Our Leadership

Tom Samson is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rolls-Royce SMR Limited. He has over 30 years of experience in the power industry in various senior level executive positions in the UK and internationally.

Tom began his career as a Chartered Engineer at GEC Alstom designing combined cycle gas fired power plants before joining Marubeni Corporation where he helped them grow their global power portfolio and undertook a number of CEO and Board level assignments across that portfolio in the UAE and USA.

Tom’s first major role in the nuclear industry came when he joined ENEC in the UAE as the Chief Operating Officer where he helped establish Nawah Energy as the operator of Barakah, the first nuclear power plant in the region before returning to the UK as CEO and Board member at NuGeneration Ltd, which was responsible for developing a new nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria. 

Alan has spent 22 years at Rolls-Royce, across several senior roles and sectors including Marine, Defence, Power Systems and Corporate Strategy. Alan is responsible for growth of the Rolls-Royce SMR business covering market and customer development, creation of programme partnerships, and funding of both the Rolls-Royce SMR company as well as the strategy for creating future deployment funding options.

Matthew has 30 years' senior experience across the civil and defence nuclear sector. He has worked for Rolls-Royce, BP and the Ministry of Defence. As Chief Engineer, Matthew is responsible for the engineering development of the SMR and all aspects of plant engineering.

Helena has nearly 20 years' experience in the regulatory and safety arena of the nuclear industry with companies such as Vattenfall, Westinghouse and Horizon. Helena brings with her a wealth of regulatory experience from different countries and technical areas, as well as UK specific Generic Design Assessments, and will lead on our regulatory and safety agenda.

Linda is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant who has worked across audit, advisory and forensic services for over 20 years. She was a member of the Senior Civil Service for the last five years; most recently as the Director of Internal Audit at the Department for Work & Pensions, alongside being an Executive Director of the Government Internal Audit Agency, which provides audit services to over 120 government bodies. Linda spent six years working in the UAE, with three of those providing in-house internal audit to the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company, who developed and delivered the first civil nuclear power program within the UAE.

Alastair has 15 years of Corporate Affairs and Government experience across the energy sector, notably with NuGeneration and Neptune Energy. Alastair has a legal background and experience working in Europe, North Africa and the Asia Pacific regions on a diverse set of policy and communications challenges. Alastair is responsible for public affairs, policy, communications, and investor relations.

Sam joins us from Urenco Nuclear Stewardship (UNS), where he was Commercial Director and Board Member for Urenco’s subsidiary waste management, decommissioning and storage businesses. UNS provide services for a range of customers, delivering on operational nuclear licensed sites. Sam previously held commercial leadership roles in Deloitte, NuGen and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). At NuGen, Sam was accountable for development of the Moorside projects key contractual arrangements such as the Contract for Difference opposite UK Government and the EPC contract with its technology provider.

Adam has 30 years’ experience working in human resources in a range of multinational companies including EDF Energy, American Express and NuGeneration. Adam is responsible for everything people-related at Rolls-Royce SMR, including skills and learning and our talent acquisition strategy.

Peter has been a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright since 1994, having joined the practice in 1985. As the former nuclear energy and water groups lead, he brings decades of practical experience to the challenge of deploying nuclear power generation in the UK and overseas.

Peter is a member of the Technology and Construction Court Solicitors Association, an accredited adjudicator, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is a past lecturer at the Centre of Construction Law and Management at Kings College, University of London and sits on the City of London Law Society Construction Law Sub Committee.

Peter joins us from Lockheed Martin, where he was the CFO for The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). AWE is responsible for the management and operation of elements of the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent capabilities on behalf of the UK Government. Peter previously held various Executive roles, including Merseyrail and Serco Assurance (a technical consulting business) and brings a proven track record of initiating and delivering strategic business change along with a strong financial and commercial capability, matched with a leadership approach based on driving for results through creating high performing teams.

David has worked in Aerospace, Defence, Oil & Gas for over 30 years, working with Airbus, Meggitt, Babcock and most recently Private Equity. He oversees Manufacturing, Quality & Supply Chain and comes with a wealth of experience around Lean Manufacturing, Procurement, ERP and Project Management.

Paul is the Chairman of Rolls-Royce SMR Limited, the business established by Rolls-Royce to develop and manufacture low-cost nuclear power.

Prior to this, Paul was the Chief Technology Officer of Rolls-Royce plc, responsible for the Group’s technology strategy and balance of engineering and technology investment.

Before joining Rolls-Royce in 2010, was the Director General, Science and Technology, in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the UK’s national investment in defence science and technology.

Leading up to 2006 had many years of experience in the communications and electronics industries including technology leadership positions with Siemens, Thales and Philips.

Paul serves on several Government advisory committees including an appointment in March 2020 to the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.

Paul was awarded a CBE in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Anna Mascolo is Executive Vice President, Emerging Energy Solutions – Shell.

Before starting this role on 1 May 2022, Anna was Senior Vice President for Acquisition, Divestments and New Business Development in Shell’s Downstream business, a role in which she led the restructure of Shell’s Downstream portfolio to enable Downstream to effectively deliver on Shell’s Powering Progress strategy and Energy Transition net zero targets.

