Adam’s appointment will take affect from 1 September 2022, and follows the forthcoming departure of current Chief Executive Tim Moss, who is joining the Welsh Government as Chief Operating Officer and Director General.

Adam will assume responsibilities over the next few months while open competition to find a permanent appointment to the role concludes.

Adam joined the Intellectual Property Office in 2009 as Head of International Coordination in the Copyright and Enforcement Directorate. He then took up the role of Deputy Director of International Policy in July 2013, and the role of Director in September 2017.

Adam has previously worked for the UK government on defence policy matters and has extensive experience dealing with policy issues in the EU, UN and NATO as well as undertaking bilateral negotiations.

Commenting on his appointment, Adam said:

I’m delighted to have been appointed Interim CEO. Together with my colleagues on the Executive Board we are looking forward to providing continuity of leadership to ensure we continue as a great place to work for our people and ensure excellent delivery for our customers.

The IPO has also been carrying out further recruitment exercises and implementing some organisational design changes.

Andy Bartlett has been appointed as Deputy CEO and Director of Services.

This role is responsible for delivering all current services to customers, IT and our One IPO transformation programme, to deliver the IP office of the future.

Andy will continue to drive the ambitious work already underway to create a truly customer focused organisation, transforming our customers’ experience of accessing and managing their IP rights in a more streamlined and efficient way

The IPO also confirms appointments in the following roles, completing the organisational design process:

Chris Mills, Director, Rights Policy and Enforcement at the IPO

In this role, Chris will be responsible for all areas of domestic IP rights policy and legislation including patents, trade marks, designs and copyright, in addition to continuing to lead on IP enforcement issues. The role will help support UK innovation through IP, including specific oversight of policy areas currently under development through consultative exercises, such as AI, Designs, and music streaming.

He will also jointly lead the Policy Group with the interim Director of Business and International Policy, when this post is backfilled following Adam’s appointment as interim CEO.

Pippa Hall as Director of Strategy:

The Strategy Directorate will coordinate the IPO’s strategic direction, ensuring progress towards corporate priorities, and alignment with wider Government initiatives.

Pippa will work with the services and policy functions to support initiatives across the organisation.  She will coordinate and have oversight of wider strategies and business plans within the IPO, to ensure alignment and deliver the IPO’s overall corporate strategy, corporate plan, and priorities.

Sian- Nia Davies as Chief Data and Technology Officer:

Sian-Nia will lead on the creation of a world leading technology platform to provide businesses and citizens with the tools they need to harness the power of IP. Reporting to the Deputy CEO and Director of Services, Sian-Nia will ensure that the IPO’s tech capability continues to support its strategic ambitions.

She will lead on the exploitation of new technologies including ML and AI – together with more established tech – to deliver a user centred service central to the One IPO transformation journey.

These new appointments are made in addition to the following existing board roles, which complete the redesigned board structure:

Neil Hartley as Director of Finance

As Director of Finance, Neil remains responsible for financial strategy, operations and systems, accounts and financial reporting, budgets, controls and procurement.

Penny Phillpotts as Director of People and Place:

As Director of People and Place, Penny remains responsible for all Human Resources, Organisational Design and Estates matters. The responsibility includes further embedding equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the organisation, supporting innovation by helping make the IPO a brilliant place to work.

The IPO’s Chief Executive Tim Moss said:

It is testament to the strong leadership across the IPO that the organisation has clear succession planning in place, and we can seamlessly move from one state to another. I have full confidence that the Executive Board will provide continuity of leadership and they, and our wider senior leaders, have the technical expertise required to match our ambition to the best IP office in the world.

Our new board look forward to opportunities to meet with stakeholders in the coming weeks and months, and to continuing the IPO’s long standing relationships with partner organisations and their members.

A joint statement on behalf of: Albania; Andorra; Australia; Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Canada; Croatia; Cyprus ; Czech Republic ; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Malta; Marshall Islands; Moldova; Monaco; Montenegro; Netherlands; New Zealand; North Macedonia; Norway; Palau; Poland; Portugal; Romania; San Marino; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; the United Kingdom; the United States, and the European Union.

The Commission found its trustees responsible for misconduct and/or mismanagement, and secured voluntary undertakings that they would not act as trustees of any charity for a period of five years.

The charity was founded to support people currently serving or who have served in the armed forces.

The regulator opened an inquiry into the charity in November 2016, over concerns about the trustees’ management of conflicts of interests and the charity’s fundraising activities, in particular an arrangement with Targeted Management Limited (TML) entered into in 2014.

The Commission found that the trustees did not manage conflicts of interest adequately. The only two trustees were sisters, and one of them, the chair of trustees, was the long-term partner of the father of the sole director of TML. The chair entered into agreements with TML, and agreed amendments that proved costly to the charity, without approval from other trustee and without declaring or managing the conflict of interest.

TML had been significantly involved in the formation of the charity and received 67% of the gross proceeds raised from the public by the fundraising activities. As a result, the charity donated only approximately 18% of the gross income raised between 2015 and 2017 to charitable causes.

There was also a lack of transparency around the charity’s fundraising and its agreements with third parties. The inquiry concludes that the public were misled by the charity’s fundraising activities and, as a result, were unable to make an informed decision whether to donate to the charity.

The trustees did not act in the best interests of the charity in entering into the fundraising agreement, as they did not properly assess the risks or assess other fundraising options, and did not ensure whether the contract was lawful, appropriate and represented value for money.

The Commission appointed an Interim Manager to Support the Heroes in 2016 and in 2018, the Commission ordered the Interim Manager to wind the charity up.

Amy Spiller, Head of Investigations at the Charity Commission, said:

Donors have a reasonable expectation that the money they give reaches the cause they care about. Due to a complete lack of transparency about the fundraising arrangements, the charity misled the public and much of the money went to a private company instead of military veterans and serving personnel in need.

Cases like these have the potential to seriously undermine trust and confidence in charities generally. So it is right that we took robust action to ensure the charity was removed from the register and its trustees cannot lead other charities for a period of five years.

The charity was removed from the register on 18 January 2022. Its remaining funds were redistributed to Help the Heroes, registered charity (1120920), in August 2021.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.
2. The Commission opened the inquiry on 10 November 2016. View the full inquiry report on the Commission’s website.