Members of the CIPFA Business Limited Board
The CIPFA Commercial Board oversees CIPFA's commercial operations in accordance with the overall strategic direction determined by council.
The Commercial Board acts as the board of directors for the wholly-owned subsidiary, CIPFA Business Limited, which gifts its profits to the institute.
The board is chaired by the senior non-executive director and its membership consists of:
- Two CIPFA Council members (ordinarily president and vice president)
- Four non-executive directors
- CIPFA's Chief Executive
- CIPFA's Director of Finance
- CIPFA's Chief Operating Officer
Harry Gaskell, Chair
Harry Gaskell is Chair of the Which? Limited Board. Harry is a Senior Advisor within the Sustainability team for EY UK and Chairs their External Advisory Board on Sustainability. Harry previously headed the UK&I EY Earth team and before that the UK Innovation team. Prior to that, he was the Managing Partner of the 1,700-strong UK&I Consulting business which Harry helped grow from scratch. Harry is a member of the Court of Governors of the University of the Arts, London and Chair of the Finance Committee. From 2011-2020 Harry was Chair and Trustee of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (enei) and established enei as the UK’s leading workplace inclusion organisation growing its membership from 100 to 350+ employers in the UK.
Roger Alderson, Vice Chair
Roger started his career as a systems engineer quickly moving into sales support and marketing. He has spent a significant portion of his career working internationally as a consultant (with the McKenna Group), a strategist (with Perot Systems) and a marketing director (with EDS, HP and Logica). He has worked with a range of organisations from start-ups to multi-nationals and has operated from both headquarters and the field.
As an independent consultant, Roger works with clients in all industries but his core focus is helping tech-oriented companies develop and implement marketing strategies. He is particularly adept at ensuring that strategies are 'interlocked' with other parts of the business and take full advantage of digital marketing options. A central tenet of his approach is based on understanding offering positioning in terms of perceived and actual customer value.
Professor Mary Bishop NED, CIPFA Students and Members Board/CIPFA Commercial Board
Mary is a fellow of Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA), a former Director of Learning for ACCA Global. Her experience of learner needs spans both SMEs and listed companies across circa 200 countries as well as academic institutions. With industry experience herself as a leader in education, technology, manufacturing and utility businesses, she is an author of over 15 books including the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Accounting.
She currently holds a portfolio of non-executive roles including National Institutional TEF panellist, member of the statutory quality assessment advisory committee to the Office for Students board and representative on the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment. She sits on the board of Arden University and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and the board of a group of post-18 colleges in Asia. Mary sits on the British Accreditation Council and Audit Committee and also Bristol University Audit Committee.
Caroline Rassell, President
Caroline is the CEO for Parkinson's UK, a national charity focused on finding a cure and improving life for everyone affected by Parkinson's. Caroline is a trustee of her local hospice and gained operational experience of the third sector at Versus Arthritis as the Director of Planning and Operations. Before moving to the third sector, Caroline was the Accountable Officer of NHS Mid Essex CCG and the Joint STP lead for Mid and South Essex. She has been CIPFA qualified since 1990 and has held board level roles in both local and national organisations for 20 years. These have spanned a variety of roles from Director of Finance, Commissioning and Procurement to Deputy CEO and CEO.
Caroline spent the first 15 years of her career in local government starting at the Corporation of London and then working at London Borough, district council and county council level. Moving to health at the turn of the century offered new and exciting opportunities for Caroline including working at health authority level and national level in two private companies owned by the Department of Health – Community Health Partnership (CHP) and NHS Property Services. She has been on the CIPFA Council now for five years, is a member of the Health and Social Care Board and is the current Chair of the Student and Members Board. Caroline has a passion for ensuring that the population understand the benefit of health and wellbeing. Supporting this, she is a non-executive board member and the Chair of the Audit Committee of Active Essex.
