Serco Group plc announced that Rupert Soames has confirmed to the Board his intention to retire from the Company in September 2023, at which point he will be 64 and will have served Serco for over 9 years. He will step down from the Board at the end of December 2022, and will be succeeded by Mark Irwin, who is currently the CEO of Serco's UK & Europe Division. Mark has been chosen by the Board after a rigorous selection process that involved both internal and external candidates.

Mark, 57, joined Serco in 2013, and between 2014 and 2020 successfully ran Serco's Asia-Pacific region, before moving from Australia to lead the UK & Europe Division. Prior to Serco, Mark had leadership roles in several private equity portfolio businesses in the US and China, and also worked for eight years for GE in the US and Australia. Alongside Mark's promotion, Anthony Kirby will move from his role as Group Chief Operating Officer to become Chief Executive of Serco's UK & Europe business.

Anthony joined Serco as Group HR Director in 2017 and was promoted to Group Chief Operating Officer in 2020, in which role he led the development of many elements of Serco's Business-to-Government platform and has played a key role in delivering the Group's strong performance over recent years.