John Govett - Group Chief Executive
After qualifying in Business Studies from the Metropolitan University in London, John joined UNILEVER Plc gaining experience in FMCG and manufacturing he then joined Tesco and spent a number of years as their Head of Marketing. He was responsible for the retailers corporate marketing, advertising, local marketing and national promotions and was fast tracked by the TESCO Plc board.
He gained his first directorship with Warners, a division of the Mecca entertainment group of companies, as the Marketing & Sales director.
He then joined Stena Line Ltd in 1990, where his experience of transformational business change, across the UK and Mainland Europe really began. He was P&L accountable as part of the Stena board that turned around the UK & European ferry division and then as Commercial director was part of the board that formed the joint venture on the world’s largest ferry route in 1998, with P&O. Following this, John then drove the commercial team’s merger of the three P&O ferry companies into one new business.
In 2004 John led the £700m P&O Ferries Ltd total business transformation across the UK & Mainland Europe that led to new products and services (and c £40m of cost reductions and route closures) that was so successfully received at the time by the City and the Stock Market.
Following this success, John moved into Local Government at Surrey County Council in 2005 and again led a fundamental review of all the total organisation’s services, operations and business processes. He restructured their finances and front line service operations and reduced the Council's cost base by over £40m cash within his first year.
As acting Deputy CEO and Managing Director he was responsible for the development of its 26,000 staff and efficient use of its £1.6bn cost base and for the main board of directors for all front line operations (eg Adult Services, Childrens & Schools, Communities, Transport, Highways, Waste, Libraries etc) and played a full role in the Local Strategic Partnership arrangements with such bodies as the Police and Primary care Trust.
John has for 6 years been a Non-Executive Director of Visit England and also sat as a Non Executive Director on the Visit Britain Audit & Governance board. John is qualified and a Full Member of the Market Research Society.
John sits now on the Board of East of England IDB Ltd and also of London Brokerage Ltd.
John became Group Chief Executive of Ixion Holdings Ltd Group in September 2009 and led both the fundamental review of Ixion's services and then the acquisition in April 2010 of the £4m p.a company. Computer Gym Ltd into the group, that was rebranded as Ixion CG Ltd. This gave the Ixion Holdings Ltd group of companies an immediate operational delivery arm, with a substantial track record in key funding sectors of Welfare to Work, Reducing re-offending and Apprenticeships and Workforce Development.
Since John arrived, Ixion Holdings have already won c. £30m pa of tender based bid contracts from Government bodies.
Rachael White - Group Finance & Corporate Services Director
Rachael qualified as an Accountant in 1995. Her background in Chartered Accountancy has given her invaluable experience in systems and processes which has assisted her throughout her career. She worked for the Learning and Skills Council Essex as Head of Finance for three years before joining Essex Business Support Limited as the Finance Manager in April 2004.
She led a team responsible for setting up a Training and Enterprise Council which involved setting up the company, recruiting and training private sector board members, recruiting staff and securing premises and equipment.
Rachael was promoted to Head of Corporate Services of the Ixion Group in April 2005 and is responsible for the group corporate service functions including Finance, IT, Quality, Governance, Facilities, HR, Contract Management and the organisations acquisition strategy. It is a role that she thoroughly enjoys and feels she can contribute greatly to the group company development for the future.
Rachael became Finance Director for the Ixion Group of Companies in April 2006 and joined the Board as an Executive Director.
Rachael is also a Board Director and Treasurer for Essex Crimestoppers and works with Chelmsford College, supporting and advising students prepare Business Plans for their Business Diploma Courses.
Margaret Hyde - Non Executive Chairman
Margaret is the Chair of the Ixion Group and is a Non Executive board member of Business Link East. Her other activities include director and former chairman of Essex Crimestoppers, a trustee of Essex Community Foundation, a vice-president of Helen Rollason Cancer Care and a former president of Soroptimist International's Chelmsford Club.
Born in West London, she lives in Chelmsford and Cambridge, is married to a Daily Mail journalist and has one daughter.
She has been a Non Executive Board Director of the Ixion Group since 2001 and became its Chair Person in 2005.
Margaret was Managing Editor of BBC Essex between 1995 and 2007 and coordinated the BBC's Charter Renewal activity in the East of England under the key theme of “Building Public Value".
She previously managed BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, was Head of Programmes in Lancashire and in 1979 became the first woman News Editor in English Local Radio at Radio Merseyside. Earlier in her career she presented and produced the station's breakfast show and she's also worked in network radio news and television management in Manchester.
Richard Cook - Non Executive Director
Richard is Managing Director of G E Cook & Sons Ltd, a family business established in 1885. Originally brewers and wine merchants with branches across Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire, the original company was sold in 1995 to Unwins Merchants. Richard successfully steered G E Cook & Sons Ltd through the transformation into a property management and investment company.
Richard has been a firm supporter and champion of local businesses for many years. He was the founder and former chairman of the Braintree District Business Council.
