Westhouse Holdings plc Board
Garth Milne
Chairman
Mr Milne has been involved with investment funds in the City for over 30 years. He was formerly head of the investment funds team at UBS Warburg, having originally set up the team at Laing & Cruickshank. He is currently a non-executive director of Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Trust plc and, Real Estate Opportunities Limited.
William Staple
Deputy Chairman
Mr Staple joined Cazenove & Co in 1972 after qualifying as a Barrister. In 1981 he joined NM Rothschild & Sons and became a director of the bank in 1986. He was seconded by Rothschild to the Takeover Panel as director general in 1994, returning to Rothschild in 1996. Mr Staple left Rothschild in 1999 to help establish Benfield Advisory, part of the Benfield reinsurance broking group. He joined Brown Shipley in 2001 and became chief executive of Westhouse in 2005 and Executive Deputy Chairman in 2010.
Christopher Getley
Chief Executive
Mr Getley joined Smith's in 2002 having previously been an institutional fund manager. At Morgan Grenfell he built an emerging market business largely for US pension fund clients and then at Cazenove he was the Director of Asian and Emerging Market investments. He became Chief Executive of Westhouse upon the acquisition of Smith's on 31 December 2010.
Tom Price
Chief Operating Officer
Mr Price has worked in the City of London since 1990 as an equity capital markets corporate financier specialising in small/midcap companies with Evolution Securities (formerly Beeson Gregory) and with Westhouse since late 2009. In recent years he has focused both on UK companies, and he also led Evolution's pioneering specialisation in IPO's for Chinese and Indian companies on the UK stock market. He is chairman of the Quoted Companies Alliance's Financial Advisory Committee and is a London arts adviser to the Columbia Foundation.
Jonathan Azis
Finance Director & Company Secretary
Mr Azis was previously an adviser to Lord Hanson having been a director, company secretary and tax manager of Hanson PLC. A solicitor, he is on the council of the Royal Albert Hall having been chairman of Molins plc and Isotron plc.
Andrew Beeson
Non-Executive Director
Mr Beeson was the founder and chief executive officer of the Beeson Gregory Group and subsequently chairman of Evolution Group plc following its merger with Beeson Gregory, before leaving in 2003. He founded the City Group for Smaller Companies in 1992, now known as the QCA (Quoted Company Alliance), and became its first chairman. Between 2001 and 2004 he was a director of IP Group Plc and is currently a non-executive director of Schroders plc and is on the advisory board of Armstrong Bonham Carter and is deputy chairman of DataWind UK plc.
Sir Hayden Phillips
Non-Executive Director
Sir Hayden is the Independent Reviewer of ASA Adjudications, and, amongst other appointments, is an adviser to Englefield Capital, a director of Hanson Family Holdings and Chairman of Marlborough College. He was Chairman of the National Theatre from 2004 to 2010. His previous career was in the Civil Service, where he was Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department (now the Ministry of Justice) from 1998 to 2004, and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport from 1992 to 1998. Before that he held senior positions in the Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Home Office and in the European Commission.
Nicholas Bull
Non-Executive Director
Nicholas joined Smith's in 2009 after 30 years as a corporate finance practitioner with Morgan Grenfell (subsequently Deutsche Bank), Société Générale and ABN AMRO working in London, Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong. He previously qualified as a chartered accountant. He is a non-executive director of Smith's holding company, the AIM quoted Westhouse Holdings plc. He is the chairman of hotels group De Vere and a senior independent director of the investment trust Fidelity China Special Situations PLC. He is also a member of Council of the University of Exeter and a Trustee of the Design Museum.