Our leadership

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Post Office Limited’s Board of Directors is chaired  by Tim Parker. As Non-Executive Chairman he is independent both of the executive management of Post Office Limited and of its shareholder, The Board comprises the Chairman, five other Non-Executive Directors and two Executive Directors.

Tim Parker

Tim Parker - Independent Chairman Joined the Board 1 October 2015

[Chairman of the Nominations Committee and member of the Remuneration Committee]

Tim Parker became Chairman of the Post Office on 1st October 2015 and took on the role of Chairman at the National Trust on 8th November 2014.

He also took on the role of Chairman of HM Courts & Tribunals Service on 27th April 2018.  He is Chairman of Samsonite.

Tim has enjoyed a long business as CEO of several well-known companies. After a spell in the Treasury as an economist, he studied at the London Business School, and soon after was appointed as general manager of a subsidiary of Thorn EMI based in Chicago. In 1989 he led the management buy-out of Kenwood, the kitchen appliances company.

Subsequently he has been CEO of Clarks, the shoe company, Kwik-Fit, the AA, and until recently, Samsonite, where he remains Chairman. Tim has been Chairman of Channel Nine TV in Australia and the Autobar Group, Europe’s largest vending company. He has also served as a non-executive director on the Boards of Legal & General, Alliance Boots and Compass Group.

He is also a director and owner of the British Pathe film archive.

Ken McCall

Ken McCall – Senior Independent Director  Joined the Board 21 January 2016

[Chairman of Remuneration Committee and member of both the Audit, Risk and Compliance and the Nominations Committees]

Ken’s position with Europcar Mobility Group is Deputy Group Chief Executive and Head of Global Operations. Formerly, he was Chief Executive of DHL Express UK and Ireland, instrumental in achieving a full business turnaround and transformation.  Previous positions include Chief Executive of TNT Asia, Middle East, African and Indian sub-continents. Ken has extensive experience in mails, logistics and business transformation.

Ken is a Non-Executive Director of Supergroup plc.

Paula Vennells

Paula Vennells – Chief Executive Joined the Board 18 October 2010

Paula has worked for Post Office Limited since 2007 in a number of senior roles, including Managing Director, becoming Chief Executive on 1 April 2012.  Prior to Post Office, Paula spent five years with Whitbread plc, latterly as Group Commercial Director.  She began her career with Unilever and L’Oreal and has held directorships in sales and marketing with a number of major retailers, including Dixons Stores Group and Argos.

Paula is a Non-Executive Director of Morrisons plc, a Trustee for the Hymns Ancient and Modern Group and a member of the Future High Street Forum.

Alisdair Cameron

Alisdair Cameron - Chief Finance & Operations Officer  Joined the Board 28 January 2015

Alisdair joined Post Office in January 2015.  Prior to this appointment, from 2002 to 2014 he worked in a variety of roles for Centrica plc, a FTSE 100 company, including Director of Audit and Risk, Group Financial Controller, Finance Director of British Gas and Managing Director of British Gas Enterprise.  Previously he was a partner with Deloitte and Arthur Anderson and served as a trustee of the e-Learning Foundation.

Alisdair is a Non-Executive Director of Dover Harbour Board and has just finished an 8 year term as a Non-Executive Director of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Tom Cooper

Tom Cooper – Non-Executive Director Joined the Board 27 March 2018

[Member of both the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and the Remuneration Committee]

Tom Cooper was appointed a Director at UKGI and started in November 2017.

Prior to joining UKGI, he was Global Co-Chairman of M&A at Deutsche Bank where he spent 8 years. Addition to working with clients on transactions, he chaired the Fairness Opinion Committee in EMEA and was a member of the committee responsible for approving franchise lending to Deutsche Bank’s corporate clients in EMEA.

Before joining Deutsche Bank, he worked at UBS Investment Bank for 21 years.  He had various roles including working with UK clients, Nordic Coverage, Transport, Utilities and M&A. He finished his career at UBS as Head of European M&A.

Tom is also a director of East West Railway Company Limited.  

Tim Franklin

Tim Franklin - Non-executive Director Joined the Board 19 September 2012

[Member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee]

Tim has had over 30 years executive experience in a variety of organisations in the banking industry and joined the Post Office board in 2012 as a non executive director. Tim sits on the Audit and Risk Committee as well as the board of Post Office Insurance.

He is an experienced non executive and is Chairman of AIM Listed Bank Private and Commercial Finance Group PLC and a non executive Board member of Topaz Finance Limited. He is also an accredited executive coach working with boards internationally. 

