The NAO Board supports and advises the C&AG in meeting his statutory responsibilities, and oversees how we manage and use resources.
Non-Executive Chair
Dame Fiona Reynolds
Dame Fiona Reynolds was appointed as Chair of the NAO in January 2021 following confirmation by Parliament and HM The Queen. She was reappointed as Chair of the NAO by HM The King for a further three-year term commencing on 10 January 2024.
Dame Fiona Reynolds has had a long career in the voluntary and public sectors, including as Director-General of the National Trust from 2001 to 2012. Before joining the National Trust, she was Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office from 1998 to 2000, Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987 to 1998 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980 to 1987. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. Between 2012 and 2021, she was Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Dame Fiona holds a number of non-executive roles. She is chair of the Governing Council of the Royal Agricultural University, the International National Trusts Organisation, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden and its Bennett Institute for Public Policy. She is a trustee of the Grosvenor Estate and the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, and a non-executive director of Wessex Water.
Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG)
Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies was appointed C&AG in June 2019. Before his appointment as C&AG, he was Head of Public Services at Mazars, a global accountancy firm specialising in audit, tax and advisory services. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of the Audit Commission’s Audit Practice. His experience spans financial and value for money audit, organisational leadership and board governance.
Gareth is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He is a non-executive Board member of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) which supports Supreme Audit Institutions in developing countries to sustainably enhance their performance and capacity.
Non-Executive members
Gaenor Bagley
Gaenor Bagley was appointed to the NAO Board by the Public Accounts Commission in January 2021 for an initial three-year term. The Commission reappointed her for a second and final three-year term commencing on 1 January 2024. Gaenor is the Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee which she has chaired since January 2022. In July 2024 the C&AG appointed Gaenor as Chair of the Audit Quality Board.
Gaenor combines a chartered accountancy qualification with extensive and innovative HR experience within a professional services environment and very strong understanding of audit and finance, merger and acquisition and corporate social responsibility. She has broad experience across the public and private sector. During her 30 years in professional services she has held a variety of leadership and board positions, including five years to 2016 on the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) UK Board as Head of People. She has also been a member of the UK Tax Leadership team at PwC.
Gaenor holds a number of non-executive appointments including Chair of the Audit Committee of Zopa Bank Ltd, non-executive director of Octopus Titan VCT, external council member and Chair of the Remuneration Committee of Cambridge University and Chair of TKAT Multi-Academy Trust.
Alistair Conner
Alistair Conner was appointed to the NAO Board by the Public Accounts Commission on 1 February 2023 for an initial three-year term. He is a member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.
Alistair is Deputy CEO of Time Partners, a specialist investment banking firm. He has an extensive career history both in the Royal Air Force and the financial services sector, including 13 years at UBS where he became the UK Chief Operating Officer in 2014 and was promoted to Managing Director in 2015. Following UBS he joined Credit Suisse, where he was a PRA-regulated Senior Manager, UK Chief Operating Officer and an executive director on the Board of CS UK (Ltd). From April to July 2021, he advised the Bank of Ireland as lead strategic wealth management consultant during their acquisition of Davy, Ireland’s largest wealth manager.
Alistair holds a degree in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from the University of St Andrews and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors. A keen traveller and mountaineer (preferably combining both), he has been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 2003.
Sir Martin Donnelly
Sir Martin Donnelly was appointed to the NAO Board by the Public Accounts Commission in January 2021 for an initial three-year term. The Commission reappointed him for a second and final three-year term commencing on 1 January 2024. Sir Martin is the NAO’s Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee.
Sir Martin has experience across a range of government departments and public bodies. He was a Permanent Secretary from 2010 to 2017, leading the Department for Business Innovation & Skills for six years, then setting up the Department for International Trade. He has worked as a senior civil servant in HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Home Office, and served as a non-executive director of GCHQ for five years.
Sir Martin is a trustee of several charities including The Royal Anniversary Trust and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, and continues to work to promote greater gender diversity in the workplace. He was President of Boeing International Europe from 2019 to 2022, and chairs the South Yorkshire Combined Authority business taskforce.
