Nick Alston CBE, Chair of Anglia Ruskin University’s Policing Institute for the Eastern Region (PIER), has been appointed to the board of the National Crime Agency as a non-executive director.
The National Crime Agency has over 4,000 officers and specialises in tackling serious and organised crime across the UK. Its work focuses on cybercrime, child sexual exploitation, modern slavery and human trafficking, money laundering and illegal firearms.
Nick has a long background in defence, security and policing, and was appointed CBE in the 1997 New Year’s Honours list. After graduating from the University of Cambridge he was commissioned into the Royal Navy.
From there he worked for a further 29 years in the United Kingdom defence and national security arena with particular expertise in counter terrorism before joining Goldman Sachs, where he became a Managing Director and co-head of its worldwide corporate security office.
From 2012-2016 Nick was the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex. He was responsible, among other things, for the Police and Crime Plan and for police funding, as well as holding the Chief Constable to account for effective and efficient policing.
Nick, who joined Anglia Ruskin earlier this year, said: “I am delighted to have been appointed to the board of the NCA as a non-executive director and I am looking forward to learning more about the agency’s important work. I hope that my experience will be useful to the agency as it faces the exciting challenges that lie ahead.”
NCA Director General Lynne Owens said: “Nick’s previous role as a Police and Crime Commissioner will be extremely beneficial in further developing our relationships and joint working with policing and PCCs, in particular as we work with them in the delivery of the next stage of reforming the law enforcement system in line with the recently published 2025 Policing Vision.”