Shirine Khoury-Haq

Shirine Khoury-Haq - Non-Executive Director Joined the Board 24 May 2018

[Member of both the Nominations Committee and the Remuneration Committee]

Shirine Khoury-Haq is Chief Operating Officer of Lloyd’s with responsibility for its global operations, business transformation, data, IT, operational risk management and real estate functions. She is additionally responsible for driving the modernisation and digitisation of the Lloyd’s and the wider London (re) insurance market as the sponsor of the London Market’s Target Operating Model (TOM) initiative.

Shirine joined Lloyd’s from Catlin, where she was Group Head of Operations and UK Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this, Shirine was an Associate Partner at IBM, specialising in the retail and consumer products industries, and focussing on large systems and business transformation projects, as well as post merger/acquisition integration. Shirine also had responsibility for finance and operations for several regions while employed at McDonald's Corporation.

Shirine holds an MBA from Ohio State University and is a US Certified Public Accountant..

Carla Stent

Carla Stent - Non-Executive Director Joined the Board 21 January 2016

[Chairman of Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee]

Carla has held a number of senior positions in banking, private equity and retail industries. She has had direct responsibility for corporate finance & post-merger integration, strategy, business operations, brand development & management and business transformation. Carla has operated at Board level in several countries for organisations including Virgin Group, Barclays Bank plc and the Thomas Cook Group.

Carla now has a portfolio career; heading MCS Advisory Limited, a consultancy that provides interim strategic, financial and operational advice to clients in the private, public and third sectors. She also serves as a non executive director and / or chair person on the boards and sub committees of Savernake Capital Group, JPM Morgan Elect plc, Marex Spectron Limited, the Post Office and Power to Change Trust. She has previously served on the boards and committees of Christian Aid, Change Alliance (India) and the Princes Teaching Institute.

Carla is also a serial angel investor and is a frequent speaker on building alternative careers, corporate culture, gender equality and philanthrophy. She mentors emerging talent and C suite executives.

Carla is a qualified chartered accountant and was born and educated in South Africa.

Jane Macleod

Jane MacLeod – Company Secretary Appointed as Company Secretary 31 August 2017

Jane joined the Post Office in January 2015 as a member of the Post Office Group Executive with responsibility for Legal, Governance, Risk & Compliance and Internal Audit. Having qualified as a solicitor in Australia in 1985, Jane has subsequently gained significant experience both in private practice and in-house in a variety of roles predominantly in financial services. Jane was appointed as Company Secretary in September 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

Board responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Board include setting the company’s strategic aims, providing the leadership to put them into effect, supervising the management of the business and reporting to the shareholder. 

There are number Board committees which deal with specific topics requiring independent oversight including Audit, Risk and Compliance, Nominations of the Board, Pensions and Senior Remuneration.

Each Committee is chaired by a Non-Executive Director and operates within its own agreed, documented Terms of Reference.

If you are a Post Office customer and wish to contact us, please visit the Contact us page.

You can get information about the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Post Office Limited from the registered office or by email at POLBoard@postoffice.co.uk

Registered Address

Post Office Ltd, Finsbury Dials, 20 Finsbury Street, LONDON. EC2Y 9AQ

 

Group Executive

Paula Vennells – Chief Executive

Paula Vennells – Group Chief Executive

Paula has worked for Post Office Limited since 2007 in a number of senior roles, including Managing Director, becoming Chief Executive on 1 April 2012.  Prior to Post Office, Paula spent five years with Whitbread plc, latterly as Group Commercial Director.  She began her career with Unilever and L’Oreal and has held directorships in sales and marketing with a number of major retailers, including Dixons Stores Group and Argos.

Paula is a Non-Executive Director of Morrisons plc, a Trustee for the Hymns Ancient and Modern Group and a member of the Future High Street Forum.

Alisdair Cameron – CFO

Alisdair Cameron – Chief Finance and Operations Officer

Alisdair joined Post Office in January 2015.  Prior to this appointment, from 2002 to 2014 he worked in a variety of roles for Centrica plc, a FTSE 100 company, including Director of Audit and Risk, Group Financial Controller, Finance Director of British Gas and Managing Director of British Gas Enterprise.  Previously he was a partner with Deloitte and Arthur Anderson and served as a trustee of the e-Learning Foundation.

