Paula was appointed to the Board in September 2016 as Chief Financial Officer.

Skills and experience

Paula has extensive FTSE 100 and 250 PLC main board experience both as an Executive and Non-Executive Director, and in particular working with large-scale global technology, engineering and industrial businesses. Paula was previously CFO at John Menzies Plc from 2013, a £2 billion revenue business with 35,000 employees, and CFO at Ricardo Plc from 2006 to 2013.

Paula has also held senior leadership roles at BAA plc, AWG plc and Rolls-Royce Plc, with extensive breadth of responsibility, including leading business development, strategy, significant M&A activity and leading organisational change.

Paula is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.

Other roles

Appointed as a Non-executive Director at Keller Group plc in September 2018, then Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee in January 2019. Appointed as a Non-executive Director at Persimmon Plc in September 2024, then Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee in October 2024. Paula was also previously with Laird Plc from 2012 to 2018 as Non-executive Director, Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee.