Our Executive Team

Nick Read – Chief Executive

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.

Owen Woodley – Deputy Chief Executive

Owen joined the Post Office in June 2016 as the Sales Director, 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. He was promoted to Group Chief Commercial Officer in February 2020 and Deputy Chief Executive in July 2023.

Owen has also been a Governor of Nottingham Trent University since 2014.

Alisdair Cameron – Group Chief Finance 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 previously served an 8 year term as a Non-Executive Director of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Ben Foat – Group General Counsel

Ben was appointed to General Counsel of Post Office Limited in May 2019. He is responsible for managing the legal, compliance and company secretariat departments across the organisation and works with executive management and boards in helping to shape strategy, maximise commercial opportunity and mitigate legal, regulatory and governance risk.

Prior to Joining Post Office, he was employed at Zurich Insurance plc in the UK and was previously a Senior Associate in private practice in Australia. He has spoken at various industry events in relation to legal operations, legal technology and emerging resource models. In 2018, he was awarded Solicitor of the Year – Inhouse by the Law Society, shortlisted for Diversity Hero at the 2019 British LGBT+ Awards as well as being listed in the Financial Times OUTstanding 2017 and 2018 lists for his leadership in Diversity and Inclusion.

Ben holds a Master of Laws, Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Political Science.

Martin Roberts - Group Chief Retail Officer

Martin Roberts, Group Chief Retail Officer, joined the Post Office in February 2022. He is accountable for the leadership and future development of the network’s 11,500 branches, Strategic Partnerships and Supply Chain.

Martin has over 38 years of senior management experience with many of the top retailers in the UK and internationally. He previously held Executive Committee roles at Sainsburys, DIY chain Wickes, Vodafone UK and International and most recently was a member of the Executive Committee at B&M Retail, the leading discount retailer, where he was involved with the team that led this business into the FTSE 100.

Martin is also Non-Executive Chairman at GoAudits since 2019 and Non-Executive Chairman at Taxi Studio from 2021.

Richard Taylor - Group Corporate Affairs, Communications & Brand Director

Richard joined the Post Office in January 2020 after four years as Communications Director at ScottishPower and six years as Corporate Affairs and Communications Director at the supermarket chain Morrisons.

Richard has over 25 years of political, media and commercial experience having previously worked for the CBI, the Labour Party, as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and as a Partner at Portland Communications. He holds an MPhil in Environment and Development from the University of Cambridge.

Tim McInnes - Strategy & Transformation Director

Tim joined Post Office in February 2020 as Strategy & Transformation Director and has responsibility for group-wide strategy as well as change governance. As Chair of Post Office’s investment committee Tim is responsible for all investment approvals across the business and ensuring these are linked to the overall Group strategy.

Prior to the Post Office, Tim was an Executive Director at UK Government Investments with coverage of assets across a wide range of Government Departments including BEIS, DCMS, MoD and DLUHC. Prior to this Tim worked in mergers and acquisitions in London, New York and Vienna for Lazard and ABN AMRO.

Tim has also been the Chair of the Herne Hill Velodrome Trust since 2019.

Chris Brocklesby - Chief Transformation Officer

Chris joined the Post Office in August 2023. He is responsible for all aspects of IT and Change at the Post Office including the transformation programme which will replace Horizon. Chris has spent the last 15 years in various CIO roles in Retail, Travel, Telecoms and Financial Services with businesses such as Tesco, Tesco Bank, easyJet, Vodafone and Dunelm.

Prior to this, he had a 20 year career in IT consultancy as a partner in Accenture’s Financial Services London practice. 

Karen McEwan - Group Chief People Officer

Karen joined the Post Office in September 2023 as Group Chief People Officer. Karen has an extensive executive leadership background, most recently with more than six years at McColl’s, acting as Interim Chief Executive Officer to lead the business through the administration process to the successful sale to Morrisons plc. This appointment followed a five-year period leading cultural change as their Chief People Officer and subsequently Chief Operating Officer.

Before her time at McColl’s, Karen held a variety of Director roles during a long and successful career at Tesco, which spanned general management and HR, including five years as People Director where she led the HR transformation for Tesco’s UK Operation.

Karen was recently named as a ‘woman to watch in retail’, for her achievements in diversity and inclusion.