NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE APPOINTED TO COMPANIES HOUSE AND REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES FOR ENGLAND AND WALES

Gareth Jones has been appointed as Chief Executive of Companies House and Registrar of Companies for England and Wales. 

He is currently Director of the Department for Environment, Planning and Countryside in the Welsh Assembly. Gareth will take up his new post on 10 April 2007. He will take over as Chief Executive from Claire Clancy who has moved on to become Chief Executive and Clerk of the Welsh Assembly.

Speaking on the appointment Sir Brian Bender, DTI Permanent Secretary, said:

"I am delighted that Gareth is joining Companies House.  His experience of large scale programme management and delivery, coupled with his background in policy making in Government, mean that he is very well placed to lead the agency into the challenges ahead."

Gareth said:

"I am very much looking forward to joining Companies House and building on the excellent work already begun there in the process of transformation and organisational change, and delivering the core business of efficient and effective company registration"

Notes to Editors

Since 2003 Gareth Jones has been Director for Environment, Planning and Countryside at the Welsh Assembly Government.  Prior to that Gareth spent four years as Head of the Welsh Assembly's CAP Management division responsible for controls and payments of all farm subsidies and acting as head of Paying Agency in Wales.  Within this period Gareth was Operations Director for Wales during the Foot and Mouth crisis in 2001, leading on all aspects of operational and resources issues as well as stakeholder and public management.  He developed his career through a mix of policy development and operational management roles being successively Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Private Secretary to Minister for Industry and Enterprise; Deputy Director of the Welsh Office's Industrial Development Division; Head of NHS Trust Unit, Welsh Office Health Department and Head of CAP Operations in Wales, Welsh Agriculture Department.  Gareth was awarded the OBE for services to the National Assembly for Wales in 2003.

Companies House is an Executive Agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. All limited companies in the UK are registered at Companies House.

There are more than 2 million limited companies registered in Great Britain, and more than 300,000 new companies are incorporated each year.

The main functions of Companies House are to:

• Incorporate and dissolve limited companies;
• Examine and store company information delivered under the Companies Act and related legislation; and
• Make this information available to the public.

The appointment was made in accordance with the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners' Code of Practice.  Companies House website can be found at: www.companieshouse.gov.uk/index.shtml

For more information on the above press release please contact the Press Officer: Neil White: 02920 380161.