Our governance

The main decision-making, executive and managerial bodies at High Speed Two (HS2) Limited.

Board

The role of the board is to:

ensure effective governance of the company so that the company makes decisions at the right time and properly manages risks
shape, challenge and direct the agenda for the company delivering stated priorities
monitor performance and risk, making choices (or recommendations to ministers) on our priorities ‘risk appetite’ (the amount and type of risk we are willing to take in order to meet our strategic objectives)
oversee healthy relations with our stakeholders and commercial partners

The board typically meets on a monthly basis.

Board members

Elaine Holt, Non-executive Board Member

With 30 years’ experience in the transport and service industry, Elaine is highly experienced in working in complex, highly regulated environments which are subject to intense public, political and media scrutiny. In addition to her wide, board level experience in construction and infrastructure she also has extensive railway operations experience and has a successful track record of running large customer operations and managing organisations through periods of significant change

Elaine has held a number of non executive or chair roles including served over 6 years as a Non-Executive Director (NED) of Highways England. One of her current NED roles is Deputy Chair of HS2.

Prior to this, she held a number of senior roles within the UK rail industry including Chairman and CEO of Directly Operated Railways, Chairman of East Coast and Managing Director of First Capital Connect. Elaine was also Executive Vice President Guest Experience at Carnival UK running all operations of P&O Cruises and Cunard.

Ian King, Non-executive Board Member

Ian King is the lead Non-Executive Director for the Department for Transport and joined HS2 in July 2020.

Ian joined Marconi in 1976 as a graduate entrant, working in defence electronics manufacturing. He served as a Finance Director at Marconi Electronic Systems from 1992 to 1998 and was Chief Executive of Alenia Marconi when Marconi and British Aerospace merged in 1999 to form BAE Systems. After the merger, he became Group Strategy and Planning Director for BAE Systems. In 2008 Ian became the Chief Executive of BAE Systems and held this position until his retirement in June 2017. Ian’s current positions include a lead directorship at Department for Transport, senior advisor to Gleacher Shacklock, Senior Independent Director at Schroders PLC and is Chair at Senior plc.

Alan Foster, Chief Finance Officer

Alan Foster joined HS2 as Chief Financial Officer in July 2022 and reports directly to Chief Executive Mark Thurston. He brings with him deep experience operating at Board level supporting businesses in both the Energy and Construction sectors, where he has led Finance, a wide range of Corporate Services and business wide transformation in large complex organisations. Alan joins HS2’s Executive Committee and will also attend HS2 Board.

As Chief Financial Officer Alan will be responsible for a wide range of functional teams, including Finance, Legal, Sponsorship, Programme Controls and IT, helping them succeed in collectively enabling the business and our supply chain to deliver on budget and to schedule.

Previously, Alan has been Group CFO of a premium listed construction company and spent over 20 years at National Grid plc in a broad range of Finance and Commercial leadership roles both in the UK & US. Alan was on the Board of National Grid Electricity Transmission plc and National Grid Gas plc as UK CFO from 2016-2020. Prior to National Grid Alan led Finance and IT at a division of a FMCG business, after nearly seven years building his career from Finance graduate trainee to a Senior Commercial Finance Manager with British Sugar plc. Alan has a degree in Mathematics and it’s application and is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS).

Stephen Hughes, Non-executive Board Member

Stephen Hughes joined HS2 in April 2019, being a highly experienced local government leader, having served as Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council for nearly 10 years. Stephen previously held an executive role at Brent Council and a non-executive directorship at Big Band Limited. An accountant by profession, Stephen is currently Chair of Housing & Care 21, a director of Service Hughes 88 Limited and a finance commissioner at Liverpool City Council. Stephen holds a degree in Economics from Cambridge.

Tom Harris, Non-executive Board Member

Tom Harris joined HS2 in July 2020 and is a public affairs consultant and a former Labour MP. After serving as a minister in the Department for Transport he led the Scottish Brexit campaign and founded his own company, Third Avenue Public Affairs and was a member of the Expert Challenge Panel supporting the government’s independent Rail review. Tom was Senior Counsel at Message Matters and his current roles include being a member of the West Coast Partnership Independent Advisory Board, Associate Director at Cogitamus, and is the Lead Non-Executive for the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland and the office of the Advocate General.

Joanna Davinson, Non-executive Board Director

Joanna has many years’ experience in shaping, delivery and assuring complex technology based programmes. Until recently she was the UK Government’s Chief Digital Officer – the most senior digital role in Government – responsible for setting direction and cross government digital, data and technology strategy and for performance managing Departments to implement.

Joanna was also head of the government’s 25,000 strong government digital profession. She has held a number of high-profile business and technology leadership roles in both the public and private sectors.

She was Chief Information Officer at the Home Office and before that had a successful and varied 30-year career as a Management Consultant and Programme Director in PWC and as a senior leader in IBM. In her last role in IBM she was General Manager of its European Public Sector Consulting and Systems Integration business.

Keith Smithson, Non-executive Board Director

Keith is a highly experienced leader in Finance, Treasury and Transformation for large complex organisations operating in regulated environments.

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, Keith spent 35 years in Banking and Financial Services, primarily in Chief Financial Officer and Treasury roles within HSBC and Barclays. In his career as a CFO, he worked across asset finance and leasing, retail banking, insurance, wealth management, corporate banking and capital markets businesses in the UK and internationally.

Most recently Keith was Chief Financial Officer and a Board Director of Barclays Europe. He also previously served as a Non-Executive Director of Big Society Capital Limited, a regulated provider of social investment capital in the UK.

Nelson Ogunshakin, Non-executive Board Director

Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE has over 40 years’ experience in planning, finance, procurement, delivery and management of major property and infrastructure investment projects. He was appointed as the International Federation of Consulting Engineers Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2018. He’s currently a Board member and Chair of the programmes and investment committee for Transport for London. He was appointed as a Board member of the Connecting Places Catapult and currently serves as member of its remuneration committee. He also chairs the Investment Committee of ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investment $250m Funds (PE), since 2015.

Nelson is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Member of Chartered Institute of Directors, a CEDR accredited mediator, member of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a visiting professor of the Academy on infrastructure investment at Aston University.

Nelson was the former Board member and Chair of Investment Committee at Crossrail Ltd. He was the president and CEO of the UK Association for Consultancy and Engineering for 14 years. He was appointed by the former Chief Secretary to Treasury, Sir Danny Alexander as co-chair of the UK National Infrastructure Plan Strategic Engagement Forum. He was also appointed as a member of the London Infrastructure Delivery Board.

Jon Thompson

Sir Jon Thompson joined HS2 in April 2021 and was appointed as Chair on 9 February 2023. Sir Jon’s appointment, after almost a year as Deputy Chair, came at a pivotal time for the HS2 programme. as the Crewe-Manchester Bill moves through Parliament. Sir Jon brings decades of experience delivering major projects and world-class leadership having previously served as the Permanent Secretary at both the Ministry of Defence and HM Revenue and Customs. Currently Sir Jon serves as a director at the Financial Reporting Council and is the Chair of the Crown Hosting Data Centres.

Sir Jon has had a lengthy finance career including as Director General of Finance at the Ministry of Defence, Director General of Corporate Services at the Department for Education and Finance Director of Ofsted. Before joining the Civil Service in 2004 Sir Jon held a number of corporate services and finance roles in the public and corporate sectors.