DBT recruiting for six non-execs after five depart

Departing NEDs since Labour's return to power include two former Tory ministers
Lord Kamall, a former Tory minister, is among the DBT NED departures. Photo: Ian Davidson/Alamy

By Tevye Markson

29 Aug 2024

The Department for Business and Trade is seeking six new non-executive directors to replace the five who have been shown the door by the new government.

The departees include two former Conservative ministers.

An advert on the government’s public appointments website says that DBT is recruiting for up to six non-execs to sit on the DBT board, including a lead non-executive director, a chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and board members.

The department is offering £20,000 per year for the lead NED and ARAC chair roles and £15,000 per year for the board member positions. Successful candidates are expected to spend 15-20 days per year on the role, and to attend at least four departmental board meetings per year.  

DBT is one of several departments that have let go of most of their NEDs since Labour came to power, with the Cabinet Office letting go of all but one, and government lead non-exec, Michael Jary, among those removed.

Henry Newman, a former adviser to Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, has described the exits across government as a “purge” of NEDs, while Institute for Government senior follow Jill Rutter said such language is “overblown and distracts from other areas where the government is stretching the rules”.  However, she said such removals should not extend to public bodies.

The Public Accounts Committee warned in May that ministers were failing to ensure the appointment process for NEDs is “efficient, transparent and fair”.

The DBT NEDs who have departed since the election are Stephen Hill – who was the department’s lead NED – Peter Fleet, Syed Kamall, Robert Leeming, and Sir Stephen O’Brien.

When the department was created last year out of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for International Trade, Hill came over from BEIS, while O’Brien joined from DIT. Lord Kamall and Leeming were freshly appointed to roles in the new department by then-business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch in May 2023 for a minimum of three years.

Karina McTeague and Robert Gillespie are the remaining NEDs on the board. McTeague, who has a background in banking, financial services regulation, governance and global payments, is the only Badenoch appointment to remain, and is also the current ARAC chair. Gillespie is the new UK Export Finance chair and came in just after the election but was appointed in March under the previous government to replace Noël Harwerth.

Of the departees, two have strong links to the Conservative Party.

Kamall was a minister in Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s governments, with the former granting him a peerage. Before that, he was an MEP in the European Parliament, where he led the Conservatives for one year and then led the European Conservatives and Reformists group for five years. He is also a former director at the Institute for Economic Affairs, a right-wing think tank.

Sir Stephen O’Brien is a former MP, from 1999 to 2015, who served as a minister in David Cameron’s coalition government.

Hill is a former chair of the Charity Commission and ex-chief executive of the Financial Times Group, while Fleet had a 30-year career at the Ford Motor Company, and Leeming had a background in private equity and investment firms.

The deadline to apply to become a non-exec at DBT is 10 September.

The Department for Health and Social Care is also seeking new NEDs, with three roles being advertised.

The Cabinet Office has not yet advertised for new NEDs to replace the eight who have departed.

A government spokesperson said: “It is normal practice for incoming ministers to make decisions on their own departmental boards, including their membership.

"Appointments will be made to bring fresh scrutiny and external perspectives to departmental boards and ministers." 

Read the most recent articles written by Tevye Markson - Cabinet Office extends project to improve departments’ readiness to tackle bullying

Share this page