Ian Marchant (businessman)

Ian Derek Marchant (born 9 February 1961) is an English accountant and businessman. He was the Chief executive officer of Scottish and Southern Energy from 2002 to June 2013, and was chairman of Thames Water from 2018 to July 2023. Since 2023 he has held various positions at Morgan Advanced Materials.

Early life
Born in Croydon, Marchant attended the independent Trinity School of John Whitgift. Afterwards he studied at Durham University, as a member of Hatfield College, gaining a 2:1 in Economics in 1983.

Career
He was an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1983 to 1992. In 1992, he joined Southern Electric, which became Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) in 1998, when he was appointed the company's finance director. He became CEO of SSE in 2002 when aged 41, making him then one of the youngest FTSE 100 chief executives.

Marchant received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2009.

In January 2018, Marchant was appointed chairman of Thames Water, stepping down on 10 July 2023. He is also chair of Logan Energy and a non-executive director of Aggreko, and a past chairman of John Wood Group, Nova Innovation and Infinis.

On 1 February 2023 he has been appointed as Non-executive director of Morgan Advanced Materials plc. Since 29 June 2023 he also serves as the group's Non-executive Chairman and Nomination Committee Chairman.

He founded and chaired the Scotland 2020 Climate Group, and founded Scotland's 'Lights up Malawi' campaign for climate justice. He is a past president of the Energy Institute and honorary president of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.