CEO

Charles was appointed Chief Executive in March 2020, having joined UK Government Investments in May 2018 as Head of the Financial Institutions Group.

Prior to that, he spent his career in investment banking working in both corporate advisory and equity research. He joined UKGI from Credit Suisse where he was Vice Chairman of UK Advisory & Corporate Broking having previously been Co-Head of UK Investment Banking.

Charles is a Non-Executive Director at the UK Infrastructure Bank. He heads the Government’s Corporate Finance Profession and also chairs the OECD’s Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices, the policy forum to promote improved corporate governance of state-owned enterprises. In addition he serves as a Trustee on the Board of Help for Heroes, the charity that supports wounded veterans.

Chief Operating Officer

Susie joined in January 2019 as the Chief Operating Officer. Her role is to ensure that UKGI has effective management, optimal organisational design and the best talent to enable the delivery of an exceptional service. Prior to joining UKGI, Susie worked as Global Director of People and Culture at Hays Talent Solutions, where her role was to build and develop complex international teams, based on-site with clients and at global centres of excellence on every continent. Other roles with Hays included EMEA Sales Director and Head of African Recruitment. Prior to Hays, Susie worked for the Lloyds banking group.

Chief Financial Officer

Robert Razzell joined UKGI in September 2016. Prior to this, he was head of finance at the London Legacy Development Corporation, the body responsible for the Olympic Park and its legacy, having previously been head of finance at the Olympic Delivery Authority, the entity responsible for delivery of the venues and infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympics.

Before this Robert had spells working in central and local Government, having completed qualifications at PwC.

Jamie Carter is an Executive Director at UK Government Investments whose responsibilities include overseeing the British Business Bank on behalf of its Shareholder, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.  He has substantial experience in corporate governance and also sits on the board of The Royal Mint.

​Prior to UKGI, Jamie spent more than 10 years at HM Treasury where he specialised in public spending, including being involved in several spending reviews and leading the HMT oversight of major transport investments. During this period, Jamie took a 2-year career break to work as a Governance Specialist at the World Bank based in Jakarta.

Tom Cooper joined UK Government Investments in October 2017.

Tom was most recently Global Co-Chairman of M&A at Deutsche Bank where he worked from 2009 – 2017. He started his career at KMPG and was at UBS Investment Bank for 21 years where his various roles included Head of European M&A.

Hannah joined UKGI in 2017 and leads the UKGI Special Situations team. The Special Situations team combines civil servants and restructuring/insolvency professionals who focus on sectors and corporates where there is the risk of economic shock impact to major employment or assets of national interest. Hannah has provided debt and balance sheet advice to stressed and distressed corporates since 2001. She is a highly experienced advisor, having worked on a wide range of projects covering strategic balance sheet reviews, recapitalisations, debt-for-equity swaps, creditor representation, covenant renegotiations, securitisation advisory, high yield bond issuance, rights offerings, private debt placements and stressed M&A. Hannah is a FCA and has previously worked for Deloitte, UBS, Rothschild and PwC.

Michael Harrison joined UK Government Investments in March 2009. Michael has worked on a range of projects across government including asset sales and financial interventions by Government across a range of sectors. He has also undertaken a number of NED roles.

He has a broad international corporate advisory background having spent his previous eight years before joining government as an executive director in Australia working for independent corporate finance advisor Greenhill Caliburn.

Prior to that Michael spent 12 years in investment banking with CSFB and BZW in both London and Europe. He started his career as an accountant at PWC.

Henry Lloyd joined UK Government Investments in June 2015. Henry has spent over twenty-five years in European corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He has worked in the UK investment banking teams at JPMorgan, CSFB and BZW where he started as a graduate trainee. Before joining ShEx, he worked as the European head of a small international corporate finance advisory firm based in New York.

He has advised clients on a large number of transactions in a variety of sectors and regions, advising both public and private companies on mergers-of-equals, minority and joint venture buy-outs, friendly and hostile acquisitions, disposals, management buy-outs and debt restructuring. Since joining government, Henry has worked on the governance arrangements for Urenco and represented the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the board of The Insolvency Service. In 2016/17 he advised the Ministry of Defence on the establishment of a new Executive Agency for the delivery of the submarine programme. He currently heads up a joint unit in the MoD, comprising UKGI and MoD employees, which brings corporate finance and corporate governance expertise and best practices that are dedicated to Defence. In that capacity, Henry sits as a MoD appointed Non-Executive Director on Defence Equipment and Support which is responsible for the procurement and support of the military equipment programme.

