News story: The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport appoints Moira Andrews, Liz Copper, Peter Gooderham and John Wood as Members of ACNRA.

LIZ COPPER

Liz Copper is a BBC journalist who has worked as a producer and reporter for more than 20 years. She has extensive experience making requests under the Freedom of Information Act. She is a qualified barrister and a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn and the Denning Society. Liz is a volunteer for the charity Sight Support Derbyshire.

JOHN WOOD

John Wood joined Herbert Smith, now Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, the city and international law firm in 1972 and was a partner from 1982 to 2007. He was a legal board member of the Charity Commission from 2008 to 2014, its interim chair in 2012, and continued as a consultant to the Commission and a member of high level board committees until 2017. He also holds a Prime Ministerial appointment as an independent member of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) to which he was appointed in 2015. The role of the Committee is to provide independent advice to the Prime Minister and Ministers on the application of the government’s Business Appointment Rules. It is a five year appointment with a time commitment of approximately one to two days per month and carries an honorarium of £3000 per annum. He has an interest in the development of early twentieth century journalism, literature and print culture and has conducted academic research in this field.

PETER GOODERHAM

Peter Gooderham is a former British diplomat, with a career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office spanning almost 30 years. His responsibilities during his time in the FCO included serving as the UK Permanent Representative to the UN, WTO and other international organisations in Geneva (from 2008-2012), and as Director for the Middle East and North Africa (from 2004-2007). Prior to his diplomatic career Peter was an academic, with a PhD from Bristol University in modern Russian history and research fellowships at Essex and Birmingham Universities. Since retiring from the FCO in 2013, Peter has been Director of the International Chamber of Commerce (UK), and has worked as a member of the Senior Directing Staff at the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS).

LADY MOIRA ANDREWS

With over 30 years’ experience of the public, private, regulatory and charitable sectors, Moira Andrews’ early career was in private practice as a solicitor in Scotland and the City of London. She became a government legal adviser in 1995, spending three years at the then Department of Trade & Industry before joining the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1998. From 2006 to 2009, she was seconded to the Crown Prosecution Service as Head of International. On leaving government in 2011, she was appointed General Counsel to a business intelligence and strategic advisory consultancy before setting up her own specialist legal practice in 2013. As a government legal adviser and as General Counsel, she was responsible for information management and security, as well as wider legal, governance and risk issues. She currently pursues a range of business, government, academic and charitable interests including: Director of Praetor Legal; member of the Council of ADS, a major UK trade association for UK companies in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors; Visiting Research Fellow, King’s College London; member, the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace; and Chairman of Trustees of Cairn, a charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse.

The role is not remunerated and these appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Moira Andrews, Liz Copper, Peter Gooderham and John Wood have declared no such political activity.