My good friend Ann Robinson, who has died aged 82, started her profession within the civil service earlier than transferring to management roles in public our bodies and the charity sector.
In 2000 she turned govt chair of the patron organisation the Fuel and Electrical energy Customers Council, often known as Energywatch, the place she developed her lifelong curiosity in power and shopper coverage. This led to her taking the position of director of shopper coverage at uSwitch, the worth comparability service, from 2005 to 2016.
Her curiosity within the results of gas poverty grew and he or she turned a famous power shopper champion, usually referred to as upon to debate shopper points on tv and radio, and to supply experience and commentary on topical power points for the Guardian and different nationwide newspapers.
In 2018 Ann was appointed a non-executive director of Ofgem’s governing physique, the Fuel and Electrical energy Markets Authority, a task she retained till her retirement in 2020.
She was adopted as a child by William and Winifred Flatley and introduced up in Wigan, Lancashire. After leaving faculty, Ann labored as a clerical assistant on the Royal Ordnance Manufacturing unit in Chorley, and whereas there took the civil service inner exams to achieve promotion to govt officer. She later handed the evaluation to enter the upper ranges of the civil service. This was distinctive at the moment for somebody with out a diploma or good connections. The promotion meant a transfer to London, and he or she joined the Division of Well being and Social Safety in 1969.
Ann rapidly moved by means of the ranks, ultimately changing into director of coverage and planning at what was then the Advantages Company. She left this position in 1993 to turn into chief govt of the Spastics Society, the place she set about modernising the organisation and was instrumental in altering its identify to Scope. In 1997 she turned director normal of the British Retail Consortium earlier than transferring to Energywatch.
Throughout her working life she additionally served as chair of Sufferer Help London (1997-2001) and was a lay member of the Common Medical Council from 2003 to 2012.
I shared a flat with Ann in Earl’s Court docket within the late Sixties, after she moved from Lancashire to affix the DHSS. She was probably the most optimistic thinkers I’ve ever met. She may immediately flip a setback into a possibility to discover another which may not in any other case have been thought of. She had large power, a love of artwork and a real curiosity in serving to and supporting others, not solely by means of her skilled roles but additionally for these of us lucky to be her mates.
In 1961 Ann married Peter Robinson. He survives her.
