New UKRI leadership team appointments

UKRI has today announced two leadership appointments and the creation of a new Chief Development Officer position.

The board-level Chief Financial Officer role will be held by Tom Taylor from 20 October – he is currently in the same position at the Office for National Statistics, and was previously CFO at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The newly-created Chief Programme Officer position will be taken by Einav Ben-Yehuda, currently the Chief Commercial Officer at DEFRA. This new position on the funder’s executive will “play a critical leadership role in transforming UKRI’s ability to deliver major programmes effectively, at pace and at scale.”

Alongside the two appointments, UKRI has established a Chief Development Officer position which will be held by Research England knowledge exchange director Simon Hepworth on an interim basis. We are told that the CDO will be accountable for “ensuring that UKRI leverages its assets, intellectual property, and partnerships to deliver maximum national benefit and economic impact.”

Elsewhere the recruitment process is ongoing to identify Jessica Corner’s successor as Research England executive chair. At the time when the position was readvertised over the summer, interviews were planned for early October.