Our board
Mark Wood
Chair
Mark became Chair of Nominet in April 2017. He holds the same role at educational content business Knowledge Motion, as well as serving as an advisor to Ascension Ventures, and sits on PwC’s Advisory Board and the Board of Citywire.
Mark studied languages and holds a diploma in education from Oxford University. He began his career in journalism as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, before becoming the company’s Editor-in-Chief. Other roles included Chair & CEO of ITN, Chief Executive of Future PLC, and Chair of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Mark is Chair of the Nominations Committee, Investment Committee, Mergers and Acquisition Committee, and Member of the Remuneration Committee.
Russell Haworth
CEO & Executive Director
Russell joined Nominet as CEO in January 2015. He leads the organisation in a time of diversification, developing the core registry business while exploring the potential of new technologies and delivering on a commitment to harness technology for good.
He has extensive experience in the digital information, content and software services sectors and has held senior roles across four continents, covering both established and emerging markets. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and is a chartered member of the Institute of Marketing.
Russell is a Member of the Nominations Committee and Member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee.
Eleanor Bradley
MD Registry & Public Benefit
Eleanor joined the Board as an executive director in December 2012. She has worked for Nominet since 1997 and leads the teams responsible for service delivery, policy, corporate services and commercial activity related to the registry business. She also heads up Nominet’s business continuity and risk management work. She has over 20 years’ experience in the internet industry with a focus on customer service, continuous improvement and stakeholder engagement.
Eleanor is a Member of the Investment Committee.
Ben Hill
Chief Financial Officer
Ben joined the Board as an executive director in May 2018. He has worked for Nominet since 2015 and leads the commercial and accounting finance teams, taking responsibility for developing the business through projects, acquisitions and investments.
Ben has over 25 years’ experience leading and developing finance teams and in corporate finance transactions, primarily with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Unipart Group. Ben read Biochemistry at Cambridge and is a qualified accountant with the ICAEW.
Ben is a Member of the Investment Committee and Member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee.
Phil Buckingham
Elected Non-Executive Director
Phil was elected to the Board in September 2020. He is a trained accountant and was co-founder and CFO for specialist domain name registration company NetNames, and was instrumental in its IPO on the AIM in 2000. He has worked as a financial evaluator and advisor in the domain name industry, and consulted on Top Level Domain (TLD) registries in ICANN’s 2012 round. Phil has a long-standing involvement with ICANN, and currently serves on the Subsequent Procedures working group for the next application round. He also advises ed tech and fin tech start-ups.
Anne Taylor
Elected Non-Executive Director
Anne was elected to the Board in July 2019. She has been a Director of See Green Media and See Green Systems since 2016, and joins with non-executive experience of membership organisations, as school governor and a parish councillor. With a background in journalism and public relations, Anne has over a decade of experience within the technology sector.
James Bladel
Elected Non-Executive Director
James is the Vice President of Global Policy for GoDaddy, a Nominet Member and ICANN Registrar serving over 18 million customers globally. A veteran of the domain name industry, James has been active in ICANN, serving in the Registrar Stakeholder Group and GNSO Council, with two years as GNSO Chair.
James is an alumnus of the University of Iowa and holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
James is a Member of the Investment Committee and the Remuneration Committee.
Jane Tozer MBE, OBE
Appointed Non-Executive Director
Jane was appointed to the Board in August 2015 and serves as a member of all the Board committees. She is an experienced non-executive and her current portfolio includes StatPro plc, F&C Global Smallers plc, JPMorgan Income & Growth plc, Asthma UK, Three Rivers’ Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Warwick Business School Advisory Board.
Jane worked at IBM before becoming CEO of a software house. She has served as a director of a variety of quoted, private, and public sector businesses. She was awarded an MBE for services to the IT sector in 1991, and an OBE for services to the public service and voluntary sectors in 2009.
Jane is the Senior Independent Director (SID) and Member of the Audit and Governance Committee, Member of the Nominations, Investment, and Code of Conduct Committees, and Chair of the Remuneration Committee.
David Thornton
Elected Non-Executive Director
David was elected to the Board in June 2015. He has been working in the internet industry since 2002, currently as Director of the domain name investment company Name Account Inc. David has a significant interest in domain name policy as well as brand identity. He is active in the domain name community and serves as a member of both the Nominations and Remuneration Committees.
David is a Member of the Nominations Committee and the Remuneration Committee.
Dr Stephen Page
Appointed Non-Executive Director
Dr Stephen Page was appointed to the Board in November 2017 and serves a member of the Code of Conduct Committee and Audit and Governance Committee. He is highly experienced in both digital innovation and the cyber security sector.
Currently, his portfolio of non-executive director (NED) roles includes TSB Banking Group plc, The British Library and BSI Group. He was formerly a NED at the National Crime Agency and a Senior Advisor to PwC on cyber security. In his executive career as a business and technology strategist, he held various UK, European and global leadership positions in Accenture.
Stephen is a Member of the Audit and Governance and Code of Conduct Committees and Member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee
Rob Binns
Appointed Non-Executive Director
Rob is the Chief Financial Officer at The Access Group, joining in June 2019, and has extensive experience as a senior level finance leader in the software and technology industry.
Prior to Access, Rob was CFO at Finastra (formerly Misys) from February 2016, with full responsibility for the G&A organisations including Finance, Risk, IT, Legal and Procurement. Rob joined Finastra from HP Inc. where he held a variety of senior roles, including Group Treasurer, HP Inc. and Vice President and CFO, HP Software. Prior to this, Rob held both regional and group headquarters finance leadership roles in the software industry in the UK and Canada, including tenures at Documentum Software (now owned by EMC Corporation) and Mercury Interactive.
Rob is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. In 2014 and 2015, Rob was ranked by Institutional Investor as a top investor relations (IR) professional in the technology sector.
Rob is Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee and Member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee
The Nominet Board is supported by a number of committees. View their terms of references, committee membership, and Board updates on our Board documents page.