Alisdair is a Non-Executive Director of Dover Harbour Board and has just finished an 8 year term as a Non-Executive Director of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Mark Davies

Mark Davies – Group Communications, Brand & Corporate Affairs Director

Mark joined Post Office Ltd as Communications Director in July 2012 after two years as Communications and Campaigns Director for the charity Rethink Mental Illness. Prior to that he spent five years as Special Adviser to the Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, working in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the House of Commons and the Ministry of Justice. He worked as Special Adviser to Baroness Amos, then Leader of the House of Lords, for 18 months in 2004-05. Mark began his career in journalism in 1990 and during 13 years as a reporter, writer and editor he worked for the Liverpool Echo, the Liverpool Daily Post, CNN and the BBC.

Rob Houghton

Rob Houghton – Group Chief Information Officer

Rob is an experienced Change and IT professional, and joined Post Office Ltd as Group CIO in May 2016. Prior to Post Office, Rob held a variety of IT leadership roles within Aviva globally. He lived and worked in the US for four years as North American CIO, was the Asia/ Europe CIO and latterly was the UK Life CIO managing the Friends Life/ Aviva integration and subsequent IT organisation. Robs first role was as a software engineer in BT and then he joined consulting and outsourcing firm CSC, where he operated extensively across Middle East and Africa. 

Mo Kang – HR Director

Mo Kang – Group HR Director

Mo joined Post Office in August 2018. Prior to this appointment, Mo has spent over 20 years in a number of senior HR and Change Leadership roles within the insurance sector, ERS Insurance Group, Hyperion Insurance Group, QBE Insurance Group, and Zurich Financial Services. Mo’s work has enabled him to gain extensive International experience in leading the people agenda having worked in Australia, Asia Pacific, US and Continental Europe, and brings a wealth of transformation experience to support our future plans.

Jane MacLeod -

Jane MacLeod – Group Legal, Risk & Governance Director | Company Secretary

Jane joined the Post Office in January 2015 as a member of the Post Office Group Executive with responsibility for Legal, Governance, Risk & Compliance and Internal Audit. Having qualified as a solicitor in Australia in 1985, Jane has subsequently gained significant experience both in private practice and in-house in a variety of roles predominantly in financial services. Jane was appointed as Company Secretary in September 2017.

Debbie Smith | CEO Retail

Debbie Smith – Chief Executive | Retail

Debbie was appointed as Chief Executive Retail in January 2018 and is responsible for supporting Post Offices to become simpler to run and creating and distributing market-leading products that customers want in mails, government services and payments. Having joined Boots in 1987, Debbie has held a wide range of business leadership roles in the UK, latterly as Managing Director of Boots in the Republic of Ireland, and brings a wealth of experience from the retail sector as we drive home the transformation of our business to ensure that it matters as much tomorrow as it does today. 

Owen Woodley - CE FS & T

Owen Woodley – Chief Executive | Financial Services & Telecoms

Owen joined the Post Office in 2016 having previously spent four years as Managing Director of the retail business at Lloyds Bank with responsibility for the branch network and customer base. Prior to that, he spent 20 years at Barclays where he undertook a number of senior roles in retail and commercial banking, both in the UK and sub-Saharan Africa. He subsequently launched and ran a new UK bank in the wake of the financial crisis, Shawbrook, which focused on commercial property and asset finance lending.

Owen sits on the Board of Governors at Nottingham Trent University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registered Address

Post Office Ltd, Finsbury Dials, 20 Finsbury Street, LONDON. EC2Y 9AQ

Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee

The Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee is made up of four Non-Executive Directors and is chaired by Carla Stent.

They consider Post Office Limited’s financial reporting, including accounting policies and internal financial controls. It looks at the levels of risk which exist within the Post Office and the steps taken to mitigate those risks.

It will consider financial controls alongside the financial audit work conducted by the External Auditors, (Post Office has appointed PWC, following a tender process) and the business wide risk and controls assurance work conducted by Internal Audit.

Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee is made up of three Non-Executive Directors and is chaired by Tim Parker.

The primary role of this committee is to recommend to the Board any changes in Board membership and manage the process for recruiting and replacing directors. The committee will keep under review the balance of skills, experience and diversity available within the Board and each of the Board sub-committees. The Nominations Committee will also oversee the process for Board and committee performance evaluation, and monitor talent and diversity. The Chief Executive may attend meetings, at the invitation of the Chairman, to discuss matters relating to the talent and diversity policies.

Remuneration Committee

The Remuneration Committee is made up of four Non-Executive Directors and is chaired by Ken McCall.

The Remuneration Committee is responsible for making recommendations to Post Office’s shareholder on the remuneration of the Executive Directors in accordance with the Articles of Association. In doing so, it reviews the remuneration policy and packages of the most senior leadership team, being the roles which report directly to the Chief Executive.