Our Senior Team

Charles Donald

Chief Executive Officer

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

Prior to this, he had spent his career in investment banking. After 19 years in both financing and equity research, in 2006 he moved into UK corporate advisory where he held a number of senior management positions.

Charles is the Head of the Government’s Corporate Finance Profession.

Current additional appointments:

  • Non-Executive Director of the UK Infrastructure Bank in Leeds
  • Chair of the Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices at the OECD in Paris
  • Trustee of Help for Heroes, the charity that helps the Armed Forces community live well after service

Susie Timlin

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

Robert Razzell

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.

Directors

Jamie Carter

Director

Jamie is a Director at UK Government Investments (UKGI) where he has worked since October 2016, where he also leads the Corporate Governance practice and management of the portfolio, and until July 2021 was a Non-executive Director on the Board of The Royal Mint. Prior to joining UKGI, he spent 10 years at HM Treasury where he specialised in public spending, including being involved in several spending reviews and major infrastructure policy. During this period, Jamie took a two-year career break to work as a Governance Specialist at the World Bank based in Jakarta.

Tom Cooper

Director

Tom Cooper joined UK Government Investments in October 2017.

At UKGI, he has served on three Boards as HMG’s representative: Post Office, OneWeb; and EastWest Rail.

Prior to joining UKGI he was 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.

Siobhan Duffy

Director

Siobhan Duffy joined UKGI in 2021 to lead the Contingent Liability Central Capability (CLCC), an analytical and advisory unit set up to strengthen contingent liability expertise across government.

Prior to joining UKGI, Siobhan spent over 25 years working in debt capital markets structuring and advising European corporates on debt issuance. During her career, she has held several leadership roles, including global head of private placement at NatWest Markets/ RBS and, prior to that, head of private debt at ABN Amro. Most recently, she established a debt distribution platform for London Bridge Capital, an independent corporate finance firm. 

Outside of UKGI, Siobhan is involved with St Mungo’s supporting a London based Outreach team working with street sleepers.

Lorna Gratton

Director

Lorna joined UKGI in October 2021. She has had a varied career both in and out of government. She is an experienced senior civil servant having been a director at DCMS and served as Private Secretary to two Prime Ministers. Prior to this, she was a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group working primarily in utilities and financial services. She began her civil service career in the Treasury. Lorna was a Member of the Board of Trustees for Teach First from 2015-2021 and for Westminster Kingsway College for over 3 years before that. She started her career as a secondary school maths teacher in Peckham.

Lorna currently sits on the board of Post Office Limited having been appointed to this position in May 2023. She previously sat on the board of Sheffield Forgemasters after this was acquired by MOD in 2021.

Hannah Gray

Director

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

Director

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

Director

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.

Candida Morley

Director

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 Reeves

Director

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 Vieten

Director

Holger joined UKGI in May 2018 and is Director 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.

Holger is a Non-Executive Director of Reclaim Fund Ltd and UK Asset Resolution Ltd.

Executive Directors

Roshana Arasaratnam

Executive Director

Roshana joined UKGI in June 2022 having worked across capital markets, public sector and not for profits over the last 20 years, most recently as Associate Managing Director at Moody’s Investor Services where she has led ratings teams across Europe.

Before Moody’s, Roshana led finance, business planning and performance improvement initiatives in local government, having trained as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition, she tutors in Sustainable Finance at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership, is a member of the ICAEW Sustainability Committee, is a Trustee at Womankind Worldwide, mentors startups at Cass Business School and is a diversity mentor for BT.

Emily Ashwell

Executive Director

Emily joined UKGI (formerly the Shareholder Executive) 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.

Carolyn Battersby

Executive Director

Carolyn Battersby joined UK Government Investments (formerly the Shareholder Executive) in 2011. Carolyn has worked on a range of asset sales and governance projects in the transport, energy, defence and housing sectors. In 2023 Carolyn was appointed as a Ministry of Defence Non-Executive Director on the board of Defence, Equipment and Support. She previously sat on the board of National Highways.

Before working in government, Carolyn had a career in finance and strategy at Tesco, The Prince’s Trust, Permira and Schroders.

Andy Butterworth

Executive Director

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 Callard

Executive Director

Richard currently works within UKGI’s joint unit with the Ministry of Defence, which provides corporate finance and governance advice on a range of issues facing the MOD.  Previously, Richard led the Post Office Shareholder team and was a NED on the Post Office Board for four years. 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 Ciallie

Executive Director

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.

