Allison Ogden-Newton OBE and Dan Corry have been appointed as Non-Executive Directors to the board of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Dan and Allison bring a wealth of experience in public policy and social entrepreneurship. Allison has been the Chief Executive of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy since 2015, while Dan is Chief Economist at the Future Governance Forum and recently completed a review of environmental regulation for Defra. The appointments were made without competition and received approval from the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The former Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Rt Hon. Steve Reed MP, deemed these appointments essential to better align the Board’s expertise with the Department’s strategic priorities and to ensure it is fully equipped to support the Department’s ambitious reform agenda. The current Secretary of State, Emma Reynolds MP, subsequently confirmed the appointments following her appointment as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 5 September 2025.
Non-executive board members are senior figures from outside government, appointed to provide challenge to government departments.
The Defra board provides strategic, corporate leadership to the department and has particular responsibility for monitoring performance and delivery.
Biographies
Allison Ogden-Newton
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE is an experienced charity professional and social entrepreneur, having worked as Chief Executive at World Child Cancer and Social Enterprise London. She was founder of breakthrough social value think-tank The Transition Institute.
Since becoming Chief Executive of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy in 2015, Allison has led a transformation of the charity, including the introduction of the country’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign, the Great British Spring Clean, and raising its profile through regular media appearances and large-scale behaviour change campaigns.
Allison has a master’s degree from Warwick Business School and is a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She has acted as an equal value advisor to the then Equal Opportunities Commission and served as a member of the government’s Department of Innovation and Skills, Women’s Enterprise Taskforce.
She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a board member of the British Cleaning Council and Wildlife and Countryside Link.
Allison was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours 2019/20 for her services to the environment and social enterprise.
Dan Corry
Dan Corry is Chief Economist at the Future Governance Forum. He brings extensive experience in public policy and economics from roles across government, think tanks and the private sector.
Dan recently completed 13 years as Chief Executive of New Philanthropy Capital, a think tank and consultancy that works to improve the impact of the social sector. From 2007 to 2010, he served as Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit and Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister on the Economy. He has also held roles as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Treasury and as a special adviser to Secretaries of State at the Department for Education, as well as the then Department for Trade and Industry, Department for Transport, Local Government and Regions, and Department for Communities and Local Government.
Earlier in his career, Dan was Director in the Economics segment of FTI Consulting and ran the New Local Government Network think tank (now New Local) from 2002 to 2005. He worked as Senior Economist at the IPPR in the 1990s and began his career as a civil service economist in the Employment Department and the Treasury.
Dan chairs the Carers Trust charity, which supports a network of 130 local charities helping unpaid carers. He is also a trustee of homelessness charity St Mungo’s. His previous roles include membership of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, the Research Committee of the ESRC, the Greater Manchester Economic Advisory Panel and the Financial Advisory Committee of the Football Association.
