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, four 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 has been CEO of several well-known companies: Kenwood, Clarks, Kwik-Fit, the AA and Samsonite. He has served as a Non-Executive Director on a number of FTSE 100 companies: Legal and General, Alliance Boots and Compass Group, and has been a Board member of the Audit Commission and the South West Regional Development Agency. He has been an Industrial Partner at CVC Capital Partners.

Tim is the Executive Chairman of Samsonite Corporation and Non-Executive Chairman of the National Trust.

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 is Group Chief Operating Officer 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.

Richard Callard

Richard Callard – Non-Executive Director Joined the Board 26 March 2014

[Member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee]

Richard is appointed to the Board as the representative of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).  He is an Executive Director at UK Government Investments (UKGI) and has a wealth of public sector and government experience.  A Chartered Accountant by background, he joined government from Deloitte corporate finance in 2009, where he had advised the public and private sector on public private partnerships and other infrastructure and project finance deals.

Richard leads the Post Office and Green Investment Bank shareholder teams at UKGI

Tim Franklin

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

[Member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and Chairman of the Post Office Advisory Council]

Tim’s executive career spans both building societies and banking, including roles with Barclays as Director of Customer Programmes and Loyalty and Managing Director of Barclays Savings.  In his executive and non-executive roles, which include Link Cash Machines Network and Mutual Plus Limited, Tim has gained considerable in-depth experience in financial services, IT and business transformation.

Tim is currently Interim Chairman and Senior Independent Director at HM Land Registry, where he chairs the Audit Committee. 

Virginia Holmes

Virginia Holmes - Non-Executive Director Joined the Board 4 April 2012

[Member of both the Nominations and the Remuneration Committees]

Virginia brings to the Board extensive knowledge of the financial services industry, including both investment management and banking.  Her experience in financial services and in business transformation was gained while serving as Chief Executive of AXA Investment Managers UK and in more than a decade with the Barclays Bank Group.

Virginia chairs USS Investment Management Limited and the British Airways pension plans, and is on the Boards of Intermediate Capital Group PLC and Investor Forum CIC.

Carla Stent

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

(Chairman of Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee)

Carla, a qualified Chartered Accountant, has held a number of senior positions in banking, private equity and in retail industries.  She has had direct responsibility for corporate finance and post-merger integration, strategy, business operations, brand development and management and business transformation.  Carla has worked at Board level for organisations including Barclays Bank plc and Virgin Group and was a Non-Executive Director of Christian Aid.

Carla is a Non-Executive Director of JPM Morgan Elect plc, Marex Spectron Limited and Power to Change Trust (which she also chairs). ​

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.

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards – Group Strategy Director

Martin Edwards is the Post Office’s Group Strategy Director, responsible for developing the business’s overall corporate strategy and building its growing identity services business. Since 2014 the Post Office has been one of the leading providers for the GOV.UK Verify programme, building on its long standing history as a trusted interface between citizens, government and the private sector.

Prior to joining the Post Office Martin worked on a range of policy and strategy roles at HM Treasury, the Home Office and UK Financial Investments.

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. 

Martin Kirke – HR Director

Martin Kirke – Group HR Director

Martin was promoted to be HR Director for the Post Office in November 2016 having joined in March as 2016 to head the engagement and Industrial Relations. He previously held HR and Change Director roles at Ericsson, Serco and BP where he was HR Global Operations Director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacifc. Martin has previously held non-executive director roles and has experience outside HR as a General Manager in Telecoms services.

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.

A second major responsibility has been to promote the development of a risk management framework suited to the complex nature of the Post Office business. This will take some time, and is a key focus area for the coming year. The development of risk management and control procedures and the establishment of a full internal audit programme are areas of high priority.

It will consider financial controls alongside the financial audit work conducted by the External Auditors, (E&Y) 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 three 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.