Who we are

Urvashi Bhagat

Finance Director

Urvashi Bhagat joined NS&I on 17 September 2018. Urvashi came to NS&I from Government Actuary Department (GAD), where she was Finance Director. Urvashi is a professionally qualified accountant; she completed her training with PWC and later joined the National Audit Office. She then went to study for executive MBA at Plymouth Business School. Urvashi has worked across public, private and not for profit sectors.  

After an initial spell of working in the private sector, Urvashi joined wider central government where she led many finance transformational change and statutory consolidation programmes. Among the most significant was the merger of HM Court Service into a newly-established executive agency. Prior to GAD, Urvashi worked in the NHS, implementing the recent Health and Social Care Act in East London, where she successfully led the programme of statutory and financial closures of seven Primary Care Trusts and played a significant role in the establishment of seven new Clinical Commissioning Groups. Urvashi was also the first Finance Director of the newly established GP federation in Newham where she led all aspects of the organisational and compliance set up.

2017-18 Salary:
n/a

Paul Habershon

Interim Director of IT and Change

Paul was appointed Interim IT and Change Director in March 2018, to establish and lead this new Directorate to increase the focus on and impact of IT and business change across the business.

He is responsible for realising the NS&I’s goals through the delivery of aligned IT strategies and the rolling programme of business-sponsored change. He and his Directorate necessarily work closely with Atos, from operational delivery through enterprise architecture.

Prior to working at NS&I, Paul has defined and delivered global IT and Business transformation programmes in telecommunications, financial services and public sectors with a key focus on value delivery. As a Consulting Director in Fujitsu he was responsible for numerous interventions defining IT, Business change and Outsourcing strategies.

Prior to his time at Fujitsu he worked for global IT and consultancy companies taking responsibility for their largest and most complex client engagements. Paul started his career as a graduate trainee at Lloyds Bank.

2017-18 Salary: 
£10,000 - £15,000 (annualised equivalent: £195,000 - £200,000)

Dax Harkins

Business-to-Business Director

Dax is responsible for the development and delivery of the business-to-business strategy. His accountabilities include the management of existing clients, winning and transitioning new clients.

A joint honours degree graduate of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Dax has worked in financial services for over 20 years. Starting his career in sales, Dax quickly progressed into various marketing roles, with a focus on product development, customer management and customer experience.

In 2003, Dax joined NS&I and moved from marketing in 2011 to Programme Director for the retender of the NS&I outsourcing contract. After successfully awarding the contract and ensuring a smooth transition, Dax was appointed to the board in 2014 as Business-to-Business Director and became an Institute of Directors-accredited Chartered Director in 2018.

2017-18 Salary:
£105,000 - £110,000

Paul Henry

Director, Risk

Paul Henry was appointed as Risk Director on 7 July 2018 and is a commercially focused regulatory change professional and Conduct specialist who has held Conduct, Compliance, Regulatory, Operational Risk and Anti Money Laundering roles at senior and Regulatory approved levels across a number of UK globally significant financial institutions.

Paul has proven experience in demonstrating a combination of commercial acumen and technical expertise to deliver effective conduct and regulatory solutions to Governance, Regulatory, Compliance, AML and change management challenges. Paul considers himself a team player who partners with senior executive stakeholders in the rapidly changing corporate, retail, commercial and wholesale banking environments to achieve strategic and customer focused goals.

2017-18 Salary: 
n/a

Matthew Smith

Partnership Director

Matt is responsible for the delivery of the NS&I outsourcing business model and the relationship with the Agency’s key partner Atos, including service delivery, commercial and change assurance and procurement. He joined NS&I in August 2018 and brings over twenty-five years of global experience leading sourcing, operational excellence and business transformation initiatives to deliver customer-focused outcomes.

Matt was most recently Director of EMEA Supply Chain for DXC Technology (DXC), the world’s leading independent, end-to-end IT services and solutions company, during a period of major change before, during and after the creation of DXC through the merger of Computer Sciences Corporation and HP Enterprise Services. Before DXC, Matt had a long career with the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation (DNB), where he was most recently Global Vice-President and Chief Procurement Officer with responsibility for sourcing and third-party compliance.

Prior to that he was International Vice-President for strategy implementation and business process reengineering across DNB’s footprint in Europe, Asia Pacific and South America, where he partnered with stakeholders to deliver operations and supply chain strategy, operating margin optimisation and acquisition integration. Earlier in his career, Matt had a variety of roles in operations management, sourcing and change implementation.

Matt is a certified practitioner of Managing Successful Programmes and a previous recipient of the annual Institute of Consulting award for best internal consulting project.

2017-18 Salary: 
n/a

Sarah Tebbutt

People and Strategy Director

As Director of People & Strategy, Sarah leads NS&I’s strategy, policy and innovation, and market intelligence and research, and media functions. She also leads on all aspects of people: workplace, culture, diversity, employee engagement, internal communications and human resources. Sarah chairs the Conduct Committee and is responsible for the FCA Senior Managers Regime. She served as Acting Risk Director between March and August 2018.

Sarah Tebbutt joined NS&I in June 2013 after a twenty year career at HM Treasury, where in recent years she was responsible for Corporate Change, and before that, Debt and Reserves Management, working closely with NS&I, The Bank of England, the Debt Management Office and the Royal Mint.

Prior to those roles she worked in a Ministers’ office and as a negotiator at the Cabinet Office, European Council and World Trade Organisation. 

Sarah studied Genetics at Cambridge University and has an MBA from Imperial College, London.  

2017-18 Salary: 
£110,000 - £115,000 (annualised equivalent £115,000 - £120,000)

Jill Waters

Retail Director

Jill was NS&I’s Acting Retail Director. Following an open recruitment exercise, Jill was appointed in the substantive position as Retail Director in March 2018 and is responsible for leading the development, management and growth of the Retail business on behalf of NS&I, which includes customer offer, marketing and sales, brand, product management, retail experience and complaints.

In her time at NS&I, Jill has also held the following roles: Head of Sales and Operational Delivery, Head of Digital Channels and Assistant Director for Retail.

In 2001, she joined NS&I from Yorkshire Electricity where she was responsible for the Customer and Sales Strategy for the newly developed privatised consumer utility markets. Prior to that Jill was an independent financial adviser, following many years at Norwich Union advising on pensions and life insurance.

Jill is a member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the Institute of Finance Services (IFS) and Association of Business Psychology.

2017-18 Salary:
£115,000 - £120,000