Francis Maude

The Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP was appointed to the board of directors of Huntsworth in May 2005, following the merger with Incepta Group plc. He is chairman of the Nominations Committee. He is currently chairman of Prestbury Holdings plc, deputy chairman of Benfield Group Limited, chairman of the Jubilee Investment Trust plc and has been non executive chairman of Incepta Group plc since 2004. From 1992 to 1999, he was a non executive director of Asda Group; and Gartmore Shared Equity Trust from 1997 to 1999. From 1992 to 1993, he was director of Salomon Brothers and a managing director of Morgan Stanley & Co Limited from 1993 to 1997.

A barrister by training, Francis was first elected to Parliament in 1983 as MP for North Warwickshire and from 1987 to 1992 was successively Minister for Corporate and Consumer Affairs at the DTI, Minister of State at the Foreign Office and Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Following the 1997 election, he was Shadow Secretary for Media, Culture and Sport from 1997 to 1998, Shadow Chancellor from 1998 to 2000 and Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2000 to 2001. He is currently the chairman of the Conservative Party and Member of Parliament for Horsham.