10 QUESTIONS WITH... GAB BARBARO
In each issue we ask an industry professional the Tomorrow’s Energy Management 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Gab Barbaro, Managing Director of British Gas Business.
to every detail of the operation to get things done. People follow leaders with passion and I admire that a lot.
Q4 Q5
Q1 Q2
What was your first job?
Consultant at Accenture, specialising in energy.
How did you get into the Energy
Management industry? I studied Mechanical Engineering at university and have spent most of my working life working in energy. I actually started out as a consultant so I travelled a lot across Australia, where I was born, but also in Europe and the US. I’ve always specialised in energy but I got sick of feeling like I was just an advisor with a bunch of ideas that may not come to anything so I decided to move in-house where, I could lead my own team and deliver myself.
Q3
Who, in any other industry, do you
most admire? I really admire entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk who have a vision of the world they want and go about it with all their time, money and energy. I learnt a lot from the Steve Jobs biography around getting close
38 | 10 QUESTIONS
What would you do if you won the lottery?
I enjoy working in and leading teams. I guess winning the lottery would give me the freedom to move roles if I didn’t enjoy it. That said, if I had enough to be an entrepreneur, I would create my own start-ups in this new energy future we are creating.
How would you improve the Energy
Management industry? I strongly believe we have to move away from a world where all we think about is shaving a percent off here and there on the price of energy. We’re working in a much smarter world now and that means we need to innovate and give the customer what they need, which means being more efficient on usage, getting more control and potentially making money from their energy assets.
Q6
If you could give your younger self
one piece of advice, what
would it be? Patience! I have struggled with being patient. I have always been interested in the next shiny new thing, felt frustrated when change wasn’t fast enough, and become too impatient with my teams on progress. Good things take time and good outcomes evolve.
Q7
What do you do to unwind?
I like to go to the gym and it’s a good distraction from work. I also meditate, once or twice a day, to help remain focused.
Q8 Q9
What three tracks would appear on
your ultimate playlist? Holiday – Green Day (great album); Wonderwall – Oasis; Don’t change – INXS (I’m an Aussie).
What do you think is the
future of the Energy
Management industry? British businesses are spending around £20bn on energy every year and I believe there are savings of at least 10 – 20% to be made by harnessing energy efficiency, demand side response, generating and storing energy at the point of demand. So when it comes to the future, I think it’s got to be all about services, being a partner to customers and helping them to find the opportunities that energy offers rather than it just being a business cost they’d rather avoid.
Q10
Michelle Giles, Head of Sales
and Customer Services from IMServ asked: “If you could change the approach of Board Members to Energy Management by one thing,
what would it be?” Board members need to realise that their energy usage and assets are very valuable. I’d encourage them to look beyond the short term issue of their next bill and take a longer term view of how they can optimise their existing energy assets and explore what other technologies they could use to take greater control of their energy use, and create value.
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