Capita nabs PwC's Powell for chairman

Capita announced the appointment of Ian Powell as a non-executive director and chairman designate on Monday, taking effect from 1 September.

The FTSE 100 firm said Powell would officially succeed Martin Bolland as non-executive chairman on 1 January 2017.

Until the end of June, Ian Powell was chairman and senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers UK.

Capita’s board said he was also a member of the team which lead the international network of PwC firms - a network with revenues in excess of $35bn and a headcount of more than 200,000.

Powell also led the EMEA cluster of the PwC network, which spans more than 90 territories across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Bolland, who announced his intention to step down in February, will do so after six years as non-executive chairman and eight years as non-executive director of Capita.

“Ian’s breadth of commercial experience and strong leadership skills will be of enormous benefit to Capita,” said current chairman Bolland.

“Our search process, led by Capita’s senior independent director Gillian Sheldon, has identified a business leader who has very strong credentials and is highly in tune with Capita’s objectives, business model and markets.”

Bolland said Powell’s background of delivering growth in a competitive environment across a diverse organisation makes him ideally suited to Capita.

“I am delighted to welcome Ian to the board and look forward to working closely with him as I handover to him in the coming months.”

Capita CEO Andy Parker added that Powell was bringing a “robust track record” of leading and building professional services businesses across PwC.

Powell himself commented that he admire’s Capita’s “strong growth record, and I am really pleased to be joining the Capita board to help steer the company through the next stages of its development.

“Capita’s focus on helping clients transform and evolve their operations has real relevance in the current rapidly shifting commercial, societal and political environments,” he explained.

“I look forward to drawing on my leadership and commercial experience at PwC to support the board to grow Capita further, deliver its business objectives and generate long-term sustainable value to shareholders and wider stakeholders.”