Our talented team has decades of international and regional experience of working across all of our sectors and delivering across the full lifecycle of services.

The Board

Malcolm Groat

Chairman

Malcolm has worked for many years as a consultant to companies in technology, natural resources and general commerce. Following an early career with PWC in London, he held CFO, COO, and CEO roles in established corporations including the construction firm now called Arcadis.

Since 2004 Malcolm has served in non-executive director or chairman positions, today including Baronsmead Second Venture Trust PLC and Tomco Energy PLC. Malcolm is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He holds university degrees from St Andrews (MA) and Warwick (MBA).

Russell Downs

Interim Executive Director

Clive Richardson

Chairman

Most recently, Clive was Group CEO of V. Group, one of the world’s largest providers of commercial ship management services with over 1,000 vessels under management. Clive held P&L responsibility, reporting to the main board, and achieved significant organic growth for shareholders throughout his tenure, also making several acquisitions. Clive also introduced a core operating framework and enhanced controls and governance which led to a significant reduction in overheads, as well as leading the recapitalisation of the business as required.

Between 2007 and 2009, Clive was Chief Operating Officer, EMEA, and Chairman, QinetiQ Ventures for QinetiQ plc, formerly known as the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency which was subsequently privatised in February 2006. This signalled the start of rapid growth and the business now reports annual revenues of £1.4 billion.  Clive held P&L responsibility for all operations outside of North America and during his tenure, undertook three acquisitions in Australia and two acquisitions in the information security sector.  Clive was also Chairman of QinetiQ Ventures’ partnership with Coller Capital in the £80m Cody Gate Ventures fund.

Between 1989 and 2007 Clive was an executive at BAE Systems Plc. He held several senior roles during his time there, including Chief Executive of Insyte, Managing Director at Royal Ordnance plc and Commercial Director at BAe Airbus. During his career Clive also held senior positions at Marconi Electronic Devices Ltd and Westland Helicopters Limited.

Between 2004 and 2009 Clive was a member of the National Defence Industries Council, (the Government and Industry defence consultation authority) and he was President of Tech UK, (the UK trade association for the IT, telecoms and electronics sector), between 2009 and 2011.

Sir Jonathon Band

Non Executive Director

Sir Jonathon Band is a former First Sea Lord & Chief of Naval Staff of the Royal Navy during which period he created a new innovative Command Structure in addition to promoting the need for maritime investment and security. Sir Jonathon has also worked very closely with industry to promote and implement the Defence Industrial Strategy, a UK government policy focused on the efficient allocation of military equipment and resources to the UK armed forces.

Prior to his role as First Sea Lord, Sir Jonathon was Commander in Chief Fleet during which time, as Chief Operating Officer, he was responsible for the operational capability and deployment of the Navy’s front line. Sir Jonathon is highly respected for his time spent in supporting foreign and defence policies and for his crucial role in negotiating and building coalitions across NATO allies and Middle Eastern partners.

Following his retirement from the Royal Navy, Sir Jonathon has held numerous non-executive positions at Lockheed Martin UK, Babcock International Group, National Museum of the Royal Navy and Survitec Group Ltd.

Sir Jonathon is currently a Non-Executive Director of Carnival Corporation, the NYSE & LSE listed global cruise operator.

Katya Zotova

Non Executive Director

Katya has 25 years’ experience in strategy and business development, investment banking and private equity. Between 2014 and 2020, she was Non-Executive Director for Vedanta Resources plc, a globally diversified natural resources company with revenues of more than $10 billion. She currently acts as an adviser at Antler, a global early-stage venture capital fund.

Until recently, Katya was Managing Director at Mizuho International PLC, a major financial services company and previously held positions as Principal at LetterOne Energy LLP, Principal at Pamplona Capital LLP, Head of International Acquisitions and Divestments at Citigroup plc and various Strategy and M&A roles at Shell PLC.

Katya holds an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management and completed an Executive program in Disruptive Innovation from Harvard Business School.

Arun Raman

Group Chief Finance Officer

Arun has spent the past 20 years within the commodities and infrastructure sector. While at Star Energy Group plc (now known as Petronas Energy Trading Ltd.), he was responsible for commercialising its 10BCF Humbly Grove Underground Gas Storage Project, including the negotiation and commercial delivery of the Gas Storage Agreement with Vitol SA as the capacity offtake client.

He also negotiated and executed agreements with the National Grid in relation to physical gas flows between the Humbly Grove gas storage facility and the National Transmission System. On the trading side, Arun set up trading desks for natural gas, power and carbon emissions for the group.

Following on from there, Arun was hired by Vitol Services Ltd. in London where he was actively trading carbon emissions and other commodities. He specialises in commercial negotiations and monetising assets underpinned by commodity flows as well as trading of commodities around such assets.

Arun is a qualified Chartered Accountant having completed his training with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Citibank N.A. in India. He has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for the last 17 years post qualification, and also holds the designation of Certified Internal Auditor awarded to him by the Institute of Internal Auditors, Florida, USA.

Russell Downs

INTERIM EXECUTIVE CHAIR

Alan Fort

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Leadership Team

Russell Downs

INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Ran Oren

INTERIM CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER

Alison Beveridge

GENERAL COUNSEL

Carl Greener

FSS PROGRAMME DIRECTOR

Mark Lawther

Mark Lawther

GENERAL MANAGER, APPLEDORE

Albert Allan

GENERAL MANAGER, ARNISH

Matt Smith

Matt Smith

GENERAL MANAGER, METHIL

Russell Davison

GENERAL MANAGER, BELFAST

Allan Smith

DIRECTOR OF SHIPBUILDING

Ben Murray

CHIEF OF STAFF & CORPORATE AFFAIRS

Ian Lisle

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Leanne Lang

DIRECTOR OF HR OPERATIONS

David Honeyman

DIRECTOR OF TALENT