Our Board

Nigel Railton - Interim Chair

Joined the Board May 2024

Chair of the Nominations Committee and member of the Remuneration Committee. Member of the Remediation Committee, effective 27 July 2024

Nigel was appointed Interim Chair of the Post Office on 24^th May 2024. Prior to joining the Post Office, Nigel was the CEO of Camelot UK, the operator of The National Lottery. During his tenure as CEO, Camelot recorded the highest ever sales, returns to good causes and key performance metrics.

Nigel’s career began as a signal box operative in Crewe South Junction when he was 16 years old. He worked in various roles within British Rail such as a Project Accountant for Railtrack and Senior Management Accountant for RailFreight Distribution. He left the railway industry in 1995 and held finance and marketing roles at Black & Decker UK and Daewoo Cars Ltd.

He joined Camelot UK in 1998 as Head of Finance, before becoming Operations and Strategy Director in 2003. He joined the Board of Camelot UK as Finance Director in 2006 and in 2010 led its acquisition to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for £400m. In 2014, he became the Chief Executive Officer of a startup company, Camelot Global, and won multiple contracts in the USA and Europe, creating c.$1bn of enterprise value. In 2017, Nigel was asked to become Chief Executive Officer of Camelot UK to lead a business turnaround.

Nigel’s Non-Executive Board level experience includes being a Non-Executive Director of Uthingo SA, the first operator of the National Lottery of South Africa, where he was Chair of the Remuneration Committee and key advisor to the CEO. He was also a Non-Executive Director of Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC (the operator of the Irish National Lottery), serving as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.

In 2019, Nigel became a Non-Executive Director of a financial services company, Argentex Group PLC, serving as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and Senior Non-Executive Director, before becoming Non-Executive Chairman in 2023.

Nigel is a qualified accountant.

Nick Read - Chief Executive

Joined the Board September 2019

Nick joined Post Office as Chief Executive Officer in September 2019. Nick was most recently Group CEO at Extra Energy and prior to that CEO at Nisa Retail Limited where he led the stabilisation and transformation of the business ahead of its sale to the Co-Op in 2018.

Nick has over 25 years of consumer and commercial experience and has previously held senior roles at Tesco, Vodafone, HBOS, Lloyds Banking Group and Thomas Cook. In his earlier career, Nick was a Consumer and Retail Strategy Manager at Deloitte Consulting, a Purchasing Director for Aldi UK and spent 4 years as Captain of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guard, H.M. Forces. 

Saf Ismail - Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board in June 2021

Member of the Nominations Committee

Saf is an experienced Postmaster with a Business Economics degree and over a decade of involvement in running, developing, growing and developing award-winning branches.

He operates several Post Office branches, from small community branches to larger high street and town centre branches. 

Elliot Jacobs - Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board in June 2021

Member of the Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee and the Investment Committee

Elliot has over 25 years’ of multi-channel business experience and has been a Postmaster for six years. He currently runs eight ‘Mains’ branches in London and Hertfordshire. His UOE Store and Post Offices were recognised in 2018 when the East Finchley branch won ‘Independent Post Office of the Year’ at the Retail Industry awards. Prior to his current roles, he worked in the computer games (Electronic Arts) and financial software industry (Intuit Inc). He also successfully divested his business-to-business stationery division in 2019 to focus on his retail portfolio. 

Elliot was previously a Non-Executive Director (and former chairman) of Office Friendly Dealer Association and a Non-Executive Director of BOSS Federation. He is a certified Master Strategy Summit Facilitator and International Accelerator Trainer for Entrepreneurs Organization as well as Mentor & Business Coach at London Business School’s Global Entrepreneur Programme.

Brian Gaunt - Non-Executive Director 

Joined the Board in January 2022

Member of the Remuneration Committee and Interim Chair of the Remediation Committee

Brian has spent his career in General Management within the Supply Chains of Retail, Manufacturing, E-Commerce, and Outsourced Companies. Most recently he has been CEO of Home Delivery Network (now branded Yodel) and iForce, both privately owned companies providing supply chain support to the e-commerce sector.

