Our Civil Servant Biographies.

Terri Harrington

Project X Director

Sponsorship Director,

Highways England

Terri is the Sponsorship Director for the Complex Infrastructure Programme, Highways England and the  Sponsor for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down, Lower Thames Crossing, A14 Huntingdon to Cambridge and A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet which are major road projects with total spend exceeding £11bn.

Terri has been in this role since May 2017.  Previously she was the Head of Portfolio Insight at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority which is the UK government’s central project delivery function reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.

Terri is a visiting Professor at Manchester University specialising in Project and Programme Management and the Project Director for a cross-government, academic and industry collaboration known as Project X (www.bettergovprojects.com).

What is a Sponsorship Director?

As Sponsorship Director Terri works alongside the Project Directors, and whilst they are responsible for delivering the project outputs (the road), she is responsible for delivery of the outcomes (the benefits associated with the road – eg  faster travel).

Fiona has been Director for Function, Profession and Standards in the Infrastructure and Projects Authority since March 2019, and leads work on developing project delivery standards and capability across UK Government. 

Fiona was previously Chief Portfolio Officer for the Home Office, leading work on strategic investment, overseeing delivery of the departmental project portfolio, and building skills and capability as departmental head of profession for project delivery, including a stint as acting Director General in 2017-18. 

Over her career, Fiona has led a range of major government projects in technology, shared service development and business transformation in the home affairs, criminal justice and mental health arenas. 

Fiona graduated from the Government Major Projects Leadership Academy in 2014 and is currently working on a part-time M.Phil on project transition, alongside wider involvement as the Government lead for theme B within the Project X research programme.

Fiona Spencer

Project X Deputy Director

Project X Cabinet Office Lead (Theme B)

Director for Function, Profession and Standards,

Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Gill Evans

Project X Cabinet Office Lead (Theme E)

EU Exit Portfolio Director,

HM Revenue & Customs

Gill Evans is the Director of the EU Transition Unit.

Gill has led several high- profile delivery programmes within HMRC, initially as a Programme Director and more recently as the Portfolio Director for EU Transition.

Ben is the “professional head” of benefits and value management across capital delivery in TfL. He is responsible for developing and promoting consistent and best practice benefits and value management, assessing maturity and subsequent competency development and providing support and advice to Sponsors and project staff in developing scalable and appropriate strategies to ensure successful benefits realisation and demonstrable value improvements. He has also developed the project and programme benefits management and Whole Life Value (WLV) policies and processes, as part of the single TfL Pathway PPM methodology, in line with external best practice and internal lessons learnt.

Prior to joining TfL in 2012 Ben was Head of Demand, Benefits and Capital Programming for the Metropolitan Police’s Directorate of Information. He was responsible for driving forward operational efficiency through comprehensive management of benefits from ICT investment, robust and consultative capital investment planning and prioritisation and ensuring that opportunities and outcomes from change were optimised.

Ben Ganney

Project X Cabinet Office Lead (Theme A)

Benefits and Value Functional Lead

Transport for London

Natalie O’Connell

Project X Cabinet Office Lead (Theme C)

Programme Director,

Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Natalie is a Programme Director in the IPA delivering the new government wide project delivery framework and is the government profession lead for portfolio management.

 With over 20 years of experience of programme delivery and portfolio leadership gained in both the private and public sector, Natalie has led several high - profile delivery programmes and task forces within government, including digital transformation to setting up programmes to successfully transition from policy into delivery.  As a Programme Director at the Department for Work and Pensions, Natalie led the delivery of a major programme related to work and health, including trialling innovations to provide early access to support for mental health. More recently, Natalie has been the Deputy Chief Portfolio Officer and Head of Project Delivery Profession for the Home Office, with a focus on improving the use of the project data, creation of a project delivery framework and building the capability of the project profession.

 Natalie graduated from the Government’s Major Project Leadership Academy in 2015, and having initially been part of the Theme B team, Natalie is now the government lead for Theme C.