Chief Executive
Mark Grimshaw
Mark’s background combines private and public sector experience. After 4 years with the Royal Air Force, he moved into sales in the car rental and telecoms sectors. At Mercury Communications he gained major account management experience before becoming their Director of Travel and Industry Sector.
During his time at Cable and Wireless Mark focused on service delivery to customers in his roles as Customer Service Director for UK and Europe and then Senior Vice President for Service Delivery. This role in particular included a number of European and global accountabilities.
After a spell as interim Chief Executive Officer at Vocom, Mark joined Jobcentre Plus to head up their Employer Services function. His time since then has been at the Child Support Agency. After joining as Chief Operating Officer, he then took on the Strategic Programme Director role in January 2005 before returning as Chief Operating Officer in February 2008. Mark took over as Managing Director of the Child Support Agency in November 2009.
In January 2011, Mark joined the Rural Payments Agency as Chief Executive Officer.
Mark has an extensive track record in improving performance and customer focus in the private and public sector and will draw heavily on this experience to develop RPA.
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External Relations Director
Sharon Ellis
Sharon Ellis comes from a scientific and policy background and holds a PhD in Chemistry. She spent the first five years of her career in consultancy roles advising clients ranging from county councils to overseas administrations and including the UK Government.
Sharon joined the Civil Service in 2001 and has held a range of policy posts where her successes include establishing a self funding business improvement section in the Meat and Livestock Commission and securing a blocking minority for a proposed EU Framework Directive, saving UK Plc a potential £5 billion.
She was appointed External Relations Director in May but her involvement with RPA goes back to late 2008 when she was the Defra Policy Director leading a CAP Health Check and afterwards sponsoring the RPA within the department.
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Customer Director
Justin Chamberlain
Customer Director Justin Chamberlain, who joined RPA in July, has a marketing background and the early years of his career were spent working in the telecommunications industry mainly for the Swedish manufacturer Ericsson. Justin joined the Civil Service in 2003 as Employer Marketing Director at Jobcentre Plus and was successful in securing more job vacancies that converted more benefit claimants into work. He moved to the Child Support Agency in 2005 as Communications Director and as part of a new leadership team successfully delivered the three-year Operational Improvement Plan. He helped establish the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission in 2008 as Marketing & Communications Director, launching and developing the new Child Maintenance Options service to help more separated parents put in place maintenance arrangements for their children.
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Change Director
Ian Hewett
Ian has substantial Civil Service experience including policy, operations, IT and change management roles.
Having joined the RPA at its inception in 2001, he has held operational management responsibilities from 2005-09 and short term senior management roles in IT.
He has been instrumental in the agency’s three year Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) from the outset, in 2011. Ian played a major role in developing the structure and focus of the SIP.
As Change Director, he is responsible for leading programme management teams in the ongoing delivery of SIP projects which focus on key priorities and improvements for the RPA.
Ian joined the Civil Service in 1979 and held a variety of policy roles in MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) and then Defra, including assistant Regional Director in the South West, prior to joining RPA as Site Head.
During his time in central government, Ian has been seconded to the European Commission, spending 15 months in the Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate as a national expert. He also undertook a secondment with the Cabinet Office to work on an efficiency review. |  |
Design Director
Emma Appleby
Emma Appleby, who joined RPA in August 2012, has a background in delivering major business and customer services improvement in local and central government and in the private sector.
She has spent more than ten years focused on leading business transformation in the public sector including within the Department for Work and Pensions, Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, Jobcentre Plus (Universal Jobmatch), Identity and Passport Services and London Borough of Lambeth.
Prior to this, she worked in the Financial Services sector, as Business Process Re-engineering lead at HSBC Card Services. As Design Director, Emma leads a team responsible for developing and improving processes, training and internal guidance to support RPA’s Strategic Improvement Plan change projects, which focus on key priorities and improvements for the agency. She is also responsible for driving ongoing improvement and change across the agency’s operational processes.
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Information and Technology Director
Ed Schofield
Ed plays a key role in ensuring the Rural Payments Agency is in good shape to meet the challenges of the next round of Common Agricultural Policy reforms.
He and his team are responsible for defining and implementing the technology strategy to meet RPA policies and the Agency’s business strategy both long and short term. He will also lead the information strategy and implement solutions so that we build confidence in our information and systems to deliver high quality service to our customers.
Ed has over 20 years experience in the information technology industry where he analysed business problems, developed technical solutions and provided a modern and flexible infrastructure to deliver for West Sussex County Council’s internal and external customers.
