Director of Strategy, Policy and External Communications

Sarah Whitehead

Biography

Sarah joined the Civil Service as a patent examiner at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2009. Since then she has held a variety of policy and operational roles at the IPO, before joining Companies House as Director of Strategy, Policy and External Communications in July 2023.

Sarah has experience of  domestic legislation, international, trade and innovation policy. In 2019 she was chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents. Prior to her current role at Companies House, Sarah was Acting Director of Business and International Policy at the IPO and Deputy Director for Customer Experience within the IPO’s Business Operations Division.

Sarah holds a Masters in Biochemistry from the University of Bath and a PhD from the University of Manchester.

Director of Strategy, Policy and External Communications

Companies House

Previous roles in government

  • Director of Business and International Policy