William Smith
Chief Executive Officer, Ingeus Europe Ltd
In July 2004 William became Chief Executive Officer of Ingeus Europe, as Ingeus’ provision of welfare-to-work services began to extend into Europe. Since February 2005, the launch of the first pilot programmes in Lille and Rouen, Ingeus now runs several contracts in France, Germany and Sweden.
In January 2002, William Smith was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ingeus UK (formerly known as WorkDirections) to establish the UK arm of the Australian-owned Ingeus group of companies. Together with Richard Johnson, he was responsible for adapting successful methodologies used by Ingeus Australia throughout the privatised Australian Job Network.
The UK company grew quickly - within just three years, staff headcount increased from three to nearly 300; eight operations were set up in London, Birmingham and Nottingham; and thousands of long-term unemployed people, single parents and people with health conditions were supported into suitable, sustainable jobs.
Prior to joining Ingeus William held many roles in the civil service, particularly in the field of finance, and was Head of Finance for the New Deal Implementation Project. Before joining the civil service he was a university lecturer.
Dean James
Chief Executive Officer, Ingeus UK Ltd
Dean became Chief Executive Officer of Ingeus UK Ltd in June 2010. Before joining Ingeus he was as a Chief Operating Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, working across a broad agenda, including critical policy deliveries for Work, Pensions, Children and Disability. He was instrumental in seeing through successful ICT reform underpinning the modernisation and customer service transformation – and delivering effectively through the demands of economic downturn.
He has played a leading role in Transformational Government, working on many initiatives with Government and Industry colleagues. He has led on related Government commercial strategy – with widely adopted improvements.
Prior to DWP, he worked in Business Transformational Outsourcing; roles included director on the successful transformation of National Savings and Investments, a 20m+ customer business, and Head of the Office of Government Affairs, working on national and regional initiatives.
Dean worked for 20 years in international Oil and Gas, in developments, operations and global business improvement including North Sea, Former Soviet Union, Asia and the Gulf – as counsel, in commercial and as a director.
Dean is a barrister by background, and lives with his partner, a family and human rights lawyer, and their children in Central London. Dean retains a strong interest in the voluntary sector and in 2009 was awarded a CBE for public and voluntary service. 
Chris Blackwell
Chief Operating Officer, Ingeus UK Ltd
Chris was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Ingeus UK in June 2009. He joined Ingeus as an advisor in March 2003, working at Hammersmith’s New Deal operation before moving to a role that supported the performance of our New Deal subcontractors in London.
In 2004, Chris helped to set up and deliver Ingeus’ first New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) programme in Birmingham. This developed into the largest and most successful NDDP programme in the country, with 4,000 clients accessing the service, of whom 50% started work.
While working on NDDP, Chris brought across learning from our Australian parent company and set up an innovative, and at that time unique, integrated Condition Management Programme. The NDDP programme was a blueprint for Ingeus’ Pathways to Work model and led to Ingeus being awarded six Pathways to Work contracts in 2007, more than any other private or voluntary sector provider.
Chris subsequently spent two years as a Director of Operations and oversaw the performance of sites in London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Scotland, as well as managing the national delivery of the Pathways to Work Condition Management programme.
Prior to joining Ingeus Chris spent two years in Japan working in education.