Image: (Left-Right) Aled Eurig, Ceri Hughes, Sarah Pinch, Ann Beynon, Robert Evans.
Five new highly experienced independent advisors will assist the National Assembly in continuing its commitment to accountability and best practice.
Each advisor brings a wealth of corporate and public affairs experience from a wide range of public and private organisations including major UK businesses, government departments and high profile third-sector bodies.
Independent advisors are used by the Assembly Commission to ensure that Commissioners and the Assembly's senior management team are supported and constructively challenged in their roles.
The advisors will be involved in performance monitoring and in maintaining a critical overview of the Assembly's financial controls and risk management procedures as members of the Commission's Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.
The new independent advisors are:
Ann Beynon
Ann is the former Director for BT Wales, S4C's Head of Political and International Affairs and Equality and Human Rights Commissioner for Wales. She was a member of the Royal Commission on Reform of the House of Lords. Ann is currently a Non-Executive Director (NED) on the Board of Hafren Dyfrdwy, which is part of the Severn Trent plc Group, and also a NED on the Board of Farmers' Union of Wales Insurance Services, and she is a member of the CBI Wales Council.
Robert (Bob) Evans
Bob is a Chartered Management Accountant with experience in financial management, audit and risk management. After a career in HM Treasury, IBM and Bank of England, he was appointed as Financial Counsellor in the British Embassy in Tokyo. After a period in the Cabinet Office, Bob became Finance Director for the Serious Fraud Office and subsequently for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and in these roles has led major transformational change programmes to reform governance and management systems. In IPSA, he was regularly required to appear before the Speaker, before Select Committees and the PAC. Whilst at IPSA he was a trustee for the Parliamentary Pension Fund. Bob has also been a HR Director in a County Council and in a government department and is currently a Trustee of the Oasis Cardiff Refugee Centre and Chair of the Friends of the Newport Ship.
Sarah Pinch
Sarah has a career in public relations and communications including Head of Communications and PR roles with First Group PLC and Director of Communications, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. Sarah is MD of Pinch Point Communications. She has a number of NED roles including being on the Board of the Health and Safety Executive and chair of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, a charity, which seeks to place more BAME graduates in PR and corporate communications. Sarah was listed as #30 in the Financial Times HERoes Business List, celebrating 100 women internationally who are encouraging the next generation of women leaders.
Ceri Hughes
Ceri is a Director at KPMG in the UK, where she is the Head of Learning. Ceri is part of the firm's leadership team for the People Function and also part of the functional leadership team of the KPMG Business Services performance group, where she influences the firm's strategy for business services. Over the course of nineteen years with the firm, Ceri has worked in the UK and internationally and held roles in Transaction Services, Market Development and KPMG International. Ceri has MBA and an MSc in Information and Records Management. She is Chartered Manager, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management and the Information and Records Management Society, and she is an accredited mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
Aled Eirug
Dr Aled Eirug was a journalist for 25 years, and served as Head of News and Current Affairs (1992-2003) for BBC Wales. Between 2006 and 2011, he worked as constitutional adviser to the Presiding Officer in the National Assembly. He was chair of the British Council in Wales (2010-2016), and chair of the Welsh Refugee Council (2007-2012). At present he is a member of Ofcom's Content Board and is a senior lecturer at Swansea University, and has recently published two books on the Opposition to the Great War in Wales.
"Our incoming independent advisors have all demonstrated exceptional calibre in their respective fields," said Manon Antoniazzi, Chief Executive and Clerk to the National Assembly for Wales.
"We look forward to working with them in maintaining and developing the Assembly Commission's commitment to accountability, good governance and best practice during their tenure."