Eco chief plots a very unethical coup at his green rival
A COnTROVERSIAL green energy tycoon has launched a bid to win a place on the board of an arch rival – sparking a furious row with fellow clean power fat cats. Dale Vince, the millionaire founder of windmill owner Ecotricity (pictured with designer Vivienne Westwood) is battling to become a nonexecutive director of Good Energy Group, one of his main competitors.
The 55-year-old vegan has built a 25.3pc stake in Good Energy worth £9m through Ecotricity – making him the company’s largest shareholder.
But his audacious move to join the board has been met with incredulity by bosses at Good Energy who branded the plan ‘unworkable’ and ‘regrettable’.
The company said the appointment of directors from a competitor such as Ecotricity ‘would represent significant conflicts of interest that would work against the best interests’ of the firm and its 250,000 customers.
The war of words has pitted some of Britain’s leading green energy entrepreneurs against each other in a bitter power struggle. Renewables supplier Good Energy is run by Juliet Davenport, 49, whose husband Mark Shorrock, 47, is behind plans for a huge tidal power scheme in Swansea Bay.
Vince, Davenport and Shorrock have been dubbed Britain’s wealthiest hippies, amassing fortunes on the back of green energy.
Vince, a married father of three who set up Ecotricity in Stroud, Gloucestershire in 1995, is estimated to have a fortune of £105m by the Sunday Times Rich List. As well as running Ecotricity, he owns Forest Green Rovers, which recently became the world’s first all vegan football club by excluding meat and dairy from its menus, instead selling Quorn pies and veggie burgers.
The club, which was promoted to the football league at the end of last season for the first time in its 128-year history, also has solar panels on the roof of its stadium and has banned the use of chemicals on the pitch.
Having become Good Energy’s biggest shareholder, Ecotricity has called for a meeting where shareholders will vote on the appointment of Vince and fellow executive Simon Crowfoot to the board. The pair will succeed if more than 50pc of votes cast at the general meeting approve the plan – including those of Ecotricity. In a stinging attack on Good Energy, Vince highlighted £4m of deals the company has done with Shorrock, including investment in the tidal project in Swansea Bay and contracts awarded to his firm Shire Oak Energy, a specialist in solar power.
But Good Energy said its agreements with Shorrock were approved by an independent board committee and represented ‘a great deal’ for shareholders.
Chairman John Maltby said: ‘Having the owner and senior management of a direct competitor on our board would be unworkable.
‘This action by Ecotricity is regrettable and we will be writing to shareholders setting out our position and the importance of voting against Ecotricity’s proposal,’ he said.