Shell exec Parminder Kohli has been appointed as the chief executive of the Office for Investment, a newly-created role at the multi-department-spanning unit.
Parminder has nearly three decades of senior leadership experience, including more than 20 years at Shell, where he has held a range of global roles across strategy, operations and commercial business.
He currently serves as chair of Shell UK Ltd and Shell Group executive vice president for sustainability and carbon.
In his new role at OFI, which he will take up on 1 October, Kohli will be responsible for setting the strategic direction of the organisation, ensuring delivery against its key priorities, and "strengthening its position as a leader in its field". He will also focus on enhancing collaboration across government and with investors to support the UK’s growth mission.
Kohli said he is looking forward to working with investors, businesses and partners across government to “attract investment that drives growth, creates opportunity and delivers prosperity across the United Kingdom”.
OFI was set up in November 2020 as a joint No.10-trade department unit with a goal to “ensure the highest value investors receive the strongest possible cross government support to realise their UK investments and to make the UK the best place in the world for international investors”. It focuses on four priority areas for investment: net zero; regional growth; science and technology; and sovereign investment partnerships.
In October 2024, the prime minister Keir Starmer announced the organisation would become a “larger and better equipped organisation to streamline how the government approaches business and investment”, straddling No.10, the DBT and – for the first time – the Treasury.
He appointed Poppy Gustafsson, the former chief executive of the British cybersecurity company Darktrace, as a joint minister across the trade department and the Treasury to head up the unit. However, Gustafsson quit less than a year later, and was replaced with Grimsby Town Football Club co-owner Lord Stockwood.
Stockwood said Kohli “brings a wealth of senior leadership experience at a pivotal moment” for the government’s growth mission
“Securing investment is essential to driving innovation, supporting regional growth, and creating lasting opportunities across the United Kingdom,” Lord Stockwood said. “I am confident that his expertise will play a key role in advancing these priorities and adding strength to an already brilliant team. Together, we will continue to foster a culture that values creativity, encourages collaboration, and delivers meaningful outcomes with continuity.”
Alongside Stockwood's ministerial leadership, for the last two years the organisation has been run by DBT director general for OFI Ceri Smith.
Commenting on the appointment of Kohli as chief exec, Smith said: “After nearly five years of working to attract investment into the UK, and the past 15 months radically transforming the Office for Investment into a unified and even more effective unit we are entering a new phase that calls for a CEO with a strong private-sector background who can take on a highly visible public leadership profile.
“I look forward to welcoming Parminder as the new CEO and to working with him as he takes up the reins.”