The Involve Heroes Role Model Lists, supported by YouTube, showcase leaders who are breaking down barriers at work and smashing the ceiling for women within global businesses.
The Heroes Role Model Executive List, where Monica has been named, specifically highlights individuals who are spearheading change, even without formally working in DEI roles.
Monica’s nomination reflects her dedication to fostering a more inclusive workplace and empowering women to achieve success at Swarm Energy and beyond.
This latest recognition follows her recent nomination for the 2025 Great British Businesswoman Awards.
Monica’s colleagues at Swarm Energy say they couldn’t be prouder of her ongoing contributions to the business world and her leadership in championing women’s inclusion.
We spoke to Monica to find out more about her experiences in the industry, inclusion work and her role at the tech start-up.
Scaling the Swarm offer
Monica joined Swarm Energy at the start of this year as the company’s chair, and as a non-exec director she sits across a number of boards. She brings a wealth of experience to the table, particularly in scaling businesses, having worked in CEO and other leadership roles at companies including Vattenfall, ESB Energy and SO Energy, as well as various commercial roles in different sectors.
She is also an experienced advisor and board member. Former and current organisations she has supported include the Energy Leaders Coalition, POWERful Women, Future Leaders, Green Executives, Temple, UN Women, Cornwall Insight, Dalcour Maclaren and Northern Powergrid.
As a woman who has progressed her career at times in very male-dominated environments, Monica is a strong advocate for greater diversity at all levels of an organisation, including the boardroom.
She was approached by Swarm in January to help scale the company’s ambition and get its product to market.
Founded in 2023 by industry veteran Anthony Piggott, Swarm is on a mission to flip the power imbalance within the energy sector by putting control into the hands of the homeowner. This centres around their next generation smart energy management technology, Hub:One, which integrates the management of renewable energy devices into one platform.
The aim is to help the customer save more money on their bills by using AI to optimise energy usage.
Hub:One can also be connected into Swarm’s virtual power plant, enabling homeowners to sell their excess energy back to the grid collectively, at premium prices.
It’s easy to install and allows customers to view their real-time energy use and savings.
Monica was attracted to Swarm by the innovative nature of the product and the vision of the founder, who previously sold his fleet charging company, Elmtronics, to the Norwegian government for £30million.
She said: “The idea that consumers will be evolved into prosumers – producing their own energy and sending that back to the grid – rather than it being a one-way flow of energy into homes, is super exciting. That journey to energy independence is the future.
“What I love about Swarm particularly is that they understand the energy sector. They are trying to do things differently, in the right way, and genuinely trying to support installers by making this product really seamless. Plus, they are committed to diversity and inclusion.”
‘Real challenges around attracting and retaining women’
As an advocate for equality in the workplace, Monica was delighted to receive the Heroes List recognition.
“I am incredibly proud to work across organisations that recognise the value that greater equality brings to business. To have been named among 2024 INvolve’s Heroes, alongside many inspiring people who are driving inclusivity in business, is an honour,” she said.
“If you look at the POWERful Women’s State of the Nation report, it showed there were just six women in CEO positions at the top 80 energy employers in the UK at that time. That has since dropped to four. I take a great deal of responsibility in getting women into those more senior roles, particularly in terms of attraction and building pipeline.
“But there are some real challenges around this. The energy industry is the second worst industry in the UK for gender equality.
“Retention rates have been struggling for some time and for me, a lot of that is to do with the environments we create for women to be able to not only flourish, but to fully participate in a really exciting space. It’s also a space that desperately needs new skills and capabilities to be able to deliver the kind of experiences that customers are looking for.
“So what I’ve been doing through my work is shining a spotlight on that conversation and developing strategies that help organisations be more inclusive in their approach.
“Because we need a whole world of capabilities to explore some of the solutions, and particularly the tech solutions, that we need to enable the energy transition. We’ve got 302 months to deliver net zero.”
While there’s work to be done at the early education phase, and Monica also supports education to better promote STEM subjects to girls, she knows from her own experiences that changes are needed to create more attractive working environments.
“I was a single mum of two children and have had various medical issues and health problems, so I’ve had career interruptions along the way. To put it into context, when my first marriage broke down, I had to take a 30% pay cut to get the flexibility I needed to do the nursery drop-offs and pick-ups.
“But that hasn’t stopped me from being incredibly passionate about what we’re trying to do. I’m pleased that we now have more policies around flexible working and things like menopause.”
Practical measures to improve working environments
It’s well known and documented that there’s a skills shortage in renewable energy – a gap that women could help fill. And Monica believes there are quick, simple measures that businesses can implement quickly in order to attract and attain more women.
These include removing gender biased language from job adverts and company websites, for example by ensuring imagery reflects a diverse workforce, creating balanced board rooms and C-suites to instigate top-down equality, plus flexible policies to allow a balance between work and childcare and between office-based and remote working.
“Some of it is down to wider societal and historical legacy issues around unconscious bias as well. I talk to women who are early in their careers, joining some really innovative tech start-up businesses, and they often face an assumption that they don’t have the expertise.”
Despite the challenges, Monica does feel we are on the right path to change.
“I think hopefully as we see more women taking up more of those technical roles, some of the barriers will start to reduce. There’s still some way to go, but I do feel very optimistic about the direction of travel,” she added.
What do you think? Have you experienced gender inequality in the renewable energy industry? What changes are needed? Please feel free to write to linda@renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk with your views.
Image: Monica Collings is pictured (right) with Swarm CEO Anthony Piggott and CFO Stephanie Madeley, courtesy of Swarm.