Nick Folland
Former Chief External Affairs Officer, Co-operative Group
For the 2 years to May 2015, Nick was one of a small team that led the rescue of The Co-operative Group, acting as Chief of Staff to the CEO, and as the Chief External Affairs Officer. He joined just after the Co-operative Bank fell from grace in April 2013 and played a pivotal role in securing the first ever bank bail-in, avoiding the alternative tax payer bail-out. Nick went on to take responsibility for all of the Co-op Group’s external affairs, leading teams focused on engagement with regulators, government, PR, media, membership and marketing. Owned by its 8m members, the Co-op operated 4,500 outlets with around 87,000 employees across its retail and consumer services divisions.
Nick joined The Co-op from Kingfisher plc, a FTSE100 international retailer, where he was a member of the Retail Board and held a number of executive positions over the period 2007-13. Latterly he was the Group Corporate Affairs Director, leading the team that developed and launched the market leading sustainability programme, ‘Net Positive’. He was also responsible for the Group’s Government Affairs and Regulatory programme. From 2007-2012 Nick was Company Secretary to the plc Board, Group Legal & Corporate Responsibility Director, and B&Q’s Legal Director from 2009-2011. Prior to joining Kingfisher, Nick was a member of the Group Executive, Company Secretary and Group Legal Director of Emap plc, a FTSE100 media conglomerate. Nick has held a number of other corporate in-house legal roles, having qualified as a solicitor at Linklaters & Paines in 1993.
Nick was appointed to the Natural Environment Research Council in 2013, and is also Chair of its Audit & Risk Assurance Committee. Previously, he was vice-chairman of the GC100 (the general counsel and company secretaries of the FTSE 100), a member of the British Retail Consortium’s Policy Board, a member of OFGEM’s Sustainable Development Advisory Group, the treasurer of The British American Project, a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators’ Forum, and a member of the Companies Committee of the CBI.