Our Boards

Cllr Tim Oliver (Chair)

Surrey County Council Leader

Tim Oliver is the Leader of Surrey County Council and Chair of The One Surrey Growth Board.

First elected to Elmbridge in 1999 he served Esher for 20 years until standing down in 2019. He was a County Councillor from 2005-9 and then re-elected in 2017.

Formerly CEO and then Deputy Chairman of a legal and professional services business, Tim was extensively involved in driving operational delivery and business development. He is a qualified solicitor and the author of three legal text books.

He has held many non-executive roles including on a wide range of not-for-profit boards .Tim is actively involved in the Charity sector as Vice President and previous Chair of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices and Chair of trustees Working Families.

tim.oliver@surreycc.gov.uk Connect on LinkedIn

Philip Hammond MP

Former Chancellor and Surrey MP

The Rt Hon Philip Hammond was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 13 July 2016 and 24 July 2019. He was elected Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge in 1997.

He was previously Secretary of State for Transport from May 2010, when he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor. Prior to this, he held a number of shadow portfolios. He was elected to Parliament in 1997 and was Secretary of State for Defence from 2011 until July 2014. Philip served as Foreign Secretary from July 2014 until July 2016.

Philip had a business career in small and medium-sized companies in manufacturing, consultancy, property and construction, and oil and gas, both in the UK and abroad.

office@philiphammond.org.uk

Joanna Killian

Surrey County Council Chief Executive

Joanna Killian joined Surrey County Council in March 2018. She is Head of Paid Service for the organisation and is responsible for all work carried out by the Council.

Joanna has more than 30 years’ experience in the public sector and has deep experience in delivering transformational change, cost reduction and service improvement. She has expertise in achieving improved outcomes through partnerships as well as across public sector systems.

Cllr Joss Bigmore

District/Borough Leader Representative

Joss Bigmore is Deputy Leader for Guildford Borough Council, he is Lead Member for Planning Policy having previously held the Finance and Assets portfolio. He has an Economics degree and spent 20 years in the City trading Equity Derivatives, although now focuses on Angel investing opportunities.

joss.bigmore@guildford.gov.uk

DR Claire Fuller

Chief Executive Officer - Surrey Heartlands ICS

Dr Claire Fuller is a GP by background and was previously Clinical Chair of Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group, and Senior Responsible Officer for the Surrey Heartlands Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, before being made Chief Executive Officer of the organisation.

syheartlandsccg.contactus@nhs.net Connect on LinkedIn

Julie Kapsalis

Chair - Coast to Capital LEP

Julie has worked in economic development for almost 20 years with a particular focus on enterprise, skills and social inclusion. She served as an advisor to the UK Government’s task force on women’s enterprise and has recently contributed to the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship including developing the expert in residence programme and the pilot to gender disaggregate LEP data. As well as Chairing Coast to Capital, she is Chair of the grouping of six South East LEPs – Catalyst South.

She is a Board Member at Gatwick Diamond Business, Ambassador for the Institute of Directors and Trustee of the Worthing Theatres & Museum. She is also former Chair of the Chichester Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Julie works in Further Education and training and has played a central role in the expansion of the Chichester College Group through both its commercial businesses and mergers. From April 2022, she is taking on a new role at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) which will include establishing the region’s Institute of Technology working in partnership with businesses.

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Michael Queen

Chair - EM3 LEP

Michael was formerly Chief Executive of 3i Group plc, the global investment company where after 25 years he retired in 2012 having developed 3i’s activities in the infrastructure sector through founding 3i Infrastructure plc.

In 1994 he was seconded to the HM Treasury to help to develop the potential for the Private Finance Initiative in the NHS as Head of the NHS Private Finance Unit. In 2002 Michael was Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association.

Between 2010 and 2012 he was a member of the Prime Ministers Business Advisory Group.

He is currently Chair of the University of Surrey and Chair of the Council of University Chairs. He is a Director of BTL Limited, a company developing the Thames Tideway tunnel, Chair of Coller Capital Limited, a Director of TAQA, a Saudi based industrial company, and is also an advisor to an Indian Private Equity Group.

Between 2012 and 2018 he was President of Surrey 100, a Business Angel Group attached to the University of Surrey where he invested in a portfolio of early stage technology companies. Michael has a BA (Hons) Industrial Economics from Nottingham University and is a Chartered Accountant.

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Professor G Q Max Lu

President and Vice-Chancellor - University of Surrey

Professor Max Lu has been President and Vice-Chancellor of University of Surrey since April 2016. His responsibility is to lead the University, define its academic direction and strategy, and ensure that it is well managed.

Previously he was Provost and Senior Vice-President at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, and serves as Director of the Boards of UK Research and Innovation and National Physical Laboratory, and as a member of the Leadership Council of the National Centre for Universities and Business. He is a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey and active in many local arts, charitable and community organisations.

j.telford@surrey.ac.uk Connect on LinkedIn

Professor Klaus Dodds

Executive Dean for the School of Life Sciences and Environment at Royal Holloway University of London.

Professor Klaus Dodds is Executive Dean for the School of Life Sciences and Environment at Royal Holloway University of London.

A Professor of Geopolitics, Klaus is responsible for the School and currently co-directs the University’s Living Sustainably research catalyst. He was also part of the leadership team that was responsible for the introduction of the University’s inaugural sustainability strategy in 2022. He writes and publishes on a variety of subjects including geopolitics, border conflict and the governance of the polar regions. His latest book is Border Wars (Penguin 2022) and this has been published in a variety of languages including Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Romanian.

