Southampton: New non-executive chair of Ordnance Survey

Kieran Murphy has been appointed as the new non-executive chair of Ordnance Survey (OS) by the business secretary Sajid Javid.

He joins Britain’s mapping agency for an initial three-year period and will lead the OS board to ensure that Britain continues to benefit from the best geospatial information, while maintaining sound finances and good governance. 

Murphy commented: “The strategy of OS is clear and ambitious – to build the capability to provide the next generation of geospatial data, providing the essential underpinning for a very wide range of public and commercial services and facilitating the development of a 'smarter' more interconnected Great Britain. OS will also promote its expertise internationally, working with other countries to develop and use their national location data.”

Nigel Clifford, CEO of OS, added: “This is an era of massive change, and location will be at the heart of ensuring the most effective and efficient use is made of the opportunities that arise.”

Murphy began his career in 1980 at the Treasury. From 1988, he spent 15 years as a senior corporate-finance adviser at Kleinwort Benson, advising on a number of landmark European transactions. He was global head of the industrial-sector investment-banking team and a member of the investment-banking-division management committee. He joined the corporate finance advisory business, Gleacher Shacklock as a partner in 2004 and retired from the firm in December 2015.

In addition he has been a non-executive director of the listed manufacturer Kingspan Group plc and a member of the council of City University, London. He is currently a non-executive director of Aliaxis SA, the world's leading producer of plastic building materials. He will join the board of the University of London later this year.