Simon Virley CB

Simon is a Partner and UK Head of Energy at KPMG. He advises clients on strategy, regulation and deals in the UK energy market and abroad.

Simon has over 20 years’ experience advising on energy issues. Previously, he was the Director General for Energy at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) between 2009-15. In that role, he had responsibility for advice to Government on oil and gas, renewables, nuclear, Carbon Capture and Storage, retail markets, decentralised energy and energy security issues. He led the work on the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) Programme under the Coalition Government (2010-15) and was the Government expert witness to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) inquiry into the retail energy market at the end of 2014.

Simon was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work on UK energy supply and energy security issues. He is also a Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI), a member of the CBI’s Energy and Climate Change Board, on the Executive Council of the Parliamentary Group on Energy Studies (PGES), and on the Board of the University of Sheffield’s ‘Energy 2050’ Programme.

He trained as an economist (MA from Oxford, MsC from the London School of Economics). His earlier career was spent at the Department of Transport, HM Treasury, No 10 Downing Street (where he was Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair), the Cabinet Office and a 3 year secondment to the Corporate Finance Team at KPMG, where he advised on energy and infrastructure issues.