After completing a PhD at the University of Bristol, Klaus took up a lectureship at the University of Edinburgh. Thereafter, he joined Royal Holloway in 1994 and has held a wide range of leadership positions including Dean of the Graduate School and Director of Research for the School of Life Sciences and Environment. Beyond the academy, he has served as a specialist adviser for select committees in the Houses of Parliament and currently works as an academic expert for other bodies including UK government departments such as DEFRA, MOD and FCDO as well as NATO.

Frances Rutter

Representing the Lord Lieutenancy’s Business Group

Frances is the CEO and Principal of North East Surrey College of Technology, a general FE and HE college. She is a qualified Solicitor with a strong background in local government. Before joining the education sector Frances was CEO of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. As an FE Principal, Frances is an active member of the Surrey Employment Skills Board and chairs the Gatwick 360 skills board.

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Shona Johnstone

Head of Markets Partners and Places – South (Homes England)

Shona has spent her career within the public sector working as a civil servant and an elected councillor, specialising in economic growth and transport. Prior to joining Homes England, Shona worked at the Department for Transport, leading work on the strategic roads programme to understand future investment priorities and also heading the consultation into the Airports National Policy Statement. Since joining Homes England, Shona has built up extensive experience in understand the barriers and opportunities to link housing and economic growth in the south east. Currently, Shona is leading one of Homes England’s new business and relationship management teams focused on supporting private and public sector partners in unlocking the building of new homes in the South-East and South-West. This includes working up a pipeline of opportunities where use of the Agency’s funding, people, powers and know-how can serve to overcome barriers to delivery.

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Chris Grayling

Former Secretary of State for Transport and MP for Epsom & Ewell

Former Secretary of State for Transport and MP for Epsom & Ewell

Louise Punter

Chief Executive of Surrey Chambers of Commerce

Louise Punter became Chief Executive of Surrey Chambers of Commerce following 17 years working in manufacturing and business services. After a 5-year career break from Metal Box, she then spent 3 years as the Marketing Director of an international conformity assessment organisation, Bureau Veritas. To ensure strong representation of Surrey businesses, Louise sits on many different boards including the One Surrey Growth Board, the Surrey Skills Leadership Forum, the Civilian-Military Partnership Board and works with the Economic Development departments of the County and Borough Councils. Her passion is to help businesses at every stage of their development by connecting them, promoting them, supporting them and representing their voice to government. Surrey Chambers is a key organisation supporting businesses with both exporting and importing.

louise.punter@surrey-chambers.co.uk Connect on LinkedIn

DR Julie Llewelyn

Vice Chair - Surrey Community Foundation

As an NHS diabetes physician Julie Llewelyn has first hand experience of the very real impact of social deprivation on health in parts of ‘Hidden Surrey’. Her previous role as a Trustee for Whiteley Village in Hersham further confirmed the vital importance of community for the well-being of the elderly population in Surrey. Julie is chair of the Hambledon Community Fund, one of the Community Foundation’s Area Funds.

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Mike Brennan

Chair, Surrey Skills Leadership Forum

Chair, Surrey Skills Leadership Forum

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Steve Sharratt OBE

CEO - DBE Energy 

Steve was a corporate finance lawyer before moving into business management roles and has invested in and sold a number of businesses in the construction sector over the past 20 years. Steve is a member of the CBI Decarbonisation Board and chairs the Energy & Climate Change Policy Committee. Steve has worked in the waste and anaerobic digestion sectors for over 10 years in the UK and was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2009. Steve is CEO of IBMS Group which owns and builds businesses driving sustainability, including DBE Energy, a ground breaking renewable energy facility based in Cranleigh. He sits on the Surrey Growth Board and the Surrey Greener Futures Board.

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Matthew Furniss

County Councillor

Cabinet Member for Transport, Infrastructure and Economy -Surrey County Council

matt.furniss@surreycc.gov.uk

Julie Fisher

CEO - Woking Borough Council

Chief Executive of Woking Borough Council

Prof. Mark Ellul

Chief Operating Officer (University for the Creative Arts)

Professor Mark Ellul has been Chief Operating Officer at the University for the Creative Arts since July 2022. Mark is responsible for driving forward UCA’s business strategy to deliver growth, improve our services, and to enhance the University’s standing in the UK and across the world. As a successful and experienced leader in the higher education sector, prior to joining UCA, Mark held recent positions of Pro Vice-Chancellor at London Metropolitan University and University Secretary and Registrar at the University of Roehampton. With over 20 years’ experience in sector, he is passionate about the transformative power of education, is committed to equality, diversion and inclusion. Mark’s academic background is Physics with Computation Physics and has a successful track record of leading transformational change, developing successful teams and delivering positive outcomes and success.

mark.ellul@uca.ac.uk Connect on LinkedIn

Jarmila Yu

Chair, Institute of Directors

Richard Grainger

Chairman - Liberation Group

Richard worked in the City of London for over 25 years. Having qualified with Price Waterhouse, Richard joined the corporate finance department of Hill Samuel Bank in 1987 prior to moving with the team to Close Brothers Corporate Finance (“CBCF”) in 1996. Richard was Chief Executive of CBCF during its most successful growth period between 2001 and 2007. During this time, Richard was involved driving the growth of the UK business and developing and expanding Close Brothers International. Previously, he ran the Leisure and Retail Team and founded their Restructuring Team. Richard sat on the Management Board of Close Brothers Group plc for six years and finished as Chairman of CBCF in June 2009.

An Oxford graduate and a qualified Chartered Accountant, Richard is currently Chairman of Liberation Group, the brewer, pub owner and drinks wholesaler and Chairman of McKay Securities PLC, a Property Investment Trust (REIT). He is a trustee of Horatio’s Garden, a spinal injuries charity. Previous roles include the Chairmanships of Safestore Plc, Palmer & Harvey PLC, Ipes and Harrington Brooks.

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