Carol Culley OBE, Vice President
Carol is the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer at Manchester City Council . As well as being the S151 officer, she has responsibility for the Corporate Core and for driving a number of priorities such as the leading on the Council's Zero Carbon Action Plan and as SRO for The Factory and Town Hall projects. Her previous experience in Manchester has included her role as Deputy City Treasurer responsible for Finance and Performance and ICT as well as being a member of the Health and Social Care Devolution Team, as Assistant Chief Executive overseeing Finance and Performance and as the Assistant Director of Finance and Commissioning for Social Services.
She is CIPFA qualified and has a diploma in management and is a member of the CIPFA Council and recently appointed as chair of the Public Financial Management Board. Carol has a wealth of experience in financial management, governance and assurance and fulfilling trustee roles. She is currently a trustee for a number of joint ventures such as Northern Gateway and Manchester Central and for the Greater Manchester Learning Trust.
Mark Thomson, NED
Mark Thomson is an experienced business leader, having held high-profile senior positions in both the private and public sector. As director general for UK Visas and Immigration and Her Majesty's Passport Office, he led teams responsible for managing around ten million visa and passport applications a year and advised the Home Secretary on immigration strategy and policy.
Prior to joining the Home Office, Mark held a number of senior positions at Royal Mail including sales and customer services director on the company's executive committee. As managing director international, he developed new strategy to restructure the import/export operation and tackle a lack of commercial development.
Frances Done, Observer
Frances Done has extensive Board level experience and is currently Independent Lay Member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee of the House of Commons and has served as the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, Professional Standards Authority since 2017. Her previous roles include Chief Executive of Manchester 2002 Ltd, the Organising Committee of the successful XVII Commonwealth Games, Managing Director for Local Government, Housing and Criminal Justice at the Audit Commission, and Chair of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.
Rob Whiteman CBE, Chief Executive
Rob was appointed as the Chief Executive of CIPFA in September 2013. Before joining the institute, he was a senior civil servant who worked as the Chief Executive of the UK Border Agency and had previously led the Improvement and Development Agency. Between 2005 and 2010 Whiteman was CEO of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Prior to this role, he was Director of Resources at the London Borough of Lewisham.
He is a well-known commentator and writer on public service reform and modernisation, on a wide range of areas such as leadership, partnership working across local and central government, and building community cohesion. In 2008 he was named one of the ten most influential people in local government by the Local Government Chronicle. In 2007 and 2009 he carried out the capability reviews of the Department of Health for the Cabinet Office.
Graduating with a BA (Hons) in Economics and Government from the University of Essex, Whiteman started his management career at WH Smith, before moving into the public sector. An accountant by profession, Rob qualified with CIPFA early in his career while working at the London Borough of Camden. He has since held several local government finance advisory roles for the Local Government Association and CIPFA, and for many years served as Secretary to the Society of London Treasurers.
Dan Worsley, Chief Operating Officer
Dan Worsley was appointed as CIPFA's chief operating officer in July 2018. He is responsible for leading CIPFA's advisory and consultancy services, as well as providing our internal business support services. Dan works closely with the CIPFA Management Board to ensure the institute's members, students and customers receive a first-class service across our range of education, learning, training and advisory services.
He is a CIPFA-qualified accountant, and has over 15 years of experience providing assurance and financial management services to the public sector, particularly central government. Dan trained at PwC, and after eight years with the firm left to join the civil service where he worked as a senior civil servant as a deputy finance director and a deputy change director. Prior to joining CIPFA, he returned to professional services with a continued focus on central government and international development. He graduated with a BA (Hons) in French and History from the University of Nottingham, and is a strong advocate for public services, sound public financial management and value for money.
Anna Blackman, Interim Finance Director
Anna comes to CIPFA with a wealth of public sector experience, having been in both external and internal auditor roles as a partner in PwC and serving as Chief Operating Officer for PwC's Government business. Anna trained with CIPFA and spent the majority of her career at PwC working across healthcare, local government and the not-for-profit sectors.
Following a successful career as a Partner at PwC, Anna's portfolio of work is now focused on impact-driven organisations. Anna's work has included being the Chief Operating Officer of FormScore, a mental health and wellbeing tech business and supporting Naked Sprout, a company which produces the UK's most sustainable toilet roll. Anna is a Trustee of the InsideOut Leaderboard Charity and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at UK Athletics.