The Board of Directors at OPRL Ltd is made up of independent Non-Executive Directors who bring a wealth of experience from their professional lives across a wide range of businesses and organisations. They do not represent anyone but themselves and the interests of OPRL Ltd.
Jude Allan
Jude is the interim Managing Director of OPRL and Chairs the IOM3 Packaging Group. IOM3 is a leading science and engineering professional body promoting all aspects of the materials cycle. Jude was a packaging technologist before spending 18 years leading production and creative operations at Jones Knowles Ritchie as it grew from a London packaging design agency to a global design business.
Margaret Bates (Seconded to DEFRA)
Margaret joined OPRL from the University of Northampton, where she is still a Visiting Professor of Wastes Management and Circular Economy. Margaret has over 30 years’ experience in the waste and resources sector. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Chartered Environmentalist and an International Wastes Manager. Margaret serves on a number of government panels and advisory boards.
Stewart Davies
Stewart is an experienced non-executive director and chair of public bodies, advisory bodies and trade associations. His posts include Chair of the Sustainable Development Partnership at the City of Bradford Metropolitan District; Chair of the Innovation Advisory Board at the Natural Environment Research Council, Governing Board Member at Innovate UK, and Business Commissioner at the Sustainable Development Commission. Stewart’s career has focused on all levels of the packaging supply chain, from polymer manufacture to commercial strategies for the steel packaging sector; from managing local authority waste and recycling contracts, to chairing the Environmental Services Association (ESA).
Karen Graley
Karen is Packaging Innovation and Delivery Manager at Marks & Spencer and one of the original Directors of OPRL, serving on the Board since 2009. Waitrose was one of the founding partners working with the BRC and WRAP to develop the OPRL label. Karen is a member of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging. Karen started her career on the design team at Safeway’s Stores having grown up around print, starting with summer jobs in her father’s print factory in Liverpool as a teenager.
Jacob Hayler
Jacob is the Executive Director of the Environmental Services Association (ESA). He spent the previous 10 years working as an economist in ESA’s Policy Unit and, before that he worked in analytical roles in the City. Jacob's work at ESA is focused on helping the UK’s recycling and waste industry to deliver a circular economy through higher recycling, reduced carbon emissions, and improved standards. He has represented the recycling industry on multiple government advisory bodies and committees and is the UK’s representative on various pan-European waste and recycling industry fora. He is a Chartered Waste Manager and Chartered Environmentalist.
Anne MacCaig
Anne is a consultant and NED, and was previously CEO of Cafedirect plc. Before that, she held the role of Marketing Director of Ribena (GSK). Her early career was as a Brand Manager and Marketing Director at Unilever, WPP, United Biscuits and GSK, covering personal care and detergents as well as food and drink. Her work includes pioneering 100% recycled plastic bottles for Ribena and home compostable packaging for coffee. In 2009 she won the Triodos Women in Ethical Business award. She joined the Board in 2014.
Peter Maddox
Peter is Chair of Trustees at the Bucks Food Partnership, and former Director at WRAP where he led the launch of The UK Plastics Pact, strategy development, and restructuring and culture change to deliver growth and improved customer experience. He has chaired evaluation panels under the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme for UKRI and sat on Defra’s Resources and Waste Advisory Board. He was Strategy and Operations Advisor at BP Chemicals prior to joining WRAP in 2006.
Lee Marshall
Lee is Director of Policy and External Affairs at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of LARAC and has held senior positions at several English Local Authorities as well as Powys County Council in Wales. He has managed waste and recycling collection services as well as wider environmental and street scene services. Lee also has experience as a Director running his own consultancy company. He has sat on two Government advisory panels and was an advisor to the Welsh Local Government Association on technical waste matters. He is a Fellow of the CIWM and joined the Board in 2014.
James Piper
James is a Non-Executive Director at Ecosurety following 12 years working at the compliance scheme, including as CEO. He is author of the best-selling The Rubbish Book and has won a number of business leadership awards, including Top 50 Entrepreneur, Young Sustainability Executive and the Institute of Director’s Young Director of the Year for the South West Region. He is a trustee at Caractacus Housing.
Phillip Ward
Phillip is a former WRAP Director, who was involved in establishing the Courtauld Commitment. He joined the Board in 2014. Previously, Phillip was a senior civil servant, including four years as Director of Energy, Environmental Management and Waste at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. He recently stood down as the Non-Executive Chair of Resource Futures, a consultancy specialising in the circular economy and community engagement. He now leads the Sustainability Network at the RSA.
John Winter
John has had a long career in Software Design, Development and Delivery, with a variety of roles, chiefly in Financial Risk Management. His most recent role was as the Director of Product Management for Insurance Risk at FIS – a large financial software supplier – where he was responsible for the product strategy and direction for an actuarial risk product. Previous roles have included FX and security pricing and trading systems, operational and credit risk systems, wealth management and settlement systems. He has worked on both sides of the marketplace – as a vendor and as a buyer of software – and has a good understanding of what makes a product fit for purpose.