Andy King has been appointed as the next chief executive of Companies House, the Department for Business and Trade has announced.
King, who is currently chief executive officer at the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Business Services organisation, will take up his new role in September.
He succeeds Louise Smyth, who has led Companies House for the past eight years.
Companies House is the UK's registrar of companies and processes 14 million filings a year, ranging from annual accounts to director changes and insolvencies. It has its head office in Cardiff as well as bases in Edinburgh and Belfast, with a combined staff of 1,900 across the organisation.
Competition and markets minister Justin Madders said King has extensive experience in leadership roles in customer-service, business operations, regulatory and enforcement settings.
“Andy King brings excellent expertise to Companies House and I look forward to working together to improve corporate transparency and tackle economic crime,” Madders said.
“This appointment will help strengthen Britain’s business environment and support our Plan for Change to kickstart economic growth.”
The minister also thanked Smyth for her “significant contribution” to the organisation over her time as CEO and particularly for her “leading role” in its transformation.
Andy King Photo: GOV.UK
King said he was delighted to be joining Companies House and felt honoured to be able to lead “such a motivated and dedicated team”.
“I am excited by our mission to deliver essential services to business, and the opportunity to be ambitious in our vision for those services, our workforce and our organisation, as we continue to advance our change programme,” he added.
King has worked at Defence Business Services since late 2023. Before that he was operations delivery director at the Rural Payments Agency within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
In that role he oversaw the delivery of customer services, grants, livestock services, trade services and regulatory services as part of the executive team.
Earlier in his career he worked at the Environment Agency, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the Home Office.