Richard is a Non Executive Director of the Ixion Group
Andrew Creswell - Non Executive Director
Andrew has been a Director of the Ixion Group since 2002. Educated at Aldenham School in Hertfordshire and 'Colchester Tech', he then followed in his father and brother's footsteps by joining the Royal Artillery. The next few years saw him married, becoming an Instructor of Gunnery teaching 2 generations of artillery young officers, a troop commander on secondment to the Canadian Army and 2 years at the Army Staff College. In 1986 he moved back to Colchester and from there did various jobs in the MoD finishing up as a Lt Col Project Manager in the procurement of an anti-tank missile system in collaboration with French, German, Dutch and Belgian colleagues.
In 1986, Andrew's wife Carrie had started a small business in Colchester importing ornamental orange trees from her brother who was growing them in Portugal. By 1996, Carrie urgently needed full-time management assistance and Andrew took early retirement and joined her. Together they built a nursery from scratch and over the next 10 years expanded the business into being one of the leading wholesale conservatory plant suppliers selling nationwide to a large DIY multiple and over 300 garden centres.
Andrew's interests include sport, horology, antiques and clock collecting. He was governor of a girl's school in Suffolk for 5 years and has a grown up daughter and son.
Andrew Mead - Non Executive Director
Andy is an entrepreneur who, since leaving school in 1978, has spent his whole career in the print finishing industry. From an early age, Andy recognised the importance of fast, high quality finishing services to the magazine industry. With this in mind, Andy started his own company The Finishing Line in 1987, initially based at the Young Enterprise Centre.
The company has expanded through five changes of premises before settling at their current location in Basildon.
Andy has business interests throughout the South East but he is committed to helping small and medium enterprises in Essex. In the past, he has served as a director of Essex TEC, The Business Development Advisory Service and The Princes Youth Business Trust Board.
In recognition of his success, Andy was a finalist in the Shell UK sponsored National Live Wire Competition for young business people in 1988 and was subsequently awarded a Significant Progress Award by National Live Wire in 1997.
A keen sportsman with a love of fishing, skiing, keeping fit and golf, although his handicap, much to his chagrin, does not seem to be improving as he does not seem to be able to spend as much time as he would like on the golf course.
Andy is a Non Executive Director of the Ixion Group and is also the Ixion Board's Finance Committee Chair, which means he keeps a watchful eye over how the business is run. He enjoys working closely with the commercial teams focusing on winning new business and contracts.
Juliet Price - Non Executive Director
Juliet has run her own Human Resource and Health & Safety Consultancy business called Park City Consulting since 1999, providing an outsourced Human Resource and Health & Safety department to businesses that typically employ between 5 and 1,000 people. Red tape and employment legislation these days is a huge issue for businesses.
Juliet is also Vice Chairman of the Essex Branch of the Institute of Directors and part of her role there is to organise events for local directors including events to help them cut through the minefield of red tape that businesses face.
She is a Non Executive Board Director of the Ixion Group of Companies and assists with championing the HR side of the business as well as being the Chair of the Audit and Remuneration Committee.
Professor Alan Sibbald – Non Executive Director
Professor Alan Sibbald is Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research, Scholarship and Development at Anglia Ruskin University.
Before joining Anglia Ruskin in early 2008, Alan was Deputy Vice Chancellor, with responsibility for research, outreach and infrastructure at the University of East London, Alan. While there he led the development of a major investment programme of in excess of £110m in new buildings. The development was to provide a leading-edge teaching and learning environment; and he was also primarily responsible for new research, scholarship and knowledge transfer strategies. These strategies enabled his colleagues from UEL to engage in relevant research, through multi-disciplinary research institutes, focusing on opportunities relating to the regeneration of the Thames Gateway and '2012'. He has also played a key role in developing UEL's partnership network and in establishing UEL as a significant presence in international student recruitment.
Prior to moving to UEL, Professor Sibbald was at Napier University for 20 years holding a number of posts, culminating in his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Professor Sibbald has an international reputation for his own research in Civil Engineering; he has published widely, with a strong record in achieving external funding and supervising PhD students.
He is currently the Deputy Chair of the NHS National Services Scotland Special Health Board and has served on a number of national committees, including the Institution of Civil Engineers UK Council.
Professor Michael Thorne – Non Executive Director
Professor Michael Thorne is Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Anglia Ruskin University. Mike has a first class honours degree in pure mathematics from the University of London and a PhD in computational group theory from the University of Birmingham.
He held posts in University College London, Cardiff University, the University of Sunderland and Napier University in Edinburgh before becoming Vice Chancellor of the University of East London in 2001.
He is the author of a large number of books and academic papers and writes for newspapers and magazines and has written and presented numerous TV and radio programmes.
Currently Professor Thorne is a Board member of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, the Learning and Skills network, the Broadway Theatre and Newham College of Further Education.
He is also very active as a musician and between 2001 and 2004 conducted Wagner's Ring Cycle in Edinburgh, followed by Tristan and Isolde in 2005.