Non-Executive Directors
Meet the leaders who are guiding The Royal Mint into the future.
Anne Jessopp
Chief Executive
Since joining The Royal Mint in 2008, Anne Jessopp has held several positions on the board, including HR Director and Director of the Consumer division, before stepping into the role of Chief Executive in 2018. Spearheading the transformation of one of Britain’s oldest businesses, Anne Jessopp is the first female Chief Executive in The Royal Mint’s 1,100-year history and her leadership has seen the introduction of an ambitious five-year strategy to help continue the growth of the consumer-facing divisions of the organisation. Under her leadership, The Royal Mint has also committed to becoming a leader in sustainable precious metals.
Leighton John
Director of Operations
Leighton John joined The Royal Mint in 1991 as an engineering apprentice. With a BEng in Integrated Engineering, he held all the major production and engineering management roles within the organisation before becoming Head of Production and Operational Excellence in 2010. Leighton John has transformed circulating and commemorative coin production, whilst the Lean Management Journal placed him in the top 25 Lean Practitioners in Europe in 2015. Leighton John became Director of Operations at The Royal Mint in 2015.
Huw Lewis
Chief Financial Officer
Joining the organisation in September 2020 as our Chief Financial Officer, Huw Lewis has brought to The Royal Mint extensive accounting and commercial experience gained in the United Kingdom and overseas. A qualified accountant, he started his career at KPMG, working across the assurance and transaction teams in the UK and New Zealand. He progressed to hold prominent roles across a variety of leading firms, including Legal & General, Gyrus Group, General Electric and Pure Wafer. Before joining The Royal Mint, he was Chief Financial Officer at Cardiff Airport.
Andrew Mills
Director of Currency
Director of Currency, Andrew Mills joined The Royal Mint in 2009 from OpSec Security Limited, where he was Managing Director, leading a successful turnaround of the European business. Prior to 2004, he held sales and marketing positions with De La Rue, ICI and Kodak, including an assignment in the United States with Eastman Kodak Company.
Graham Love
Appointed to the Board on 1 January 2019, Graham Love previously chaired several successful businesses, including LGC, Eversholt Rail, SLR Consulting and Xendo. Prior to pursuing a plural career, he had an extensive international executive career, lastly as Chief Executive of QinetiQ plc from 2005 to 2009. He is a long-term trustee of STEMNET and a Senior Adviser to The Chertoff Group. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Lisa Montague
Lisa Montague was appointed to the Board of The Royal Mint as a Non-Executive Director in September 2022. A company director since the age of 25, enjoying an international career in the fashion and luxury goods industry, she started her career in sales and marketing, working in various international roles before taking up the role of COO at Mulberry, and CEO of Spanish luxury leather-goods house Loewe. Since April 2019, she has been CEO of Sanderson Design Group plc, formerly Walker Greenbank plc.
Bill Spencer
Appointed to the Board of The Royal Mint in May 2020, Bill Spencer is the Audit Committee Chairman and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director. He is also a Non-Executive Director and the Audit Committee Chairman at Ricardo plc. In recent years, he has been the Audit Committee Chairman and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director at Northgate plc and Exova plc. His other previous non-executive roles were at UK Mail plc and at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Before developing a non-executive career, he was Chief Financial Officer of Intertek Group plc, a FTSE 100 company. Prior to that, he held several financial executive roles in business services and
Andy Butterworth
A representative of HM Treasury, the sole shareholder of The Royal Mint, Andy Butterworth was appointed to the Board of The Royal Mint as a Non-Executive Director in July 2021. He joined UK Government Investments (UKGI) in December 2016 and has worked within UKGI’s housing and defence projects, with roles in UK Export Finance and the Special Situations group. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and was an M&A Director at Deloitte before he joined UKGI.
Shimi Shah
Appointed to the Board of The Royal Mint on 22 March 2021, Shimi Shah has been actively involved in investing and venture capital for more than 20 years, making over 50 investments in early and expansion stage transactions. Chairperson of Impact Holdings Group, Executive Chairperson of Carousel Solutions Group Ltd, and Chairperson of Miratech Inc, she also sits on the advisory board of the North East Regional Development Fund in the UK. Shimi also advises and advocates for diversity and inclusion, social capital and impact investing and is an active member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO).
Matthew Woolsey
In September 2022, Matthew Woolsey was appointed to the Board of The Royal Mint as a Non-Executive Director. Having worked in a variety of international consumer businesses including luxury fashion, fitness and e-commerce, he is currently Managing Director of Hydrow, a connected-fitness rower launched in 2019. He was previously Managing Director at Net-a-Porter, the world’s largest luxury e-tailer, and Global President of 66˚North, the 96-year-old Nordic outerwear brand. Throughout his career, he has also held a range of senior management positions in technology, consulting, and media start-ups in London, New York and San Francisco.
Kate Barnett
Appointed to the Board of The Royal Mint as a Non- Executive Director in February 2022, Kate Barnett is Global Operations Director at Thermo Fisher Scientific, a $40 billion multinational medical devices corporation, and leads strategic delivery and operational performance of specialist diagnostics manufacture across EMEA. She has previously led business transformations as Group Director at Cambridge Assessment, the University of Cambridge’s commercial examination boards, and at Crown Packaging Inc (formerly MetalBox); she was also Vice Chair of Governors for the College of West Anglia for five years. As a qualified engineer, she obtained her MEng from Pembroke College, University of Oxford, and completed her Global Executive MBA at INSEAD, studying in Paris, Singapore and Brazil. She continues to promote life-long learning and strives to inspire senior leadership excellence through the Professional Women’s Network.