Nominet, the national registry for .uk domain names, announces the appointments of Baroness Rennie Fritchie DBE as Chair of Nominet and Piers White MBE as an independent appointed non-executive director.

07/06/2010

Nominet, the national registry for .uk domain names, announces the appointments of Baroness Rennie Fritchie DBE as Chair of Nominet and Piers White MBE as an independent appointed non-executive director. Both have significant directorship experience from various different sectors bringing a fresh and independent perspective to the board.

Baroness Fritchie DBE is an Independent Crossbench Peer, Chair of the 2gether NHS Trust for Gloucestershire, a consultant on strategy and leadership working out of Mainstream Development and Vice Chair of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Audit and Advisory Committee.

She was Chair of the Web Science Research Initiative at Southampton University and MIT until 2009 and is a former Pro Chancellor of Southampton University.  She was Vice Chair of Stroud and Swindon Building Society until 2008.  In 1999 she was appointed Commissioner for Public Appointments and a Civil Service Commissioner, a post she held for seven years.

Piers  is a non-executive director at Ordnance Survey and has been Chair of their Audit and Risk committee for the past eight years.  He is also a non-executive director of Croydon Economic Development Company Ltd, ACS International Schools Ltd and CIPFA Business, the commercial arm of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Pro bono, Piers makes time to act as Chair of The Larks Nursery School,  as Deputy Chair of Hazelwood School and as a Governor of Croydon College.

Lesley Cowley, Nominet’s Chief Executive states: "We are delighted to welcome Baroness Fritchie and Piers White who bring a wealth of senior board experience with them. The board is looking forward to working with them to drive Nominet forward and ensure it continues to make .uk a safe and trusted place for Internet end-users." 

Both directors will stand for re-appointment at Nominet's Annual General Meeting on 6th July 2010.

Notes to Editors

About Nominet

Nominet operates at the heart of e-commerce in the UK, running one of the world’s largest Internet registries and managing over eight  million domain names. Nominet maintains the register of .uk domain names and runs the DNS infrastructure that keeps .uk working.

It runs the technology that locates a computer in the Internet hosting the web site or email system you’re looking for when you type in a web address or send an email to an address that ends in .uk.

Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee that has members not shareholders, pays no dividends and its charges only cover its running costs. Anyone with an interest in the Internet may become a member. Nominet has over 2,800 members representing all areas of the Internet industry.

Nominet also runs the Tier 1 registry for UK ENUM, a service that combines telephone numbers and the Domain Name System to simplify the way telephone calls over the Internet work.  ENUM lets callers know that you have the capability to receive VoIP calls, so allowing them to take advantage of free calls over the Internet.

About Baroness Rennie Fritchie DBE

Baroness Fritchie DBE is an Independent Crossbench Peer, Chair of the 2gether NHS Trust for Gloucestershire, a consultant on strategy and leadership and Vice Chair of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Audit and Advisory Committee. She was appointed as Chair of Nominet in June 2010 following a competitive selection process.

She was Chair of the Web Science Research Initiative at Southampton University and MIT until 2009 and is a former Pro Chancellor of Southampton University.  She was Vice Chair of Stroud and Swindon Building Society until 2008.  In 1999 she was appointed Commissioner for Public Appointments and a Civil Service Commissioner, a post she held for seven years.

Baroness Fritchie DBE is the holder of seven Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Southampton, York, Oxford Brookes, St Andrews, The Open University, Hull University and Queen’s University, Belfast. She is also a Fellow of the University of Gloucestershire, City & Guilds, London, the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and the Sunningdale Institute, part of the National School of Government. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996 and a life peer in 2005.

About Piers White MBE

Piers is an experienced non-executive director, with an extensive board level business career.  He was appointed as a non-executive director of Nominet in June 2010 following a competitive selection process.

Piers  is a non-executive director at Ordnance Survey and has been Chair of their Audit and Risk committee for the past eight years.  He is also a non-executive director of Croydon Economic Development Company Ltd, ACS International Schools Ltd and CIPFA Business, the commercial arm of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Pro bono, Piers makes time to act as Chair of The Larks Nursery School,  as Deputy Chair of Hazelwood School and as a Governor of Croydon College.

Piers had a successful executive career in banking including Service Director for all Barclays UK branches, senior executive roles at Flemings and UK Chief Executive Officer of Insinger de Beaufort, the Anglo Dutch Private and Investment Bank.

Piers has a degree in Economics and Statistics from Exeter University and an MBA from Henley Management College. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He was awarded an MBE for public service in 2009.


For further information please contact:
Gemma Griffiths / Blaise Hammond at Racepoint Group UK

Tel: 020 8752 3205 / 3204
Email: nominetuk@racepointgroup.co.uk 

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