Rupert Soames OBE
Biography
Rupert Soames joined the Home Office as a non-executive director in June 2026.
He is a highly experienced UK public company chief executive officer (CEO), having served 11 years as CEO of Aggreko, followed by nine years as CEO of Serco. In September 2023, Rupert took up the role of Chair at Smith+Nephew plc, the FTSE 50 listed medical technology company.
Until December 2025, Rupert was President of the CBI, speaking on behalf of 170,000 businesses of all sizes and sectors, across every region and nation of the UK.
Rupert previously served as Group Chief Executive at Serco from May 2014 until December 2023, during which time the company was transformed into a specialist supplier of services to government in health, defence, transport, justice and immigration.
Prior to Aggreko, he worked for the software company Misys plc for five years, latterly as Chief Executive of its Banking and Securities Division. He spent the first 16 years of his career at the General Electric Company (GEC) plc.
Rupert has held many board and director positions including Non-Executive Director of DS Smith, the FTSE 100 packaging company and Senior Independent Director of Electrocomponents plc; as well as being a member of the remuneration, nomination and audit committees for both firms.
He is also a visiting fellow at Oxford University, and a visiting professor at Aston University.
Lead Non-Executive Director
The non-executive director team come from the private sector with experience of managing large or complex organisations and projects.
Non-executive directors provide advice and bring an external perspective to the department. They also provide support, guidance and challenge on the progress and implementation of operational business plans, recruitment and succession planning.