Maddy joined UKGI in 2017.  Prior to that, she was a Managing Director and Head of UK M&A at Credit Suisse. Maddy worked on a broad range of strategic advisory mandates through her investment banking career with a focus on cross-border M&A.  Prior to her 10 years at Credit Suisse, she worked in Lehman Brothers’ UK Investment Banking team and before that was a corporate lawyer at Freshfields.  Maddy was an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Finance at Cass Business School between 2013 and 2016.  She holds a law degree from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Candida joined UK Government Investment in October 2017.
Candida was previously at HgCapital where she was an Operating Partner. Between 2001 – 2015 she worked at private equity fund LDC (where her roles included Chief Portfolio Offer and Chief Operating Officer), prior to which she worked at Elementis plc, 3i plc and as Director of Development at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Alex joined UK Government Investments (formerly the Shareholder Executive) in January 2010, and has worked on a variety of corporate finance and governance projects, including real estate and investment portfolio sales, government investments in the aerospace and steel sectors and inward M&A. He is a Non Executive Director of London & Continental Railways Limited and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and runs UKGI’s NED Forum.

Prior to joining UKGI, Alex spent over ten years in corporate advisory and investment banking roles focused on the financial services sector, most recently in the FIG M&A Team at Jefferies in London. During this time, he advised on and managed a large number of UK and cross-border M&A transactions for UK, European and US clients, with a particular focus on the asset management sector.

Holger joined UKGI in May 2018 as Head of Banking & Capital Markets of UKGI’s Financial Institutions Group. He has spent over 20 years advising UK and European financial institutions on a broad range of mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and restructuring transactions. Before joining UKGI Holger was an investment banker at Moelis & Company for 8 years and previously at Morgan Stanley for 7 years having started his career at Credit Suisse.

Emily joined UKGI (formerly ShEx) in June 2015. She has led the shareholder teams on Channel 4, UK Export Finance, the Nuclear Liabilities Fund and currently sits on the board of Ordnance Survey. Emily joined the Civil Service in August 2013 to launch and lead UKTI Education, a unit jointly established by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and UK Trade & Investment to help the UK education sector win business overseas, particularly in relation to high value opportunities. The unit helped UK education and training providers secure £1.5 billion of business in its first two years. Prior to this, Emily spent 13 years in corporate finance, most recently as a Director with Hawkpoint Partners (now Canaccord Genuity) focused on Media & Education. She has a broad range of M&A transaction and corporate advisory experience working for a range of UK and international private, public and charitable companies. Emily holds a PPE degree from Oriel College, Oxford.

Since joining UK Government Investments (formerly the Shareholder Executive) in 2011, Carolyn has worked on a range of asset sales and governance projects in the transport, defence and housing sectors. She is a Non-Executive Director of Highways England.

Previously Carolyn was at Tesco focussed on corporate finance and strategy. Prior to this, she worked at The Prince’s Trust on the programme supporting young people starting up in business. Carolyn began her career in finance at Schroders and then Permira.

Andy joined UKGI in December 2016 and is part of the Special Situations team which focuses on sectors and corporates where there is a risk of economic shock impact to major employment or assets of national interest. Andy is a FCA and prior to joining UKGI was an M&A Director at Deloitte specialising in advising on non-standard and accelerated M&A transactions, many of which involved advising companies, investors and lenders on maximising value in constrained, challenging or time-critical situations. Whilst at UKGI, Andy has also worked within UKGI’s housing activities with MHCLG, delivered a number of projects with the UKGI Defence team and led UKGI’s team working on UK Export Finance. Andy also led on UKGI’s portfolio management activities.

Richard currently works within UKGI’s new joint unit with the Ministry of Defence, which provides corporate finance and governance advice on a range of issues facing the MOD.  Until recently, Richard led the Post Office Shareholder team and was a NED on the Post Office Board for four years. Previously, Richard also led UKGI’s team overseeing Government’s shareholding in the Green Investment Bank and led the establishment of one of the UK’s largest employee shares schemes during the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Richard joined UKGI from Deloitte, where he advised on public-private finance deals.  He is a Chartered Accountant by background.

