Commercial board

The CIPFA Commercial Board oversees CIPFA's commercial operations in accordance with the overall strategic direction determined by council.

The Commercial Board acts as the board of directors for the wholly-owned subsidiary, CIPFA Business Limited, which gifts its profits to the institute.

The board is chaired by the senior non-executive director and its membership consists of:

• Two CIPFA Council members (ordinarily president and vice president)
• Four non-executive directors
• CIPFA's Chief Executive
• CIPFA's Director of Finance
• CIPFA's Chief Operating Officer

Harry Gaskell, Chair

Harry Gaskell is Chair of the Which? Limited Board. Harry is a Senior Advisor within the Sustainability team for EY UK and Chairs their External Advisory Board on Sustainability. Harry previously headed the UK&I EY Earth team and before that the UK Innovation team. Prior to that, he was the Managing Partner of the 1,700-strong UK&I Consulting business which Harry helped grow from scratch. Harry is a member of the Court of Governors of the University of the Arts, London and Chair of the Finance Committee. From 2011-2020 Harry was Chair and Trustee of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (enei) and established enei as the UK’s leading workplace inclusion organisation growing its membership from 100 to 350+ employers in the UK.

Roger Alderson, Vice Chair

Roger started his career as a systems engineer quickly moving into sales support and marketing. He has spent a significant portion of his career working internationally as a consultant (with the McKenna Group), a strategist (with Perot Systems) and a marketing director (with EDS, HP and Logica). He has worked with a range of organisations from start-ups to multi-nationals and has operated from both headquarters and the field.

As an independent consultant, Roger works with clients in all industries but his core focus is helping tech-oriented companies develop and implement marketing strategies. He is particularly adept at ensuring that strategies are 'interlocked' with other parts of the business and take full advantage of digital marketing options. A central tenet of his approach is based on understanding offering positioning in terms of perceived and actual customer value.

Professor Mary Bishop NED, CIPFA Students and Members Board/CIPFA Commercial Board

Mary is a fellow of Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA), a former Director of Learning for ACCA Global. Her experience of learner needs spans both SMEs and listed companies across circa 200 countries as well as academic institutions. With industry experience herself as a leader in education, technology, manufacturing and utility businesses, she is an author of over 15 books including the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Accounting.

She currently holds a portfolio of non-executive roles including National Institutional TEF panellist, member of the statutory quality assessment advisory committee to the Office for Students board and representative on the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment. She sits on the board of Arden University and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and the board of a group of post-18 colleges in Asia. Mary sits on the British Accreditation Council and Audit Committee and also Bristol University Audit Committee.

Caroline Rassell, President

Caroline is the CEO for Parkinson's UK, a national charity focused on finding a cure and improving life for everyone affected by Parkinson's. Caroline is a trustee of her local hospice and gained operational experience of the third sector at Versus Arthritis as the Director of Planning and Operations. Before moving to the third sector, Caroline was the Accountable Officer of NHS Mid Essex CCG and the Joint STP lead for Mid and South Essex. She has been CIPFA qualified since 1990 and has held board level roles in both local and national organisations for 20 years. These have spanned a variety of roles from Director of Finance, Commissioning and Procurement to Deputy CEO and CEO.

Caroline spent the first 15 years of her career in local government starting at the Corporation of London and then working at London Borough, district council and county council level. Moving to health at the turn of the century offered new and exciting opportunities for Caroline including working at health authority level and national level in two private companies owned by the Department of Health – Community Health Partnership (CHP) and NHS Property Services. She has been on the CIPFA Council now for five years, is a member of the Health and Social Care Board and is the current Chair of the Student and Members Board. Caroline has a passion for ensuring that the population understand the benefit of health and wellbeing. Supporting this, she is a non-executive board member and the Chair of the Audit Committee of Active Essex.

Carol Culley OBE, Vice President

Carol is the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer at Manchester City Council . As well as being the S151 officer, she has responsibility for the Corporate Core and for driving a number of priorities such as the leading on the Council's Zero Carbon Action Plan and as SRO for The Factory and Town Hall projects. Her previous experience in Manchester has included her role as Deputy City Treasurer responsible for Finance and Performance and ICT as well as being a member of the Health and Social Care Devolution Team, as Assistant Chief Executive overseeing Finance and Performance and as the Assistant Director of Finance and Commissioning for Social Services. 

She is CIPFA qualified and has a diploma in management and is a member of the CIPFA Council and recently appointed as chair of the Public Financial Management Board. Carol has a wealth of experience in financial management, governance and assurance and fulfilling trustee roles. She is currently a trustee for a number of joint ventures such as Northern Gateway and Manchester Central and for the Greater Manchester Learning Trust. 

Mark Thomson, NED

Mark Thomson is an experienced business leader, having held high-profile senior positions in both the private and public sector. As director general for UK Visas and Immigration and Her Majesty's Passport Office, he led teams responsible for managing around ten million visa and passport applications a year and advised the Home Secretary on immigration strategy and policy.

Prior to joining the Home Office, Mark held a number of senior positions at Royal Mail including sales and customer services director on the company's executive committee. As managing director international, he developed new strategy to restructure the import/export operation and tackle a lack of commercial development.

Frances Done, Observer

Frances Done has extensive Board level experience and is currently Independent Lay Member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee of the House of Commons and has served as the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, Professional Standards Authority since 2017. Her previous roles include Chief Executive of Manchester 2002 Ltd, the Organising Committee of the successful XVII Commonwealth Games, Managing Director for Local Government, Housing and Criminal Justice at the Audit Commission, and Chair of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.

Owen Mapley, Chief Executive

Owen was appointed as CEO of CIPFA in July 2024. Prior to joining CIPFA he spent five years as Chief Executive of Hertfordshire County Council and three years as the council’s Executive Director of Resources and s151/Chief Finance Officer. His time in local government followed an eight-year tenure in the Senior Civil Service, where he held Finance Director positions at the Home Office, HM Courts Service, and the Legal Aid Agency.

Owen began his professional career with PWC, spending 12 years in professional services working with a wide range of private and public sector clients and qualifying as a chartered accountant. In addition to his operational responsibilities at HCC, Owen was a member of his local system’s Integrated Care Board alongside NHS and voluntary sector partners. Owen’s additional leadership roles also included terms as lead local authority Chief Executive for the East of England region and as Vice-Chair of the Association of County Chief Executives.

As a longstanding FCA member with the ICAEW, Owen is very proud to be one of the first to take advantage of CIPFA & ICAEW’s dual membership offer as part of their strategic partnership.

Anna Blackman, Interim Finance Director

Anna comes to CIPFA with a wealth of public sector experience, having been in both external and internal auditor roles as a partner in PwC and serving as Chief Operating Officer for PwC's Government business. Anna trained with CIPFA and spent the majority of her career at PwC working across healthcare, local government and the not-for-profit sectors.

Following a successful career as a Partner at PwC, Anna's portfolio of work is now focused on impact-driven organisations. Anna's work has included being the Chief Operating Officer of FormScore, a mental health and wellbeing tech business and supporting Naked Sprout, a company which produces the UK's most sustainable toilet roll. Anna is a Trustee of the InsideOut Leaderboard Charity and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at UK Athletics.