Biographies for the honorary officers on the CIPFA Institute Council
Carol Culley OBE, President
Carol Culley, Executive Director of Finance and S151 Officer at Birmingham City Council. Carol’s previous roles include City Treasurer, S151 Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Manchester City Council. She also served as a government-appointed Commissioner, helping to address significant national challenges in local government at Woking Council.
Her previous experience in Manchester includes her role as Deputy Chief Executive and Deputy City Treasurer responsible for Finance and Performance and ICT, as well as being a member of the Health and Social Care Devolution Team as Assistant Chief Executive overseeing Finance and Performance and as the Assistant Director of Finance and Commissioning for Social Services.
Carol has a wealth of experience in financial management, governance and assurance and fulfilling trustee roles. In 2020, she was awarded an OBE for her services to local government. She is CIPFA qualified and is the 2024-2025 President of CIPFA.
Sir Mark Lowcock, Vice President
Mark is a Distinguished Non-resident Fellow at the Centre for Global Development. Between 2017 and 2021 Sir Mark was UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator where he chaired the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. From 2011-17 he was the Permanent Secretary at DFID where he supervised a 40% growth in Britain’s aid budget.
Prior to that Sir Mark served in three Director General posts in DFID, covering Corporate Performance and Knowledge Management from 2003 to 2006, Policy and International from 2006 to 2008 and Country Programmes from 2008 to 2011. He is now an adviser to WHO and IMF and chairs a large Multi Academy Trust in the UK.
Hardev Virdee, Junior Vice President
Hardev Virdee is the Group Chief Finance Officer (CFO) for Barts Health NHS Trust in London, one of the largest NHS Trusts in England and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers. Hardev took on this role in November 2019, following a successful spell as CFO at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.
Hardev's career in the NHS began more than 20 years ago, when he joined the organisation's graduate finance training scheme in 1996. It was as a graduate trainee that Hardev first began his CIPFA training, gaining his qualification in 2000. Hardev trained and worked in several roles in his native Birmingham and the West Midlands area before moving to London in 2007. He gained his first board role as Finance Director at Hounslow Primary Care Trust (PCT) in 2009, building up a portfolio of board roles across various NHS organisations before taking on his current role.
Caroline Rassell, Past President
Caroline is the CEO for Parkinson's UK, a national charity focused on finding a cure and improving life for everyone affected by Parkinson's. Caroline is a trustee of her local hospice and gained operational experience of the third sector at Versus Arthritis as the Director of Planning and Operations. Before moving to the third sector, Caroline was the Accountable Officer of NHS Mid Essex CCG and the Joint STP lead for Mid and South Essex. She has been CIPFA qualified since 1990 and has held board level roles in both local and national organisations for 20 years. These have spanned a variety of roles from Director of Finance, Commissioning and Procurement to Deputy CEO and CEO.
Caroline spent the first 15 years of her career in local government starting at the Corporation of London and then working at London Borough, district council and county council level. Moving to health at the turn of the century offered new and exciting opportunities for Caroline including working at health authority level and national level in two private companies owned by the Department of Health – Community Health Partnership (CHP) and NHS Property Services. She has been on the CIPFA Council now for five years, is a member of the Health and Social Care Board and is the current Chair of the Student and Members Board. Caroline has a passion for ensuring that the population understand the benefit of health and wellbeing. Supporting this, she is a non-executive board member and the Chair of the Audit Committee of Active Essex.