The Energy sector hosts less than 2% of the CFOs in the Yorkshire and East Midlands region at present, but that number is growing as we see a steady and significant rise of renewable energy businesses growing in our region.

Our CFO Network Annual Report highlighted the five sectors that had seen more recruitment of new CFOs in the past year – Technology, Healthcare, Construction, Manufacturing and Services, closely followed by Renewable Energy in sixth place. If our report had sliced these other sectors into their own niches, Renewable Energy may well have featured in the top 5 sectors for positive change for CFOs.

It maybe comes as no surprise that recruitment campaigns for opportunities in the renewable energy sector attract more candidates from the advertising and search approaches than most others. Our data from the past year shows the average number of candidates positively engaged with recruitment processses:

The Renewable Energy sector is generating over 20% more interest in its financial leadership roles than the average.

There is a lot more analysis that can be done to these figures but taking the headline figure, there are several reasons to explain this trend:

• Candidate decisions on where to work are increasingly turning to employers with a strong purpose and ESG strategy. The Renewable Energy sector provides an instant and emphatic answer to a key part of this.
• The industry is growing so rapidly on the back of government policy, innovation and restrictions of traditional sources. This is seeing existing energy providers diversify, new companies setting up around new technologies, and new product or service revenue streams for existing companies to supply the sector.
• High appetite from investors to support the sector, creating a strong platform for long term growth.

Renewable Energy has been one of our favourite and most regular sectors to recruit in over the past few years. We recently shared an interview with one of our CFO placements into the sector – Ben Newton at Greensphere Capital – the UK’s first fund manager to the UK Government’s Green Investment Bank. Click here to read the interview in full. Contact Gillian for a copy of the CFO Network Annual Report.