The Insolvency Service welcomes new chair and board members

Incoming chair, Mark Austen, will be joined by Gary Kildare, Samantha Durrant and Rob Hunt on the Insolvency Service Board.

The new non-executive board members, together with Mary Chapman who is continuing in her role on the board, will work closely with the Insolvency Service’s senior leadership team to provide strategic leadership and governance for the agency.

The Insolvency Service’s chief executive, Dean Beale, said: “The new board members bring significant experience in their respective fields and will provide valuable support and guidance to the executive leadership team as we deliver the agency’s objectives.”

Austen is an experienced financial services professional, having been a partner and board member of global accountancy firm PwC, where he led major changes to the financial services environment in the UK.

He is currently chair of a UK bank and Transform Housing and Support, a major housing charity in Surrey. He has also regularly contributed to Speeches for Schools and the Mentoring Foundation.

Samantha Durrant has worked as a senior leader in a broad range of organisations across the public and private sectors. Previously, Samantha was the UK chief operating officer of a global health and benefits consulting firm and brings a wealth of executive leadership experience in areas such as operations, business change, customer management and governance.

Rob Hunt is a restructuring specialist and was a partner in PwC’s business recovery services practice. He led their UK mid-market restructuring practice and was also elected to the PwC’s supervisory board. Recently, Hunt has worked as an independent adviser providing turnaround and restructuring advice to a range of businesses and is a former member ICAEW insolvency committee.

Gary Kildare is an experienced business executive and has previously served in senior HR roles for IBM, including: Chief HR Officer for Europe and Global Head of Labour Relations for the IBM Corporation in New York and Madrid. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Board members are appointed initially for three-year terms. The newly appointed board members take over from Stephen Allinson, Alan Graham and Richard Oirschot who have now completed their term of service on the board.