Royal Mail in management overhaul with new GC

Royal Mail has transformed its in-house legal team, scooping former Exel legal chief Doug Evans to replace longstanding general counsel Catherine Churchard.

Churchard has handed in her resignation and will formally leave the post later this year. Evans has already started at Royal Mail and will work alongside Churchard for the time being.

The move comes at a turbulent time for Royal Mail, which is trying to stave off strike action over a 2.9 per cent pay increase to its 200,000 staff.

Evans will not be the only new face in Royal Mail's boardroom this week, after the company appointed Ian Duncan as finance director. Duncan joins from nuclear technology group Westinghouse.

Royal Mail will look to its legal team to help navigate a more competitive postal and logistics market following full deregulation in January.

As first reported by The Lawyer (5 June), the company is in the process of changing the structure of its IP team following a board-level review.

Evans left logistics company Exel in March after it was sold to German mail company Deutsche Post for £3.6bn last year.

Before Exel, Evans was an in-house lawyer at rival logistics company Ocean Group. He joined Exel in 2000 when the two companies merged. Evans was made director of legal services and group company secretary in 2001.

Churchard has spent most of her legal career at Royal Mail, joining the company in the late 1970s. She took over as legal director in 1993.

Royal Mail declined to comment on Churchard's departure.