Hemant Patel
Biography
Hemant is currently Chief Financial Officer of Whitbread plc.
He was born and educated in London before graduating from the University of Manchester having studied Physics with Astrophysics. He then moved into industry to train as a chartered management accountant.
He has worked at various multi-national companies including Mars Inc and SC Johnson in financial, commercial and marketing roles before moving with his family to Yorkshire to join Asda in 2003. At Asda, Hemant carried out various roles in finance including Commercial Finance Director and Retail Finance Director as well as running Asda’s own label business and leading business reinvention as Director of Strategy.
Hemant then moved on to be Director of Online at the financial service provider, Provident Financial plc, with responsibility for their online loans businesses. Latterly he was Finance Director of the Pub Co at Greene King plc, leading the finance function for the business’s 1,700 managed pubs.
He is currently Chief Financial Officer of Whitbread plc, the UK’s largest hotel business, with over 800 sites under the Premier Inn brand, more than 400 pub-restaurants and 35,000 employees.
Until 2017, Hemant was chairman of Interplay Theatre, a Leeds based company using the arts to work with children in special schools nationally and socially excluded children locally. He was given the Arts and Business Individual of the Year award in 2007 for his work with this charity.
Hemant became a trustee of the Royal Armouries, the national museum of arms and armour, in July 2010, chairing the trading company as well as the audit committee, and serving as chair of the board from 2018 to 2019.
He was awarded an MBE for services to museums and heritage in the 2020 birthday honours list.
Non-Executive Board Member
Our non-executive directors are senior figures from outside the department who bring a diverse mix of expertise and skills from across the public and private sector. They all:
- give guidance and advice to DCMS leaders and ministers
- support and challenge management on the department’s strategic direction
- provide support in monitoring and reviewing progress