Odeon cinema CEO new board chair of heat pump supplier Kensa

Kensa, which has its headquarters in Truro, has appointed Paul Donovan.

He will take over the role from November 1, following a planned recruitment and transition process.

Mr Donovan succeeds Lord Matthew Taylor, who is retiring after 10 years in the position.

The new recruit is an experienced chairman and CEO, with a history of scaling businesses, delivering customer-focused solutions, and generating value.

He spent a decade in the mobile communications industry, leading Vodafone’s emerging markets business, and has held CEO roles at companies including Odeon and UCI Cinema Group, Eircom, and Arqiva.

Now, he will serve as Kensa chairman alongside his duties as non-executive director at Arqiva and Nordic Aviation Capital.

During his time as Kensa chairman, Mr Taylor established Kensa as a leader in the ground source heat pump industry.

He oversaw key developments and innovation milestones, including significant investments from Legal & General and Octopus Energy Generation, the launch of the Shoebox NX heat pump, and Kensa’s world-first Heat the Streets project.

Paul Donovan (Image: Kensa) Kensa CEO Tamsin Lishman said: "On behalf of everyone at Kensa, I’d like to thank Lord Taylor for the commitment, belief and guidance he’s provided during his ten years as Kensa chair.

"He has seen this innovative, British business grow into one of the key players delivering heat decarbonisation, and we are hugely grateful for all his contributions.

"We are delighted to welcome Paul to Kensa.

"His business experience, leadership and guidance will be invaluable as we build upon our trusted expertise, continue to lead the future of renewable heating and cooling and deliver affordable, consumer-focused solutions."

Kensa is a major supplier of heat pumps (Image: Kensa) Commenting on his new role, Mr Donovan said: "Kensa has established itself as the UK leader in ground source heat pumps and has a clear goal of delivering affordable heat decarbonisation.

"I am excited to be joining the passionate and dedicated Kensa team and to help the business realise its role in enabling the green energy transition."

Reflecting on his tenure, Mr Taylor said: "It has been such a pleasure chairing Kensa and being part of the fantastic team that cares so much about ground sourced heat pumps and how they can give people zero-carbon heat for the lowest cost.

"Having completed my 10 years, it’s time for a new chair to take Kensa to the next level.

"I am sure with Paul as chair, and with the fantastic and committed team around him, the next 10 years will see Kensa go from strength to strength as it brings people high quality, low cost zero carbon heating."