Elena joined UKGI in October 2020.  Prior to that, she had a twenty five year career in investment banking at Citibank, Goldman Sachs and Ondra Partners advising companies across Europe on financial strategy, capital raising and capital allocation. Also through providing advice to senior management and boards she developed corporate governance expertise and became a non executive director on public company boards.  In addition to her role at UKGI, she presently is a Non Executive Director at illimity Bank, a digital only SME focused bank headquartered in Milan, Italy. She holds a degree in business administration from Bocconi University, Milan.

 
James joined UK Government Investments (formerly the Shareholder Executive) in March 2014. He has worked on a variety of corporate finance and governance projects, including government investments into industry and government asset sales. Major government sales worked on include the two public equity offerings of Royal Mail shares that removed Royal Mail from public sector ownership and advising the Department for Transport on Network Rail’s sale of c. 5,000 railway arches.

He has recently been advising the Department of Health and Social Care on transactions relating to the provision of indemnity cover for GPs, currently leads on inward M&A and is working with the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce on negotiating agreements with vaccine manufacturers to secure vaccines and manufacturing capacity as part of the UK’s response to Covid-19.

Prior to joining UKGI, James spent ten years working in corporate finance, first on the sell side in investment banking and, immediately prior to joining UKGI, on the buy side, at a hedge fund. He started his career at Bank of America, working in London and New York.

James holds an Economics degree from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

Edward joined UK Government Investments in 2015, and has worked on both corporate finance and corporate governance projects. Most recently, Ed led the joint MOD/UKGI team that successfully brought the Atomic Weapons Establishment back into government ownership.

Prior to joining UKGI, Edward worked as a lawyer. He trained with the Scottish Government before moving into private practice first in Scotland and then the City, specializing in project and asset finance. Edward combined work and study to complete a Masters in global energy and climate policy, and further augmented his sectoral experience with secondments to Network Rail, ING and UK Export Finance.

Edward has completed a two year secondment with the Cabinet Office, where he first led on business, energy and environmental policy coordination in the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, working closely with HMT and No.10. Edward then led a team in DExEU preparing for the UK’s exit from the EU, before being asked to help establish and lead a team within the COVID Taskforce.

Jonathan rejoined UKGI in January 2021 to lead its work supporting HMT’s financial interventions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, having previously been with the organisation between 2015 and 2019.

In his first stint at UKGI Jonathan led the inaugural income contingent student loan sale on behalf of DfE, UKGI’s work on net zero with BEIS, and projects with MoD, DIT, and the FCO.

Jonathan’s private sector background is in asset management. He was a portfolio manager at the BT Pension Scheme, running secure income and infrastructure equity portfolios, and at BlackRock, where he helped establish its infrastructure debt business. He began his career at ING Barings in its Energy, Transport, and Infrastructure group.

Daniela joined UKGI (formerly the ShEx) in 2013 following 12 years working in Equity Capital Markets for Citigroup.
Daniela has complemented her banking experience with further transaction work from a government perspective. This includes co-leading the Student Loans sale programme. She was previously involved in the privatisation of Royal Mail. Daniela has also worked on governance and policy development projects such as the Shaw Report on Network Rail and has assisted the then Department for Communities and Local Government in managing their growing housing sector loan book.

 
Sukhi Johal joined UKGI from RSM UK, the provider of audit, tax and consulting services, where she was a Corporate Finance Partner. She has over 20 years’ experience in Corporate Finance, split between Advisory and Corporate & Investment Banking and spent working on complex transactions in the UK and internationally.

General Counsel

In addition to being UKGI’s General Counsel, Lucie is also the UK Delegate to the OECD’s Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices. Prior to joining UKGI in 2015, she worked as a lawyer at Clifford Chance, Lloyds Banking Group and the United Nations.

Robert joined UKGI in November 2020 to lead its work supporting HM Treasury’s financial interventions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to UKGI, he spent over a decade in HM Treasury fulfilling a range of roles across financial services, public spending, corporate finance and communications where he built up extensive experience working with Ministers, special advisers and senior officials.

Martin joined UKGI in February 2018 and his current focus is the shareholdings of HM Treasury in NatWest Group and UK Asset Resolution (UKAR). Prior to joining UKGI, Martin spent more than 10 years in investment banking, predominantly within the UBS Financial Institutions Group and more recently at specialist M&A advisory firm Quayle Munro where he focused on advising specialty finance and Fintech firms.

His corporate finance experience includes a broad range of M&A transactions, equity raisings and corporate advisory roles across sub-sectors such as banking, insurance and specialty finance. Prior to joining UBS’s FIG team, Martin worked for two years on the fixed income sales and trading floor.

