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Non-executive Board members

Five non executive board members work with the Ombudsman to enhance the governance of her office, improve the transparency with which it operates and bolster the independence of the role. They are not involved in investigations into complaints.

Tony Redmond, Cecilia Wells, Paula Carter and Linda Charlton are members of the Advisory Board and Pay Committee while Andrew Puddephatt chairs the Audit Committee.

Andrew Puddephatt OBE

Andrew is the Chair of the Audit Committee for the Ombudsman. He was appointed by open competition in 2004, and reappointed in 2007 for a further three year term.

He is currently a director of Global Partners and Chair of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Independent Transparency Review panel. He is also the Vice-Chair of International Media Support, a Danish based NGO that provides emergency support to journalists in conflict areas. Other appointments held by Andrew include International Steering Committee member for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina database, a Norwegian-based project that documents the history of censorship in the world, and an international Board member of the Open Democracy Centre in South Africa.

Previously Andrew was the Executive Director of ARTICLE 19 from January 1999 to October 2004. He has been an expert member of both the Council of Europe and the Commonwealth expert working groups on freedom of information and freedom of expression. From 1995 until 1999, Andrew was Director of Charter 88, the UK's leading constitutional reform organisation. Between 1989 and 1995 he was General Secretary of Liberty, a domestic human rights organisation in the UK. He played a leading role in securing a Bill of Rights for the UK.

Andrew was awarded the OBE in January 2003 for services to human rights.

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Tony Redmond

Tony is a non-executive member of the PHSO Advisory Board and is also a member of the Pay Committee (a formal sub committee of the Board) and the Audit Committee. He was invited to join the Board and the Audit Committee by the Ombudsman in 2004 in a voluntary arrangement which mirrors the Ombudsman’s ex-officio position as a Commissioner in the Commission for Local Administration (CLA).

He is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission for Local Administration ( England) and a Local Government Ombudsman. Tony is a Member of CIPFA Council, a Fellow of CPA Australia and a Fellow of the RSA. He is also a Member of the Centre for Public Policy Seminars.

Previously he was Chief Executive with the London Borough of Harrow and Treasurer to the West London Waste Authority.

His earliest posts were in Accountancy, Audit, Revenues and Corporate Planning at Liverpool City Council culminating in his role as the City’s Chief Accountant. From there he went to Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council as Deputy Treasurer, then on to be Treasurer and Deputy Chief Executive at Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Treasurer with the Merseyside Police Authority, from where he moved to Harrow.

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Cecilia Wells OBE

Cecilia is a non-executive member of the PHSO Advisory Board and is also a member of the Pay Committee (a formal sub committee of the Board). She was appointed by open competition in 2004 and reappointed in 2007 for a three year term.

Cecilia is co-owner and Director of Astar Management Consultants Ltd, a consultancy that works with employers in the private and public sectors to enhance their business performance by developing their organisations to make better use of the diversity of their people. Cecilia is an experienced human resources consultant who has worked with clients in the private, public and voluntary sectors over the past ten years on equality and diversity management issues.

She recently stepped down after 16 years as Vice Chair of Centrepoint, a charity working for homeless people and is currently a non executive director at the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, an Independent Assessor for Public Appointments and a member of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Employee Relations Advisory Panel. Cecilia has also been appointed as an Arbitrator for ACAS.

Her other work experience includes three years teaching, nine years in Human Resource Management with the former British Leyland, and seven years with Manpower plc working as a Branch Manager, then as Management Development Manager for the UK.

Her other public appointments have included:

• Council Member, and Acting Chair in 2000, of the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) (1992 – 2000)
• Non Executive Director and then Vice Chair of Bedford and Shires Community and Care Trust (1995 – 1999)
• Chairwoman of the Regional Advisory Council, BBC South East (1995-1998)
• Commissioner of the Equal Opportunities Commission (1990-1996)
• Member of the Race Relations Advisory Group to the Department for Education and Employment (1990-1996)
• Member of the Ethnic Minorities Committee to the Judicial Studies Board (1992-1996). She was involved in the Race Awareness training programme for the Judiciary.
• Member of the Parole Board for England and Wales (1988-1994)

Cecilia was awarded the OBE in 1996 for work in equality.

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Paula Carter

Paula Carter is a non-executive member of the PHSO Advisory Board. She was appointed for three years in 2007 following open competition.

Paula is the Viewers’ Editor at Channel 4. Her background includes experience in advertising, marketing, public and commercial broadcasting and digital media. She worked for the BBC for ten years before joining ITV to create a new digital channel jointly owned by Granada and Boots. After leaving ITV, she ran her own communications consultancy advising the Puttnam Joint scrutiny committee on the 2002 Communications Act and contributed to the Phillis Review of Government Communications in 2003. Her clients included Ofcom, the BBC Governor’s, HMRC and the Royal Opera House.

Paula is a Trustee and Governor of St Michael’s School Otford and chairs the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Sub Committee for Central Kent responsible for recruiting magistrates.

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Linda Carlton

Linda Charlton is a non-executive member of the PHSO Advisory Board. She was appointed for three years in 2007 following open competition.

Linda Charlton has 30 years experience in the public sector, including work in the education sector, in government departments and ten years in the National Health Service, where she led an audit consortium providing services to ten NHS Trusts. During that time, she also contributed to an Overseas Development Agency project which was supporting the development of primary care systems in Albania. From November 2000 to March 2007 she worked at PHSO as a Health Investigations Director, then as Director of the Change Programme, and then as Director Of Equality and Diversity.

Linda has more than 10 years experience of operating at Board level and she now combines her work as a non-executive director with management consultancy. She has particular experience of leading programmes of work that deliver cultural and operational change in organisations and her main interests lie in the areas of public service improvement, staff and stakeholder engagement, managing change effectively and equality and diversity in practice.

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Summary of Advisory Board declared potential conflicts