Team Members

Carl is a civil servant in the UKGI/MOD joint unit and leads the shareholder teams for Sheffield Forgemasters and Defence Equipment and Support. He also advises the MOD on a range of governance, corporate finance and asset sale issues.

Prior to joining UKGI Defence, Carl was Director of strategy and policy at Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water industry, and has previously held senior public policy roles at British Airways, Lloyds Banking Group/TSB Bank and the government’s Money Advice Service, and chaired a review of the ownership and governance of the main UK payment system operators. He previously worked in HM Treasury on a range of financial services, infrastructure, and regulatory policy issues, and started his career working in local and regional government on economic development and governance policy.

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Owen joined UKGI in September 2023 to lead the Insurance branch in the Contingent Liabilities Central Capability (CLCC). He is a qualified actuary who is on secondment from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) where he has worked for the past 11 years. In that time Owen has advised a wide range of public sector clients including various funded pension schemes, regulators and central government departments. Most recently, he led the team advising HM Treasury on public service pension policy. Prior to joining GAD, he worked in the private sector for the insurance software provider, Acturis.

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Iain Mackay was appointed a Non-Executive Director of UK Government Investments in November 2023.

Iain spent most of his career in senior finance leadership roles and retired as CFO of GSK plc and as an executive director on the GSK Board in April 2023. Prior to joining GSK in early 2019, Iain was Group Finance Director of HSBC Holdings plc, a position he held for eight years. In his earlier career Iain undertook senior finance leadership roles for: HSBC in North America and Asia; for The General Electric Company of the US for almost 12 years in diverse areas including Consumer Finance, Healthcare and Corporate Audit and; for Schlumberger in Africa and Asia.  A chartered accountant, Iain’s formative career was with Thomson Maclintock in Aberdeen and with Price Waterhouse in New York and Paris. He holds an MA in Business Studies and Accounting and an Honorary Doctorate from Aberdeen University.

Current additional appointments:

• Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, member of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Finance Committee at National Grid plc
• Non-Executive Director of Schroders plc since January 2024

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Since joining the Shareholder Executive (now UKGI) in 2015, Stuart has worked on a variety of corporate finance projects, asset sales and corporate governance shareholder teams.

Stuart currently works within UKGI Defence, UKGI’s joint unit with the Ministry of Defence, where he built and leads the Defence Corporate Finance team, which provides financial and strategic analysis and advice to MOD, helping to ensure effective relationships with, and improved performance from, defence suppliers. Stuart also leads UKGI’s shareholder team for National Highways which, as part of a joint team with the Department for Transport, oversees Government’s shareholding. Stuart’s previous shareholder roles include Porton Biopharma, UK Green Infrastructure Platform and Working Links.

In addition to his role at UKGI, Stuart spent 6 years with the charity, Tramshed Arts, as a member of the Capital Development Board, as Board Member and Trustee, and ultimately also as Treasurer.

Prior to joining UKGI, Stuart worked for 15 years in investment banking and corporate finance, including roles at JP Morgan, Bear Stearns and Piper Jaffray, where he advised companies across Europe on M&A and capital raising, latterly focusing on the healthcare sector. He subsequently worked as an intelligence officer at the National Crime Agency.

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Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB was appointed Non-Executive Director of UK Government Investments in September 2023.

Vanessa has more than 35 years’ experience working in the digital data community and has a background in geographical information and space applications. From 2000-2014, Vanessa was Director General and CEO of Ordnance Survey. From 2011-2015, she was a founding co-chair of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). Prior to joining Ordnance Survey, she held senior roles with the billion-dollar American software company, Autodesk Inc and the global media and publishing company, Pearson plc. Today, Vanessa is working internationally as a senior advisor to overseas governments, inter-governmental organisations and large private sector organisations.

Current appointments include:

• Director of Location International
• Non-Executive Director and Trustee of the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and AI
• Non-Executive Director for the Satellite Applications Catapult
• Chair of the UK’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Geospatial Systems
• Adjunct Professor at the University of Southampton
• Patron of two charities – MapAction and Cure Parkinson’s

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Andy Halford was appointed Non-Executive Director in October 2023.

Andy was Group Chief Financial Officer and Group Executive Director of Standard Chartered PLC from July 2014 until January 2024. Andy joined Standard Chartered from Vodafone Group PLC, where he spent 15 years including 9 years as Chief Financial Officer. Andy joined Vodafone Group PLC in 1999 as Financial Director for Vodafone Limited, and in 2001 he became Financial Director for Vodafone’s Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa Region. In 2002, Andy was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Verizon Wireless in the US and was a Member of the Board of Representatives of the Verizon Wireless Partnership. Andy became Chief Financial Officer of Vodafone Group PLC in July 2005, a position which he held until March 2014. Prior to Vodafone, Andy was Finance Director at East Midlands Electricity PLC. Andy was, until recently, the Senior Independent Director of Marks and Spencer Group PLC and is a former Chairman of the Hundred Group of Finance Directors.

Andy holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial economics from Nottingham University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

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Shehroze joined UKGI in September 2021 and currently serves as the organisation’s first Chief Data Officer. In this capacity Shehroze is responsible for overseeing the analytical work undertaken by UKGI and identifying opportunities to unlock efficiencies across the organisation by leveraging data and insights. In addition, Shehroze is responsible for leading the Portfolio Analysis & Engagement team within the Contingent Liability Central Capability. As part of this he has led work to aggregate contingent liability data from across government and drive data-driven decision making to improve risk management. Prior to joining UKGI, Shehroze lead an analytical unit within the Infrastructure and Projects Authority to bring together government’s £650bn National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, advise on the delivery of major government projects and programmes as well as inform decision making around fiscal events.

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Gareth joined the Board of UK Government Investments in July 2023.

Gareth Davies is Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business and Trade. Previously he was Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade. Gareth has also been the Second Permanent Secretary and a Director General in the Department for Transport. His responsibilities included decarbonising transport, technology, international and security.

Earlier in his career he was a Director General in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He has led the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and was a Private Secretary in Downing Street.

Gareth started his career in PricewaterhouseCoopers working across Central and Eastern Europe and has worked for AIA, the life insurance company based in Hong Kong.

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Chad re-joined UKGI in January 2023, having spent 4 years as the Deputy Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Director of Trade & Investment for Saudi Arabia, based in the British Embassy in Riyadh. Chad spent the first 8 years of his career at Unilever. He then joined the Government in 2007 and worked on regulatory reform policy, asset sales and trade & investment. During Chad’s previous spell at UKGI, he worked on a range of corporate assets, including leading the student loan sale programme.

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Sascha joined UKGI in April 2021. His private sector background is in investment banking with Lazard, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and CITIC Securities based in London.  He has led and advised on public and private M&A transactions as well as capital raisings across Europe. Sascha holds a degree in international management from the University of Manchester.

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