Two public figures from the North East are among three new appointments as independent board members of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), and a third from the region has become a board member of a government body in the agriculture sector.
Hilary Florek and Peter Judge will serve three-year terms on the CCW, the independent, statutory body that represents all water and sewerage consumers across England and Wales, and James Standen becomes an independent member of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), also for three years
The CCW provides advice and information on water matters and investigates complaints. It is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Hilary Florek
Hilary Florek, whose appointment took effect on 1 April, is a strategic communications and marketing specialist and said to have extensive experience in both the public, private and third sector.
She is chair of North East Access to Finance and a member of the board of Advance Northumberland. She sits as a member of court at Newcastle University and is chair of the court steering committee.
She is a member of the board of the Durham County Cricket Foundation and a trustee of Lawnmowers, a theatre group for young people with learning difficulties.
Prior to this, she was chair of the Port of Tyne for three years having served previously served as deputy chair. She also served on the board of the Glasshouse International Centre for Music. She was chair of the Marine Management Organisation from 2018 until 2024.
Hilary began her career with the Vaux Group PLC and became PR and communications director, a position she held until 2000 when she established her own PR and marketing consultancy.
Peter Judge
Peter Judge’s early career was as a corporate lawyer in private practice before moving in-house to be the legal and procurement director and group company secretary of the regional development agency, One North East (2003-2012), where he is said to have developed a reputation for strong leadership, innovation and for improving efficiency, governance and stewardship of public resources.
Peter, who takes up his new post on 1 November, is senior independent governor of Northumbria University, together with a number of other non-executive roles.
He chairs the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute and was appointed as a non-executive director of the Marine Management Organisation in 2019. As attorney general of the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (2014-2017), Peter was responsible for both governments’ legal functions including prosecution, regulation, fisheries enforcement and new legislation. He successfully sponsored an international agreement on closer cooperation between British Overseas Territories.
He was awarded an MBE for services to economic development and the North East region in 2012 and named UK In-House Lawyer of the Year by The Lawyer Magazine in 2010.
James Standen
Meanwhile, a North East agricultural expert is one of two new government appointments to the AHDB, which is a statutory levy board that supports the efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of the agriculture sector in the UK. He will take up his appointment on 1 May.
The AHDB delivers market intelligence, research and knowledge exchange to help farmers, growers and the wider supply chain improve sustainability, performance and overall industry growth.
DEFRA said James Standen was an experienced agricultural manager with over two decades of leadership experience across farm, estate and agribusiness operations, where he combined strong strategic and financial management capability with practical and operational expertise.
His career included senior roles in farm and estate management and consultancy including responsibility for large scale arable and livestock enterprises, multi-site operations and commercial development.
He is the farms director for Newcastle University and farms in partnership with his wife on a tenanted farm in North Yorkshire. Alongside his executive roles, said DEFRA, he has contributed extensively to the wider agricultural sector through board, council and governance appointments, bringing well-established skills in communication, mentoring and stakeholder engagement.
DEFRA said all appointments were made on merit and political activity played no part in the selection process. *This report is based on press releases from DEFRA.
