The appointment comes following Alison Rumsey’s decision to retire from ABP in May.

Parr joins from Electricity North West, the electricity network operator for the North-West of England, where she was people and corporate services director. Before that, she held human resources roles in the business and financial services sectors.

Parr said: “I’m delighted to be joining Associated British Ports and heading up the people agenda that is so crucial for achieving the company's twin missions of Keeping Britain Trading and Enabling the Energy Transition.”

Henrik L. Pedersen, ABP’s CEO, said "We're excited to be bringing Rachael on board. Her experience leading the HR function in a significant infrastructure business, encompassing both operational and office-based staff, which plays an important role in the energy transition is entirely relevant to ABP. Rachael will be building on the strong foundations set by Alison during her time at ABP. I want to express my sincere thanks to Alison for her enormous contribution to ABP, both driving forward our colleague strategy as well as her impact on the wider business.”

ABP has a network of 21 ports around Great Britain handling around a quarter of the £150bn worth of the UK’s seaborne trade in goods. ABP is also a growing provider of green energy infrastructure, such as providing bases for offshore wind and infrastructure for the handling and storage of net zero.

In fulfilling these trading and net-zero roles for the UK, together with its customers ABP ports contribute £15bn+ to the UK economy and support 200,000+ jobs, according to a company press release: “The jobs we directly provide are around a third better rewarded and more productive than UK averages. These jobs are ‘beacon’ jobs in areas which, too often, are among the most deprived in the UK.”

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