Prior to these appointments he sat on the Management Boards of Christian Salvesen PLC whilst employed as UK Managing Director, and on the Board of The Big Food Group PLC whilst employed as Group Logistics Director. In the role of European Supply Chain Director, he also sat on the Operating Boards of ASDA Stores, ASDA Walmart, and Walmart Germany.

During his career Brian has also been employed by Scottish and Newcastle Breweries PLC, Grand Metropolitan PLC, United Biscuits PLC, Touche Ross Management Consultants and B & Q.

Having achieved the sale of iForce to an AIM listed business in 2017 Brian has subsequently moved his career onto a non-Executive bias. Until 2021 he was Non-Executive Chairman of Buy it Direct, the on-line electrical retailer. He was the Non-Executive Chairman of Mosaic Fulfilment Solutions Ltd, an LDC owned company. He is the Non-Executive Director of the privately owned ITD Global.

Simon Jeffreys - Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board in March 2023

Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and member of the Nominations Committee

Simon brings experience of the auditing world and financial services. Until 2023 he chaired AON UK Limited and Henderson International Income Trust plc. He was a Non-Executive Director of St James’s Place plc where he chaired the Audit Committee, and was a member of the Risk, Remuneration and Nominations Committees. He recently was Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at SimCorp A/S. He was a senior audit partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP from 1986 to 2006 where he also led their Global Investment Management practice. Between 2006 and 2014, Simon was CFO and Chief Operating Officer at Fidelity International and at The Wellcome Trust.

Simon chairs the Board of St James Place International plc, and is Chair of the Audit and Risk Committees of Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust plc, a listed Danish financial services software company, and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Amanda Burton - Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board April 2023

Chair of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Nominations Committee

Amanda began her career as a lawyer, working in both private practice and as General Counsel in a number of industries. She was appointed executive director of Meyer International PLC in 1997 and became Chair of its Timber Division a year later. Following the acquisition of Meyer by Saint Gobain, she joined the global law firm Clifford Chance LLP in 2000 and carried out a number of operational roles, leading to her appointment as Global Chief Operating Officer in 2010.

For the past 25 years Amanda has been a Non-Executive Director of a number of public, private and charitable organisations and has chaired several Remuneration Committees, most recently Countryside Partnerships plc and HSS Hire Group plc.

Lorna Gratton, Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board in May 2023

Member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, the Investment Committee, the Nominations Committee, the Remuneration Committee and the Remediation Committee

Lorna joined UKGI in October 2021. She has had a varied career both in and out of government. She is an experienced senior civil servant having been a director at DCMS and served as Private Secretary to two Prime Ministers. Prior to this, she was a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group working primarily in utilities and financial services. She began her civil service career in the Treasury.

Lorna sat on the Board of Sheffield Forgemasters, a steel forge and precision manufacturer recently acquired by MoD.

She started her career as a secondary school maths teacher in Peckham.

Andrew Darfoor, Senior Independent Director

Joined the Board in June 2023

Chair of the Investment Committee and member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee

Andrew brings over 25 years of general management and leadership experience within consumer and retail financial services sectors across several continents. He is the previous Group CEO of Alexander Forbes (listed South African financial services company), CEO of Sun Life Financial International (listed Canadian financial services company) and CEO of Old Mutual Bermuda (subsidiary of Old Mutual plc). He also held senior management roles at UBS AG, Credit Suisse AG and Ernst & Young LLP.

Andrew chairs the Board of Capita Pensions Solutions Limited, is Chairman of Damhurst & Co, Chairman of the Audit, Nominations and Remuneration Committees and Non-Executive director at Hartford International (subsidiary of Hartford Financial Services Group), Chairman of the Finance & Risk Committee and Trustee at World Vision UK and is a Board member at Cranfield School of Management.