Governance & Stakeholders
Our Board
PUK has four Executive Directors, including Chief Executive James Stewart, and seven Non-Executive Directors, including representatives from HM Treasury and the shareholder executive. Private shareholders do not have any direct board memberships.The Non-Executive Chairman is Gordon Horsfield, who succeeded Sir Derek Higgs in April 2007.
Gordon Horsfield - Chairman Gordon Horsfield is a non-executive director of Norwich and Peterborough Building society, a non-executive director of Turner & Townsend plc, Chair of the Council of the University of York and Chairman of the Strategy Committee to the Ampleforth Abbey Trust.
Gordon retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers in January 2003 after 34 years’ service. Much of his professional career was spent as a corporate recovery specialist rising to become head of corporate finance and recovery at Price Waterhouse UK and a member of the UK firm’s executive board. Following the merger with Coopers & Lybrand in 1998, he was appointed to the new management board as the first director of operations of the UK firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, responsible for the new firm’s finances and for pulling together and rationalising the organisational and support functions of the UK business following the merger. Subsequently he led the team dealing with the sale of its management consulting business to IBM.
James Stewart - Chief Executive
James is the Chief Executive of Partnerships UK.He was appointed in May 2000.He is also a Director of the Northern Ireland Strategic Investment Board, a member of the Unitary Board of Partnerships for Schools and a Non-Executive Director on Sport England. Previously James was Head of Newcourt Capital’s project finance team in London.Prior to joining Newcourt Capital, James was Managing Director of Project Finance and the Global Head of Infrastructure and Environment with Société Générale (SG) in London.
PUK's Non-Executive Directors
PUK has seven Non-Executive Directors; our company secretary is James Ballingall.
Gren Folwell – Non-Executive Director
David Clements – Non-Executive Director
Claudia Arney – Non-Executive Director
Peter Schofield – Non-Executive Director
Andy Friend – Non-Executive Director
Stephen Lovegrove – Non-Executive Director
James Ballingall - Company Secretary
Meet our Executive Directors
PUK's four Executive Directors are James Stewart, Michael Gerrard, Christina McComb and Andrew Rose.
Michael Gerrard - Deputy Chief Executive
Michael Gerrard became a director of PUK in 2000 and Deputy CEO in 2002. Previously he was a director of the Treasury Taskforce which he joined in 1998, becoming head of its Projects Team in 1999. Prior to joining the Treasury Taskforce, he held senior project finance positions in several large energy and infrastructure projects in the UK, Middle East and Asia. This followed an earlier career with Morgan Grenfell in project finance and with BP in engineering.
Christina McComb - Executive Director
Christina joined PUK in May 2006. She is head of PUK’s venture investment and commercialisation activities; she also sits on the Investment Committee of Building Schools for the Future Investments LLP.
Prior to joining PUK, Christina was a senior director in the Shareholder Executive, an organisation created in 2003 to improve the government's performance as a shareholder in public owned enterprises. In particular, she was responsible for the shareholdings in Royal Mail, PUK and Actis. Christina is a former director of 3i plc and has extensive experience in venture capital investment and portfolio management. She is a non-executive director of several early stage businesses and sits on the investors’ advisory boards of Imperial Innovations Group and the London Technology Fund.
Andrew Rose - Executive Director
Andrew Rose joined the board of PUK in February 2005 following a seventeen year career at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). For the previous seven years, Andrew had been Managing Director, Investment Banking in London responsible for the Bank’s Infrastructure team. This team has predominately focused on PFI / PPP transactions.
Andrew led the negotiations for the banking groups on the Metronet and Skynet transactions, between which, £4 billion of private finance was raised. CIBC was also financial advisor to the private sector winning bidders on the Home Office accommodation transaction in addition to PFI deals in the health and waste sectors. Andrew worked for CIBC in Dallas, Chicago and London covering many sectors and most recently was Chairman of the Bank’s Credit and Deals Committee for the European Region.
Craig Anderson - Finance Director
Prior to joining, Craig, a finance professional with over 12 years experience of working at board level in a number of companies, spent 9 years at Thames Water, most recently as Managing Director of its Commercial Business in the UK and Ireland. In this role he had accountability for all of Thames’ PFI and PPP contracts and investments throughout the UK and Ireland. Previously, Craig had been Finance Director of Thames’ Regulated Business (Thames Water Utilities Ltd) post the acquisition of Thames Water by RWE ( a German utility Company).
