Our people

Geoffrey Podger

Geoffrey is our Senior Independent Director. He was successively Chief Executive of four public sector agencies concerned with public protection. Before this he worked for three government departments.

Since retiring from the Civil Service in 2013, he has taken up a number of non-executive posts in the public, voluntary and commercial sectors, including two Chairmanships. Geoffrey was awarded the CB in 2002 and holds a number of honorary positions related both to risk and to general management.

Manjeet Gill

Manjeet has worked in Chief Executive, chair and non-executive roles across local government, on national charity boards and mental health trusts around the country.

She has chaired corporate transformation programmes in the NHS and local government, modernising services to be more customer focused, commercial, digitally enabled and working in partnership with communities.

Manjeet is currently Interim Chief Executive at Wokingham Borough Council and a policy spokesperson with SOLACE.

She has advised government on community cohesion, and developed local partnership strategies with policing bodies and communities to reduce crime, offending, antisocial behaviour. 

Andrew Harvey

Andrew’s professional experience is in governance, marketing and change management across a range of public, not-for-profit and private sector organisations. He holds a range of non-executive roles and has a particular specialism in governance for professional, membership and regulatory bodies.

He is Deputy Chair of the Investigating Committee at the General Pharmaceutical Council, a chair of Fitness to Practise panels at the Nursing and Midwifery Council and a member of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, in Ireland.  Andrew is a non-executive director of the Costs Lawyer Standards Board and of Registers of Scotland (the Scottish Government land and legal documents registry), where he chairs the Audit and Risk Committee.

Bill Matthews

Bill began his career as an engineer before progressing into business and operations management roles with Motorola. He then spent five years running technology start-ups before building a portfolio of non-executive roles spanning media, health and criminal justice. Bill currently chairs a public/private sector company that develops infrastructure for the NHS and local authorities in the west of Scotland. He also chairs the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, is a Non-Executive Director at the Scottish Futures Trust and is the Scottish Member of the British Transport Police Authority. A Chartered Engineer, Bill also holds an MBA and Bachelors degrees in Humanities and Psychology.

Mary Lines OBE

As an Executive Director in the Probation Service for over 20 years, Mary Lines successfully led one of the top performing trusts through the most significant transition in its history, receiving her OBE in recognition of her efforts. Her strong commitment to fairness, honesty and integrity are a key part of her leadership. She is dedicated to good governance in the field of criminal justice, and is a trustee with a domestic abuse charity and a non-executive director in a local authority owned company.

Catherine Jervis

In a 30 year career in the public, not-for-profit and private sectors, Catherine has held a range of Board level positions including current roles as Vice Chair and Non-Executive Director at First Community Health  and Care (CiC) and Non-Executive Director and SID with Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. She recently joined Achieving for Children a community Interest company as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Prior to this Catherine was Business Development Director and Strategic Advisor to the CEO of a national education charity (AFA) and Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where she led assignments in children’s services across education, health and social care. Catherine is a qualified accountant.

Deputy Director General, Operations – Claire Bassett

Claire Bassett has been appointed Deputy Director General, Operations.

Claire will leave her current role as Chief Executive (Designate) of the Shadow Trade Remedies Authority and Director of the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate within the Department for International Trade.

Before that, Claire was Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, the UK’s independent elections watchdog and regulator of party and election finance. During her time at the Commission it delivered the EU referendum and oversaw multiple elections, including a UK Parliamentary General Election and carried out a number of high-profile investigations into campaign spending.

Previously, Claire was Chief Executive of two other government arm’s length bodies; the Parole Board for England and Wales and the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential miscarriages of justice. 

Earlier in her career, Claire was a Director of Nacro - the crime reduction charity, Chief Executive of Connexions Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and held various roles at the Legal Services Commission. She began her career as a management trainee in the construction industry. 

Claire is also a trustee and vice chair of the Internet Watch Foundation which works to make the internet a safer place by searching for and removing child sexual abuse images online.

Claire will take up her new post at the IOPC in September 2020.

Deputy Director General, Strategy and Corporate Services - Tom Whiting

Tom joined the IOPC in February 2019 as the new Deputy Director General Strategy and Corporate Services.

