Governance
The six members of our independent Board act as ambassadors for LBRO, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders at the highest levels. Collectively, the Board provides expertise on each of the four areas of governance: leadership and capability, performance and control, risk management, and scrutiny. Individually, non-executive members focus on specific areas, providing challenge and guidance where required.
We are informed by the management statement originally agreed with BIS - which sets out the broad operational framework - and our individual policies. We also work with reference to our Memoranda of Understanding with the Environment Agency, Food Standards Agency, Gambling Commission, Health and Safety Executive and Office of Fair Trading.
Matters relating to accounting procedures, financial reporting, internal controls and risk management are the responsibility of the Audit Committee. This has three members - shown below - and invites other attendees from the executive, the sponsor, internal audit and National Audit Office.
Board Biographies
Clive Grace
Chair
Clive Grace is Chair of the Local Better Regulation Office. He also chairs the RCUK Shared Services Centre Ltd. He is a Non-Executive Director of Nominet, the steward of dotUK and one of the world's largest and most respected domain name registries. He does extensive pro bono work with SOLACE and CIPFA, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff Business School. He is also a member of the Health and Social Care Corporate Governance Committee of the Welsh Assembly Government.
Until 2005 Clive was the Director General of the Audit Commission in Wales and Deputy Auditor-General for Wales, and prior to that he was chief executive of Torfaen County Borough Council. He is a qualified lawyer, and has a Doctorate from the University of Oxford, a master's degree from the University of California, a bachelor's degree from the University of Birmingham, and a management qualification from the Open University.
Ann Hemingway, CBE
Board Member and Audit Committee Member
Ann has several non-executive roles, including as a director of the Department for Transport, which she has held since October 2003. She was a founding board member and subsequent chair of the Advisory Committee for Wales of the Food Standards Agency from 2000-2006.
David Thurston
Board Member
David is a legal services consultant, a justice of the peace and, until 2005, was the head of legal services for Sainsbury's. He has worked extensively with the British Retail Consortium and the Confederation of British Industry. David started his career as a trading standards officer.
Robert Leak
Board Member and Audit Committee Chair
Rob is the chief executive of London Borough of Enfield and former deputy chief executive of London Borough of Lambeth. Prior to this he held director level roles in the retail sector, including with World Duty Free Europe.
Uday Dholakia, OBE
Board Member and Audit Committee Member
Uday is a senior partner at Global Consulting UK Ltd, where he specialises in international business development and marketing. He has several decades' experience of working within local and central government, having been involved with business support programmes internationally, including working with the US Department of Commerce for more than 23 years and being designated a SME expert at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry. He was a deputy director of the Leicestershire Business Venture agency and held several non-executive director roles in the private sector. Uday has also held a diverse portfolio of public appointments, including as a commissioner at the Broadcasting Standards Commission, board member of the East Midlands Electricity Consumer Council and trustee of the National Employment Policy Institute. He is currently also Vice Chairman of the Leicestershire Police Authority. Chairman of the National Asian Business Association (UK) and Chairman of Indo British Trade Council spearheading support for British SME's market entry into India.
Graham Russell
Chief Executive
Graham was a local authority regulator for more than 20 years. His most recent post was Head of Trading Standards and Community Safety at Staffordshire County Council. He also chaired the partnership of Central England Trading Standards Authorities (CEnTSA), represented trading standards on the West Midlands business crime forum and worked with the DTI on developing regional intelligence units and ScamBuster teams. He also sits on the LBRO board.