Prior to joining Thames Water Craig held a number of finance positions within Unisys (and American computer company) for 9 years and British Gas for 3 years.
Non Executive Directors biographies
Brief biographies of our non-executive directors are provided below.
Gren Folwell Gren Folwell’s career spans both the public and private sectors. He was Director of Finance of the London Borough of Bexley and City Treasurer of Sheffield MDC before joining the Halifax as Treasurer in 1986. Gren served on the Halifax Board from 1989 as Group Finance Director and, following its flotation and merger with the Leeds Permanent in 1995, became Managing Director and subsequently Deputy Group Chief Executive.
Since his retirement, Gren Folwell has built up a portfolio of non-executive Directorships. He is currently Deputy Chairman of Software Solutions Partners plc, Chairman of Compass Finance Group plc and Network Data Holdings plc. He is also a non-executive director of 4Ps and IPF Limited.
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David Clements
A Chartered Civil Engineer with some 40 years experience in the engineering and construction industry, David has extensive experience of PFI and PPP projects.
Until 2004, David was a member of the Atkins Group Management Board, responsible for the company’s PFI and PPP project developments and also for its Facilities Management business. He has now retired from full-time employment but continues to work in non-executive consultancy roles.
Prior to joining Atkins, David had a wide-ranging career in engineering and construction in the UK and overseas, including over 20 years with the Balfour Beatty Group and a period with the Biwater Group before heading up a venture capital-backed business which he sold to Atkins in 1994.
He was for several years chairman of the Business Services Association PFI Committee and had been a regular speaker at industry forums and conferences, providing the private sector perspective on PFI and PPP projects. He also helped to produce the “Constructors Key Guide to the Private Finance Initiative”.
During his time at Atkins, David was involved in some of the most significant PFI and PPP projects undertaken to date, including hospitals, schools, roads, prisons and most recently the London Underground PPP project with Metronet and the £550m Colchester Garrison PFI project. David has acted as a director and frequently also as chairman of the companies formed to undertake these projects.
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Claudia Arney
Claudia Arney is currently Project Manager of Electronic Publishing at Informa PLC, an academic, scientific and professional publishing company. She is responsible for the development and growth of the online product portfolio which covers the academic, tax and legal, finance and insurance, telecoms and media, maritime and transport, healthcare, energy and commodities, government and public sector, and real estate and construction sectors.
Claudia was Director of the Enterprise and Growth Unit at HM Treasury from 2006-2008 where she was responsible for many of the policy issues which affect business including; competition, regulation, productivity, as well BERR and DIUS spending issues. She was also responsible for HM Treasury policy on PPP and PFI.
Claudia has previously worked at Goldman Sachs as an Executive Director (2001 – 2006) in the Equities and Research divisions. Claudia has also worked at TheStreet.co.uk as Managing Director (1999- 2000), FT.com as Head of Product Development (1998 – 1999), Pearson plc as Strategy and Development Executive (1994- 1998), and McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst (1992 – 1994).
Claudia has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University (1989 – 1992), and an MBA from INSEAD (1996- 1997).
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Peter Schofield (Treasury nominee)
Peter has been Director of the Enterprise and Growth Unit at HM Treasury since February 2008. He has overall responsibility in the Treasury for many of the policy issues which impact business, competition, regulation, productivity, enterprise and venture capital, corporate governance and institutional investment, and the spending programmes of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Transport. He is also responsible for policy on public-private partnerships and the remaining state-owned industries.
Prior to that, Peter spent four years as a Director in the Shareholder Executive, where he led on the shareholder interests in MOD Trading Funds, QinetiQ, Royal Mint, NATS and Northern Ireland Water, as well as Partnerships UK.
Between 2002 and 2004, Peter was seconded from the Treasury to 3i Group plc, where he worked with the London Buy-Out Team – a team of 25 professionals focusing on large management buyouts.
Between 1991 and 2002, Peter worked for HM Treasury in a variety of roles including Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary and leading the Public Enterprise Partnerships team. This included work on the PPPs for London Underground and National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and the privatisation of British Energy.
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Andy Friend
Andy Friend is currently Commercial Advisor to the Department for Transport, a Non-Executive Director of ING Atlas Infrastructure Fund, a non-executive director of FSA (UK) Ltd and a Trustee of Oxfam.
