Christopher R M Kemball (63)
Chairman

Christopher was appointed to the board in January 1999 and subsequently became non-executive Chairman of the board and the nomination committee in May 2005. He is a Vice Chairman of Hawkpoint Partners Limited and also a non-executive director of Scott Wilson Group plc.

Committees:

Nomination committee - Chairman
Remuneration committee

Peter J Ventress (49)
Chief Executive

Peter was appointed Chief Executive in January 2010 on the retirement of Roger Dye. He previously spent 10 years in senior management positions in Europe and Canada in the office products distribution industry with Corporate Express N.V., becoming Chief Executive in 2007. In 2008 Peter was appointed head of all Staples’ activities outside the United States and Canada.

Committees:

Nomination committee

Kevin Quinn (49)
Finance Director

Kevin was appointed Finance Director in May 2005. He has previously held senior finance positions within Amersham plc. Prior to 1997, Kevin was with PricewaterhouseCoopers, latterly as a partner in its Prague office, having also worked in the USA and France.

John D Burns (65)
Non-Executive Director

John was appointed to the board as a non-executive director in 1987. He is Chief executive of Derwent London plc, a consulting partner of Pilcher Hershman & Partners and a former Chairman of the Westminster Property Owners Association.

Committees:

Nomination committee
Identified by the Board as an independent director

Iain Ferguson (54)
Non-Executive Director

Iain was appointed to the board on 1 March 2010. Previously Iain was Chief Executive of Tate and Lyle plc from 2003 to 2009. Previously he worked for Unilever, where he held a number of senior positions including Executive Chairman of Birds Eye Walls and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Balfour Beatty plc and Greggs plc and is a member of the Advisory Board to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Committees:

Nomination committee
Remuneration committee
Identified by the board as an independent director

David Lowden (52)
Non-Executive Director

David was appointed to the board on 1 March 2010. Previously he was Chief Executive of Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC from 2006 to 2009 having previously held the positions of Chief Operating Officer and Group Finance Director for the company. He has also held senior financial positions within international companies such as A.C. Nielsen and Federal Express.

Committees:

Audit committee
Nomination committee
Remuneration committee
Identified by the board as an independent director

Per H Utnegaard (50)
Non-Executive Director

Per was appointed a non-executive director of the company in January 2005 and Chairman of the remuneration committee in May 2005. He is currently President & CEO of Swissport International Ltd, previously ran his own consultancy firm in Switzerland, and prior to that was Wholesale Director of Alliance UniChem plc.

Committees:

Audit committee
Remuneration committee - Chairman
Nomination committee
Identified by the board as an independent director

Andrew Wood (58)
Non-Executive Director

Andrew was appointed to the board on 1 March 2010. Andrew was Group Finance Director from January 2001 of BBA Aviation plc, from which he retired in April 2010. He was previously Group Finance Director of Racal Electronics PLC. He is a chartered management accountant.

Committees:

Audit committee - Chairman
Nomination committee
Remuneration committee
Identified by the board as an independent director

David A Lawler (45)
Company Secretary

David joined the group in 1995 and was appointed Company Secretary in May 2005. He has previously held senior finance positions with Thorn EMI plc and KPMG, and has worked extensively outside of the UK including Denmark, Germany, Ireland and the USA.