Paula Vennells

Paula Anne Vennells (born 21 February 1959) is a British former businesswoman who was the chief executive officer of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019.

She is also an Anglican priest.

Born on 21 February 1959 as Paula Anne Vennells, she grew up in Denton, Lancashire.

Having won a funded place, she was educated at the Manchester High School for Girls, an all-girls private school in Manchester.

She then studied Russian, French and Economics at the University of Bradford, graduating in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.

Vennells began her career as a graduate trainee at Unilever in 1981, and went on to work for L'Oréal, Dixons Retail, Argos, and Whitbread.

Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Ltd during the final three years of the British Post Office scandal, which occurred between 1999 and 2015 and involved more than 900 subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of theft, false accounting and fraud because of apparent shortfalls at their branches that were acknowledged as errors of the Horizon accounting software used by the Post Office.

Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Ltd during the latter part of the British Post Office scandal, which took place between 1999 and 2015 and involved more than 900 subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of theft, false accounting and fraud, because of shortfalls at their branches that were in fact errors of the Horizon accounting software used by the Post Office.

From 2002 to 2005, Vennells trained for holy orders on the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course.

She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2005 and as a priest in 2006.

She has served as a non-stipendiary minister at the Church of St Owen, Bromham, in the Diocese of St Albans.

On 10 January 2024, BBC News reported sources told them that, around 2017 when Richard Chartres's tenure as Bishop of London was drawing to a close, Vennells had been interviewed for the post and reached the final shortlist of three.

She relinquished her clerical duties in 2021, but remains an ordained priest.

Her membership of the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group was terminated in 2021.

In 2007 she joined the Post Office as group network director.

On 1 April 2012, she became its chief executive officer (CEO).

During her time as CEO, the Post Office went from losing £120 million in 2012/13 to making a profit of £35 million in 2017/18.

In 2013, Vennells hired forensic accounting firm Second Sight, headed up by Ron Warmington, to investigate the Horizon software losses.

Warmington discovered the system was flawed and faulty, but Vennells was unhappy with Warmington's report and terminated their contract.

Acting as a private prosecutor, the Post Office repeatedly failed to make full disclosure of known Horizon problems either to defendants or to the courts in hundreds of cases.

According to the Criminal Cases Review Commission the nondisclosure is "the most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history".

In Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd, a High Court case related to the scandal, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Fraser described the Post Office's approach to the case as "institutional obstinacy".

Vennells subsequently issued a statement, saying: "It was and remains a source of great regret to me that these colleagues and their families were affected over so many years. I am truly sorry we were unable to find both a solution and a resolution outside of litigation and for the distress this caused."

Following the conclusion of the case, Vennells's tenure as CEO was criticised in the British Parliament.

The Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom said that "The hallmark of Paula Vennells' time as CEO was that she was willing to accept appalling advice from people in her management and legal teams. The consequences of this were far-reaching for the Post Office and devastating for the subpostmasters", and he described the behaviour of the Post Office under her leadership as "both cruel and incompetent".

In 2019, Vennells became the chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, but left the role the following year.

In 2021, after the convictions of 39 subpostmasters were quashed, she resigned from her duties as an Anglican priest and non-executive directorships at the retailer Dunelm and the supermarket chain Morrisons.

Her appointment as CBE in 2019 was revoked in 2024.

In February 2019 it was announced that she would step down from her Post Office role, and that month she was appointed as a non-executive board member at the Cabinet Office.

In April that year she took over as the chair of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; she resigned from this role in 2021.

In early March 2020, Vennells resigned her position as a non-executive board member at the Cabinet Office.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) discussed concerns about Vennells's continuing role in the NHS on 8 July 2020.

On 3 December 2020, it was announced that Vennells would step down as chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in April 2021, for personal reasons.

In a BBC Panorama programme screened on 8 June 2020, reporter Nick Wallis is seen phoning Vennells, who terminates the call rather than answer his questions.

Wallis says "this is one of the biggest frustrations of covering this story ... the consistent refusal of the chief executive and the people at the top to answer serious questions about what has been happening".

In June 2020, the Criminal Cases Review Commission sent 47 cases in which subpostmasters had been prosecuted to the Court of Appeal as potential miscarriages of justice.

During the case, the Post Office's conduct under Vennells's leadership was described as an instance of "appalling and shameful behaviour".

In April 2021, 39 former postmasters had their convictions quashed, and another 22 cases were still being investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

A few days later, Vennells agreed to step back from her duties as an associate minister.

The Bishop of St Albans, (himself the son of a retired subpostmaster) said that it was "right" that Vennells did so.