Appointment: March 2018 

Ken Lever was appointed Chairman on 12 March 2018, having joined the board as Non-Executive Director on 28 September 2016. Ken is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a former partner at Arthur Andersen. He has a wealth of corporate finance experience, having previously held board executive director positions with Numonyx BV, Tomkins plc, Albright and Wilson plc and Alfred McAlpine plc. Ken joined Xchanging plc as its chief financial officer, and was subsequently appointed and served as its chief executive officer from 2011 to 2015. He was previously a non-executive director of Catesby Property Group plc, iSoft plc and Vega Systems plc, and served for six years on the UK Accounting Standards Board between 2006 and 2012.  

External Appointments

Ken is chairman of RPS Group plc and a non-executive director of Vertu Motors plc, Blue Prism plc and Gresham House Strategic plc.

Appointment: September 2018

Michael was appointed Chief Executive Officer on 29 September 2018, having previously held the role of Chief Financial Officer from 2013. He was appointed to the Board of Biffa plc on 18 August 2016. Michael trained as a Chartered Accountant with PwC in London, and held positions in both the audit and transaction services practices. Prior to joining Biffa, he was finance director at Greenstar UK Holdings Limited from 2005 to 2010.

Appointment: September 2018 

Richard was appointed Chief Financial Officer on 29 September 2018. Having trained as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse, he went on to hold a variety of financial and management positions at Pilkington plc, Scapa Group plc and Manchester Airports Group. Latterly Richard was the chief financial officer of AB Sugar, managing director of British Sugar and group chief financial officer of Boparan Holdings Limited.

Appointment: July 2018 

Carol is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and qualified with Arthur Andersen in the UK. Carol was the company secretary of Halma plc, the FTSE 100 health, safety and environmental technology group, where she oversaw governance, pensions, group insurance and ethics compliance from 2008 until September 2018. Prior to this role, Carol was Halma’s group financial controller with oversight of all day-to-day financial planning and reporting matters.

External Appointments

Carol is a non-executive director of Renishaw plc, where she has been chair of the audit committee since 2012 and, since April 2018, a non-executive director and chair of the audit committee of Hunting plc. In May 2019 Carol was also appointed a non-executive director and chair of the audit committee of IQE plc.

Appointment: September 2016 

Michael has extensive knowledge of the waste management industry. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management and a former chairman of the Environmental Services Association. Michael held a number of senior management roles in the industry before being appointed group chief executive of Shanks Group plc from 1994 to 2007 where he oversaw the growth of the group.

Michael joined the former Board of Biffa Group in February 2013. He was previously a non-executive director of TDG plc, Care UK plc and Van Gansewinkel Group in the Netherlands.

External Appointments

Michael is chairman of Rochford Capital Pty in Sydney, Australia and a non-executive director of the Saudi Investment Recycling Company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Appointment: January 2019 

Gab is currently the managing director of UK business at Centrica plc (a division trading as British Gas Business), a position he has held since 2015 following his promotion from his role as managing director of British Gas Business Services. Prior to this, Gab held a series of senior management roles in strategy including head of group strategy at Centrica plc and chief risk officer at Snowy Hydro in Australia, as well as strategy consulting roles, in consultancy firms Boston Consulting Group and Accenture.

Appointment: September 2016

David is a Chartered Management Accountant and has significant experience of both domestic and global transport businesses. He held a variety of general management and finance positions before joining the bus industry in 1986. He was involved in the acquisition of National Express and the successive management buy out, leading to the creation of British Bus Group Limited. David was subsequently appointed chief executive of Arriva plc, one of the largest bus and train transport services organisations in Europe, a position he held from 2006 to December 2015. He was previously a non-executive director of Ladbrokes plc and Arriva plc. David is the Company’s Senior Independent Director.

Appointment: June 2019                          

Sarah joined Biffa in June 2019 as General Counsel and was appointed Company Secretary on 11 July 2019. She is responsible for managing legal risk and in supporting the Chairman and the Board in maintaining high standards of corporate governance. She joined Biffa from Rotork plc, where she was Senior Legal Counsel and Company Secretary. Prior to that, Sarah spent a number of years in Australia as a senior in house counsel at ANZ Bank. She began her career in London at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner where she spent more than a decade as a corporate M&A lawyer. Sarah is qualified as a solicitor in England and Australia.

Appointment: September 2011              

Jeff was appointed Chief Operating Officer, Collections with effect from October 2018, having previously held the role of Managing Director, I&C division from September 2011. He is responsible for the overall leadership of our Collections operations, including our hazardous waste business. His previous career was spent within B2B supply chain and logistics companies, and he has held executive board director positions at Wincanton plc and Securicor plc. Jeff has significant experience in managing change, turnaround management and operational excellence in large-scale operational businesses.

Appointment: October 2010              

Roger joined Biffa in June 2010 following the acquisition of Greenstar UK Holdings Limited. Prior to this, he had previously been managing director at Verdant Municipal Limited and held board positions in other waste businesses. Roger is responsible for the Municipal business providing waste collection and street cleansing services to over 2m households and leading a team of 3,400 employees.

Appointment: September 2010              

Mick was appointed Chief Operating Officer, Resources & Energy with effect from April 2019, having previously held the role of Managing Director of the RR&T Division from September 2010. He is responsible for the day to day management of the Resources & Energy Division, the development of new facilities, including the EfW plants. In addition, he has oversight of the Group’s Environmental strategy as well as being a trustee of the charity Biffa Award.

Appointment: December 2010                              

Jane Pateman joined Biffa in December 2010. Prior to joining Biffa, Jane held a number of senior HR Director positions in Centrica and was Group HR Director at Connaught plc.

Appointment: July 2011                                

David Gooding was appointed Group IT Director in July 2011, becoming Chief Information Officer in April 2020, overseeing IT, Process Improvement and Management Information. David has been involved in the waste industry for 10 years.