Julia Pyke, former Joint Managing Director of the Sizewell C nuclear power project, has been appointed Executive Chair of the infrastructure advisory Agilia Infrastructure Partners - she joins Agilia on 2nd April 2026.
The specialist advisory business is focused on the development and delivery of major infrastructure projects. The business operates as an employee owned trust, and is led by joint-CEOs and co-founders Mike Pugsley and Amar Qureshi.
Agilia currently supports infrastructure programmes with a combined capital value of more than £100 billion, including Thames Tideway Tunnel and Havant Thicket Reservoir in Hampshire. The firm advises governments, regulators and investors on the development and delivery of complex infrastructure projects across energy, water, transport and defence.
Pyke previously helped steer Sizewell C through planning consent, its Final Investment Decision (FID), and Financial Close, working with government and investors to take the new nuclear power station into full construction. During her tenure, the project also secured an investment-grade credit rating and achieved the world’s first financing of a new nuclear construction project. The project is expected to generate around 7% of the UK’s electricity once operational.
Sizewell C, the first new nuclear project globally to be financed with independent, private financial investors, reached Financial Close in November 2025.
Agilia says the use of the UK’s Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for Sizewell C, proven in over £200 billion of infrastructure projects like Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Thames Tideway Tunnel, lowers financing costs by allowing regulated revenues during construction:
“Sizewell C’s financing model attracts private investment that would not otherwise be possible. Government estimates that using the RAB can save consumers £30 billion, compared to other models, as a result of lower financing costs.”.
Pyke's appointment comes as the UK prepares to deliver a new generation of energy, water and transport infrastructure projects which are expected to require hundreds of billions of pounds in investment and create thousands of jobs - work in which Agilia is already deeply embedded.
Pyke has spent more than a decade working on major nuclear infrastructure projects across the UK. Pyke is a Clean Power Commissioner for the UK Government and a non-executive director of Studsvik, a supplier of equipment and consultancy services to the nuclear industry, which has recently expanded into the development of new nuclear projects through the acquisition of an SMR project developer. She is a Fellow of both the Energy Institute and the Nuclear Institute.
Julia Pyke said:
“The UK is entering a once-in-a-generation period of rebuilding and renewing our infrastructure. These are the projects that shape a country’s future, and getting them from vision to reality takes experience, determination and the right people around the table.
“Working with Agilia at Sizewell C, I saw first-hand the value of their practical, real world project experience in turning big national ambitions into projects that can actually be delivered.”
Amar Qureshi, Co-Founder and Joint Chief Executive Officer of Agilia Infrastructure Partners, commented:
“The UK has the ambition and capital to deliver some of the most important infrastructure projects in a generation. What matters now is having the leadership and experience to turn those plans into projects on the ground.
“Julia is one of the few people who has helped take a project on the scale of Sizewell C from vision to full construction. Her values, experience and skills complement our own expertise in bringing together developers, government, investors and industry to deliver complex, nationally significant projects. Julia joining our team reinforces our ambition to continue supporting the delivery of the UK’s next wave of major infrastructure.”
Before joining the Sizewell project with EDF, Julia Pyke spent more than two decades at the international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, where she became a senior partner and Head of Power and Renewables for Europe. In that role she advised governments, investors and project sponsors on major infrastructure projects across energy, transport and defence.