Our Leadership

Adam Councell, Chief Financial Officer, has extensive experience in B2B services and acquisition-led growth strategies.

He was CFO of Fuller, Smith & Turner plc, the pub and hotels business, and he was also CFO at Restore plc from 2012-2019, where he played a leading role in the development of the group into a leading office services provider.  Prior to this, Adam spent nine years at Rentokil Initial plc.

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. He has been a successful entrepreneur for 50 years.

His business career began when he was in his twenties. In 1977 he became Chairman of Hawley Group plc and within less than a decade transformed it from near collapse into a leading international business services company employing over 100,000 people. Following a US merger in 1988, Hawley was re-branded ADT. In 1997, he negotiated the sale of ADT to Tyco International for $6.7 billion (£3.7 billion).

His business interests include investments in Waterloo Investment Holdings Limited (an international company based in the Caribbean and Central America), Impellam Group plc (global workforce and specialist recruitment), Jaywing plc (marketing and data science), Merit Group plc (data and intelligence business), Total Politics (media, events and training focused on politics, government and public policy) and Gusbourne plc (wine producer).

Rachel Addison, Non-Executive Director, was recently the Chief Financial Officer at Future plc, and before that at TI Media Limited.

She also held a number of senior financial, operational and board level roles at Trinity Mirror (now Reach) Regionals, Local World Limited and Northcliffe Media Limited, as well as a variety of other businesses.  Rachel is a Chartered Accountant and chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Remuneration, Risk and Nominations Committees.

Gillian Kent, Non-Executive Director, has an executive career of over 25 years in digital businesses with functional experience in building markets and brands for products and services.

She was previously Chief Executive of Propertyfinder, the real estate portal and spent 15 years with Microsoft, including three years as Managing Director of MSN UK. Gillian chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit, Risk and Nominations Committees.

Peter Gaze, Non-Executive Director,  was recently the Chief Financial Officer and a Director of BCB Holdings Limited and of Waterloo Investment Holdings Limited.

Peter was an executive at ADT Group plc during its expansion in the UK and US, in the period leading up to its acquisition by Tyco International for £3.7 billion in 1997.

Julia Robertson is Group Chief Executive Officer of Impellam Group Limited, having been appointed in April 2013. Her journey at Impellam began in 2000 when she sold two businesses to the group after which she held numerous leadership positions before taking on the role of Group CEO. She has also served as Chief Executive of the Institute of Employment Consultants (now REC), the professional body for the UK recruitment industry.