Mark Russell
Chief Executive of the Shareholder Executive
How did you tackle the biggest challenges facing your organisation in 2014?
The biggest challenge for 2014 was launching the British Business Bank. This was one of BIS’s top delivery priorities, and a project which had been conceived and incubated in ShEx over the past two years. The launch happened on time and with the relevant necessary approvals, and the bank is now fully operational in its new premises. It has generated more than £2.3bn of new lending and investment, supporting more than 35,000 businesses, and can now focus on achieving its objectives of making finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, increasing the supply of finance available to smaller businesses, and creating a greater choice of finance providers. The other big challenge this year has been advising on situations involving companies in financial distress, including the recent successful outcome for UK Coal.
The key to meeting these challenges has been to create a flexible resourcing culture where staff work on a number of projects but can be re-deployed at short notice to address new priorities. Much of our work is necessarily reactive to events which, by their nature, are unpredictable; our operating model simply would not work without that flexibility. Dealing with high-profile transactions, often in tight timescales, brings increased risk; over the last year we have prioritised embedding our risk and assurance process into our culture. This has proven to be of great benefit to our teams, providing them with constructive challenge and opportunities to reflect on complex projects. It has also contributed to ShEx’s own good governance.
What are your department’s top priorities in the last months before the general election?
Our top priorities are to complete the sale of the government’s shares in Eurostar and the sale of Construction Line by next spring. We also lead on the sales of the Student Loan book and Urenco, both of which are on a longer timeframe; here the priority is the preparatory work, ensuring we are in a good position to advise an incoming government of the available options. We also aim to complete the Post Office transformation programmes, ensuring that the total UK network remains at more than 11,500 branches.
I am also prioritising our work with other departments such as DfT and DECC, with whom we work closely on a range of commercial projects. An incoming Government will want to understand its options and make quick decisions about its priorities; our job is to provide robust advice and be ready to deliver against objectives as soon as these are set.
What’s your favourite Christmas treat?
Turning on my work smartphone after a few days off, knowing it won’t be full of emails.
And what makes you say: ‘Bah, humbug!’?
Christmas-themed shop displays from 1 November? For me, Christmas shopping tends to start on 24 December.