Tim joined UKGI (formerly ShEx) in 2005  following a long career in investment banking and five years at the Office of Rail Regulation as Director of Economics and Finance. Tim began his career as a corporate lawyer with Allen&Overy where he worked on a variety of corporate transactions, including public sector investment and financing. As an investment banker, Tim advised either Government and industry on many of the main utility privatisations, as well as a number of M&A transactions.

In ShEx, Tim initially advised on setting up the governance arrangements for the publicly-owned water companies in Scotland and Northern Ireland and a number of commercial transactions, including major land sales for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Until recently he sat on the Board of the Royal Mint and sits as on several project boards across Government. He is currently advising on some major financial issues for Government relating to the oil and gas and steel industries and is a member of the UKGI specialist corporate governance group.

Anna joined UKGI (formerly ShEx) in October 2012. Anna began her career as a project finance lawyer at Allen & Overy, specializing in PFI and energy infrastructure transactions. Her professional experience following this included commercial and financial project finance roles in the energy sector, both as a fund manager for an energy and infrastructure fund in Zurich, and prior to that as a commercial manager in the corporate venturing arm of the Carbon Trust.

Whilst at UKGI, Anna has worked with BEIS on delivery structures for renewable energy incentives, led UKGI’s housing work with MHCLG, and advised DfT on alternative rail network delivery. Anna currently sits on the board of the National Nuclear Laboratory, as well as working across Whitehall on a number of strategic and advisory activities within UKGI’s corporate governance practice.

Alexander joined UKGI in June 2021 to lead the credit branch in Contingent Liabilities Group. Prior to that, he had an over twenty-five-year international career in commercial and investment banking at Deutsche Bank, CIBC and Credit Suisse. He has significant experience in corporate and leveraged finance gained in front office origination, loan portfolio management, and credit risk management. Prior to joining UKGI he was heading the corporates team in credit risk management at Credit Suisse. He holds a master’s degree in economics.

David joined UKGI in May 2020 as Executive Director of the policy team in the Financial Institutions Group. David is on secondment from HM Treasury, where he was previously Head of Corporate Finance. David’s work over more than 10 years at the Treasury has covered several Budgets and Spending Reviews, international (IMF/G20) policy, public corporations, and financial stability.

Aidan joined UKGI in February 2021 to lead the insurance branch in the Contingent Liabilities Group. Aidan is on secondment from the Government Actuary’s Department. Aidan has over 20 years’ experience at GAD providing actuarial advice to the public sector, covering insurance, social security and pension arrangements. From 2015 to 2020 Aidan was GAD’s Head of Technical and Professional, responsible for technical and professional practices across the department.

 
Nancy Zhang joined UKGI in March 2021 and is part of the shareholder team on Channel 4. Prior to UKGI, Nancy spent 18 years in corporate finance, leading M&A and capital raising transactions involving both private and publicly listed companies. Immediately before joining UKGI, Nancy advised BEIS on the sale of British Steel out of compulsory liquidation.

Nancy started her career at UBS Investment Bank, covering Hospitality and Leisure, before working in the Corporate Advisory Group at Canaccord Genuity focussing on midmarket M&A and IPO transactions, and was most recently a Director in the Real Estate Corporate Finance team at Ernst & Young. Nancy has extensive experience in managing sell-side transactions, raising capital, and interacting with private equity companies.

Vice Chair

Mark is Chair of DE&S, the procurement organisation of the Ministry of Defence, Vice Chair of UKGI, Chair of Angel Trains and non-executive director of DP World.

Mark Russell was appointed Chair of DE&S and Vice Chair of UKGI in November 2019 having been Chief Executive of UK Government Investments (and its predecessor body, the Shareholder Executive) since April 2013. Mark joined the Shareholder Executive as head of its Corporate Finance Practice in November 2004 and was appointed Deputy Chief Executive in April 2008.

Previously Mark was a partner in the corporate finance departments of KPMG London and KPMG Frankfurt. Prior to this Mark worked at PwC Corporate Finance and Robert Fleming & Co., Lazard Brothers and A.T. Kearney.

Mark was appointed Chair of Angel Trains in February 2021. He has been a non-executive director of DP World, the ports and logistics operator, since 2014 and has chaired its Audit and Risk Committee since 2018.  Mark was previously non-executive director of the Submarine Delivery Agency, non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee of Eurostar International Limited and senior independent director of LCR.