Between 1999 and 2006 he worked for John Laing Plc -as respectively Managing Director Investments and Group Chief Executive - where he was responsible for restructuring the company as a leading listed specialist infrastructure investor.
Between 1997 and 1999 he worked as an Associate Director at Macquarie in London and prior to that was Chief Executive Officer of the City of Melbourne, Australia. His earlier career was spent at the Greater London Council and working for a wide range of community and voluntary sector groups.
Andy has had experience of working across the private sector and with governments at all levels
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Stephen Lovegrave
Stephen Lovegrove is one of the HM Treasury nominees on the Board. He has been the Chief Executive of the Shareholder Executive since June 2007, where he is responsible for the overall lead on portfolio businesses, strategy and delivery of the business plan. The Shareholder Executive was formed in 2003 to provide oversight of the Government’s remaining businesses and stakes including the Royal Mail, British Energy, British Waterways, the Royal Mint, the Met Office, Channel 4 and over twenty others.
Previously, he spent ten years at Deutsche Bank, where he was the head of the European media team. During that time Stephen worked on a wide range of capital raisings, acquisitions and divestments in all the sub-sectors of the media industry. Before that, he spent five years as a strategic consultant.
Stephen worked with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on the London 2012 bid and the BBC Charter Review. He sits as Government’s representative on the board of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).
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James Ballingall - Company Secretary
James Ballingall was appointed Head of Legal at PUK on 21st April 2003 and Company Secretary to Partnerships UK on 19th May 2003. Prior to this, James was a Partner at Theodore Goddard Solicitors (now Addleshaw Goddard) where he led the projects and structured finance and rail teams and chaired the Strategy Committee. At PUK, James is responsible for all corporate legal matters, organises legal support for the different PUK groups and their sector work. James leads the regulatory, guidance and standardisation business streams.
While at Theodore Goddard, James advised contractors, lenders, bidders and service providers on a range of PFI and PPP projects covering education, health, MOD, prisons and other sectors. He also provided legal input to the National Audit Office on a number of their PFI reviews. Prior to this, he was involved in a number of bids arising out of the BR privatisation and advised on structured finance transactions over a broad field concentrating in particular on the transportation advisory panel.
Back to Top Commitment to Transparency and Corporate Responsibility
PUK is committed to complete transparency in how we work and conduct our affairs. We have an Advisory Council, whose role is to advise us on any issues that arise from our role as a PPP and our public sector mission. In conjunction with the Advisory Council we have produced codes of conduct that explain our relationships with our shareholders and how we will manage any conflict of interest that may arise.
We have adopted a set of policies and practices designed to promote sustainability and preserve natural resources and the more general environment. Additionally, we have recently published our commitment to
corporate and social responsibility.
Annual Reports
Each year we report on our activities and performance, publishing our annual Report and Accounts. Separately our Advisory Council produce their own independent report.
Annual Report 2008
Advisory Council Annual Report 2006 - 2007
Advisory Council
HM Treasury has established an Advisory Council to oversee the work of PUK and ensure that it remains on mission. The Council is made up exclusively of members from the public sector and meets at least twice a year. It is chaired by Nick MacPherson, Permanent Secretary of HM Treaury.
Click here to view a pdf copy of the PUK Advisory Council's Selection Criteria
Click here to view a pdf copy of the PUK Advisory Council's Terms of Reference
Advisory Council members
Below is a list of the members of our Advisory Council.
Central Government Stakeholders
Nick Macpherson HM Treasury (Chair)
Andrew Burchell Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
John Collington Home Office
Richard Douglas Department of Health
Peter Houten Dept. for Children, Schools and Families
Gordon McKechnie HM Treasury
Kate Mingay Department for Transport
Amyas Morse Ministry of Defence
Hunada Nouss Communities and Local Government
Tony Sims UK Trade and Investment
Nigel Smith Office of Government Commerce
Devolved administrations stakeholders
David Gavaghan NI Strategic Investment Board
Sandy Rosie Scottish Government
Martin Sykes Value Wales
Other public sector stakeholders
Steve Allen Transport for London
Paul Coen Local Government Association
Ken Gillespie Kirklees Council
Ed Humpherson National Audit Office
Barry Quirk London Borough of Lewisham
Dr. Doug Yarrow Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council