The five Directors of SITPRO have experience across a wide variety of areas - for example transport, finance as well as trading itself - centrally the trading process. They work to set SITPRO's policies and to champion the strategic priorities agreed with SITPRO's sponsors.
Norman Rose
Norman Rose, the Chairman of SITPRO, is the former Director-General of BSA, the representative body for business-related services companies, acting as spokesman for the sector and promoting its interests. Norman began his career as a solicitor specialising in competition and regulatory law, first in local government, then as Deputy Secretary of the Law Society of Scotland. Subsequent positions have included Deputy Director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Associate International General Counsel of Electronic Data Systems (EDS). He has had a long involvement with SITPRO dating back to the early 1990s and he has been a Board member (latterly Acting Chairman) since 1998. He is the founding Co-Chair of the European Business Services Round Table and a member of the European Commission's Forum for Business-related Services. He is also a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of World Traders.
John Cooke
Before starting his own consultancy, John Cooke, SITPRO's Deputy Chairman was Head of International Relations at the Association of British Insurers representing their interests towards the European Commission, the WTO, overseas governments and regulators, with responsibility for UK insurance industry input into the WTO Financial Services Agreement 1997 and the current WTO Doha Development Round. His earlier career, with the DTI included six years in the UK Permanent Representation, Brussels. He is on the Advisory Council of the Federal Trust and has contributed to reports on the future of the WTO Dispute Settlement System, on expanding WTO rules to cover the "Singapore Issues" and WTO Law and Process. He is also a member of a Federal Trust/Chatham House working group reporting on the prospects for the Doha Round.
Edward Brown
Edward Brown is Chief Executive of Morgan Everett Limited (introducing new waste management systems to key global markets), and Cophall Associates (providing consultancy and mentoring to the service sector). Prior to this he had a long association with Rentokil Initial PLC over a 26 year period, finally finishing his career with them as Sector Managing Director and Main Board Member in 2007.
Åke Nilson
Åke Nilson started his career in the London marine insurance market but, since 1988, has been fully engaged in trade facilitation and e-business through his own companies Marinade Limited and Allagraf Limited. Specialising in the application of cryptographic technology to international trade documents, he has started and participated in many commercial projects on a European and global level, including Bolero, the first system to use digital signatures to replicate the functionality of a negotiable Bill of Lading. Between 1996 and 2001, he chaired the International Chamber of Commerce's cross-disciplinary e-commerce project and he remains in close contact with the ICC and other organisations with an interest in international e-business.
Tony Watson
Tony Watson is a highly experienced Manager of International Businesses who began his early career in Marketing and was involved in a successful early Management Buy-Out (MBO) and subsequent floatation. He has more than 25 years of expertise of international trading during his career with substantial experience of operating at Main Board level. After joining the FTSE listed Scapa Group plc board in 1998 he went on to become Chief Executive of Scapa in August 1999 leading the successful development of this focused international manufacturing business with a turnover of approximately £200 million, locations in UK, Continental Europe, North America and Asia and 1,600 staff until June 2005. Tony is an Economics Graduate (MA) from Cambridge University with a particular interest in strategy development.
Ex-Officio Board Members
- Julian Farrell - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- Kevin Costelloe - HM Revenue & Customs
Recent Meeting Minutes
- Minutes of the 45th Meeting - 9 December 2009 (pdf 18KB
) - Minutes of the 44th Meeting - 8 October 2009 (pdf 16KB )
- Minutes of the 43rd Meeting - 11 September 2009 (pdf 15KB )
- Minutes of the 42nd Meeting - 1 July 2009 (pdf 24KB )
- Minutes of the 41st Meeting - 30 April 2009 (pdf 24KB )
- Minutes of the 40th Meeting - 2 March 2009 (pdf 29KB )
- Minutes of the 39th Meeting - 10 December 2008 (pdf 16KB )
