mentors colleagues, challenges gender imbalance, and champions inclusive culture change across a male‑dominated operational environment.

Fern Fisher

SGN

Progressing from a Customer Service Administrator role to Regional Manager in under 11 years, Fern Fisher now leads one of SGN’s largest construction regions delivering more than 100km of mains replacement annually across London and the South East. Fern oversees complex major works in highly constrained urban areas while maintaining exemplary safety standards and industry-leading levels of customer satisfaction. Her leadership and team-building skills have been instrumental to operational success in her region. Fern is a visible champion for women in frontline operations, sharing her career journey to inspire others.

Jeanette Sheldon

Jersey Water

A highly respected frontline leader with nearly 30 years’ experience in drinking water quality, Jeanette Sheldon is an outstanding woman in field operations who combines deep technical authority with visible, hands on leadership. As Head of Water Quality at Jersey Water, in 2025 she delivered 100% regulatory compliance, led the organisation’s response to PFAS, recruited and mentored a diverse water quality team and planned a new state of the art water quality laboratory. Calm under scrutiny and credible on site, Jeanette is a powerful role model for women working in operational utility environments and a trusted leader across the industry.

Jenny Eamer

Pennon Group

Jenny is an exceptional Operations Area Manager with over 20 years’ experience leading frontline wastewater teams in some of the most challenging and high‑risk environments in utilities. A calm, visible and highly trusted leader, she consistently delivers strong operational performance while championing safety, inclusion and professional development. Her leadership during major incidents, most notably the Exmouth rising‑main bursts, demonstrated outstanding resilience, accountability and community engagement. An advocate for women in field operations, she empowers colleagues, strengthens safety culture and inspires future leaders. Jenny’s impact, integrity and commitment to excellence make her an outstanding choice for the Frontline Excellence Award.

Marta Canelo Ruiz

UK Power Networks Services

Marta Canelo Ruiz is one of the leading lights of UK Power Networks Services’ frontline operations, mastering major defence projects in from conceptualisation to execution. The crown jewel project is her work with the Ministry of Defence, to innovatively install a new substation at one of its naval bases in Portsmouth. The project is the embodiment of Marta’s meticulous planning, exemplary communication with her clients, and onsite team management where she ensures safety compliance and fosters teamwork. Attentive, inventive and collaborative, Marta is a spectacular role model of what it means to be a woman in frontline electrical engineering.

Megan Constantine

Scottish Water

Scottish Water serves 5.4 million customers across 30,810 square miles and Senior Project Manager Megan Constantine exemplifies frontline delivery leadership. Working where Delivery and Operations meet, she brings resilience, clarity and determination to high pressure, field based challenges. Her leadership at Saltcoats transformed a complex operational issue into an opportunity to strengthen community trust, inspire young people and enhance the local environment - co creating social value and a lasting legacy.

Natasa Dinic

NESO

Natasa Dinic is a highly respected operational leader who has spent more than 20 years keeping Great Britain’s electricity system running in real time. As the manager of GB’s electricity control room, she combines deep technical expertise with a compassionate, people‑centred approach to leadership. She is one of the first women to hold this role in one of the most male‑dominated sectors of the energy industry, breaking barriers while setting new standards for operational excellence. Her journey embodies resilience, inclusion, and integrity.

Rose Leggett

SGN

Rose Leggett is one of two Engineering Managers in SGN’s Construction South region – and the only woman in the role across the business. She leads complex gas mains replacement programmes, overseeing the safety and performance of around 200 frontline operatives working on high-risk sites every day. Having moved into field operations with no engineering background, Rose has rapidly progressed through determination, personal leadership and relationship-building skills. Today she manages multi-million-pound industry-leading operational programmes to upgrade gas networks across the region. Through mentoring, collaboration and visible leadership on site, Rose is inspiring a new generation of frontline operational leaders.