Hetan Shah
Hetan Shah was appointed to the NAO Board by the Public Accounts Commission on 25 January 2024 for an initial three-year term. He is a member of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee.
Hetan Shah is the Chief Executive of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences, and has previously served as Chief Executive at the Royal Statistical Society. Hetan also has extensive experience in non-executive roles and is currently Chair of the Board at Our World in Data. He is a visiting professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Hetan has extensive Board level experience including having served as Chair of the Friends Provident Foundation and Vice Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute.
Executive members
Catherine Hope MacLellan
Catherine is responsible for the NAO’s people function and leads on organisational change, learning and development, and diversity and inclusion. With an international financial services and management consulting background, she moved into HR to focus on people. Before joining the NAO in June 2023, Catherine was responsible for the strategy and rollout of national talent initiatives at NHS England. She is a keen traveller and has lived and worked across five continents, including the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Kate Mathers
Kate joined the Executive Team in 2017 and assumed the new role of Executive Director of Financial Audit in January 2024. As the NAO’s Executive Head of Audit, Kate is responsible for leading the Financial Audit Service Line and all matters relating to it, including audit quality. Kate is also responsible for the NAO’s work with government departments focused on culture, justice and welfare.
Kate has been with the NAO since 2000. A Chartered Accountant, she has extensive experience auditing public sector bodies. Kate has served on the Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, has chaired its Education and Training Board and currently sits on its Council. Kate held senior roles while on secondment at the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and has also been a charity trustee, serving on the boards of Access Accountancy and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Kate is currently an independent member of the Finance Committee of The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
Rebecca Sheeran
Rebecca is the NAO’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). Her responsibilities include strategy, finance and resources, digital services and communications. She is the Chief Information Officer and Senior Information Responsible Owner. Rebecca joined the Executive Team in 2017, leading the Value for Money service line until her appointment as COO in October 2024. Rebecca is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in public audit.
Outside of the NAO, Rebecca is a Trustee of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and chairs its Finance and Resources Committee. She is also an independent member of the Finance Committee of the Cardinal Hume Centre in Westminster.
External members of other boards and committees
The following independent external members have been appointed to other boards and committees that support the NAO Board and the C&AG.
Richard Cartwright
Richard Cartwright was appointed by the NAO Board as an independent external member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee in December 2020. The Board reappointed him to this role for further three-year term from 1 January 2024.
Richard is a Non-Executive Director at Places for People and Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust, and a Governor at Motability. He is also a permanent member of Faculty at Southampton Business School.
Richard is a Chartered Accountant, training with KPMG. He has had several roles with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), formerly a council member, Chairman of the Assessment Committee, and a Learning and Professional Development Board member. He was previously appointed to the Department of Education’s T-Levels advisory panel, where he provided advice and guidance in the development of its accounting course.
In 2018, Richard was named in the Shaw Trust Power 100, an annual listing of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK.
Janet Eilbeck
Janet Eilbeck was a non-executive member of the NAO Board from October 2016 to October 2022. She was appointed by the C&AG to chair the Audit Quality Board (AQB) when it was first set up in 2021. Following her retirement from the Board, the C&AG appointed Janet as an independent external Chair of AQB. Janet stepped down from this role in July 2024 and remains on the AQB as an independent external member.
Janet is a chartered accountant with more than 40 years’ experience. She was an assurance partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) until 2011, specialising in government and the broader public sector, including wide experience of external and internal audit, financial accounting advice and risk management. Janet also has expertise in pensions. She chaired PwC’s two legacy staff pension schemes for nine years until December 2019 and following her retirement from the firm she became the first Chair of the Internal Audit Standards Advisory Board (IASAB), and the independent financial expert for the Department for Education, until December 2016.
Janet has been a non-executive member of the West Kent Housing Association Board since June 2021. She is currently Vice Chair of the Association and Chair of its Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration and Appointments Committee.
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