New board member appointed

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has appointed Professor Michael Mainelli to the position of Non-Executive Director. Mainelli brings a rich mix of strategic and practical experience from both academic and commercial arenas to the UKAS Board. In his new role, Mainelli will be able to make a valuable contribution to the work UKAS undertakes to develop the profile of accreditation both in the business community and across government.

Mainelli is Director of the risk-reward managers Z/Yen Limited covering strategy, technology, finance and business development. He has worked in public, private and not-for-profit organisations, led several privatisations, won a DTI Smart Award in 2003 for PropheZy and served on the board of Europe’s largest R&D organisation—the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. He is Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Commerce at Gresham College and was recently named Director of the Year 2004/5 by the British Computer Society.

In welcoming Mainelli’s appointment, Lord Lindsay, Chairman of UKAS, said, “We are enormously pleased to have access to Michael’s considerable expertise. He has a wealth of experience in the public and private sectors which is of direct relevance to UKAS services. His knowledge will enable him to offer new perspectives on our current priorities as well as on ways of further increasing the value of accreditation.”

For further information on UKAS and the role of accreditation go to www.ukas.com, contact: 020 8917 8400 or email info@ukas.com.

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact Matt Lambert, Andrew Collis or Bobbi Davy at the UKAS press office on 020 7689 5155 or email acollis@clear-group.co.uk or bdavy@clear-group.co.uk

Notes for editors

1. UKAS is a commercial, non-profit-distributing company limited by guarantee with an annual turnover in excess of £10m. The UKAS Board includes the non-executive Chairman (Lord Lindsay), and the Chief Executive who is supported by an Executive Team and both technical and administrative staff. Non-executive Directors are retired/re-elected on a three year rotation.

2. Mainelli started as a research scientist, later becoming a partner in a leading accountancy firm directing their consultancy work in the UK and overseas. He is a qualified accountant, computer specialist and management consultant with a degree in Government from Harvard as well as mathematics and engineering from Trinity College Dublin and a PhD from the London School of Economics in applications of chaos, risk/reward, statistics and planning.