Membership
List of current board members of the Industrial Development Advisory Board (IDAB) and their biographical details.
Ben Alexander (Chair)
Ben Alexander has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector. He was a director at Deutsche Bank in London where he was co-head of derivatives trading and subsequently a partner of Close Brothers Private Equity where he was involved in institutional fund raising and sat on the boards of a variety of UK companies. He is currently a partner of a strategic consultancy, a non-executive director of a virtual reality content business, a commercial adviser to the Cabinet Office and a member of the Finance Committee of Cambridge University.
Appointed: 2 May 2024
Term ends: 1 May 2027
Sacira Coric
Sacira Coric is a global infrastructure and project finance advisory executive with more than 20 years of experience in economic and social infrastructure, advising public sector authorities, equity investors and lenders on infrastructure strategy and procurement, development, operation and maintenance, privatisations, acquisitions and contract management.
Sacira is a Director, leading Business Case and Project Finance advisory at Turner & Townsend LLP, an independent, global professional services company specialising in programme and cost management and advisory on major capital programmes in infrastructure, real estate and natural resources.
Sacira has a strong knowledge of public sector value for money drivers, policy and regulatory objectives, investors’ and lenders’ interests and concerns, project sponsors’ drivers and most prevalent challenges arising on transactions involving private capital.
She has developed, operationalised and managed private and capital markets investments and corporate spin-offs from large multinational advisory firms.
Appointed: 23 January 2020
Reappointed: 23 January 2023
Term ends: 22 January 2026
Paul Hetherington
Paul has 33 years’ construction experience at senior management or executive level, largely with building materials manufacturers. He also served for 6 years as a non-executive director on the Builders Merchants Federation board, before transitioning to a portfolio career as Vistage Chair, Non-Executive Director at the Building Research Establishment, and advisor and technology investor for numerous companies.
Appointed: 17 April 2023
Term ends: 16 April 2026
Silvia Holgado Gomez
Silvia has been Head of Commercial Banking for BBVA UK since 2019. She has specific responsibility to work with UK-based corporate companies and develop a global relationship model throughout BBVA’s network. This involves providing solutions and expertise in each geography that supports their business.
Prior to this role, she developed her career in Spain in various positions within the Business and Corporate Banking division. She has over 26 years of experience in the financial services industry.
She is a qualified EFPA European Investment Practitioner (EIP) and ISF Adviser Level 1. In 2021, she also completed the MBA fundamentals online program at the London School of Economics. She is also a Member of the Board of Omnia Learning Trust since 2020 and a Mentor for IMFAHE and most recently Mentored at the University of Westminster.
Appointed: 17 April 2023
Term ends: 16 April 2026
Angus Knowles-Cutler
Angus Knowles-Cutler served as London office Managing Partner of Deloitte for 7 years until 2020. He has worked in professional services for over 30 years and has advised 170 organisations on major investment decisions, operational execution and progress reporting.
He served as business chair of the London Local Enterprise Partnership and as a member of the national LEP board. He currently co-chairs the London Royal Docks Enterprise Zone Development board.
Angus graduated from Cambridge with a history degree and has been a visiting professor at the University of Surrey’s Centre for the Digital Economy.
Appointed: 1 November 2021
Term ends: 1 November 2024
Angenika Kunne
Angenika Kunne has over 15 years of experience in corporate advisory and investing across infrastructure, renewable energy and energy transition. Angenika will join Aviva Investors in January 2024 as Head of Infrastructure Equity. She will be responsible for the continued growth of Aviva Investors’ Infrastructure Equity platform across the UK and Europe, including portfolio management and asset origination activities for its Climate Transition Real Assets Fund.
Angenika previously co-headed the investment team at White Summit Capital, a private equity real assets investor specialising in the energy transition, decarbonisation and sustainability. Prior to this, she was an Investment Director at John Laing, with a focus on the mid-market, renewables, and energy infrastructure. She also spent more than 11 years at Macquarie Capital, latterly as Senior Vice President, focusing on a range of sectors including digital infrastructure and PPPs.
Appointed: 17 April 2023
Term ends: 16 April 2026
Mark Poulton
Mark is an Independent Member of Council of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, renowned for its research, post-graduate studies and continuing education in public and global health. He is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and Chair of their Governance Effectiveness Steering Group.
He is also a non-executive board member serving on the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee of the UK government Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.
Mark was a partner at Clifford Chance, an international law firm headquartered in London, for 35 years, retiring at the end of April 2023. He advised corporates across a wide range of sectors on domestic and international acquisitions and disposals, business partnerships, restructuring and governance. During the COVID pandemic he was part of a team advising the UK government on securing the development and supply of COVID-19 vaccines and investment to scale up COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capability in the UK. Through the second half of his career, he held various management roles culminating in leadership of the firm’s Corporate Practice in London. He was a member of the firm’s Inclusion Committee and partner sponsor of Accelerate, the firm’s gender parity affinity group.
Appointed: 17 April 2023
Term ends: 16 April 2026
Julie Tankard
Julie is a finance professional with over 30 years of experience and she is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She has both Executive and Non-Executive experience and has extensive commercial skills.
Most recently, Julie was the Chief Financial Officer for the Port of London, the UK’s largest port by tonnage. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of F&C, a FTSE100 Investment Trust company, where she chairs the audit committee.
Julie was previously at BT plc for a large part of her career and was responsible for BT’s contract management function. She was Vice President of Commercial Finance for 5 years and was instrumental in the financial evaluation of all of BT’s major customer contracts. Julie was also a Non Executive Director for a NHS Trust in Leeds where she chaired the audit committee.
Appointed: 1 November 2021
Term ends: 1 November 2024
James Wise
James is a partner at Balderton Capital, a $5 billion asset under management (AUM) venture fund where he has a specific focus on sustainability, productivity and healthtech investments. He sits as a board member and observer for multiple portfolio companies, including Sophia Genetics (Nasdaq-listed $SOPH), Depop (acquired by Etsy), Tibber and GoCardless, and has been involved in the sale of companies to Amazon, Epic Games and Elastic.
Prior to joining Balderton, James helped to launch and run one of the UK’s first social venture funds, providing support and capital to social enterprises. He has worked with entrepreneurs and businesses in Europe and Africa and as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
As well as the professional experiences above, James is a trustee of the charity Demos and served in 2011 as a Specialist Adviser to Parliament.
Appointed: 17 April 2023
Term ends: 16 April 2026
Andrew Wright
Andrew holds several non-executive roles including Chairman of AW Hainsworth, creating woollen cloth under Royal Warrant. He recently completed a 9-year stint on the West Yorkshire LEP leading on manufacturing and innovation. Prior to this, he spent 10 years managing a high-tech engineering business in Yorkshire making motors for Space and instruments for life sciences; and 9 years on Teeside leading Johnson Matthey’s chemical catalyst business, formerly ICI’s Agricultural division.
He spent 18 years working for BP Chemicals in several roles, from industrial relations in Grangemouth refinery, to leading a large textile monomer business.
Appointed: 17 April 2023
Term ends: 16 April 2026