Prior to this he spent 14 years in Local Government at the London Borough of Harrow, most recently as their Interim Chief Executive from January 2018. He was Corporate Director of Resources from 2013-18 and was Assistant Chief Executive from 2008. During this time Tom led on the Council Improvement Programme that saw Harrow win multiple industry awards including the most Improved Council in the country in 2011 and further awards for customer service digitalization and IT transformation in 2016.

From 2010 until leaving, he was responsible for the Council’s savings and transformation programmes in response to reduced public sector funding. These programmes were recognized for not only delivering efficiency and saving money but also for improving services and improving satisfaction for residents. In 2013 he led the modernization and restructuring of the Finance, Human Resources and Procurement functions, the development of shared services for Legal and Procurement and the development of digital and self service customer channels across all areas. These shared services were pioneering in the sector and led to the creation of the largest Legal in house service in the country. He also led the re-let of the Council’s outsourced ICT contract in 2015.

As Interim Chief Executive he led for West London Local Government on improved integration between Health and Social Care Services and oversaw the transition to the new Basic Command Unit structure working with the Police, with the merger of three Boroughs. He has throughout his time at Harrow worked closely with local residents and local community and voluntary organisations as an ambassador for the Council and as a result improved public perception and confidence. He also led external lobbying and stakeholder relations for Harrow about Local Government funding and oversaw new programmes to transform Adult Social Care.

Tom graduated in 1996 and worked at Accenture for nine years in their Energy and Utilities practice, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and the deregulation of utility and energy markets in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

Director, Strategy and Impact – Kathie Cashell

Kathie joined the organisation on secondment in October 2007 and was appointed permanently in April 2009. She led the development and implementation of a performance framework for the police complaints system and, since then, has held a number of roles at the IPCC. Kathie has worked in strategy and projects, corporate planning, policy and engagement and most recently, as Head of Analytical Services.

She now leads the Strategy and Impact directorate so that it is an effective mechanism for ensuring that our work helps to improve the complaints system and policing as a whole and public confidence in it, and ensure that our work and impact are effectively communicated both internally and externally.

Before joining, Kathie worked for the Healthcare Commission leading a number of teams within the NHS complaints function. She led work to redesign the processes for handling complaints, introducing more efficient ways of working, and developing consistent reporting of performance and learning across the system. Kathie also has experience as a business manager in the private sector creating a successful international recruitment business in the UK, Australia and Canada. 

Director, People - Liz Booth

Liz Booth joined the IOPC in September 2018 as Director, People.  She leads a team responsible for Human Resources (HR), Organisational Development, and Learning and Development. Liz has been a Board Level director in charities, regulation, the civil service and the NHS, and has a particular interest in equalities and staff engagement.  At the IOPC Liz is championing our new equality delivery strategy and focusing on making IOPC a great place to work.  Our staff survey results show great promise and Liz is determined to ensure that every person who works for the IOPC is able to fulfil their potential.

As HR Director of the NSPCC she worked on a significant charity merger and led work to find recruitment methodologies to determine the values and attitudes of people who wish to work with children.  At the Royal College of GPs Liz managed a change programme that enabled the organisation to modernise and peruse a new strategic agenda.  In the NHS, working in an acute hospital she started staff engagement and recognition programmes and launched a new approach to diversity and inclusion to improve the retention of an international workforce.

Liz is the former vice chair of the charity Sense, serving as chair of the audit committee and chair of the remuneration and governance committee.  She is passionate about enabling people who are disabled or marginalised to have a voice in society.

A map and table outlining the police forces and any other agencies overseen by each director can be found at the bottom of this page under our regional structure.

Regional Director, North West – Amanda Rowe

Amanda joined the IPCC in 2004 as an investigator and has progressed through the ranks, working as a senior investigator, Head of Training for Operations, Deputy Director for Operations and Acting Director of Major Investigations – before taking on her current role.

Prior to the IPCC Amanda spent 18 years with HM Customs and Excise (now HMRC), working in a variety of roles including as a specialist investigator working on large scale drug importation investigations. She went on to work in the intelligence function.

Regional Director, North East – Miranda Biddle

Miranda joined the organisation in 2018 from the Parole Board, where she was Director of Operations, responsible for the operational delivery of the board’s work in delivering independent risk assessments to determine if prisoners can be safely released.

