Board members

Bill Butler – Chair

Headshot of Bill Butler

Bill joined PSAA as Chair in April 2024.

Bill is also Chair at Propertymark Ltd, the leading membership body for property agents in the UK and Chair of Audit and Risk at Coventry and Warwickshire ICB. He has previously held Non-Executive Director roles at The Law Society, GPDF Ltd, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.

Bill began his career and qualified as a CIPFA member with the District Audit Service and Audit Commission, working as a District Auditor and as a Regional Director. Subsequently he worked as a director on the establishment of the Healthcare Commission and then the Gambling Commission. He was Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority from 2009 to 2015 and qualified for admission to the Register of Security Professionals in 2014.

Bill is a keen indoor rower and an active member of his local theatre.

Marta Phillips OBE CA – Board member

Headshot of Marta Phillips

Marta joined the PSAA Board in April 2021 and became Chair of PSAA’s Audit Committee in April 2022.

Marta is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. She has over 40 years of finance experience and significant experience of the public sector, having been a civil servant since 1993, and a senior civil servant from 2000 until 2013. Her last appointment was as the Chief Executive of the Pensions Advisory Service (2010 – 2013) having previously held the positions of Director of Compliance, and Director of Compliance and Resources at the National Lottery Commission from 1999 to 2010. Prior to this she was Head of Finance, European Social Fund at the Department for Education and Skills from 1993 to 1999.

Over recent years Marta has developed a portfolio career and brings non-executive board experience to a number of organisations, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, the London Fire Brigade and MOPAC / Metropolitan Police Service. 

More recently she chairs the London Fire Brigade’s Audit Committee and that of the Non-Ministerial Department for the State of Jersey. She is also a Council Member for the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and a Court Member of Heriot Watt University and has several other commitments in the higher education sector.

Marta read BA (Hons) Economics and Accounting and MSc Computing Science at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List.

Councillor Keith House – Board member

Keith joined the PSAA Board in December 2017.

Keith was first elected to Eastleigh Borough Council in 1991 and has been Council Leader since 1994.

Keith is also a county councillor, having been elected to Hampshire County Council in 2005, and is a member of Hedge End Town Council and Bursledon Parish Council.

He served three terms on the board of Homes England, is a director of the Housing and Finance Institute Ltd (not for profit), is an Honorary Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and is Deputy Chair of the Local Government Association’s Economy and Resources Board.

Fraser McKinlay – Board member

Fraser McKinlay headshot

Fraser joined the PSAA Board in March 2022.

Fraser is the Chief Executive Officer of The Promise Scotland and sits on the Board of Directors.

He spent 16 years working for Audit Scotland, including ten years as Controller of Audit and Director of Performance Audit and Best Value (PABV).

As Controller of Audit (CoA), Fraser reported to the Accounts Commission on all matters relating to the audit of local authorities in Scotland. In his ten years as CoA, he produced over 60 Best Value audit reports across all local authorities, alongside many other statutory reports.

As Director of PABV, Fraser was responsible for performance audit across all sectors of public services in Scotland. This work focused on governance, financial sustainability, outcomes and value for money.

Before joining Audit Scotland, Fraser was a public services consultant with Eglinton in Edinburgh and KPMG in London. He specialised in leadership, change management, facilitation and process improvement.

From October 2021 to January 2023, Fraser was a member of the Independent Oversight and Assurance Group for Mental Health Services in Tayside.

Fraser holds a Postgraduate Diploma (with Distinction) in Strategic Leadership from Warwick Business School, and a degree in Industrial Relations from the University of Strathclyde. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Mike O’Donnell – Board member

Mike O'Donnell headshot

Mike joined the PSAA Board in April 2022.

Mike is an experienced Chief Executive Officer, Chief Finance Officer and Non-Executive Director (NED) with interests in public finance, housing, pensions and investments. 

He is now focused on a portfolio of NED and advisory roles. Alongside his role at PSAA, he is also a Board member of Local Pensions Partnership Administration and a NED and Senior Advisor UK for XTP, a specialist consultant supporting asset owners on transparency, cost and risk.

Mike was previously the Chief Executive Officer and a Board member of London CIV Ltd. which he joined in March 2019. London CIV is the pension pool for the London boroughs and the City of London. Prior to that he spent over 15 years as a local government finance and corporate services director, having spent 13 years at the London Borough of Camden and, more latterly, undertaking interim finance director roles at Birmingham City Council and the London Borough of Newham.

Mike is a former President of the Society of London Treasurers and a former Chair of the London Finance Advisory Committee. He is also a former NED and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the London Pension Fund Authority and was previously an Associate Director for Local Government for the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Alan Edwards – Board member

Alan Edwards headshot

Alan joined the PSAA Board in February 2025.

Alan is an experienced Non-Executive Director and is currently Deputy Chair of both the Black Country Integrated Care Board and the University of Wolverhampton. He has previously been a Chair at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Deputy Chair at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Within local government he was Deputy Chair of the Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel for the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Rescue and Crime Commissioner. 

Most of Alan’s career was spent as a management consultant supporting the public sector including being a Partner at PwC and KPMG, and an Executive Partner at IBM. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Alan held a range of executive roles at CIPFA, and represented CIPFA and the CCAB on a number of International Accountancy bodies. In 2022 he was given a Distinguished Contribution Award for service to the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants for his support and role as Chair of their Public Sector Committee.  

Irene Asare – Board member

Irene joined the PSAA Board in February 2025.

Irene is the Global HR Director for BBC News, overseeing the UK and International divisions. With over 20 years of experience in HR leadership, Business Transformation and Organisational Effectiveness roles for top multinationals like BBC News, Tullow Oil, Vodafone, Standard Bank, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Serco, she has garnered numerous industry awards and holds many qualifications including FMCIPD, an Executive MBA, and a Master’s in Human Resources Management.

At BBC News, Irene currently leads the transformation of a world class HR function. She devised a 3-year implementation plan to transition towards a ‘Digital First’ organisation, with the design of a new operating model to deliver lean, agile structure for simplified decision making, governance and ways of working, against institutional culture challenges.

Throughout Irene’s career, she has excelled in building proactive HR functions, advising C-level executives, spearheading transformative people strategies that elevate organisations and foster growth, performance, and profitability.

This includes leading significant organisational transformations at Vodafone Ghana, heading up Business Transformation, Organisational Effectiveness & Change and as Head of HR at Tullow Oil, Irene spearheaded a HR strategy that radically improved employee engagement, operational and cost effectiveness, as well as directing workforce localisation and championing DEI.

Liz Murrall – Board member

Liz Murrall headshot

Liz is a chartered accountant and joined the PSAA Board in February 2025.

Liz is a co-opted member of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council’s Audit and Transparency Committee. In 2021, she was appointed one of the inaugural members of the UK Endorsement Board which following the UK’s departure from the EU was set up to endorse IFRS on behalf of the UK. Also in 2021, she was appointed Chair of the PIOB’s new Nominations Committee to manage the selection of the IAASB’s and IESBA’s members in accordance with the Monitoring Group’s recommendations.

Previously, Liz was a member of the FRC’s Corporate Reporting Council and was appointed its Chair early in 2019. She also sat on the FRC’s Codes and Standards Committee responsible for corporate governance, accounting, auditing and actuarial standards in the UK. She stood down from these roles at the end of 2020 when the FRC’s governance reforms took effect.

During her executive career, Liz was an Executive Director at The Investment Association (the representative body for the UK asset management industry) where one of her main responsibilities was to ensure that companies’ reports and accounts met investors’ needs. She retired at the end of 2020 but is retained on a consultancy basis.