Steve Smith uniquely combines three roles—Group Chief Strategy and UK External Affairs Officer at National Grid plus President of National Grid Partners—giving him an integrated view across corporate strategy, public policy, and venture investing within one of the world's largest utilities. He brings deep regulatory experience from both sides, having served as Board member and Managing Director at Ofgem where he helped deliver major UK energy market reforms, and now applies lessons from 11 years overseeing customers and fintech at Lloyds Banking Group to energy innovation.

• A strong focus on scaling startup technology to utility levels to modernize the power grid and existing infrastructure. One clear example is hosting startups like LineVision and VEIR to show utility executives how new innovations can move massive amounts of power through current grid networks, cutting costs and bypassing the wait times associated with new construction.
• Fascinated by the intersection of artificial intelligence and energy consumption. A recurring theme is how the utility industry must adapt to supply reliable power for heavy computing demands, sharing ideas about how the historical expansion of the electric grid could serve as a model for regulating artificial intelligence and sharing energy resources equitably.
• Drawing parallels between the banking sector and the utility industry to drive digitalization. This is rooted in a decade of personal experience helping a major British bank transition to the digital economy, using that specific financial transformation as a direct blueprint for introducing disruptive innovation into legacy energy systems.
• Prioritizing clean energy transition solutions such as distributed energy, virtual power plants, and alternative fuels. This includes highlighting specific technological leaps, like pointing out how Modern Hydrogen turns natural gas into clean fuel while capturing carbon, and advocating for virtual power plants as a way to meet immediate electricity needs without building new physical plants.