A physicist by background, Anna brings over 20 years of leadership experience in Shell working in customer-facing and supply roles across Chemicals, Fuels and Gas Products.
She began her Shell career in 2004 in Europe’s Integrated Gas business, bringing external experience of trading, origination and deal structuring from roles in BG, Enron, TXU, and BHP Billiton.

During her time in Integrated Gas, she held several commercial roles consolidating and expanding Shell’s gas business across Europe. Following an assignment in Base Oils where Anna led the European lubricants business through portfolio simplification and asset divestments, she moved to Trading & Supply as General Manager, Value Chain Optimisation, contributing significantly to the successful integration of the Trading and Supply & Distribution organisations.

Anna joined the Chemicals organisation in 2015 in Singapore, initially as General Manager, Base Chemicals and then General Manager, Intermediates for Asia. In both roles Anna strengthened collaboration and ways of creating significant value for the Shell Group and its customers.

In 2019, Anna joined Global Commercial as President of Global Aviation where she launched Aviation’s sustainable fuels offering, positioning Shell as a clear sectoral leader in decarbonisation.

Ralph Hunter leads the development of Constellation’s international clean energy business in his role as President of Constellation Generation Development LLC. Ralph is responsible for all of Constellation’s development activities in the nuclear sector worldwide.

With international partners, he is the Executive Vice President and Representative Director of JExel Nuclear Company, the joint venture between the Japan Atomic Power Company and Constellation Energy Generation Company to develop nuclear advancement in Japan and Asia, following the Fukushima incident.

Ralph has over 30 years’ experience in the nuclear power generation industry in the US and internationally. He has been with Constellation (formerly Exelon) for 13 years and as Vice President, Project Management he was responsible for ensuring all major projects implemented at Constellation’s nuclear plants were fiscally sound, properly planned and successfully executed.

In this role, he provided governance and oversight of project management processes and managed strategic projects and alliance activities across Constellation’s nuclear fleet of nuclear reactors. He was also responsible for oversight of Constellation’s long-term nuclear asset management plan and oversight of all contracted craft labor activities.

Prior to joining Constellation, Ralph was Senior Executive and Vice President of Burns and Roe Group, where he led their Nuclear Services and Advanced Technology Division which focused on operations management, new business development, financial and strategic planning, and organization and process improvement development and optimisation.

Sean is a Director responsible for the investment portfolio of BNF Capital, a London based family office with significant investments in the energy sector. He is also the founder and CIO of Tees River Limited managing a dedicated Uranium fund and a Critical Resources fund. Sean has 21 years experience in the financial sector.

Sheikh Faisal Bin Saoud Al Thani is the Head of Industrials and Materials at Qatar Investment Authority.

He joined QIA in May 2007 and has held various leadership roles such as the Head of Business Development Department, and member of Mergers and Acquisitions Department where he executed deals such as Harrods, Costa Smeralda, & Iberdrolla.

Sheikh Faisal is also the Chairman of Qatar Holding Smeralda Investment and a Board Member in Wessal Capital (Morocco).

He has a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration & Finance from California State University Dominguez Hills and he was enrolled in Harvard Leadership Program in 2014 /2015.

Will Morris is Chief Counsel – Civil Aerospace at Rolls-Royce and leads a global team specialising in law, compliance, risk and commercial transactions.

Since joining Rolls-Royce in 2006, Will has acted as lead advisor on a number of complex international matters and group projects as well as leading on a number of business transformation and improvement projects. He was appointed to the Civil Aerospace leadership team in 2017. Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Will worked as an M&A lawyer in an international law firm and as UK counsel for a large European FMCG business.

Will is a qualified Solicitor with 22 years’ practice experience. He is an active member of the UK in-house legal community regularly speaking on matters of importance to the legal profession and has published articles in key legal publications.

Tom Samson is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rolls-Royce SMR Limited. He has over 30 years of experience in the power industry in various senior level executive positions in the UK and internationally.

Tom began his career as a Chartered Engineer at GEC Alstom designing combined cycle gas fired power plants before joining Marubeni Corporation where he helped them grow their global power portfolio and undertook a number of CEO and Board level assignments across that portfolio in the UAE and USA.

Tom’s first major role in the nuclear industry came when he joined ENEC in the UAE as the Chief Operating Officer where he helped establish Nawah Energy as the operator of Barakah, the first nuclear power plant in the region before returning to the UK as CEO and Board member at NuGeneration Ltd, which was responsible for developing a new nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria.

Mark Thompson is Director of Business Development – Innovation Hub at Rolls-Royce, with a particular responsibility for major business development activities outside of the three core businesses.

Mark joined Rolls-Royce in 1988 as a sponsored undergraduate trainee and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1992. He has held various roles with the business including Director of Mergers & Acquisitions, Group Treasurer, Director of Strategy and Future Programmes – Aerospace Division and Direct of Global Strategy & Business Development for the Group.

Mark has sat as a Rolls-Royce nominated board director on a large number of joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries.

Neil Fleming is the Rolls-Royce Group Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Director, based in London. He leads a team based in the UK and Germany with oversight of all M&A activity (including acquisitions, divestments, and joint ventures) across the Group.

Neil joined Rolls-Royce on 1 October 2022 with nearly two decades of global experience in M&A, strategy and partnerships across multiple sectors including energy, infrastructure, and industrial technology. Neil has previously served on the board of directors for several companies in the UK and Europe.