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. Each director serves in their individual capacity, dedicated to advancing the interests of OPRL Ltd with their collective insight and experience.
Our Board
Meet our Board of Directors
Jude Allan
Jude 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.
Margaret Bates
Margaret joined OPRL in February 2020 from the University of Northampton. Margaret has spent over 30 years in the waste and resources sector and has travelled the world trying to improve standards of resource management globally.
Stewart Davies
Stewart is an experienced non-executive director and chair of public bodies, advisory bodies and trade associations. 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 has worked as Packaging Innovation and Delivery Manager at Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. She is 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.
Jacob Hayler
Jacob is the Executive Director of the Environmental Services Association (ESA). 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's 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.
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. Her work includes pioneering 100% recycled plastic bottles for Ribena and home compostable packaging for coffee. 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.
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 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. Previous roles have included FX and security pricing and trading systems, operational and credit risk systems, wealth management and settlement systems.