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Animal Health - appointment of new Chief Executive

DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (210/08) issued by The Government News Network on 3 July 2008

Information Bulletin

Catherine Brown has been appointed as Chief Executive of Animal Health with effect from 16 July 2008. Formerly Chief Operating Officer, Catherine succeeds Professor Steve Edwards, who has acted as interim Chief Executive since March.

As Chief Executive, Catherine will be personally responsible to Defra Ministers and to Ministers in Scotland and Wales for the delivery of Animal Health's annual performance targets, and to Parliament for ensuring propriety in management of public funds.

She will lead Animal Health through significant organisational changes, including implementing the Agency's Business Reform Programme, which will begin to modernise Animal Health's operating model.

During this time, Animal Health will participate in the debate on cost and responsibility sharing and on developing animal health and welfare policies in England, Scotland and Wales.

Animal Health will also continue to deliver an effective response to outbreaks of exotic and endemic animal disease in order to protect public health and deliver a successful and sustainable livestock industry.

Notes to Editors

Biographical Note
Catherine Brown joined Animal Health as Chief Operating Officer in 2007. She had previously worked for BUPA, whom she joined in 1997 after working in the NHS as deputy chief executive of a Community and Mental Health Trust in the East End of London.

Her BUPA career began as a general manager in Reading and Clare Park Hospitals, then as a regional director of Hospitals in the Eastern Region. She was appointed the managing director of BUPA Wellness in 2001 and has also worked as a member of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit Employers' Working Party on Disability.

In 2005 she was appointed a Commissioner for the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Animal Health
Animal Health is an Executive Agency of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It works across Great Britain on behalf of Defra, the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly Government, and for the Food Standards Agency.

Working collaboratively with the industry, delivery partners and policy makers, Animal Health is responsible for leading the control of notifiable animal diseases on the ground, because of their economic or public health consequences, and for delivering Government's wider objectives in animal health and welfare, and in wildlife conservation.

For further information:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalhealth
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