Simon Gardiner

Simon has been General Counsel and Company Secretary of United Utilities since 2011 and has overall responsibility for any legal, governance and compliance issues affecting United Utilities. He leads the legal and company secretariat functions and was also Chairman of Tallinn Water, the group’s listed water utility joint venture in Estonia until its disposal in March 2021. In his time at UU, Simon has been involved in all UU’s corporate transactions and restructurings and also led the supply chain function during the first Covid-19 lockdown. He is also currently responsible for security governance (physical as well as cyber) across the group. Simon completed a law conversion course having graduated from Cambridge University in Modern Languages. He joined United Utilities as head of group legal in 2002 from global engineering group GKN, having previously qualified as a solicitor at law firm Osborne Clarke. Simon is a vice-chair and executive committee member of GC100, the association for the general counsel and company secretaries of companies in the UK FTSE 100.