The Element Operating Board

Under Jo's leadership, Element has experienced remarkable growth, expanding from 20 locations in five regions in 2010 to a global business with over 270 locations in 30 countries and a workforce of more than 9,000 employees. This growth is a testament to his efforts in driving organic growth and integrating 47 acquisitions. In his tenure at Element, Jo has led several successful buyouts, including those with 3i and Bridgepoint, as well as the take-private of Exova in 2017. Most recently he oversaw the successful buyout by Temasek in 2022.

Ruth spent two and a half years as CFO at William Hill Plc, leading its finance, assurance, legal and procurement functions, as well as playing a critical role in driving company strategy and business transformation. She was also instrumental in the IPO of payments processing business Worldpay in 2015 – the largest ever private equity backed IPO in the UK at the time.

Ruth is a qualified accountant with a degree in Biochemistry and spent nearly a decade in private equity, working across a variety of sectors including waste, renewables, music, publishing and retail.

In 2011 Rick took the position of Vice President of European Operations and formally joined the Element Executive Team. Rick became the Executive Vice President (EVP) of Aerospace in 2014. Under his leadership the global aerospace sector has more than quadroupled in size and successfully integrated over 10 acquisitions, adding capabilities, capacity and footprint to become the number one provider of aerospace testing services in the world. In October 2020 Rick was appointed EVP, Americas, with responsibility for all of Element’s operations in the USA, Canada and Mexico, covering 88 laboratories across the aerospace, connected technologies, defence, life sciences and transportation end markets.

Matt has twenty years of experience in the Testing, Inspection and Certification sector, holding operational and commercial leadership roles based in Europe, South America and North America. Principally this has covered leading global laboratory networks, as well as leading teams focused on account management, technical governance, systems development and new growth initiatives. Before his role at Element, Matt was a member of the Group Executive Leadership Team at Bureau Veritas.

Ditte has been a trusted advisor and business partner to executive teams, leaders and employees across an array of sectors including Animal Health, Technology, Distribution, Financial Services, Retail and Manufacturing. Most recently, Ditte led as Global Chief Human Resources Officer for Covetrus, a global animal health technology company operating in 27 countries and serving over 100,000 customers. 

Ditte holds a MSc in Human Resource Management and a BSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Copenhagen Business School.

Arnout has led various strategy assignments over the years including the original rebranding from Stork to Element; the Group’s entry into China; multiple outsourcing projects and various corporate strategy exercises.

Since the carve-out in 2010, Arnout has focused on leading Element’s highly successful mergers and acquisition program. Prior to joining Element, Arnout worked for Unilever Group Unichema and the management consultant firm Arthur D. Little.

Together with his team and working as business partners to support the wider commercial organization, Frido is responsible for driving growth through a set of groupwide commercial excellence programs, including key account management, which are focused on consistently improving sales force effectiveness and establishing a high performing, pro-active commercial culture.

Before that he was Chief Product and Technology Officer at Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a $27bn travel management company where he successfully led their digital transformation. He has also led technology teams at NBCUniversal and Thomson Reuters. He has a passion for data and data science, having been co-founder and CTO of Beyond Analysis, a software solutions and data science business, and CIO of dunnhumby, the former data science division of Tesco.

Lee spent 25 years at Mars, leading teams across the Americas and Europe in communications & sustainability, marketing, sales, procurement and supply chain. He has a track record of embedding purpose in global brands and organizations and is passionate about the positive role that business can play in society.

Trudy was most recently Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at Avast PLC, an FTSE-100 global cyber security company. She sat on the Executive Team, leading teams across Governance, Legal, Compliance, Privacy, Risk and Internal Audit. She also spent over 14 years as Chief Operating Officer at Private Equity Firm Terra Firma Capital Partners.