Our leadership team

Ubico’s Board of Directors is responsible for the ongoing oversight of the company and its operations, ensuring value is delivered for our shareholders. The board comprises of independent and local authority (shareholder) nominated Non Executive Directors, and Executive Directors.

Two board sub-committees support the board in key governance areas; a Risk and Audit Committee and a Governance and Nominations Committee. The committees are chaired by Non-Executive Directors and report to the main Board, and have a wide-ranging brief to develop policies and procedures that ensure the board effectively manages risk and embeds good governance.

Membership of the Ubico Board of Directors is listed below. To read the Board Terms of Reference please click here.

The Governance and Nominations Committee supports the board in ensuring the company has the necessary financial, human and other resources in place to achieve its aims, priorities and plans, and in reviewing the company’s key policies.

To find out more about the Governance and Nominations Committee and read the Terms of Reference click here.

The Risk and Audit Committee provides support and guidance to the board of directors and oversee the company in the area of risk and audit, and will ensure the integrity of the company’s financial, internal control and risk management systems.

To find out more about the Risk and Audit Committee and read the Terms of Reference click click here.

Ubico’s three Executive Directors are:

Beth Boughton, Managing Director

Beth has worked in the waste management and environmental sector since 2004, working in the private sector before joining Cheltenham Borough Council in 2006 to manage their frontline recycling services.

An integral part of the team who set up Ubico in 2012, Beth then managed the company’s operational services as Ubico experienced rapid growth, growing to seven shareholder councils by 2016. Beth became Operations Director in 2019 and due to her strong leadership and extensive experience, knowledge and expertise became Interim Managing Director in February 2020, a role which became permanent later in the year.

Rob Heath, Operations Director

Rob joined Ubico in 2018 as Operations Manager for Ubico’s Household Recycling Centres, quickly becoming Head of Operations and then Operations Director in 2020.

Rob has worked in the waste and recycling industry for over 20 years, accruing a wealth of experience and knowledge. He has extensive skills in management and leadership of sites and people previously being an Operations Manager at Suez/SITA and Biffa Waste Services as Materials Recycling Facility Manager. For the latter, he was responsible for operations of Material Recycling Facilities (MRF), Transfer Station, and Refuse Derived Fuel Facility (RDF).

Rob’s qualifications include COTC Waste Management Transfer & Treatment (Hazardous), Certificate of Professional Competence Road Transport (National), and NEBOSH Health & Safety.

Chris Urwin, Finance Director

Chris joined Ubico in 2020 and has extensive experience in both the public and private sector. Prior to joining Ubico Chris held various leadership positions including Halfords and Kraft Mondolez.

His professional qualifications include ACCA FCCA (0041952), PRINCE2, and IOSH Managing Safely and he has significant experience in the design and implementation of commercial pricing and promotion evaluation tools, portfolio optimisation, transformation of transaction accounting and authoring of contracted finance procedures.

He has broad experience in leading teams through change, transformation, expansion and driving systems innovation. Chris works closely with our local authority partners and colleagues to drive insight on performance and ensure a sustainable, well governed value for money proposition.

Ubico’s Non Executive Directors are:

Bill McCarthy, Independent Non Executive Director and Chair of the Board

Bill began his career as an advertising and marketing professional and, after progressing through several advertising agencies, became the youngest Board Director of a major UK advertising agency at the age of 29.

In 1994 he joined Sanders & Sidney and was promoted to Operations Director in 1996 as part of the team which bought KPMG’s outplacement business. As a result of this and a fundamental change in strategy, the business grew to be the largest of its kind in the UK and enabled the group to acquire various businesses and develop a capability for a broad range of HR services to be offered to the marketplace.

Bill progressed to become Strategic Development Director of the group until 2005, when he was appointed for the second time as managing director of the Career Consulting business also serving as president of ACP. Bill continued to coach senior people throughout this time as it is a passion of his and he is committed to assisting senior executives to make the right decisions about their performance and careers.

In addition to being Chair of Ubico, Bill is also Chair of New Vista Homes Ltd, Care is Central Ltd and the Central Bedfordshire Group Ltd.

Katie Lyons, Independent Non Executive Director and Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee

Katie is a dual qualified lawyer and company secretary, with extensive private and public-sector experience. She is an Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute (holding the highest postgraduate qualification in governance).

Katie trained and worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in London for 10 years. She has subsequently spent many years in both private practice and more recently working for public-sector clients, including: local authorities; council-owned waste management, catering, housing and procurement companies; schools and the emergency services. Katie currently works as senior legal counsel, head of governance and company secretary for a not-for-profit organisation.

Her other experience encompasses secondments at property developer Canary Wharf Group, Airbus in Toulouse, Freshfields' Madrid office, at a law firm in Chile and at Eurocontrol in Brussels. Her previous non-executive appointments have been on the boards of two different housing associations and chairing a nominations and remuneration committee. At Ubico, she chairs the risk and audit committee.

Patrick Ricketts, Independent Non Executive Director

Patrick has a wealth of experience with more than 26 years at Berendsen (now Elis), spending 9 years as Regional Director and was also a Director at Jewson.

He is passionate about supporting organisations with their strategy for sustainable business growth, people and team development and their wellbeing.

Patrick has strong strategic, planning, operations and commercial skills in the UK markets in both B2B and B2C and has extensive experience in leading account management and strategy for multi-million-pound contracts delivering service excellence.

Patrick is also Non-Executive Director at Great Places Housing Group where he is Chair of the Customer Committee, and a Trustee/Member at Forward Education Trust. He is also a published author.

Claire Hughes, Local Authority nominated Non Executive Director

Alongside her role on the Ubico board, Claire is also the Director for Governance and Customer Services at Cheltenham Borough Council. A qualified solicitor, Claire has worked in Local Government for over 25 years including at County and District level as well as within a wholly owned Local Authority Company.

Claire is a passionate advocate for Local Government and good governance. She has a real desire to get things done and to support change which makes a positive difference to the communities in which she works.

Paul Blacker, Local Authority nominated Non Executive Director

Paul is a qualified accountant with extensive local government experience at Director level in the UK and New Zealand. In addition, he has worked for Deloitte and has had his own consultancy practice.

Paul has been a the Non Executive Director at Ubico since 2017, and he is also a trustee for a number of charities. He and his family have lived in the Cotswolds for that last 20 years and therefore he has a personal interest in ensuring that Ubico deliver high quality services to the local residents.

David Oakhill, Local Authority nominated Non Executive Director

David is the Head of Place for Gloucester City Council, responsible for major capital projects, economic development and planning. A qualified town planner, he has over 20 years of experience in planning and development in the UK and New Zealand. David also sits on the Governing Board of a local primary school.

Keith Gerrard, Local Authority nominated Non Executive Director

Keith is Strategic Director for Communities with Stroud District Council with responsibility for housing, community and neighbourhood services, leisure and museum services and community safety partnerships. With a background in neighbourhood services, he has worked in the private and public sector as a strategic leader and decision maker for over 30 years. This has included delivering public facing services in unitary and two-tier local authority settings.

Keith is committed to supporting excellence in public services through ensuring effective partnerships and putting communities at the heart of service design. He believes that engaging with communities and adopting an asset-based approach towards sustainable and thriving communities post-pandemic is crucial.

Keith is bringing this experience and energy to his work with the Ubico Board. Alongside his work with Ubico, he is also a member of Gloucestershire Health and Wellbeing Board, The Safer Gloucestershire, Community Safety Board and the and Gloucestershire Local Resilience Partnership.