Ex-Standard Life FD gets new NED role

Alison Reed, former chief financial officer at Standard Life, has been appointed a non-executive director (NED) of examination paper and census provider DRS Data & Research Services. She will also become chairwoman of its audit committee in May.

Reed currently holds no executive roles but has been a NED at British Airways since 2003. In taking up the audit chairwoman role she succeeds Chris Batterham, who has been senior independent director of the business since 2005. He was previously finance director of Searchspace and before that, internet company Unipalm.

Reed has not held an executive role since her departure from Standard Life in 2006, which came in supposedly acrimonious circumstances following a rumoured clash of management style with the insurer’s then-chief executive and chairman. Prior to her role there she was FD at Marks & Spencer, the culmination of a long career with the retailer.