Before joining the Parole Board Miranda was Deputy Director of HM Prison Peterborough, having worked in a number of establishments. Miranda has worked within the Criminal Justice System for over 25 years across the prison service, probation service, psychology and drug services and within the statutory, independent and private sectors.

Director for Wales – Catrin Evans

Catrin joined the organisation in 2018 from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) where she enjoyed a varied career as a prosecutor advocate and senior leader for nearly 31 years.

Catrin’s last role at the CPS was Senior District Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for all criminal prosecutions in the Crown Court in the Cymru Wales Area. She has previously led a successful complex casework unit prosecuting a number of high profile cases. As a member of the Area strategic Board, Catrin has contributed to driving forward early implementation of digital working.

Catrin is passionate about tackling human trafficking and she has contributed to the work done agreeing Prosecutor commitments to ensure that Prosecuting Authorities in the UK will work closely together and with our law enforcement partners to disrupt networks, prosecute traffickers and protect victims’ rights. Catrin has been commended for the work done in Wales prosecuting forced labour prosecutions and is a member of the Cymru/Wales multi-agency anti-slavery leadership group.

Catrin is a fluent Welsh speaker and conducts business through Welsh and English.

Regional Director, Midlands – Derrick Campbell

Prior to taking up his role as a Regional Director at the IOPC, Derrick was an IPCC Commissioner, having joined the organisation in January 2013. Like all operational commissioners, Derrick was responsible for providing independent oversight of, and taking ultimate responsibility for, our investigations, casework and the promotion of public confidence in the complaints system.

Derrick was previously Chief Executive of the Rights and Equality Council and before that was CEO of Sandwell Chamber of Commerce. He has a long history of working with communities in the UK, and founded and chaired a number of Independent Advisory Groups including Birmingham Reducing Gang Violence 3. He also chaired the National Independent Advisory Group, advising the government on violent crime and anti-social behaviour and he sat on the national DNA Database Ethics Group from 2008-2013.

Regional Director, South East – Sarah Green

Sarah was Deputy Chair of the IPCC before taking up her role as a Regional Director for the IOPC. Like all operational Commissioners, Sarah was responsible for providing independent oversight of and taking ultimate responsibility for our investigations, casework and the promotion of public confidence in the complaints system.

Prior to joining the IPCC, Sarah was Head of Legal Services at the East of England Development Agency. Before that, she was area solicitor for the eastern region of the Legal Aid Board and then held a number of senior management roles nationally within the Legal Services Commission.

Before moving to the public sector, she worked as a litigator for a large solicitors' firm representing trade union clients, including leading a national team responsible for private criminal prosecutions on behalf of public sector employees assaulted at work.

Regional Director for London (Interim) - Sal Naseem 

Sal joined the IPCC in January 2015 as a Senior Assessment Manager and is currently our Head of Assessment Unit. Sal has successfully led the Assessment Unit to sustained year on year performance improvement. Under his leadership, the Unit received a Civil Service Award in recognition of its exceptional contribution to the Operational Delivery Profession.

Before joining the organisation Sal held management positions in a number of different regulatory environments which included; Ofqual, the Legal Ombudsman and the Audit Commission.

Acting Deputy Director in the Directorate of Major Investigations (DMI) - Steve Noonan

Steve joined us in 2013. He began by leading a project on measuring quality in our work that resulted in the creation of our Quality Review Unit. He was briefly the Training and Development Lead, then an Operations Manager (OM) in the Sale Office before taking up the Acting Deputy Director role.

Prior to the IOPC, Steve was a member of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces for 23 years. His career was served with the Royal Military Police/Special Investigations Branch in many locations around the world, including operational tours of Northern Ireland and Iraq.

Since starting with the DMI, Steve has championed a culture of continuous improvement and effective leadership with a greater focus on learning.

Expenses

View the expenses report for the Directors of the IOPC - December 2020.

The Director General and Non-Executive Director expenses are approved by the Head of Chief Executive’s Office and the expenses of Executive Directors are approved by the relevant line manager. To ensure that expenditure on accommodation and travel provides value for money the IOPC uses the Crown Commercial Services frameworks.

Gifts and hospitality

Gifts and hospitality register (April to March 2019/20)

Gifts and hospitality register (October to March 2018/19)

Register of interests

IOPC board and director register of interests (December 2020)