Contact Us - NAO Board and Leadership Team

Biographies

Non-Executive Chairman

Professor Sir Andrew Likierman

Andrew Likierman became non-executive Chairman of the National Audit Office on 1 January 2009. He is also Dean of London Business School and a non-executive Director of Barclays plc. In the course of his career, Andrew has been Head of the Government Accountancy Service and was a Managing Director of the Financial Management, Reporting and Audit Directorate at the Treasury.

Andrew is a past President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and has been a member of a number of official inquiries, including the 'Cadbury Committee' on corporate governance. In 2006, he was a member of the Steering Committee on governance and oversight of the United Nations.

Andrew Likierman - Non Excecutive Chairman

Non-Executive Members

Ruth Evans

Ruth Evans has extensive experience in consumer issues and the representation of the public interest. She will be well placed to engage in the strategic debate on how the NAO sets its priorities and how these meet the interests of the wider public. She was Chair of the Bar Standards Board until 2008.

Richard Fleck CBE

Richard Fleck is a lawyer with extensive experience of audit and governance arrangements and is Chairman of the UK Auditing Practices Board. He was a member of the Financial Reporting Council when it changed status to a corporate body.

Dame Mary Keegan

Mary Keegan brings a great depth of experience of audit, both in the public and private sectors, to her role as non-executive member. She is well networked in Whitehall and has experience of change management in large, complex organisations. She was Head of the Government Finance Profession until March 2008.

Comptroller and Auditor General

Amyas Morse

Amyas Morse was appointed Comptroller and Auditor General on 1st June 2009.

Amyas was born in Edinburgh, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He led the Coopers and Lybrand practice in Scotland, before moving to London to manage the London City Office. He subsequently became the Executive Partner of the Coopers and Lybrand UK firm. When PricewaterhouseCoopers was formed, he took on global responsibilities, and served as Global Leader of Assurance practice (audit and related services), and then as Global Managing Partner (Operations).

Amyas Morse joined the Ministry of Defence in July 2006 as the Defence Commercial Director. During his time as Defence Commercial Director he was responsible for shaping the Department’s relationship with industry, and he played a key role in the agreement of strategic commercial arrangements. More widely across government, he served as a member of the Major Projects Review Group, the Public Sector Board of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, and on a National Health Service Project Board.

Amyas Morse - Comptroller and Auditor General

Chief Operating Officer

Michael Whitehouse

Michael Whitehouse was appointed Chief Operating Officer for the NAO on 1 July 2009.

Michael is CIPFA qualified and has had responsibility for a range of portfolios both as Assistant Auditor General (from 2002) and as Director (from 1990). Michael has extensive experience of value for money work across government including defence, foreign affairs and international aid, agriculture and economic regulation. Michael spent 15 months working in New Zealand with the Office of the Auditor General. In 1992 he was seconded to the Ministry of Finance in Zambia where he led a nine month review of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM). From 1994 to 1997, he was the UK Audit Commissioner for the European Space Agency.

As well as having responsibility for strategy and the operational performance and capability of the NAO Michael leads the NAO’s work on cross government systemic issues. Michael is an executive member of the NAO Board.

Assistant Auditors General

Gabrielle Cohen

Gabrielle has been an Assistant Auditor General since 2005 having joined the NAO in 1987 and trained as an accountant.

Gabrielle is responsible for leading our stakeholder relations. This includes responsibility for all our interactions with Parliament and developing a strategic approach to the management of NAO relations with the bodies subject to its scrutiny and other key external stakeholders. Core to this aspect of her role is to increase the NAO’s impact by securing increased take up of its recommendations and the good practice guidance it produces. It includes responsibility for communications, media handling, knowledge management and marketing. Gabrielle also has responsibility for NAO Governance, relations with the Board and corporate policy. Gabrielle is an executive member of the NAO Board.

Ed Humpherson

Ed has been an AAG since 2007, having joined the NAO in 1993. He was appointed to the new NAO Board in July 2009. He is responsible for the NAO’s work on business and economic affairs, including the audits of HM Treasury, HM Revenue and Customs, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Transport. He is also responsible for coordinating the NAO's work on the use of Private Finance to deliver public services, the effectiveness of regulators and regulator reform, and the public sector's work with the Third Sector. He is currently coordinating the NAO's audit work on the Government's response to the financial crisis, including the nationalisation and recapitalisation of several key financial institutions.

Since qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1996, Ed has specialised in analysing the interaction of public and private sectors in a variety of roles, including privatisations, the Private Finance Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships. Prior to appointment as Assistant Auditor General, Ed was previously the NAO’s Director of Regulation studies. He produced reports to Parliament on the effectiveness of regulation across a range of sectors, including communications, the postal market, utility industries, the pensions industry and competition enforcement. He was also responsible for the NAO’s work on the Financial Services Authority and Better Regulation, including the evaluation of Regulatory Impact Assessments, the Government’s programme to reduce administrative burdens.

Wendy Kenway-Smith

Wendy has been an AAG since 2000. She joined the NAO in 1994, initially on secondment from BDO Stoy Hayward where she was a partner. Wendy decided to join permanently in 1995; as a financial audit director she took on responsibility for the audits of HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and Parliament. On promotion to AAG, Wendy took over responsibility for financial audit and value for money work on the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Department for Transport and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, before taking on Communities and Local Government and Work and Pensions in 2007 on moving to Newcastle. Wendy is now responsible for the NAO’s Newcastle operations and the Office’s work with respect to Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Martin Sinclair

Martin has been an AAG since 1999, having joined the National Audit Office in 1981. From 1989 to 1992 he was Private Secretary to the Comptroller and Auditor General. From 1992 to 1994 he was UK Director of Audit operations at the United Nations Board of Auditors based in New York. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and was elected to its Council in 2007. He is Chair of CIPFA’s Accounting and Auditing Standards Panel and a member of a range of professional committees.

Martin is responsible for the audit of a broad portfolio of clients including the Ministry of Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Northern Ireland Office and Parliament, embracing both value for money and financial audit assignments. He also oversees the NAO’s international activities. This includes the audit of international public sector organisations and a programme of technical cooperation assistance to other supreme audit institutions worldwide.