Sir Stephen brings a wealth of private sector and Government experience to his role as Chair of Rolls-Royce SMR.
Stephen was National Security Adviser from March 2021 to April 2022. Prior to this he was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence from 2016-2021 and Permanent Secretary at the Department of Energy & Climate Change from 2013-2016.
Sir Stephen spent nine years at the Shareholder Executive, now UK Government Investments, where he was appointed Chief Executive in June 2007. He previously worked in investment banking and strategic consultancy. Stephen also sat on the board of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and was a trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation.
In leading Shell Low Carbon Solutions, Anna builds on her expertise in the energy sector, bringing customers with the greatest decarbonisation challenges together with solutions and products that can help reduce and manage the carbon emissions of the energy they use. By combining Shell's extensive sectoral and solutions expertise, her team designs, delivers, and scales impactful decarbonisation pathways for customers in hard-to-abate transport and heavy industry sectors, as well as Shell’s own operations. Anna helps Shell pursue its strategy, providing the secure energy customers need today while tackling the financial and technical challenges involved in decarbonisation.
A physicist by background, Anna began her Shell career in 2004 as part of Shell’s Integrated Gas business in Europe, bringing experience of trading, origination and deal structuring from roles in BG, Enron, TXU, and BHP Billiton. She subsequently held roles in Shell Lubricants, Trading & Supply and Chemicals before joining Global Commercial in 2019 as President of Shell Aviation, launching the sustainable fuels offering and positioning Shell as a clear sectoral leader in decarbonisation.
Following that, Anna became Senior Vice President for Acquisition, Divestments and New Business Development in Shell’s Downstream business, leading the restructure of the Downstream portfolio. Most recently, was Executive Vice President of Shell Emerging Energy Solutions.
Anna serves on the Board of Raízen (a publicly listed joint venture between Shell and Cosan in Brazil) as Vice Chair and is an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the RemCo on the Rolls-Royce SMR Board.
Tomas Pleskač graduated from the Faculty of Business and Economics of Mendel’s University of Agriculture in Brno 1989. Later he completed an internationally accredited course at the Prague International School and received an MBA. Mr. Pleskač joined CEZ after a short working period in Komerční banka, a. s.
He started working for CEZ Group in 1994, as a Deputy Director of the Economy and Sales Department at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant. Between 2004 and 2007 he was in charge of the CEZ Group integration project “Vision 2008” From 2006 he was the Division Distribution Chief Officer and a Member of the Board of Directors. He became a Division International Chief Officer (in January 2008) and Division Distribution and International Affairs Chief Officer (in April 2012). He was Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors (26 June 2017 - 31 December 2019). Since January 2016, he has been the Chief Renewables and Development Officer.
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.
Silvana Jirotkova is the SMR Development Department Director, New Energy Division for CEZ Group. Silvana mastered from the school of Business Administration of Silesian University in Opava.
In 2002 Silvana joined the Business and Investment Development Agency CzechInvest, where she started as a regional manager responsible for industrial real estate development and brownfield remediation, before becoming a director of the regional development division and finally CEO of CzechInvest in 2018.
In 2019, she was promoted to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, where her focus was on economic strategy, business environment, quality, and consumer protection.
Since 2022, she has been leading a team responsible for development of SMR Program in CEZ Group. The goal of the Program is to build SMR fleet with a total capacity of up to 3,000 MW by 2050.
Chief Transformation Officer
Nikki brings extensive global energy experience, built from two decades in senior roles at BP, including CEO of its UK Fuels business, a £3bn turnover business, and leadership positions within BP’s alternative energy, gas, shipping and downstream portfolios.
Earlier in her career, Nikki held commercial roles at Tesco and Allied Domecq. She holds a Master’s degree in International Business Law.
Nikki has a strong track record of delivering value and leading major business and transformation programmes—experience that will be invaluable as Rolls-Royce SMR continues to scale.
Chief Legal Officer
Maria joined RollsRoyce in March 2026 and brings three decades of international legal leadership across highly regulated, technology-driven and industrial sectors.
She previously served as Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary at Unilever, where she supported major strategic and transformational initiatives.
Her earlier roles include senior legal positions at ABB, Nokia—where she also served as President of Nokia Technologies—Tetra Pak and GE Oil & Gas.
Maria holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Palermo and has served on several international boards. She is currently a member of the Sandoz Board of Directors.
Global Operations Director
Craig joined Rolls-Royce in June 2019. He is a qualified Aeronautical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in aerospace, spanning OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and joint ventures. Craig has extensive expertise in operational leadership, large-scale transformation and performance improvement in complex, capital-intensive and highly regulated environments.
Craig holds a number of Non-Executive Director roles within the aerospace sector, contributing to board governance, strategy and the oversight of international partnerships.
He holds a BEng (Hons) in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Bath, an MBA from Henley Management College, and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