Prior to this he was the Government Chief Technical Officer for one of the top five consultancies and his knowledge of enterprise architecture and his business delivery focus promises to stand him in good stead in his role as Information & Technology Director.
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Human Resources Director
Nicola Bettesworth
Nicola joined RPA as HR Director in July. She is a professionally qualified HR practitioner but has also run a large front-line operational command in the UK Border Agency (UKBA), where she was responsible for immigration and customs controls at two UK airports.
Nicola began her civil service human resources (HR) career in HM Customs & Excise and remained with the organisation as it merged to become HM Revenue & Customs, operating principally within the law enforcement areas and supporting people based in the UK and overseas. As an HR business partner in law enforcement, she was involved in the development of terms & conditions for the newly created Serious Organised Crime Agency.
Recently, Nicola has led the HR transformation in UKBA that involved the merger of immigration and customs to create Border Force. This included the development of new terms & conditions and a new grading model.
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Planning and Performance Director
John Carter
John Carter, who joined the RPA in July as Planning and Performance Director, has a track record of success in operational management and development of practical, customer-focused performance delivery plans.
He began his career in the former Department of Health and Social Security (now Work and Pensions) where after a series of case worker roles, he became involved in devising strategies aimed at improving the administration of the Jobseekers Allowance.
After joining the Child Support Agency in 1997, he took on various operational management roles before becoming responsible for strategies to support the successful delivery of the Agency’s high-profile operational improvement plan. As Head of Performance between 2008 and 2011, he devised and implemented plans which significantly increased the numbers of children receiving child support maintenance.
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Operations Manager
Paul Caldwell
Paul has a scientific background having begun his Civil Service career with the former Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (now Defra) as part of a team responsible for monitoring and authorising nuclear discharge licenses.
In 1998 he joined the newly formed British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) and was part of the management team involved in its merger with RPA five years later. Within the Agency, he has held various roles including operations, communications and strategy. Most recently, Paul was the manager of the BCMS and became Site Head at Workington four years ago.
In November 2010 he was appointed interim Operations Director and in September 2011 was appointed Operations Director. Paul is currently responsible for oversight of Single Payment Scheme, Inspections, Trader, and Rural Development Schemes.
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Finance, Assurance and Commercial Director
Anne-Marie Millar
Our new Finance, Assurance and Commercial Director comes to the RPA from Defra where she spent the last two years as Director of Finance, a role which included overseeing the RPA finance function.
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Non-Executive Directors
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Chair of the Agency Management Board
Trevor Spires
Following the completion of a university engineering apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce Aero Engines, Trevor joined the Royal Navy from which he retired in early 2009, in the rank of Rear Admiral. Having initially joined as an academic training speciallist, as his naval career developed he undertook a variety of operational and management roles. In the latter part of his career he specialised in personnel management and spent the 6 years prior to leaving the Royal Navy as the Chief Executive of the Agency responsible for support services to all UK armed forces serving and retired personnel. Key parts of this role were the payment of £13billion per annum in salary and pensions to a global customer base of around 1 million individuals and the building of effective relationships with commercial partners. He was awarded a CBE in the 2009 New Year Honours list.
Since leaving the Royal Navy Trevor has developed a portfolio of Non-Executive Director roles, predominantly in the public sector, and charity Trustee roles. To all of these roles he brings expertise in financial management, strategic thinking, change and risk management, service delivery and corporate governance.
He is married with 2 grown up children who have fled the nest and he lives in Hampshire but also has a small house in France. He is addicted to boy's toys, expecially those with 2 or 4 wheels.
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Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
Peter Conway
Peter is a Non-Executive Director and the Audit Chairman of Kent Community Health NHS Trust. He is also an Independent Member of the Audit Committees of the Home Office and the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, a Trustee Director of Tonbridge & Malling Citizens Advice Bureau and owner of www.antiquemapschest.co.uk
Previously, he worked for Barclays Bank PLC for 27 years latterly as a Finance Director. He has also been an Independent Member of the Audit Committees of DEFRA and the Health and Safety Executive and a Non-Executive Director and Audit Chairman of NHS West Kent.
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Alison White
Alison has worked for many years at the most senior level of business specialising in commercial strategy and change leadership. Much of her experience has been with the Royal Mail Group, where she qualified as an accountant and MBA, and led international operations, and mergers and acquisitions, eventually leading the Consumer and Small Business, with revenues of c.£3bn.
More recently, as a qualified Chartered Director, Alison’s focus has been on building a Non-Executive career, blending strong strategic, financial and commercial skills, with professional expertise in corporate governance, risk management and Board accountability. She is a Non-Executive Director of Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, and chairs its Audit Committee, and a Non-Executive Director of HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
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