Julie Colgan

Executive Director

Julie is a chartered accountant and is JIEB qualified, with over 25 years’ experience in Restructuring, Insolvency and Creditor Advisory work.  Having started her career at Coopers and Lybrand, Julie spent 12 years working in practice (at PwC and Kroll) before joining Barclays as a Director in the Restructuring Team. During this time, Julie worked on a variety of situations including multi lender listed transactions. 

Julie joined UKGI in July 2019 as part of the Special Situations Group, which advises government departments where there is a risk of economic shock impact to major employment or assets of national interest. Julie has also worked across other projects in UKGI including being part of the management team supporting HMT’s financial interventions in response to major situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of the Ukraine war and market volatility.

Julie currently sits on the Board of Sheffield Forgemasters, a steel forge and precision manufacturer acquired by MoD in 2021.

James Coppin OBE

Executive Director

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 and working with the UK’s Vaccine Task Force 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.

Sascha Eckert

Executive Director

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.

Edward Emerson

Executive Director

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 Gorrie

Executive Director

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 Guzzardo

Executive Director

Daniela joined UKGI (formerly the Shareholder Executive) 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.

Jonathan Ingram

Executive Director

Jonathan joined UKGI in early 2018 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 and where there is a strategic case for Government intervention.

Jonathan has over 20 years’ experience of providing restructuring and insolvency advice to key stakeholders in complex distressed situations. A lawyer by background, Jonathan has worked in both national and international law firms including Addleshaw Goddard and Mayer Brown and latterly as a Partner in the City with Maclay Murray & Spens (now Dentons).

In addition to working in the Special Situations team Jonathan has undertaken a number of Governance reviews of major Government Arms Length Bodies, led a review of UKGI’s approach to its Shareholder role and led UKGI’s Risk Function.

Sukhi Johal

Executive Director

Sukhi Johal joined UKGI in early 2021 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 worked on complex transactions in the UK and internationally.

At UKGI she leads work on providing specialist corporate finance advice and commercial negotiation support across government departments where a particular M&A transaction or corporate event is deemed of national or economic importance to government. In the last year the team has undertaken a key advisory role in some of the most high-profile national security transactions facing government, across aerospace, space, telecoms and digital sectors.

In June 2023 Sukhi was appointed as the government’s representative on the board of National Highways.

Shehroze Junejo

Executive Director

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.

Rubaba Khan

Executive Director

Rubaba joined UKGI in 2018 and has been involved in a variety of projects, including advising the Department for Education on the Student Loans securitisation programme, government’s financial support schemes in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and advising the Department of Health and Social Care on the provision of clinical negligence indemnity cover for General Practitioners. In 2021, she worked on setting up of the Contingent Liability Central Capability (CLCC), an analytical and advisory unit established to strengthen contingent liability expertise within government. She currently co-leads the UKGI shareholder team for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Prior to joining UKGI, Rubaba spent 10+ years in Investment Banking advising financial institutions on a broad range of transactions including M&A, equity and debt capital markets.

Rubaba holds a degree in MSc Economics from University College London.

Lucie Lambert

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.

Stuart Rankine

Executive Director

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.

Alexander Richarz

Executive Director

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.

Louise Stonestreet

Executive Director

Since joining UKGI (formerly the Shareholder Executive), Louise has worked on a wide range of transactions and governance projects working with a variety of government departments. She currently leads the shareholder team for Sheffield Forgemasters, having also worked on the Ministry of Defence’s acquisition of the business in 2021. Other projects have included the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank, and governance roles with energy, transport, infrastructure and environmental assets.

Louise joined UKGI from Citigroup, where she spent almost 10 years working on corporate advisory projects, M&A and equity transactions for companies in the UK and internationally.

Chad Woodward

Executive Director

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.

Nancy Zhang

Executive Director

Nancy Zhang joined UKGI in March 2021. Prior to UKGI, Nancy spent 20 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 before working in the Corporate Advisory Group at Canaccord Genuity and was most recently a Director in the Corporate Finance team at Ernst & Young. Nancy has extensive experience in managing sell-side transactions, raising capital, and interacting with private equity companies.

Mark Russell CBE

Senior Advisor

Mark is Chair of DE&S, the procurement organisation of the Ministry of Defence, Senior Adviser at UKGI and Chair of Angel Trains.

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. Mark was previously non-executive director of the Submarine Delivery Agency, non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee of Eurostar International Limited, non-executive director and audit and risk committee chair at DP World and senior independent director of LCR.